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About the city of Corinth
1 Corinthians - Servants of Christ
Corinth was an important city. It was on a very narrow section of land (called an ‘isthmus’) in the southern part of Greece.
1. It was the capital city of the region called Achaia.
2. It had two harbours. The harbour on the east coast was 4 miles (6 km) from the harbour on the west coast. Today a canal joins the two harbours. In Paul’s time, people pulled small boats across from one harbour to the other one. They dragged them on a kind of ship railway. Porters carried goods from large boats to the other side. They put the goods on a different boat. The journey would otherwise have been over two hundred miles round a very dangerous part of the sea.
3. As it was a busy centre for trade, Corinth was a good place for the gospel to spread. Merchants and travellers would hear the message and take it with them. There were many different people in Corinth. There were Romans because it was a Roman colony. (A colony is a city or country that another country controls.) There were Greeks, Jews, people from Asia and from further east. There were rich people and many slaves.
4. There was a temple to Aphrodite, the Greek female god of love. There were thousands of prostitutes in the city. Many of them belonged to this temple. Corinth became well-known for bad sexual behaviour. To live ‘like a Corinthian’ meant to become a drunk often or to visit prostitutes.
5. The Isthmian Games took place near Corinth. They were famous and only second in importance to the Olympic Games.
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Text from the EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary - used with permission - © 1997-2004, Wycliffe Associates (UK) - For more information about EasyEnglish Publications, visit their website: www.easyenglish.info
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