Today we headed in a
coach for Corinth, a city that Apostle Paul ministered to as recoreded in Act
19. On the way we stopped at the Corinth canal. The canal joins the Aegean Sea
and the Saronic Coast. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnesian peninsula
from the Greek mainland,
thus effectively making the former an island. The
builders completed the canal in 1893 through the Isthmus at sea level;
no locks are employed. It is 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) in length and only
21.3 metres (70 ft) wide at its base, making it unpassable for most modern
ships.
Arrived in Corinth and headed straight for the Erastus Inscription Acts 19.22,
Rom 16:23, Tim 4.20. The inscription reads "Erastus in return for his
Aedilship (position as Magistrate) laid ( the pavement) at his own
expense". Erastus assisted Paul is collecting donations for Jewish
Christians in Jerusalm who experiencing famine. This gesture from the gentile
Christians helped to heal some of the suspicions of gentile Christian and
helped to unite the new Christian Church that now had a populations of Jews and
gentiles. The inscription was found in 1929 and is dated to the
second half of the first century AD. Corinth was a very wealthy place as it was
a very successful port. The streets in the market place were all paved by
marble. There are still remnants of marble walkways that we walked
on.
Corinth was dedicated to Aphrodite a Greek goddess of love,
beauty, pleasure and procreation. At the top of the hill are temples
where they worshipped Aphrodite. At one stage there were over 1000 priestess
that facilitated travelers with love and pleasure. Corinth also had a temple to
Apolo god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music,
poetry and more. Ruins of which are still standing.
It was also in Corinth that Paul "a Jew named Aquila and Priscilla who
were tent makers like Paul. He stayed and worked with them. Each Sabbath Paul
tried to persuade the Jews and Greeks that Jesus was the Messiah. As a
result Titus Justus, and Crispus (the synagogue leaders) became Christians. The
Jews were not happy with Paul and his preaching so they made a complaint to Gallio
a proconsul of Achaia. Gallio listened to their complaint, then dismissed the
complaint and acquitted Paul giving him the freedom to
preach. The story about Apostle Paul and Gallio (the Bema (judgement) is
found Acts 18:1-17. Paul was acquitted by Gallio from the charge of
introducing another god.
Paul also used the idea that the church was like a body made up of many parts.
He may have got the idea from the Greek god - Asclepius. The priest would
present a body part to the god, for healing. If the person was healed they
would make offerings to Asclepius the god of healing.
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