Corinth in Paul’s Time—What Can Archaeology Tell Us?

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On his first visit, Paul came to Corinth from Athens. He apparently stayed in Corinth a year and a half, teaching the word of his god and baptizing believers (Acts 18:1, 8, 11). According to Acts, it was in Corinth that Paul, after his preaching was rejected by the Jews, first turned to the gentiles. “From now on,” he said, “I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6). While the account of the apostle’s initial visit to Corinth in Acts is more or less dependable, the most fascinating window on Paul’s ministry in Corinth comes from his letters to […]

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Endnotes

Pertinent materials from these and a number of other Greek writers have been assembled and assessed by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, Good News Studies 6 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1983) pp. 1–128.

The earliest periods in the history of the city are surveyed by J. B. Salmon, Wealthy Corinth: A History of the City to 338 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) pp. 9–10, 46–54, 75–80, 168, 186–230.

Strabo, Geography, 8.6.20a.

For a brief account of the dissolution of the Achaean League and of the fall of Corinth, see James R. Wiseman, “Corinth and Rome 1:228 B.C.—A.D. 267,” in H. Temporini and W. Haase, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, 2:7/1 (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1979), pp. 460–462.

Translated by W. R. Paton in the Loeb Classical Library, The Greek Anthology 3:9.284 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1917). The Bacchiadae were a clan of Dorians who settled around Corinth in the eighth century B.C.

See, for example, The Iliad 2.570, and Strabo, Geography 8.6.20–23.

Salmon, Wealthy Corinth, pp. 7–8; see also pp. 132–158, 402.

Quoted by Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth, pp. 46–47.

For the pertinent ancient and modern literature, see, especially, Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Corinthian Bronze,” Revue Biblique 90 (1983), pp. 80–93.

10.

Seutonius, Lives of the Caesars “Julius,” 44.3; “Caligula,” 21; “Nero,” 19.2, 37.3; translated by J. C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932).

11.

See also Acts 19:22, where “Timothy and Erastus” are identified as two of Paul’s associates.

12.

See John Harvey Kent, Corinth: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 8/3: The Inscriptions 1926–1950 (Princeton, NJ: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1966) pp. 99–100.

13.

On Isthmian crowns see Oscar Broneer, “The Isthmian Victory Crown,” American Journal of Archaeology 66 (1962) pp. 259–263; cf. the same author’s more general discussions, “The Apostle Paul and the Isthmian Games,” The Biblical Archaeologist 25 (1962), pp. 2–31; and “Paul and Pagan Cults at Isthmia,” Harvard Theological Review 64 (1971) pp. 185–186.

14.

Dio Chrysostom 1:8.9; translated by J. W. Cohoon, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932).

15.

See Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, translated by J. W. Leitch, Hermeneia (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1975), p. 12 and note 97, as well as the same author’s 1974 article referred to there, and Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth, pp. 125–128.

16.

See Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Corinth, pp. 153–161.