Plan of Corinth.
A. leroeofiathoi. C. LeehaeafD.
B. OoriBth. I, I. Long WaUa.
emment, although taken and retaken more than once during the war. Corinth is still an episcopal see. The cathedral church of St. Nicholas, "a very mean place for such an ecclesiastical dignity," used in Turkbh times to be in the Acrocorinthus. The city has now shrunk to a wretched village, on the old site, and bearing the old name, which, however, is often corrupted into Gortho (see Hassel, ffandbuch der neuett Erdbeschreib. Ill, i, 678 sq.).
Pausanlas, in describing the antiquities of Corinth as they existed in his day, distinguishes clearly be- tween those which belonged to the old Greek city and those which were of Roman origin. Two relics of Roman work are still to be seen, one a heap of brick- work which may have been part of the baths erected by Hadrian, the other the remains of an amphitheatre
Coins of Corinth.
CORINTHIAN
510
COKIXTHIANS
wHh Babtemmean arnmgemeiitB for gladiators. Far more interesting are the rains of the ancient Greek temple— the "old columns which have looked down on the rise, the prosperitj, and the desolation of two [in fact, three] snccessive Corinths." At the time of Wheler's visit in 1676 twelve columns were standing ; before 1795 they were reduced to five ; and further in- jury has very recently been inflicted by on earth- quake. It is believed that this temple is the oldest of which any remains are left in Greece. There are also distinct traces of the Posidonium, or sanctuary of Nep- tune, the scene of the Isthmian games, from which Paul borrows some of his most striking imagery in 1 Cor. and other epistles. See Games. The fountain of Peirene, *^fhll of sweet and clear water," as it is described by Strabo, is still to be seen in the Acroco- rinthus, as well as the fountains in the lower city, of which it was supposed by him and Pausanias to be the source. The walls on the Acrocorinthus were in part erected by the Venetians, who held Corinth for twen- ty-five years in the 17th century. This city and its neighborhood have been described by many travellers, but we must especially refer to Leake's Morea, iii, 229-304 (London, 1880), and his Pelopotmedaca, p. 892 (London, 1846) ; Curtius, Pelopotmesos, ii, 514 (Gotha, 1851-1852); Clark, Peloponnesus, p. 42-61 (London, 1858). See also Pauly, RMJUEncyld, ii, 643 sq. ; Pott, Prolegg. in lad Cor, ; Conybeare and Howson, 8t, Paul, ch. xii. There are four German monographs on the subject — Wilckens, Rentm ConniMacarwn speci- men ad UkutraHonem lUrwsque EpistoUe PaxtUnm (Bre- men, 1747 ; also in Oelrich*s Collect. Opusc, i, 427 sq.) ; Walch, AntiqnUates Corintkiacm (Jena, 1761) ; Wag- ner, Rervtn Corinthiacarum specimen (Darmst. 1824) ; Barth, CorifUhiortm Commercii et Mercatwrm Historia particula (Berlin, 1844). For a full elucidation of the history and topography of the city, see Smith's Did, of Class, Geogr, s. v. Corinthus. — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, 8. V. See AcHAiA.
Corin'thlan (Kopcv^toc), an inhabitant (Acts xviii, 8 ; 2 Cor. vi, 11) of the city of Corinth (q. v.).
CORINTHIAN ORDER, the latest developed and the most ornamental of the three orders of Greek archi- tecture. The column (q. v.) is about ten diameters in height, and is fluted. The capital is over a diameter of tihe column in height, has two rows of richly-carved leaves of acanthus, olive, or other plant, fh>m above which roll out volutes, surmounted by leaves, and crowned by a moulding, called the abacus. The base is richly moulded. The Corinthian order was largely introduced in the Renaissance architecture, both in ec- clesiastical and civil buildings. See Abchitecture.
Corinthians, First Epistle to the. 1. The testimony of Christian antiquity is full and unanimous in ascribing this inspired production to the pen of the apostle Paul (Lardner's CredHbUUy, Works, vol. ii, plw. loc, ; see also Heydenreich, Comment, in priorem D. Pauli ad Cor. epist. Proleg, p. 30 ; Schott, Isagoge in N. T, p. 236, 239 sq.). The external evidences (Clem. Rom. ad Cor. ch. 47, 48 ; Polycarp, ad Phil. ch. 11 ; Ignat. ad Eph. ch. 2 ; IrensBUS, Hcbt. iii, 11, 9 ; iv, 27, 3 ; Athenag. de Resurr, p. 61, ed. Col. ; Clem. Alex. Pcedag. i, 88 ; TertuU. de Prcescr, ch. 88) are extremely distinct, and with this the internal evidence arising flrom allusions, undesigned coincidences, style, and tone of thought fully accords (see Davidson, Introd. ii, 258 sq.).
2. The epistle seems to have been occasioned partly by some intelligence received by the apostle concern- ing the Corinthian church firom the domestics of Chloe, a pious female connected with that church (i, 11), and probably also firom common report (aKomratj v, i), and partly by an epistle which the Corinthians them- selves had addressed to the apostle, asking advice and instruction on several points (vii, 1), and which prob- ably was conveyed to him by Stephanas, Fortunatus,
and Achaicus (xvi, 17). Apolloa, also, i the apostle at CorinUi, but who seems to lisre becE with him at the time this epistle was written C^^ IS^ may have given him information of the state of tiimgi among the Christians in that city. From these Bonrcs the apostle had become acquainted with the pamU fact that since he had left Corinth (Acta xyiii, 18X t^ church in that place had sunk into a stale ci gieat corruption and error. One prime source of this erfl state of things, and in itself an evil of no inferior mag- nitude, was the existence of schisms or party divickes in the church. *' Every one of you,** Paul tells tbem. *' saith I am of Paul, and I of Apolloe, and I of C^ihas. and 1 of Christ" (i, 12). This has led to the cotcIs- sion that four great parties had arisen in the cfaarck which boasted of Paul, Apolloe, Peter, and Christ is their respective heads. By what peculiarities of cee- timent these parties may be snf^need to have bcoi distinguished from each other it is not difficult, vitii the exception of the last, to conjecture. It appears that the schisms arose merely fhmi qoarrele amoog the Corinthians as to the comparative exoeBence d their respective teachers — ^those who had learned oi Paul boasting that he excelled all othera, and the coa- verts of Apolloe and Peter advancing a similar dsia for them, while a fourth party haughtily repudiated all subordinate teaching, and pretended that they &t- rived all their religious knowledge from the <&e>d teaching of Christ. The language of the apostk ia the first four chapters, where alone he speaks directhr of these schisms, and where he resolves their ohm- nality, not into their n^ion to fiilse doctrine, but iato their having their source in a disposition to gloiy ia men, must be regarded as greatiy &Toring this viev. (Comp. also 2 Cor. v, 16.).