Stacy, R. Wayne

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Liberty UniversityDigitalCommons@LibertyUniversityFaculty Publications and Presentations Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and GraduateSchoolSummer 1997Corinth's Moral ClimateR. Wayne StacyLiberty University, wrstacy@liberty.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubsPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons,Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History ofReligions of Western Origin Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought,Theology and Philosophy of Religion CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School at DigitalCommons@LibertyUniversity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@LibertyUniversity. For more information, please contact scholarlycommunication@liberty.edu.Recommended CitationStacy, R. Wayne, "Corinth's Moral Climate" (1997). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 376.http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs/376PAUL REMINDED . THE CORINTHIAN Christians that their lives prior to their becoming Christians had been characterized by promiscuous and immoral behavior (see 1 Cor. 6: 11). The litany ofimmorality that precedes this indictment makes Paul's allegation that "such were some of you" all the more striking (see 1 Cor. 6:9-10, NASB). Paul invoked a similar list ear-lierin the same letter (see 1 Cor. 5:9-10). Apparently, Paul had written the Corinthians, laying down the moral principle, 34 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR SUMMER 1997 "no association with immoral people"; and the Corinthians in turn had responded to Paul's instructions by asking how this could be accomplished in a place like Corinth! Paul's reply is telling: I did not mean that you were not to associate with immoral persons of this world, since to do that you would have to go out of this world altogether (1 Cor. 5:10, italics mine). The exchange indicates how thoroughly pagan Corinth was in Paul's time. What made Corinth the an-cient world's "sin city"? What factors produced a moral ethos in which promiscuity could take root so deep and take hold so hard? geography, demographics, economics, politics, and religion all played a part. Corinth was a city that had lived two lives. Greek Corinth rose to prominence in the seventh century B.C. By the end of the fifth century, Corinth had developed into a prosperous city-state with a reputa-j tion for wealth unrivaled in its day.1 The city was destroyed, however, in 146 B.C. by the Romans and lay desolate for nearly a century until Julius Caesar granted colonial status to it in 46 B. C. and set about rebuilding Corinth as a Roman city. Roman Corinth was much more multicul-tural than was Greek Corinth. The colonial settlers were recruited pri-i marily among freed slaves, military veterans, and the poorer classes. The overall effect of Corinth's new, more diverse population was to make the city more culturally and morally diverse than it had been as a Greek city-state. Old moral restraints no longer pre-vailed among Corinth's Roman population. Geography also contributed to Corinth's in-famous moral reputation. The city was strategically located on the narrow isthmus that separated upper Greece from the Peloponnesian Peninsula. As such, Corinth had two harbors, a western harbor on the Adriatic and an eastern harbor on the Aegean joined by a path called the diolkos. Corinth was a natural funnel for traffic to and from Roman Lesson Reference: EBS: 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 9-13; 6:9-11 colonies and provinces on the Mediterranean. The overland route between the two harbors made Corinth the fulcrum of the Mediterranean. The vigorous shipping in-dustry generated by the diolkos support-ed a large service industry of sailors, longshoremen, haulers, dock workers, and shipbuilders, in addition to support services such as hotel keepers, cooks, grooms, and saloon keepers, and prosti-tutes. Corinth was also an emerging "growth center" in the ancient world, bringing to the city artisans, craftsmen, stonemasons, foundry workers, and oth-ILLUSTRATOR PHOTQSOB SCHATZ/ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ISTI-lMIA(11/9/18) ers associated with the construction in-dustry. This growth was due in large part to Corinth's being a political center in the Roman world. Corinth was both a Roman imperial colony and a senatorial provin-cial capital. Numerous new buildings were constructed to support the indus-tries generated by government business. Archaeologists have found evidence of significant construction in Corinth, espe-cially during the reigns of Tiberi us (AD. 14-37) and Claudius (AD. 41-54). Paul was in Corinth during the latter part of the reign of Claudius and would have wit-nessed the expansive restorations and new construction projects being under-taken. Indeed, this may account for his frequent use of "construction language" in 1 Corinthians (for example, 3:10). Doubtlessly, these construction workers also supported the brothels, saloons, and other "recreational industries" that contributed to Corinth's reputation as the "Las Vegas of the Ancient World." So notorious were these "recreational in-dustries" that the Greeks actually coined the term corinthiazesthai-literally, "to live the 'Corinthian life' "-as a synonym for immorality. As evidence that this rep-utation was well deserved, archaeologists have uncovered some 33 wine shops or "liquor lockers," some of which even had underground cisterns for cooling drinks.2 Additionally, pilgrims frequented Corinth, sampling its "services." Some journeyed to the city for the purpose of visiting Corinth's famous Asklepieion, a shrine dedicated to the Greek god of heal-ing, Asclepius. Pilgrims stayed in Corinth, frequently with their family members, sometimes for a period of weeks or even months while the sick person sought treatment at the Asklepieion. Others came to Corinth to attend the Isthmian Games, held biennially a few miles from the city, including the summer of AD. 51 when Paul was there. The games were dedicated to the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. These games at-tracted athletes from allover the Greco-Roman world. Typical of the Greek style, the athletes competed nude. Raucous crowds of spectators were interspersed with merchants hawking their wares, itin-erant teachers/preachers/writers ex-36 BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR SUMMER 1997 pounding their latest philosophy to whomever would listen, and pickpockets and hucksters trying to profit from the unsuspecting mass of humanity. Strange as it may sound to us, reli-gion also helped create the licentious am-biance of first-century Corinth. Being multicultural and "consumer-oriented," Corinth tried to satisfy even the most dis-criminating pagan's desires. Gods and goddesses worshiped at Corinth included the traditional gods/goddesses of the Greek pantheon (Zeus, Hera, Athena, and Hermes); the Greek goddess of good luck, Tyche (Fortuna was her Roman name); Apollo, who seems to have had his own temple in Corinth; Poseidon (Roman Neptune); Asclepius; and Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of fer-tility and love (Roman Venus), the patron goddess of the city. Prominently situated on summit of the Acrocorinth, the temple of Aphrodite dominated Corinth's landscape in Paul's day. Associated with the worship of Aphrodite was the practice of sacred prostitution. Since the time of Solon (sixth century B.C.), Greek cities openly sanctioned brothels, regarding them as "supportive offamily life." Consequently, burgeoning populations of courtesans, known as "ethereals," plied their trade in Corinth, often commanding large prices for their services. But the practice of sacred prostitu-tion, that is, prostitution associated with the worship of a god or goddess, has baf-fled scholars in that it does not appear to have been associated with the promotion of fertility per se (common to many pagan religions), but seems rather to have cele-brated sex as such. According to a fa-mous passage from the Roman geogra-pher, Strabo, over a thousand sacred prostitutes and courtesans reputedly ''worked'' the temple of Aphrodite, though some accuse Strabo of hyper-bole.3 However, Dio Chrysostom seems to corroborate Strabo's portrait because he spoke of large numbers of prostitutes gathered at Corinth on account of the har-bor, the courtesans, and because the city was situated at the crossroads of Greece.4 All of these factors coalesced to make Corinth a missionary setting that pre-sented Paul both an unexcelled challenge and an unparalleled opportunity. Here Paul had taken the gospel into the very teeth of pagandom. If Christianity could take root here, it could take root any-where. The Corinthian congregation was for Paul a "mission impossible." He be-lieved that Christianity could survive and even thrive without resorting to the co-ercive moral restraints inherent within Jewish legalism. If Paul could birth a con-gregation of former pagans who live morally upright lives without first re-quiring them to become Jews, then he would have forever silenced his critics who claimed that without obedience Christians, "and such were some of you" demonstrates just how dif-ficult a mission this was. That he could go on to say, however, "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" demonstrates that, those difficulties notwithstanding, Paul had suc-ceeded in that mission. lSee Strabo, Geography 8. 6. 20, 23. 2])an P. Cole, "Corinth & Ephesus," Bible Review, December 1988, 25. 3Compare Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, trans. James W. Leitch (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 12, and Jerome Murphy·O'Connor, St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, Good News Studies 6 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, Inc. 1983), 125. 4Dio Chrysostom, Discourses, 8:381. Wayne Stacy is Professor of Religious Studies, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs, North Carolina. 

Corinth\u27s Moral Climate

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Corinth\u27s Moral Climate

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