In Paul’s day Corinth was the largest city in Greece and the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. It was about 20 times as large as Athens and an important commercial centre. Most of the commerce passed through it from the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire. Sailing around the northern tip of Greece was notoriously dangerous due to unpredictable violent storms. To avoid this, merchants preferred to use Corinth as a shortcut. At the back of the city stood a rock rising almost perpendicularly to the height of more than a thousand feet. Along the one steep path men climbed to the wall which surrounded the citadel at the top. On the summit of the hill stood the beautiful temple of Aphrodite ( Venus) the goddess of love. To this goddess there ministered a thousand priestesses, who, though dressed in white robes were living lives which were unclean and black with sin. Corinth was synonymous with luxury, materialistic excess, and sexual debauchery. Paul went to ...
