last fallen to the lot of Corinth. It became the chief city of Greece, not only in authority but in wealth, magnificence, literature, the arts, and in luxury. It was characteristic of the place, that while the temple of Minerva crowned the Acropolis of Athens, the Acrocorinthus was the site of the temple of Venus. Of all the cities of the ancient world it was most notorious for licentiousness. It was entirely destroyed by the Roman consul Mummius, 120 years B. C., its inhabitants were dispersed, and the conqueror carried with him to Rome the richest spoils that ever graced the triumph of a Roman General. For a century after this event it lay in ruins, serving only as a quarry whence the Roman patricians gathered marble for their palaces. Julius Cæsar, recognizing the military and commercial importance of the position, determined to rebuild it, and for that purpose sent thither a colony consisting principally of freed men. This accounts for the predominance of Latin names which we meet with in connection with the Christians of this city. Erastus, Phoebe and Sosthenes are Greek names; but Gaius, Quintus, Fortunatus, Crispus, Justus, Achaicus are of Roman origin. This colony, however, was little more than the nucleus of the new city. Merchants flocked thither from all parts of Greece; Jews also were attracted by the facilities of commerce; wealth, art, literature and luxury revived. The Isthmian games were again celebrated under the presidency of the city. It was made the capital of Achaia, which, as a Roman province, included the greater part of Greece. Under the fostering care of Augustus, Corinth regained much of its ancient splendour, and during the century which had nearly elapsed since its restora tion, before it was visited by the apostle Paul, it had reached a preeminence which made it the glory of Greece. It was at this time under the rule of the Proconsul Gallio, the brother of Seneca;-a man distinguished for integrity and mildness. His brother says of him: Nemo enim mortalium uni tam dulcis est, quam hic omnibus. His refusal to entertain the frivolous charges brought by the Jews against Paul (Acts 18, 14-16),

is in keeping with the character given of him by his contemporaries. He was one of the victims of the cruelty of Nero.*

§2. PAUL'S LABOURS IN CORINTH,

As Corinth was not only the political capital of Greece, but the seat of its commercial and intellectual life; the place of concourse for the people not only of the neighbouring cities but of nations; a source whence influences of all kinds emanated in every direction, it was specially important for the diffusion of the gospel. Paul therefore, leaving Athens, which he had visited in his second missionary journey, went alone to Corinth, where he was soon after joined by Silas and Timotheus, who came from Macedonia. (Acts 18, 5.) A stranger in this great city, and without the means of support, he associated himself with Aquila, a Jew lately come from Italy in consequence of the edict of Claudius banishing the Jews from Rome. While living in the house of Aquila, and working with him at his trade of tent making, Paul attended the synagogue every Sabbath, and "persuaded the Jews and Greeks." But "when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean: henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence and went into a certain man's house named Justus, one who worshipped God, and whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord, with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing it believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul by night, by a vision,

* Several monographs, proceeding from German scholars, are devoted to the description and history of Corinth. Wilchen's "Rerum Corinthiarum specimen ad illustrationem utriusque Epistolæ Pauline." 1747. Barth's "Corinthiorum Commercia et Mercaturae particula." Berlin, 1844. A very interesting chapter in Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of Paul is devoted to this subject. Vol. 1: ch. 12. See also Winer's Real Wörterbuch and Arnold's Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians.

Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." (Acts 18, 1-11.) The success of Paul aroused the enmity of the Jews, who determined to arraign him before the Roman Governor. As soon as the governor ascertained the nature of the charge he refused to listen to it, and dismissed the accusers from the judgment seat with evident displeasure, which encouraged the bystanders to beat the Jews. Thus the opposers of the apostle were ignominiously defeated. After remaining some time longer in Corinth he sailed from Cenchrea, the eastern port of the city, to Ephesus, with Aquila and Priscilla. Leav ing his friends in that city he sailed to Cæsarea, and thence went up to Jerusalem. After remaining a short time in the Holy City he went to Antioch, and thence through Phrygia and Galatia again to Ephesus. Shortly after Paul left Ephesus the first time, Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew, having been more fully instructed in the doctrine of Christ by Aquila and Priscilla, went to Corinth, and there "mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the Scripture that Jesus was the Christ." (Acts 18, 24-28.) It is altogether probable, considering the constant commercial intercourse between Corinth and Ephesus, that the apostle had frequent opportunities of hearing of the state of the Corinthian church during his three years' residence in the latter city. The information which he received led him, as is generally supposed, to write a letter no longer extant, exhorting them "not to keep company with fornicators." (See 1 Cor. 5, 9.) Not satisfied with this effort to correct an alarming evil, he seems himself to have made them a brief visit. No record is indeed found in the Acts of his having been to Corinth more than once before the date of this epistle; but there are several passages in his second epistle which can hardly be understood otherwise than as implying an intermediate visit. In 2 Cor. 12, 14 he says, "Behold the third time I am ready to come to you." This

may indeed mean that for the third time he had prepared to go to Corinth, but this the context does not suggest, and would really amount to nothing. It was not how often he had purposed to visit them, but how often he had actually made the journey, which was the point on which stress is laid. In ch. 13, 1 he says, "This is the third time I am coming to you,” which is still more explicit. In ch. 2, 1 he says, "I determined I would not come again to you in heaviness." This supposes that he had already made them one sorrowful visit, i. e. one in which he had been obliged to cause sorrow, as well as to experience it. See also ch. 12, 21, and 13, 2, where further allusion seems to be made to a second visit. Notwithstanding his frequent injunctions, the state of things in Corinth seemed to be getting worse. The apostle therefore determined to send Timothy and Erastus to them (1 Cor. 4, 17. Acts 19, 22.) Whether Timothy reached Corinth at this time is doubtful; and it would seem from 1 Cor. 16, 10, that the apostle himself feared that he might not be able to accomplish all that had been appointed him in Macedonia, and yet get to Corinth before the arrival of this letter. After the departure of Timothy, Paul received such intelligence from the household of Chloe, and from a letter addressed to him by the Corinthians themselves (1 Cor. 7, 1), that he determined at once to write to them.

§3. STATE OF THE CHURCH IN CORINTH.

The state of the church in Corinth may be partially inferred from the character and circumstances of the people, but with certainty only from the contents of this and the following epistles. As remarked above, the population of the city was more than ordinarily heterogeneous. The descendants of the colonists sent by Julius Cæsar, the Greeks who were attracted to the principal city of their own country, Jews and strangers from all parts of the Roman Empire, were here congregated. The predominant character of the people was doubtless Grecian.

The majority of the converts to Christianity were probably Greeks, as distinguished from Jews. (See ch. 12, 1.) In all ages the Greeks were distinguished by their fondness for speculation, their vanity and love of pleasure, and their party spirit. A church composed of people of these characteristics, with a large infusion of Jewish converts, educated in the midst of refined heathenism, surrounded by all the incentives to indulgence, taught to consider pleasure, if not the chief good, yet in any form a good, plied on every hand by philosophers and false teachers, might be expected to exhibit the very characteristics which in this epistle are brought so clearly into view.

Their party spirit. "One said I am of Paul, another I am of Apollos; another I of Cephas, another I of Christ." Much ingenuity and learning have been expended in determining the nature of these party divisions. What may be considered as more or less satisfactorily determined is, 1. That there were factions in the church of Corinth which called themselves by the names above mentioned, and therefore that the names themselves give a clew to the character of the parties. The idea that the names of Paul, Apollos and Cephas are used figuratively, when other teachers were really intended, is so unnatural and has so little to sustain it, that it is now almost universally repudiated. 2. There can be little doubt that those who called themselves by the name of Paul, or made themselves his partisans, were in the main the Gentile con verts; men brought up free from the bondage of the Mosaic law, and free from the influence of Jewish ideas and usages. They were disposed to press to extremes the liberty of the gospel, to regard as indifferent things in themselves sinful, and to treat without respect the scruples of the weak. 3. The intimate relations which subsisted between Paul and Apollos, as indicated in these epistles, authorizes the inference that it was not on doctrinal grounds that the followers of the latter differed from those of the former. It is probable that those who objected to Paul that he did not preach with the "wisdom of