I Finally Got to See Corinth

We awoke today to another beautiful morning of sunshine and blue skies. Breakfast was at 7:00 and we were on the bus at 8:00 headed to Cenchrea and the ancient city of Corinth. I have especially looked forward to seeing Corinth, since I have studied and taught 1 & 2 Corinthians so many times to my 10th grade classes. I have often shown pictures that someone else had taken of the ruins, but today, I would get to take my own pictures of this ancient metropolis.

On our way to Corinth, we may four short stops. The first stop was at the canal that runs across the Peloponnesus, the isthmus that that used to divide the Aegean and Adriatic Seas. During ancient times, the Romans had created a Dyokollos, which was basically a rut that ran between the two sees, upon which they would drag, by wagon, small ships that would come into one of the two ports. The access to Corinth from both of these seas allowed the city to grow rich and prosper. While a couple of emperors, including Nero, attempted to make the Dyokollos into a canal, none were successful. It was until the 19th century that the canal was finally dug, allowing a ship to pass on water. The second stop was at the harbor of Cenchrea, which was the harbor where ships would come and port in Paul’s day, bringing passengers to shop or merchandise to sell in Corinth. Our third stop was at the place where the Isthmian games were held. In more than one epistle Paul uses the illustration of an athlete or athletic event to talk about living for God. Some suggest that Paul may have attended these games. Marked in the ruins is the place where the marathon runners would start their 26.2 mile trek. In our final stop before Corinth we viewed a short piece of the Dyokollos that is still left, which doesn’t look much different than a drainage ditch, but is impressive to know that across these rocks came ships from long ago.

Corinth was a tough city, not meant to be toured by the feeble of heart. Paganism, immorality and idolatry abounded here, along with greed. It doesn’t take long to look at what is left of Corinth to derive at such a conclusion. Corinth had a huge agora, with market places on the north, south and west sides. It had a fountain dedicated to Poseidon, and a very large temple dedicated to Apollo, along with a number of other smaller temples built to honor other gods. When one reads 1 Corinthians, he can see all sorts of allusions in Paul’s language drawn from the characteristics of the city. For example, one place that I have often wanted to see was the Bema seat, the place of judgment where Paul may been taken to appear before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia. Paul transfers his experience to the letter when he writes, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ...” (2 Cor. 5:10). We also went down to the lower agora of ancient Corinth and saw the inscription with the name Erastus in it. In Romans 16, Paul sends greetings to the Roman brethren from Erastus, the treasurer. Since Paul likely wrote the letter from Corinth, this inscription very possibly references the same man. Billy Bradford poses for this shot. There is much more that I could share with you about this great city, but you will just have to come to one my classes to hear more.

On our way back from Corinth, we stopped in at another pottery and jewelry store, where we learned about the making of Corinth pottery, which is very similar to what we learned about the pottery on the island of Rhodes. The pottery was very beautiful, as well as the jewelry and once again, I am sure our Grecian tour guide (Lola) got a nice cut. After this we headed back to the hotel to grab an afternoon nap and then tour more of Athens on our own.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Athens and the tour. We will worship at 8:30 in the morning and then be given the rest of the day to walk around and see more of the city.