Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.

CORINTH took its name from Corinthus, son of Pelops, who had rebuilt and fortified it with a wall, eleven miles in circumference. It was situate on the isthmus or neck of land which joins Achaia to Attica. Corinth had of course a double port, which opened to the Egean, and to the Ionian sea. Commerce took possession of a city so favourable, as the emporium of merchandise to all the east. Its riches were so great that “opulent Corinth” became the adage of the world. It was the residence of the Roman governor of Achaia, and was distinguished by schools of sectarian philosophy and eloquence. The luxury and debauchery of the place, severely censured by the poets, were consequences of their wealth, and want of revelation. When the Romans stormed it under the command of L. Mummius for revolt, one hundred and forty six years before Christ, a great part of the city was burned, and the statues and vases of gold, silver and brass, while in a state of fusion, formed a mixture very much admired under the name of Corinthian metal.

The first entrance of St. Paul into this metropolis was after the year fifty, and before the Pentecost of fifty two. Acts 18:1. Here he found Aquila and Priscilla, Claudius having banished the jews from Rome for sedition. The apostle laboured in Corinth, making excursions into Achaia, where his ministry was crowned with success, and accompanied with miraculous seals. But in Corinth the violence of the jews was such against Paul, that they dragged him before the tribunal of Gallio, the deputy, Acts 18:12, who, it would seem, leaned more to Paul than to the jews. Nor is it doubted but this circumstance occasioned some intercourse to take place between Paul and Seneca, brother to Gallio, and tutor to Nero. See on Acts 18:0.