the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Corinth
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or Called anciently Ephyra, the capital of Achaia, and seated on the isthmus which separates the Ionian Sea from the Aegean, and hence called bimaris, "on two seas." The city itself stood a little inland; but it had two ports, Lechaeum on the west, and Cenchrea on the east. Its position gave it great commercial and military importance; for while the traffic of the east and west poured through its gates, as over the isthmus of Darien the commerce of two oceans, it was also at the gate of the Peloponnesus, and was the highway between Northern and Southern Greece. Its defense, besides the city walls, was in the Acro-corinth, a mass of rock, rising 2,000 feet above the sea, with precipitous sides, and with room for a town upon its summit. Corinth thus became one of the most populous and wealthy cities of Greece; but its riches produced pride, ostentation, effeminacy, and all the vices generally consequent on plenty. Lasciviousness, particularly, was not only tolerated, but consecrated here, by the worship of Venus, and the notorious prostitution of numerous attendants devoted to her. Corinth was destroyed by the Romans, B.C. 146. It was afterwards restored by Julius Caesar, who planted in it a Roman colony; but though it soon regained its ancient splendor, it also relapsed into all its former dissipation and licentiousness. Paul arrived at Corinth, A. D. 52, Acts 18:1 , and lodged with Aquila and his wife Priscilla, who, as well as himself, were tentmakers. Supporting himself by this labor, he remained at Corinth a year and a half, preaching the gospel at first to the Jews, and afterwards more successfully to the Gentiles. During this time he wrote the epistles to the Thessalonians; and in a subsequent visit, the epistles to the Galatians and Romans. Some suppose he made a short intervening visit, not narrated in the Bible. Compare 2 Corinthians 13:1 with 2 Corinthians 1:15 2:1 12:14,21 13:2 . Apollos followed him in his labors at Corinth, and Aquila and Sosthenes were also among its early minister, Acts 18:1 1 Corinthians 1:1 16:19 . Its sited is now unhealthy and almost deserted, with few vestiges of its former greatness.
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Corinth'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/c/corinth.html. 1859.
