Saturday, June 16: Corinth, Cenchreae, Mycenae

We will continue retracing Paul’s missionary journeys as he leaves Athens and travels south thirty-six miles to Corinth, the capital of the Roman province of Achaia (Acts 18). The city had been destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and re-founded by Julius Caesar as a colony. The Corinth of Paul’s day became a bustling new city, burgeoning with a rapid influx of resources, settled veterans, and a growing population. Corinth also had reputation as a decadent city of commerce, vice, and immorality. For Paul, it was a long way from home, the farthest place he had yet traveled. It must have seemed overwhelming to arrive in a city totally unreached with the gospel. He would later write that he came to Corinth “in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). Jesus encourages Paul by sending Aquila and his wife Priscilla to help him. They had recently left Rome due to the edict of the Roman emperor Claudius who banished Jews from Rome due to riots within their community about a certain person named “Chrestus”, which is one of our earliest references to Christ outside the New Testament (Suetonius, Divus Claudius, 25). They share the same trade as tentmakers and begin to work together with Paul. This couple will become long-term partners and remain among his closest friends in ministry (1 Cor. 16:19; cf. Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19).

Strengthened by such support, Paul begins to reason in the synagogues with Jews and God-fearing Greeks. After Silas and Timothy arrive from Macedonia, Paul devotes himself to preaching “the Christ was Jesus” (Acts 18:5). After being expelled from the synagogue, he enters the house next door, owned by a God-fearer named Titius Justus. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, comes to believe in the Lord and is baptized along with many others (Acts 18:8; cf. 1 Cor. 1:14). In Acts 18:9-10, Jesus directs Paul to remain in Corinth by appearing to him in a vision: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” With the promise of a great harvest, Paul remains in Corinth for a year and six months.

Paul’s missionary success among Jews and Gentiles eventually produces conflict with some members of the Jewish community. He is brought before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of Achaia. Gallio is the younger brother of the Stoic philosopher Seneca and was known for his mild temperament. A surviving inscription records that Gallio served as proconsul from AD 50-52, providing a key date for the chronology of Paul’s life and missionary journeys. Paul is accused by his kinsmen for “persuading people to worship God contrary to the law” (Acts 18:13). Gallio, however, finds this charge outside the scope of his competency and dismisses the case. He does not consider Paul’s proclamation about Christ a vicious crime, but rather “a matter of questions about words and names and your own law” (18:15). Paul’s accusers turn on the new synagogue ruler Sosthenes for failing to achieve Paul’s condemnation before the tribunal. The next time we hear of Sosthenes, he too has become a believer and brother in Christ (1 Cor. 1:1).

During Paul’s extended missionary labor at Ephesus during his third missionary journey, he corresponds with the growing church at Corinth. These are the two letters we know as 1-2 Corinthians. Couriers could cross the Aegean between Ephesus and Corinth in three or four days. Paul himself makes at least one brief personal visit (2 Cor. 2:1). Paul’s Corinthian letters reveal the diverse challenges that new believers face in reaching Christian maturity. The young Corinthian church labors to reflect how Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, men and women, are united together as a new community in Christ. They struggle with internal divisions, sexual immorality, and false teaching. They wrestle with the extent to which they should or should not participate in their surrounding culture. They even question Paul’s authority over them, preferring teachers who seem more impressive in appearance, eloquence, and charisma. Yet Paul did not abandon the church at Corinth during her growing pains, even at great emotional cost. He would later write that the most difficult of all his suffering was “the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28). He became their spiritual father and thus he admonishes them as his “beloved children” (1 Cor. 4:14-15). Paul sends Timothy and Titus to remind them of what they had learned from his own example of following Christ (1 Cor. 4:17; 11:1). These letters reveal Paul’s detailed answers to their specific questions about marriage, spiritual gifts, and the nature of the resurrection. God will use the difficulties Paul faced at Corinth to birth some of the most moving passages in all of his letters, such as the surpassing excellence of love (1 Cor. 13), the treasure of Christ in jars of clay (2 Cor. 4), and the centrality of Christ’s death and resurrection as the heart of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-11). Having written letters to the church at Corinth, Paul finally resolves to visit them again in person. He leaves Ephesus and sets out for Macedonia, stopping to encourage the growing churches in Philippi and Thessalonica along the way (Acts 20:2-3). He finally reaches Corinth in January AD 57 where he is refreshed by the church and remains for three months. During this time, he writes his most significant letter to the Romans, introducing his gospel ministry to the church in Rome in hope of their support to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

While at Corinth, we will walk among the ruins of the first century city. We will be surrounded by the city that Paul knew and where the church in Corinth was born. We will see the market place and temples to Apollo and the imperial cult. We will stand on the Bema, the very place where Paul himself once stood before the Roman governor Gallio. We will also see the Erastus inscription, recording the name of the city treasurer who was converted by Paul (Rom. 16:23). After visiting the archaeology museum, we will visit the port at Cenchreae (Acts 18:12-18). In the afternoon, we will visit the archaeological site of Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon and Menelaus from Homer’s Iliad. We will conclude a spectacular day with dinner in Nafplio by the sea before returning to Athens.

Key sites: Corinth, Cenchreae, Mycenae

Key Scripture Reference:

Acts 18

Key Readings:

Peter Walker, In the Steps of Paul, chapter 9

David Palmer, CASKET EMPTY: God’s Plan of Redemption through History New Testament Study Guide, Pentecost part 2, Teaching part 1