An Introduction to the New Testament and the Origins of Christianity

The city of Corinth became prosperous as a center of trade and banking. It stood on a narrow isthmus between two harbors. The eastern port of Cenchreae traded with Asia Minor, the western port of Lechaeum with Italy. The Romans destroyed the original Greek city in 146 BCE, and Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony in 44 BCE. In Paul's day, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province Achaia (Greece). There the proconsul of the province resided, along with a population of about half a million people.

The earlier Greek city had acquired a reputation not only for wealth but also for sexual license. The geographer Strabo claimed that a thousand temple prostitutes had plied their trade in the temple of Aphrodite. The expression “a Corinthian girl” came to mean a prostitute, and “to corinthianize” meant to practice fornication. Scholars today tend to doubt Strabo's claim, since Greek religion did not generally include sacred prostitution, and the reputation of the city may owe more to Athenian slander than to reality. Nevertheless, it is interesting that in the later Roman city, consorting with prostitutes did become a problem among the members of Paul's church (1 Cor 6:12–20).

Every other year, the stadium at Corinth hosted athletic contests, the Isthmian games, second in fame only to the Olympic games. Paul may have been in Corinth when the games were held in 49 and 51 ce.