b. Settling in Corinth (18:1–3)
Other elements cohere with extrinsic details, such as the timing of Gallio’s governorship and anti-Jewish sentiments.
The centrality of the synagogue in Luke’s narrative, not mentioned in Paul’s extant correspondence with Corinth, should not count against the narrative’s accuracy. Paul’s converts at Corinth must have included Gentiles, given their backgrounds, which included idolatry and homosexual behavior (1 Cor 5:11; 6:9–10),[3845] which Jewish people considered typically Gentile vices.[3846] Paul regards the background of the majority as that of Gentiles (1 Cor 12:2). Yet the sophisticated Greek character of 1 Corinthians need not rule out a Jewish element in the congregation; local Jews, and especially high-ranking members of their number, may have adapted well to the Greek and Roman aspects of their setting. Frequent references to Jews and sophisticated allusions to the OT in 1 Corinthians (admittedly, less dominant than in Romans and Galatians) suggest the initial substratum of Jews and God-fearers who could help provide background knowledge to explain Paul’s letters in his absence.
The biblical literacy presupposed is difficult to explain without a Jewish and/or God-fearing core, no matter how many Gentiles may have joined the Corinthian house churches.[3847] Even if the initial congregation had its own biblical scrolls—for instance, at Titius Justus’s home—even literate members would not have their own “Bibles” to read, and even Paul’s eighteen months with them (Acts 18:11)[3848] might not have been enough to equip everyone with a survey knowledge of the Bible.[3849] Admittedly, the Corinthian congregation would have other teachers after Paul’s departure (18:27), and Paul might not mind exposing his critics’ exegetical deficiencies by overwhelming them exegetically. But on the whole, it seems more likely that the congregation includes some Jewish elements, and it seems more natural, knowing Paul and knowing Corinth, that he would have started with his own people first (see discussion at Acts 13:5). Corinth did have a synagogue (although the evidence outside Acts is later).
b. Settling in Corinth (18:1–3)
Luke’s description of Paul’s settling in Corinth raises a number of topics where a fuller understanding of antiquity can provide a fuller appreciation for Luke’s picture. Most of Luke’s audience would take for granted much about Corinth that is unfamiliar to many modern readers, including its political and economic prominence; possibly its moral reputation; its connections with Rome and romanization (although it retained Greek elements as well); possibly its Jewish community; certainly its geographic connection to Paul’s southward route from Athens; and its paganism (which, though akin to other ancient paganism, had its own distinctive characteristics, as did that of each city).
Claudius’s expulsion of Jews from Rome is also best understood in the context of other expulsions and of the nature of such expulsions. Because the ancient sources do not agree, scholars have differed over how many were expelled; it appears that not all Jews left, but probably a much larger number than just the disturbance’s ringleaders. The expulsion has been connected with both 41 C.E. and 49 C.E.; I will argue that 49 C.E. is a likelier date. Suetonius connects the expulsion with disputes over one “Chrestus,” which, most scholars argue, were debates in the Roman Jewish community about Jesus. See comment on Acts 18:2.
The comment on Acts 18:3 will examine Aquila and Priscilla (including questions of their origin and gender roles), their economic status and housing (the general economic status of artisans; shops; insulae; and Corinth’s markets in general), and the factors that connected Paul with this couple.
I. CORINTH
In Corinth,[3850] Paul adapted his method of ministry. Luke has previously portrayed Paul as mainly itinerant,[3851] but this may have been in part because other cities and towns kept running him out of town (or, in Athens, laughed him out).[3852] Finally, in Corinth, he finds a place where he can stay at some length (even despite opposition, 18:9–13), so that Paul remains for a while even after opposition comes to a head (18:18).[3853]
Paul remained for a long period in this one location despite being outside the synagogue. He followed the same pattern later in Ephesus.[3854] Probably he remained here partly because his position was secure enough, in contrast to previous locations. But it was also true that some firm, strategic long-term bases of ministry needed to be established. From these centers Paul could send out more indigenous local workers to reach the surrounding region (cf. Acts 19:10; Col 1:7; 2:1; 4:12; for Corinth, cf. perhaps Rom 16:1–2).
(1) Corinth’s Political Prominence
As the capital of Achaia (Tac. Hist. 2.1),[3855] Corinth provided a strategic center for his mission. A generation later, an orator told of an earlier philosopher who settled in Corinth precisely because such a populated, strategically located, and morally needy city was the ideal location for his philosophic activity (Dio Chrys. Or. 8.5, on Diogenes the Cynic).[3856]
Corinth had a famous history, including in the early fine art of painting.[3857] Corinth had led the Aegean confederacy in the Hellenistic period; after Rome fought that confederacy, Lucius Mummius destroyed the Greek city in 146 B.C.E.[3858] Julius Caesar restored it, however, as a Roman colony (Laus Iulia Corinthus) a century later in 44 B.C.E.[3859] In 27 B.C.E. Augustus made it the capital of Achaia, and by now it had become a multicultural metropolis.[3860]
The city was large and its public works magnificent. Its decumanus (its primary east-west thoroughfare) was about 3.8 meters in width, expanded by a 1.76-meter-wide sidewalk along its north side.[3861] With a walled circumference of six miles, the city’s free population has been estimated as low as twenty thousand[3862] and as high as more than three hundred thousand, with perhaps an additional 460,000 slaves.[3863] Its wall enclosed an area two and a half times the size of Athens, from which Paul had just come.[3864] The fifty-five rows of seats in the theater, probably renovated less than a decade before Paul’s arrival, could seat about fourteen thousand;[3865] if one estimates this to be roughly a tenth of the city’s residents (with an admittedly great margin for error),[3866] one could offer a median estimate of perhaps 140,000. Many estimate roughly eighty to one hundred thousand,[3867] though perhaps it reached such a peak only later. In any case, the capital of Achaia was probably significantly larger than the many cities of just twenty thousand people. Some scholars have suggested that Corinth could have ranked as the empire’s third city, after Rome and Alexandria;[3868] although this estimate is surely exaggerated in terms of population,[3869] Corinth was a populous city by ancient standards.
(2) Corinth’s Economic Prominence
Corinth was also prosperous, as NT scholars regularly note.[3870] Contrary to stereotypes developed from some other cities, Corinth did not thrive by exploiting the resources of its countryside, which could not have sustained it, in any case; it flourished instead by trade.[3871] Strabo notes that it was always wealthy because of trade (Strabo 8.6.20) and crafts (8.6.23), though its territory was not fertile (8.6.23).
Corinth was central to the strategic trade, communication, and travel between Rome and the East because it controlled the Isthmus of Corinth (8.6.20).[3872] Corinth’s maritime associations were legion—as a naval power once rivaling Athens, as a city dedicated to Poseidon, and as a subject of numerous stories about sailors.[3873] The Corinthians were the first in Greece to engage in “modern” ships and shipping.[3874] Its harbors, each a few miles away, were highly strategic: Cenchreae (to the southeast; see comment on Acts 18:18) faced the Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Sea whereas Lechaeum (to the north) faced the Gulf of Corinth and the Adriatic. Success among immigrant communities in Corinth would provide inroads for the gospel in much of the empire.[3875]
Attempts to build a canal linking the two sides of the isthmus had failed.[3876] Demetrius had reportedly planned to build one, but his engineers had warned that the sea was higher in Corinth’s Gulf than at Cenchreae, so that the entire strait and islands would be submerged (Strabo 1.3.11). Caesar attempted to dig a canal (Suet. Julius 44.3), as did Nero, whose attempt failed miserably (Nero 19.2).[3877] (A canal was finally successfully completed only in 1893.) Lacking a canal, the isthmus trade used the six-kilometer-long Diolkos, a stone path with carved grooves for transporting smaller ships or cargoes.[3878] Two very small harbors (in contrast to the major Lechaeum and Cenchreae harbors) stood at either end of the Diolkos.[3879]
As a hub of trade, Corinth was also prosperous, and eventually there would be wealthy Christians able to provide support for the work abroad (though Paul seems to have refused to allow them to be his own patrons). Old Corinth (before 146 B.C.E.) achieved mercantile wealth through its location on the isthmus,[3880] and the same advantage benefited new Corinth as well. Corinth was regarded as Greece’s wealthiest city;[3881] it was proverbial for,[3882] and boasted in, its wealth.[3883] Although manufacturing was a prominent part of Corinth’s economy,[3884] it was apparently also heavily service oriented, including toward merchants and tourists.[3885] Nero, the consummate Roman philhellene, also boosted the economy further by making Achaia immune from tribute.[3886] Against some theories, cities in general were not in decline in this period;[3887] we have much evidence for massive construction in Corinth in particular.[3888]
Corinth was famous for its production of bronze, but the extant archaeological evidence supporting this fame is quite scant.[3889] Archaeologists have located some apparently first-century bronze works[3890] but not the renowned “Corinthian bronze.” Ancients valued Corinthian bronze more than silver and (perhaps speaking hyperbolically) nearly more than gold.[3891] Supposedly, accidental melting of metals at old Corinth’s burning produced the first examples;[3892] of the authentic variety, one kind was nearly white (silver dominating the alloy), another yellowish (with gold dominating), and still another with silver and gold compounded equally.[3893] But some scholars suggest that Corinthian bronze may have been a fraud, the alloy containing tin rather than gold;[3894] it also may not have all come from Corinth.[3895]
Not everyone profited equally from the city’s growing wealth. Because tenement apartments and wealthy mansions were often close together in ancient cities, disparities were conspicuous to everyone.[3896] This was especially true in Corinth, which had a significant underclass[3897] and many people living between the extremes.[3898] Moreover, the wealthy in Corinth could be portrayed as offering little sympathy even for parasites (those who depended on wealthy patrons’ generosity).[3899]
In most Roman cities, rich and poor usually lived side by side in the same neighborhoods.[3900] Although this was often true in Corinth, as noted, it was not the case in every part of the city; Corinth’s wealthiest neighborhood was near the Craneum, as everyone in the city would be aware.[3901] Although wealthier homes could host more people, house churches were probably scattered throughout Corinth, since people would walk more easily to closer locations.[3902] Apparently, the church in Corinth boasted a number of prosperous members (perhaps more than in most of Paul’s churches),[3903] who probably proved highly influential in the congregation though the majority of its members were less well off (1 Cor 1:26).[3904]
(3) Corinth’s Moral Reputation
Corinth was ideal for Paul’s mission because it was strategic, not because it affirmed the same values that Paul and his people did. Its gladiatorial shows later provoked the emulation of Athens.[3905] Cities were sometimes associated with evils and social ills,[3906] and Corinth’s maritime location was thought to have invited a range of foreign depravities.[3907]
With the international trade and the anonymity of a fast-moving urban center, the city also became notorious for its immorality.[3908] Prostitution was a major industry in Greek (old) Corinth,[3909] and “Corinthian lady” (Κορινθία) was a sexually suggestive remark.[3910] Old Corinth was so widely known for cult prostitution that a proverb arose that not all men dared go to Corinth (since many ship captains squandered their money there).[3911] Old Corinth drew many visitors not only for its harbors but also for its courtesans.[3912] Strabo claims that sailor captains squandered their wealth on prostitutes in old Corinth and that Aphrodite’s temple provided more than a thousand of them (Strabo 8.6.20).[3913] (Whatever the extent of the truth behind his account, it was the prostitutes themselves and their earnings, not the sexual acts, that were considered sacred to the goddess.)[3914]
Although such anecdotes often refer to old Corinth,[3915] most of the factors that led to this reputation remained in place in new Corinth. Later writings still associate Corinth with sexual pleasure[3916] and lewdness,[3917] and along with Poseidon, Aphrodite remained one of the two major Greek deities worshiped there.[3918] Some scholars suggest that Corinth was probably no worse, but also no better, than other major port cities of this period.[3919] By Jewish standards, however, that was quite immoral. Although immorality would not have invited Paul to Corinth, neither was it a reason for him to avoid it.[3920] Indeed, a Cynic targeted Corinth in part because of its moral need (Dio Chrys. Or. 8.5).
(4) Corinth and Rome
Perhaps most important, Corinth was a Roman colony full of Roman culture yet with enough Greek-speakers and Jewish elements to provide Paul with a cultural transition if Paul already had the heart of the empire as a goal for ministry. He was a Roman citizen, but one from the East whose knowledge of Latin was probably limited, and so time in Corinth could help prepare him for ministry in Rome.[3921] (By the time he plans to visit Spain [Rom 15:24, 28], he will also be aware that he will need Latin rather than Greek to communicate with even a significant minority of people there, even in the coastal cities.)[3922] Contacts with Rome were plentiful; a large ship with favorable winds could reach Corinth from Rome in as little as five days.[3923] Paul also could be of strategic evangelistic value there: the number of Jewish Christian Roman citizens in this period was likely small, especially in the East (it may have been growing in Rome), and so Paul would have respectable access to the citizenry of Corinth (and prospective converts who could multiply that mission) in a way that few of his contemporaries would. Granted, his Roman citizenship would afford far less status in a heavily romanized colony than in Judea (Acts 22:25–28), but he was unwelcome in Judea anyway (9:29; cf. Rom 15:31). He had more advantage than the majority of his Jewish Christian comrades who lacked this privilege. (Many who had it may have been émigrés from Rome, though I shall argue that Jewish Roman citizens were probably not expelled.)
Cicero viewed Corinth as a potential rival to Rome (Agr. 2.87) and “the light of all Greece” (Leg. man. 5).[3924] As would be expected of a Roman colony, the imperial cult was well established here.[3925] A few years after Paul’s initial stay (ca. 54 C.E.), Corinth became center of a provincial imperial cult (in addition to the local imperial cults there and in other Achaian cities).[3926] Much of the construction in Corinth’s city center from the early empire until Paul’s day emphasized worship of the emperor.[3927]
(5) How Roman Was Corinth?
Debates about how Roman Corinth was sometimes focus on only one aspect of its romanization.[3928] Rome used Latin and Roman culture in cities founded in the West (cf. CIL 2.4319), but generally in the East, cities followed Greek tradition.[3929] Corinth, however, seems to have been one of the major exceptions. From the perspectives most amenable to archaeological analysis, the city was fully Roman.[3930] Certainly the civic architecture of new Corinth, built by Romans, was Roman, and most of its public inscriptions were in Latin.[3931] (Only three out of the 104 inscriptions before Hadrian’s era in the standard collection are in Greek, but afterward Greek begins to predominate.[3932] This is a significant contrast to, for example, Roman Asia, where Latin was used for provincial administration but Greek texts outnumber Latin ten or more to one.)[3933] The city followed Roman grid patterns, 70 percent of the top magistrates had Latin rather than Greek names, and coins were in Latin.[3934]
Even much of the pottery was imported from Italy or produced in the Italian style.[3935] Coins also show a clear fusion with Greek culture in the second century; this pattern clearly contrasts with the Roman colonial influence of the first.[3936] Many scholars emphasize that Rome’s destruction of old Corinth and Corinth’s long desolation before being rebuilt obliterated most of the local “cultural memory.”[3937] Even in the second century C.E., Pausanias insists that Corinth’s inhabitants are Roman colonists, not descendants of old Corinth (Paus. 2.1.2).
Evidence for Hellenistic culture in new Corinth mainly dates to the second century C.E., after Rome promoted a Greek revival there.[3938] One may display the contrast between the first and the second century in early collections of Greek and Roman inscriptions from Corinth by noting the mention of emperors in each category, though Latin inscriptions dominate for most emperors in both periods:[3939]
Emperor
Greek
Inscriptions
*
Latin Inscriptions
†
Augustus
19.2; 14.2
pp. 3, 7, 15, 17, 33–35, 39, 40, 46, 47, 49, 61, 64–65, 68, 71, 74, 78–79, 83, 89, 91, 103, 122
Tiberius
19.5–6
—
Claudius
—
more than 20 pp.
Nero
—
nearly 20 pp.
Trajan
75.3–4
possibly 8 pp.
Hadrian
—
ca. 8 pp.
Commodus
16.2–6
—
*
Here are cited the inscription and then the line number in Meritt,
Inscriptions
.
†
The page numbers for Augustus in West,
Inscriptions
, are cited as samples, but for the other emperors, merely the number of pages are listed because the examples tend to be so abundant.
Particularly in the very era when Paul was in Corinth, Latin clearly predominated in the inscriptions, including during the reign of Nero, a notorious Hellenophile. Although I have counted only inscriptions that name emperors, specialists have categorized the fuller epigraphic data similarly.[3940]
It is no coincidence that a large number in the Pauline circle there had Latin names, whether or not they were Roman citizens: Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2; 1 Cor 16:19), Titius Justus (Acts 18:7), Crispus (18:8; 1 Cor 1:14), Gaius (Rom 16:23; 1 Cor 1:14), Fortunatus and Achaicus (1 Cor 16:17), Quartus (Rom 16:23), and Tertius (16:22).[3941] The respectable culture in Corinth at this time was Roman, even if many Achaians and other Greek-speaking immigrants provided another less epigraphically conspicuous culture at the same time.[3942]
(6) Greek Elements in Roman Corinth
Many scholars argue, however, for continuing Greek influence in Roman Corinth as well.[3943] Indeed, even the strongest advocates for Corinth’s being a Roman city recognize that its inhabitants included Greeks and others; although Latin was the language of the elite, more residents would understand Greek.[3944] Though the official language was Latin, provisions were made for Greek-speakers even in public business: many inscriptions included Greek as well as Latin, and some note that the extant synagogue inscription is Greek (though its date is probably later).[3945] The wealthy city drew many Greek residents from surrounding Achaia,[3946] and the Jewish immigrant community (Acts 18:4) probably spoke Greek, as did the majority of Jews in Rome.[3947] Although the official language was Latin, first-century C.E. pottery graffiti demonstrate that many residents continued to use Greek in everyday life.[3948] This includes not only many ostraca but also nearly all the lead curse tablets uncovered in the Demeter temple.[3949] We should not overemphasize the language of inscriptions in deciding the language of residents; many poorer residents would not be literate readers of any language.
Whereas Rome had subjugated other peoples, it respected Greek culture, and romanization occurred in dialogue with Greek traditions.[3950] The Romans did, after all, retain the same site and reuse some structures not destroyed;[3951] thus they reused the theater, the South Stoa, “the archaic temple,” and the Glauce and Peirene fountains; they also reestablished at least five older sanctuaries (though in a more Roman form); most clearly, the reinstitution of the Isthmian Games (perhaps by 40 B.C.E.) recalled the Greek past.[3952] They also retained the city’s name, which newly founded cities on older sites were not obligated to do (cf. Sebaste and both Palestinian Caesareas). Moreover, despite Mummius’s claim to have destroyed old Corinth (and ancient writers’ willingness to concur), archaeological evidence is clear that (local) habitation continued on the site.[3953] Cicero is likewise explicit that in his youth people were still living in the ruins (Tusc. 3.22.53).[3954]
Many have argued that “indigenous Greek culture” helped shape various local conventions, including benefaction conventions.[3955] Certainly it helped shape cultic practice; though public inscriptions focus on deities “of the Roman state or the imperial cult,” coins reveal an emphasis on traditional Greek cults.[3956] Old Hellenistic rites for Melikertes continued into early Roman Corinth, though with a new sanctuary;[3957] indeed, of four clear cults in the first century C.E. outside the forum, at least three also existed in old Corinth.[3958] Although rites changed, Romans revived the long-abandoned temple of Demeter and Kore; iconographic resemblances in the figurines suggest that local Greeks had preserved some memories of the cult (or the cult itself on a different site).[3959] A fresco of Aphrodite in a cultic area portrays her as Aphrodite Hoplismene, who was worshiped in pre-Roman Greece only in Corinth.[3960]
Romans even aligned their forum, the center of the Roman city plan, with old Corinth’s orientation for this area although the structures differed, naturally, in the ways that Roman forums and Greek agoras normally differed.[3961] Many have thus argued that old Corinth was not completely destroyed and forgotten;[3962] indeed, some Greeks continued to live on the site (though after Rome established new Corinth, they became incolae, resident aliens).[3963] Jewish, Phoenician, and other Greek-speaking Eastern immigrants are often not distinguishable in inscriptions (since many had Greek names), but they were likely many.[3964] An influx of Greeks from the surrounding region is likely in the mid-first century C.E.;[3965] Paul could well have experienced some success with these recent immigrants.
In early second-century Corinth, it was a Roman who became hellenized who would be commended, because this change reflected the same trend that the city itself had followed.[3966] The shift toward thorough hellenization by the second century may suggest that some Greek culture and language persisted among indigenous and immigrant Greeks despite the public emphasis on Roman culture.[3967]
Indeed, a shift in population may have already been under way in Paul’s day. Thus, although most scholars now recognize that Roman Corinth was more “Roman” than earlier scholarship recognized, some note that “the civic identity of Roman Corinth began to change during the Augustan period and accelerated throughout the second century as the city became increasingly integrated into the surrounding Greek world, a transition already evident by the time of Claudius.”[3968] Prominent Greeks began appearing in magistracies during Claudius’s and Nero’s reigns; also, relations between Roman Corinth and Greek cities began improving by Claudius’s time, “as the city itself was becoming more integrated into its Greek context.”[3969] Latin was the official language, but Corinth’s commercial location would require Greek for much trade.[3970] Even the Roman elite would have known some Greek (as the elite in Rome itself did; see comment at Acts 18:12); while upwardly mobile residents would aspire to speak the more fashionable Latin, Greek would have been the easiest language for communication in a congregation with many immigrants. Roman as Corinth was, a purely Roman view of Corinth in this period is thus one-sided.[3971]
The founding settlers of new Corinth were Latin-speaking, but as increasing numbers of Greeks settled there, the city would become bilingual and increasingly Greek-speaking.[3972] Official documents, however, would presumably continue to use Latin exclusively for a number of years after the dominant local vernacular shifted to Greek. Inscriptions and coins (the latter use Latin as late as 69 C.E.) appear to confirm this proposal.[3973] If most of the new immigrants were Greek-speaking, their conditions of flux would make them, on average, readier for religious transition than older settlers would be.
Paul’s base was, at least initially, made up primarily of Greek-speakers, though it included a Roman element (Acts 18:2, 7–8).[3974] That Paul wrote his Corinthian correspondence in Greek confirms that the common language of the believers there, despite a number of members who were Roman citizens, was Greek. (Even a possible member of the social elite, Erastus, bears a Greek name [Rom 16:23].) Presumably, this balance persisted in later times, since Clement, though writing from Rome, uses Greek,[3975] as does (fitting the obvious later shift to preference for Greek) Bishop Dionysius of Corinth.[3976] Paul himself was probably not as comfortable writing in Latin, and it is possible, though not certain, that he could barely write it (or, rather, dictate it) at all. It may be no accident that Luke later offers Paul no speeches in Rome except to the Jewish community there, many of whose members spoke Greek.[3977]
(7) Corinth’s Jewish Community
Another important factor for Paul seems to be the likelihood that Corinth held Greece’s most significant Jewish population, excluding Macedonia.[3978] As far away as Egypt, Jews knew that there were Jews in Corinth and other wealthy parts of the Peloponnesus (Philo Embassy 281). In the second century, Justin’s dialogue partner, Trypho, reportedly migrated from Palestine to Corinth, where he settled (Justin Dial. 1). For further discussion of the Jewish community here, see comment on the synagogue at Acts 18:4. We also have significant information about the church there in later centuries.[3979]
(8) The Stop after Athens
Last but not least of Corinth’s strategic advantages for Paul is that it was the next important stop after Athens, which was just fifty-three miles (85 km.) to the east.[3980] A Corinthian might migrate easily to Athens for philosophic study (Dion. Hal. Din. 2); a fugitive from Athens might readily settle in Corinth (Dio Chrys. [Favorinus] Or. 37.4–5). Diogenes the Cynic moved back and forth between the two cities, the one for warmer seasons and the other for cooler (Dio Chrys. Or. 6.1–3, 6). The two cities had an ancient rivalry,[3981] including during conflicts in 459 B.C.E., though they later joined forces.
By Paul’s period, Athens offered little competition except in reputation and perhaps education.[3982] They remained rivals in the popular mentality,[3983] civic rivalry being characteristic of this era (see comment on Acts 21:39). But though Attica remained viable in production of olive oil and marble, its silver mines were barren and the area offered little for export; while Athens’s importance waned, Corinth became a center of prosperity.[3984] Still, some intellectuals preferred the quiet life of Athens to the flaunted wealth of Corinth’s rich at the expense of its abject poor (Alciph. Paras. 15, 24.1).[3985] By the early third century, Corinth’s manufacturers were starting factories in Athens.[3986]
En route from Athens, Paul would pass various well-known sites of Greek philosophy, religion, and military history. Paul would go by the Platonists’ Academy; he would then pass Daphne (with its grove sacred to Apollo), Eleusis (with its mystery sanctuary), and soon the bay beyond which was visible the island of Salamis, where Athens defeated the Persians centuries earlier. After this, Paul would reach Megara and, beyond that, the Isthmus of Corinth.[3987] Coming from Athens, Paul would probably enter Corinth on the Lechaeum Road from the city’s north.[3988]
(9) Corinth’s Religion
In Corinth, as elsewhere, Paul would confront religious challenges and would probably be expected to learn something about the local religious traditions.[3989] Although Jews lived here (Acts 18:2, 4), the city was, like virtually all cities outside Palestine, mostly pagan (1 Cor 8:5). In the more than two thousand late first- to early second-century C.E. bronze coins studied, pagan figures (many from mythology) are quite common.[3990]
Barely mentioned in Homer, the city’s mythical history first developed in the archaic period.[3991] Because Corinth lacked clear ties to the Mycenaean era, its mythical connections remained peripheral figures such as Medea and Bellerophon.[3992] Among the myths attached to old Corinth (apparently first by Euripides in Medea)[3993] was the story of the sorceress Medea’s revenge on her unfaithful husband, Jason, there by killing their children and his new wife.[3994] A shrine commemorating the children remained in Corinth[3995] and was, indeed, the site of veneration in earlier, Greek times.[3996] The hero Bellerophon and the winged horse Pegasus were also associated with Corinth.[3997] The Corinthians also claimed that their eponymous ancestor, Corinthus, was a son of Zeus, though apparently no one else agreed with them.[3998] Apart from local traditions, exposure to Greek mythology was unavoidable in Corinth; one would, for example, pass beneath a chariot of Helios en route to the forum.[3999]
Evidence from coins suggests that nonelite Corinthians particularly favored the cults of Poseidon and Aphrodite.[4000] The temple of Isthmian Poseidon lay on the isthmus, where the Isthmian Games were held (Strabo 8.6.22; Dio Chrys. Or. 8.9). A Roman mystery cult (that of Melikertes-Palaimon) had its sanctuary in Isthmia.[4001] The cult of Demeter was long important in ancient Corinth.[4002] Some local pre-Roman cults were revived by the Roman settlers on the same sites as the earlier Greek temples, including the cults of Aphrodite, Demeter, and Poseidon.[4003] Apparently, the rituals were sometimes changed (the old dining rooms in the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore were discontinued; curse tablets and Asian influences were introduced).[4004] Also, purely local cults vanished (at least on the official level) in 146 B.C.E., supplanted later by new Roman ones.[4005]
Chief among the Roman religious imports was the imperial cult. Although the provincial imperial cult was officially established here shortly after Paul’s initial stay, about 54 C.E., with wild beast shows, Corinthians already venerated Julius Caesar and Octavia.[4006] The high priest of the imperial cult in Achaia held an important honorary title, likely a Latin translation of an equivalent Greek title employed, for example, with reference to Asiarchs in Asia.[4007] Even tourists visiting Corinth from outside the empire would know of emperor veneration if they could read inscriptions there, which mentioned, for example, “deified Augustus”[4008] and “Claudius Divus.”[4009] The majority of religious inscriptions from the Roman period are in Latin, the language of the elite, and of these, 63 percent concern the imperial cult.[4010]
The dominance of Greek and Roman religion should not lead us to believe that few Corinthians were open to foreign cults such as Paul’s. Four sanctuaries for Serapis and Isis at the base of the Acrocorinth, plus a fifth to Serapis alone in the South Stoa, attest the popularity of Egyptian cults;[4011] immigrant groups tended to form their own enclaves and worship their traditional ethnic deities.[4012] But this worship hardly remained limited to its traditional ethnic constituents; there is reason to believe that the Serapis and Isis cult even exerted a syncretistic influence on the ancient cult of Demeter and Kore.[4013] Because Corinth was refounded in the first century B.C.E., attachment to local cults was less pervasive than in Athens.[4014]