November 30, 2024

I like travelling to cities that have an historical Biblical reference. It adds value to my faith perspective. Such a city is Corinth, Greece. You might recognize it as the city where the Apostle Paul established one of the first Christian churches and later wrote two letters to that church congregation as part of the Epistles of Paul: I Corinthians and II Corinthians. You will find great similarities in those instructional letters and today’s current events.

Allow me to share some background information about the Apostle Paul as I understand it so that you will have an idea of his unique ministry. Much different than what you might have assumed.

Paul, or Saul in Hebrew, was born around 5 AD to Jewish parents. Paul’s father was also a Roman citizen, a member of the upper class. Paul received a Jewish education probably rabbinical, where he was taught Hebrew and probably Aramaic as well. Because of his proficiency in Jewish theology and Rabbinical Dialectics Paul was a rigorous interpreter of Mosaic Law. As his status of being a Roman citizen that he inherited from his father he spoke Greek and was able to easily travel to the Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire where many of the Jewish Diaspora lived. (The Jewish Diaspora refers to the dispersion of the Jewish people from their homeland of Israel.)

At age 29, Paul had a dramatic conversation of faith. On a trip on the road to Damascus, where he was fiercely persecuting Christians, he was suddenly blinded by a flash of light and at the same moment heard the voice of Jesus who implored him to stop being an enemy of the Christiaan faith. (I have known people who reported a dramatic conversion in their own lives. Mine was much more gradual.)

Upon arrival in Damascus, he actively participated in spreading the good news of his new faith and travelled approximately ten years before returning to Jerusalem. After continued ministry Paul begin a Second Apostolic Journey (refer to map above) and his last stop was in Corinth, arriving around the middle of the 1st century AD. As a rabbi he was obliged to have a trade and worked as a tentmaker.

There was a large Jewish community in Corinth and Paul immediately begin to minister at the synagogue putting an emphasis on identification of the Messiah of Jewish scriptures as Jesus Christ. The synagogue was known as the Hebrew not Jewish synagogue because there were other religious groups in the Jewish community such as the Samaritans.

As a rabbi, Paul felt that he would be embraced by the Jewish community having studied in Jerusalem for years alongside the eminent rabbi Gamaliel. The Jewish community upset with the contestation of Mosaic Law and that of the Torah subjected Paul to public flogging in the marketplace. Eventually they brought Paul before the Roman governor where he was imprisoned. Yet, Paul remained in Corinth longer than any other city in Greece and the Christian Church of Corinth grew as evidenced by the remarkable number of Christian names in Corinth that are recorded in the texts of the New Testament.

Paul continued his ministry throughout Asia Minor but continued to converse with the new Church through two letters to the Corinthians recorded in the New Testament. In them he spoke of issues of corrupt government, moral failures, lack of leadership and bias and prejudices among people. Sound familiar to today’s culture?

The Apostle Paul spent many years in prison because of his convictions and was martyred —specifically, he was beheaded, by emperor Nero, in 68 AD when he was 63 years old.

From the moment he became a believer in Christ, Paul’s life was transformed. Despite never witnessing Jesus’ ministry, Paul arguably contributed more to the growth of the Christian movement than any other apostle. He laid the foundation for missions work that has continued around the world today, and through his life he modeled evangelism, discipleship, perseverance, and suffering—for the Christians who knew him, and for every believer today.

I spent an entire day at the Ancient Corinth Archaeological Site and Musuem. In the west atrium of the museum there were a group of headless statues of Roman dignitaries of Corinth. Do you know why all the statues were headless?

Economy of marble! Once the Roman dignitary was removed from office or died his head was removed, the body was kept, and a new head was prepared for the statue. Must have made those Roman dignitaries feel kind of disposable!

Thanks for traveling with us.