Dict: smith - CORINTH

smith:

CORINTH - C>@ - an ancient and celebrated city of Greece, on the Isthmus of Corinth, and about 40 miles west of Athens. In consequence of its geographical position it formed the most direct communication between the Ionian and AEgean seas. A remarkable feature was the Acrocorinthus, a vast citadel of rock, which rises abruptly to the height of 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and the summit of which is so extensive that it once contained a whole town. The situation of Corinth, and the possession of its eastern and western harbors, Cenchreae and Lechaeum, are the secrets of its history. Corinth was a place of great mental activity, as well as of commercial and manufacturing enterprise. Its wealth was so celebrated as to be proverbial; so were the vice and profligacy of its inhabitants. The worship of Venus where was attended with shameful licentiousness. Corinth is still an episcopal see. The city has now shrunk to a wretched village, ont he old site and bearing the old name, which, however, is corrupted into Gortho . St. Paul preached here, kjv@Acts:18:11) and founded a church, to which his Epistles to the Corinthians are addressed. EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE, CORINTHIANS, SECOND EPISTLE TO THE

CORINTHIANS, FIRST EPISTLE TO THE - C>@ - was written by the apostle St. Paul toward the close of his nearly three-years stay at Ephesus, kjv@Acts:19:10 kjv@Acts:20:31) which, we learn from ( kjv@1Corinthians:16:8) probably terminated with the Pentecost of A.D. 57 or 58. The bearers were probably (according to the common subscription) Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. It appears to have been called forth by the information the apostles had received of dissension in the Corinthian church, which may be thus explained:
The Corinthian church was planted by the apostle himself, ( kjv@1Corinthians:3:6) in his second missionary journey. kjv@Acts:18:1) seq. He abode in the city a year and a half. kjv@Acts:18:11) A short time after the apostle had left the city the eloquent Jew of Alexandria, Apollos, went to Corinth, kjv@Acts:19:1) and gained many followers, dividing the church into two parties, the followers of Paul and the followers of Apollos. Later on Judaizing teachers from Jerusalem preached the gospel in a spirit of direct antagonism to St. Paul personally. To this third party we may perhaps add a fourth, that, under the name of "the followers of Christ," ( kjv@1Corinthians:2:12) sought at first to separate themselves from the factious adherence to particular teachers, but eventually were driven by antagonism into positions equally sectarian and inimical to the unity of the church. At this momentous period, before parties had become consolidated and that distinctly withdrawn from communion with one another, the apostle writes; and in the outset of the epistle, 1Corinthians:1-4:21, we have this noble and impassioned protest against this fourfold rending of the robe of Christ.

CORINTHIANS, SECOND EPISTLE TO THE - C>@ - was written a few months subsequent to the first, in the same year
about the autumn of A.D. 57 or 58
at Macedonia. The epistle was occasioned by the information which the apostle had received form Titus, and also, as it would certainly seem probable, from Timothy, of the reception of the first epistle. This information, as it would seem from our present epistle, was mainly favorable; the better part of the church were returning to their spiritual allegiance to the founder, ( kjv@2Corinthians:1:13-14 kjv@2Corinthians:7:9 kjv@2Corinthians:7:15-16) but there was still a faction who strenuously denied Paul’s claim to apostleship. The contents of this epistle comprise,

(1) the apostle’s account of the character of his spiritual labors, chs. 1-7;

(2) directions about the collections, chs. 8-9;

(3) defence of his own apostolical character, chs. 10-13:10. The words in ( kjv@1Corinthians:5:9) seem to point to further epistles to the church by Paul, but we have no positive evidence of any.