I. TH E CIT Y AN D IT S PEOPL E
As much as for any other document in the NT—and more so than for most— the various sociological, economic, and religious factors that make up the environment of the city of Corinth have a profound influence on one's understanding of Paul's letters to the church there.
Its strategic location as sentry of the four-and-one-half-mile (5,950-meter) Isthmus that bridged the Peloponnese and the mainland and separated the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs insured for it a long and illustrious history.
1It controlled both the overland commercial traffic and that between Italy and Asia, which for the most part found it safer and more convenient to take this "inland" route than to go around the Peloponnese.
2The city's history is essentially in two parts. As a Greek city-state it flourished both before and after the golden years of Athens (5th c. B.C.).
But as leader of the Achaean League in the mid-second century B.C., it came into conflict with Rome and was destroyed by the Roman consul Lucius Mummius in 146 B.C. The site lay dormant for one hundred years, until it was refunded in 44 B.C. by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony. 3
The reason for its
lt is located on a terrace at the southern gate of the Isthmus, about two miles from the Gulf of Corinth and at the foot of the 1,886-foot (575-meter)-high Acrocorinth.
For descriptions of the city, see esp. Strabo, Geography 8.6.20-23 (written ca. 7 B.C.) and Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book II: Corinth (ca. A.D . 170). These texts, and many others, are conveniently brought together and discussed in Murphy-O'Connor, Corinth.
For the history of Corinth during the Roman period one should consult J. Wiseman, "Corinth and Rome I: 228 B.C.-A.D. 267," in ANRW VII/1, pp. 438-548. 2Cf. Strabo, Geography 8.6.20:
"Corinth is called 'wealthy' because of its commerce since it is situated on the Isthmus and is master of two harbours, of which the one [Cenchreae] leads straight to Asia, and the other [Lechaeum] to Italy; and it makes easy the exchange of merchandise from both countries that are so far distant from each other. . . .
And also the duties on what by land was exported from the Peloponnesus and what was imported to it fell to those who held the keys" (Loeb, IV, 189-91).
In fact Latin was its official language well beyond the time of Paul. See Murphy- O'Connor, Corinth, 5.refunding was probably twofold. First, its strategic location for commerce (described by Strabo) made its refunding almost inevitable.
