Essay about First Corinthians

Upon his arrival in 51 AD, Corinth was a commercial crossroad, a melting pot full of devotees of various pagan cults and marked by a measure of moral depravity not unusual in a great seaport (Introduction of the First Letter to the Corinthians). At the time, Corinth was a large, culturally diverse city because of its location near the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, in modern-day Greece. Therefore, Corinth attracted trade and commerce being along the busy highway of the most powerful empire at the time, the Romans. However, after Roman campaigns descended upon Corinth, they sacked it, and no person was spared. As a result, Corinth crumbled into turmoil, and it wouldn’t rebound until much later when Julius Caesar revived Corinth as a Roman colony. After a laborious and dedicated effort, Corinth regained its former popularity and when Paul arrived one hundred years later, it had transformed into the most important city in Greece and the capital of the Roman province of Achaea. Now, Corinth developed into a bustling urban center with an ancient Greek heritage, but with that came the increasing worship of Greek cults, such as Aphrodite and Poseidon. There were pagan temples, immorality, and social disorder that gave Corinth such a notorious reputation. When Paul arrived at Corinth on his second missionary journey, he discovered, firsthand, the resentment of most Jews to his teachings, and so his best hope were the

Possibly the most important cause for the fall of the Golden Age Greece was the Battle of Corinth. It occurred in 146BC and officially marked the complete fall of the Greek resistance against the Roman Republic. This was such a destructive turning point for Greece because the city of Corinth possessed masses of wealth. It was a main hub of activity and politics for the Greece civilization. The battle occurred during a time when the Roman Republic sought to overtake Greece and all of its corresponding states. Rome had been proving its great military strength and superiority to neighboring nations previous to the Battle of Corinth. This period outlines the fall of the Greece nation and the rise of the Roman Republic. Corinth was one of the most powerful at that time. After the battle, the rest of Greece fell to the Romans as well. The Greek states tried to hold off and resist Roman

Therefore, Paul, employing the Lords wisdom, ensured the church to be viable and Godly in a city mentioned of similar importance as Rome, Corinth, Antioch, and Alexandria. In his ministry, Paul makes multiple journeys to Ephesus to ensure that the Word was growing in such a keystone city to much of eastern Asia. On his first missionary journey, he diverted to Macedonia at the Lord’s prompting, prohibiting him from travelling to the region. However, Paul leaves behind Aquilla and Pricilla (Acts 18:18-21), on his second journey, as more of an advance party to begin establishing the church. This was a necessary move, as a full effort by Paul to minister in Ephesus would have not gone successfully. The Ephesian economy aligned itself with pagan religion, as well as Judaism, and relied heavily upon trades, such as idol making, which related to the worship of pagan gods. For example, the temple of Artemis sustained an industry of silversmiths and idol makers. During Paul’s second third journey, due to his effective ministry in Ephesus, caused such a disruption in pagan commerce, merchants incited a mob to eliminate him from the city. The church remained despite his hasty departure. Paul centered his basis of ministry in this keystone city during his third missionary journey. As a result, this allowed him to

Christianity was still quite young at the time Paul wrote to Philemon and was faced with much opposition. The Church existed as local bodies of believers, meeting primarily in homes because there were no church buildings for worship. Persecution of the Church was prevalent and their survival depended heavily on dependence on one another and unity. Many misconceptions and even blatant lies

Paul audience could follow his thoughts on building because of the many building that was built in their cities (Green, 2013, p.544, p.552) After Paul preaching the gospel in Athens, he continues to Corinth, the provincial capital of Achaia. The Jews in Acts who ended up in Corinth were known by their Latin names and some Greek families in city took Roman names. Paul was very familiar with the landscape of his audience. Paul was humble, but was uplifting God’s grace. Paul is careful not to think too highly of himself, but it was due to God’s grace he’s a wise builder. He told them he planted the seed when he preached and Apollo helped watered and God gives the growth. Paul stated the foundation is the

His love for them and his desire to see the church as a whole restored took precedence over his own personal feelings. He knew that if he came to oversee the resolution of the problem, it might intensify the situation. If he didn’t address the situation and it remained unresolved, there could and would be greater sorrow in the future. Paul knew that writing a letter to the Corinthian Church might bring them pain, but this would be for their good rather than their harm.

E. Harrison (p. 275) summarizes the message of the Epistle in these words: The greatest single overall emphasis seems to be on the unity of the local church as the body of Christ, which is brought out not only in connection with the discussion of the groups (i.e.; the factions within the church), but also in relation to the Lord’s Supper and spiritual gifts. A corollary is the sanctity of the church as members of Christ, both corporately and individually, (note, especially, such passages as 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:15-20.) We may add, it is in this Epistle that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul most eloquently sets forth the supremacy of love as “the most excellent way,” which the Christian is called to follow (1 Cor. 12:31b-13:13

Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth: 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 (ESV)

Philippians The book of Philippians deals with praise, confidence and rejoicing. The book of Philippians was a letter written in prison by Paul in 62 A.D. The key personalities are the Apostle Paul, Timothy, Epaphroditus, Euodia, and Syntyche ( Philippians). Paul is known for his prison epistles ( letter written in jail) there are four and Paul had written Philippians last.

During this time the city is believed to be very important because it was a large trade center and this was on the Mediterranean coast. Their city was a wealthy city and mostly because of its trades. The people of the city Tarsus believed in education and health. They were also known for making their city very stunning in appearance. When you are reading Pauls letters you can tell that he came from a place of well-built ethics because of his writings

Paul begins his letter with honesty and speaks of his genuine dealings with the church of Corinth. He goes on to

Paul wanted to keep pressing west and therefore only occasionally had the opportunity to revisit his churches. He tried to keep up his converts’ spirits, answer their questions, and resolve their problems by letter. Fortunately, after his death one of his followers collected some of the letters, edited them and published them. His letters are some of the earliest Christian documents that we have. His letters became part of the New Testament of the Bible.

A preliminary dispute between Corcyra and her colony of Epidamnos escalated to have Corinth siding with Epidamnos’ and Athens on side of Corcyra. To add to this, a revolt of Potidaea, a colony of Corinth but a part of the Athenian Empire, went to Sparta for military help as they received no further aid from Athens, to which Sparta replied if Athens attacked Potidaea then they would in turn invade Attica . Another Athenian ally had since then been excluded from the Athenian marketplace and no ship were allowed to dock at any Athenian based harbour (Rickard, 2011). Due to a military stalemate consisting of the fact that Sparta was not at their best when fighting on the seas and Athens could not fully articulate strategy on land, Pericles, the acting general, convinced Athenian troops to retreat behind the city’s long walls, figuring that Sparta would eventually tire of receiving no forceful opposition (Martin, 2000). Martin supports all of these statements, further stating that disagreements arose in the 430’s over how each of the city-states treat their allies, inevitably leading to a peace treaty collapse, alongside hoe the petty actions of lesser powers pushed the larger nations, namely Sparta and Athens, to initiate violence. Both authors mentioned beforehand provide a modern perspective on these conflicts and hence are not as emotionally or physically involved, providing a lesser biased view. Now, we

?Corinth being at the center of all this trading activity, it is no surprise that the city was consistently a great commercial and cultural center.? A description of Corinth by the ancient author Strabo states, ?Corinth is called wealthy because of its commerce, since it is situated on the Isthmus and is master of two harbors, of which the one leads straight to Asia, and the other to Italy; and it makes it easy the exchange of merchandise from both countries that are so far distant from each other? (Strabo).? In his book Roman Corinth, Donald Engels describes Corinth in similar terms, ?From a small beginning, Corinth grew to become the largest city in Greece by the Second century A.D.? It was both an intellectual and cultural center, as well as a vital link in the commercial network of the eastern Mediterranean? (Engels 8).? It was the Vanity Fair of Greece, having objects of exoticism and luxury finding open markets which were visited by every nation in the civilized world;

The first letter to the Corinthians as a whole alternates between responses to reports and answers to questions from the church, and 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 is found in the beginning of Paul’s first response to reports dealing with factions and divisions within the body of believers.