1. Called to be an apostle. See on Rom. i. 1. Compare 1 Tim. i. 1. Not distinguishing him from other apostles. Compare Matt. iv. 21; John vi. 70; but Paul was called no less directly than these by Jesus Christ. Gal. i. 12-16. John does not use the word apostle, but gives the idea, John xiii. 18.
2. Corinth. The Corinth of this period owed the beginning of its prosperity to Julius Caesar, who, a hundred years after its destruction by Mummius (x. o. 146), rebuilt and peopled it with a colony of veterans and freedmen. It was situated on the isthmus which divided Northern Greece from the Peloponnesus. It had three harbors, Cenchreae and Schoenus on the east, and Lechaeum on the west. The isthmus, forming the only line of march for an invading or retreating army, was of the greatest military importance. It was known as “the eye of Greece.” By Pindar it was called “ the bridge of the sea;” by Xenophon, “the gate of the Peloponnesus;” and by Strabo, “the acropo- lis of Greece.” In more modern times it was known as “the Gibraltar of Greece.” Hence, at least as early as the march of Xerxes into Greece, it was crossed by a wall, which, in later times, became a massive and important fortification, especially in the decline of the Roman Empire. Justinian fortified it with an hundred and fifty towers. The citadel rose two thous. and feet above the sea-level, on a rock with precipitous sides.
Cu. 1] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 185
In the days of the Achaean league it was called one of the “fetters” of Greece. ‘It runs out boldly from the surging mountain chains of the Peninsula, like an outpost or sentry, guarding the approach from the north. In days when news was transmitted by fire-signals,* we can imagine how all the south- ern country must have depended on the watch upon the rock of Corinth” (Mahaffy, “ Rambles and Studies in Greece ”).
At its narrowest part the isthmus was crossed by a level track called the diolcus, over which vessels were dragged on rollers from one port to the other. This was in constant use, because seamen were thus enabled to avoid sailing round the dangerous promontory of Malea, the southern extremity of the Pelopon- nesus. A canal was projected and begun by Nero, but was abandoned. The common title of the city in the poets was bimaris, “the city of the two seas.”
The commercial position of Corinth was, therefore, most im- portant, communicating with the eastern and the western world, with the north and the south. The isthmus was one of the four principal points for the celebration of the Grecian games; and in Paul’s day great numbers flocked to these contests from all parts of the Mediterranean.
On the restoration of the city by Julius Caesar, both Greek and Jewish merchants settled in Corinth in such numbers as probably to outnumber the Romans. In Paul’s time it was dis- tinctively a commercial centre, marked by wealth and luxury. “‘Tt was the ‘ Vanity Fair’ of the Roman Empire, at once the London and the Paris of the first century after Christ” (Farrar). It was conspicuous for its immorality. To “corinthianize ” was the term for reckless debauchery. Juvenal sarcastically al- ludes to it as ‘perfumed Corinth ;” and Martial pictures an effeminate fellow boasting of being a Corinthian citizen. The temple of Aphrodite (Venus) employed a thousand ministers. Drunkenness rivalled licentiousness, and Corinthians, when in- troduced on the stage, were commonly represented as drunk.
* Every classical student will recall the magnificent description of the transmission of the fire-signal announcing the fall of Troy, in the ‘‘ Agamem- non” of Aeschylus, 272 sqq.
186 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
Paul’s impression of its profligacy may be seen in his descrip- tion of heathenism in the first of Romans, and in his stern words concerning sensual sin in the two Corinthian Epistles. “ Politically Roman, socially Greek, religiously it was Roman, Greek, Oriental, all in one. When, therefore, the apostle preached to the Corinthians, the Gospel spoke to the whole world and to the living present ” (Edwards).