CORINTH
Ancient Greece's most important trade city . Ideally situated on the Isthmus of Corinth between the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea (see Map 7, B-2), Corinth was the connecting link between Rome, the capital of the world, and the East. At Corinth the apostle Paul established a flourishing church, made up of a cross section of the worldly minded people who had flocked to Corinth to participate in the gambling, legalized temple prostitution, business adventures, and amusements available in a first-century navy town <1 Cor. 6:9-11>.
Although the apostle Paul did not establish the church in Corinth until about A. D. 51 , the city's history dates back to 10,000 B. C., when ancient tribesmen first settled the site. Always a commercial and trade center, Corinth was already prosperous and famous for its bronze, pottery, and shipbuilding nearly 800 years before Christ. The Greek poet Homer mentioned "wealthy Corinth" in 850 B. C.
The city soon became a melting pot for the approximately 500,000 people who lived there at the time of Paul's arrival. Merchants and sailors, anxious to work the docks, migrated to Corinth. Professional gamblers and athletes, betting on the Isthmian games, took up residence. Slaves, sometimes freed but with no place to go, roamed the streets day and night. And prostitutes (both male and female) were abundant. People from Rome, the rest of Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor-- indeed, all of the Mediterranean world-- relished the lack of standards and freedom of thought that prevailed in the city.
These were the people who eventually made up the Corinthian church. They had to learn to live together in harmony, although their national, social, economic, and religious backgrounds were very different.
In a city like Corinth, much of the meat offered at the butcher’s shop had been sacrificed to idols. Indeed, in ancient Greek, the same word was used for both “butcher” and “sacrificer,” and procedures for butchery were normally religiously prescribed. Had Christians been forbidden to eat meat sacrificed to idols, they would virtually have had to become vegetarians. And their vegetarianism would have been a form of political protest (much as it is today).
Paul did not urge Christians to become vegetarians, as we know. Since there is only one God, idols are nothing; so long as the Christians offered thanksgiving to God for the meat, they could accept it without any qualms of conscience, as a gift from the hand of the One who opens His hand to satisfy the desires of every living thing. Paul later reiterated this principle: “Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience’s sake; for the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience’s sake.” Freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols was limited only by the demands of love: “Take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak,” lest your eating offend any brothers for whom Christ died.