Visiting Corinth

We left Athens for Korinthos the city of the Corinthians.  Again the beauty of what was left of the city and of the mountains around the city gave way to an incredible site. One thing that shocked me was the size of the city; only five percent of the city has been excavated, and it was still huge. As we wandered around the site we saw building that would have been essential in the daily lives of the Corinthians, such as the temple of Apollo, the butcher, and many other public buildings. We saw the Bema, the building from which Paul would have preached his message. We discussed the history of the city, giving context to the people who would have lived here, their beliefs, practices and the lifestyles they would have led. Along with this context we were able to discuss the ruins of the building still on the site to get a better sense of the lifestyle these first century Corinthians would have led. Here again we could see public displays of wealth and opulence in some of the monuments, that we saw in Delphi yesterday.  This display of wealth would have been a way of showing honor, it was a way of publically praising yourself. We were asked to consider how an early Christian, especially one of some status, would deal with this system, especially when such acts often included pagan rituals. As we were thinking about how the early Christians would have responded to the pagan culture around them both here in Korinthos and the rest of the nation, we sat under the shade of a big tree in the forum, and Dr. Cohick lectured to us about both 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. It is interesting to me that we can often relate more to the letters of Paul to Christians struggling with the paganism infused in their culture, than the accounts in the Old Testament.

In our discussion on Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, we discussed the purpose of the letters, the context in which they were written, and the themes that Paul addresses. It is important to remember that these are letters written to a specific people, the context matters in how we read it. Paul talks a lot about the unity of the church to the people here at Corinth. This issue has seemed to come up over and over again the past few weeks, and it is so crazy that it has been an issue since the very beginning of the church. Once again it was very powerful to read these letters in the place where they were written to. Being able to understand the historical context of the letter helps me understand the meaning more, and then how I can apply it to my life.

We hiked up to the Acropocorinth, a large fortress on top of the mountain just above the city of Korinthos. From the top, I could see for miles! The sea on one side, and more mountains and fields of olive trees and grape vines on the other. It was a beautiful place. It was a lot of fun to hike around on top of this mountain among the ruins.

            We headed to the small seaside town of Navplion which is also nestled in the hills, the original capital of the modern state of Greece. Today, Navplion is a small but growing town, that is quite picturesque. Right on the water, the town is filled with tiny shops, restaurants and public squares. Across the water, one can see the mountains of the mainland and islands. We had some time to walk around the town, eat at an authentic Greek restaurant, and see the sunset over the water. It was a very relaxing way to end the day.