2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary: 8 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) - Softcover

Kruse, Colin R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851118771 ISBN 13: 9780851118772

Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press, 1987

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About the Author

Colin G. Kruse is Lecturer in New Testament at the Bible College of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

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INTRODUCTION
1. The city of Corinth

The ancient city of Corinth lay upon the narrow isthmus connectingthe Peloponnesus with the Greek mainland. Situated about three and a half miles south-west of present-day Corinth, the ancient city was built on a trapezium-shaped terrace at the foot of a large rocky hill known as Acrocorinth. This hill rises to a height of 1,866 feet above sea-level and dominates the surrounding landscape.

The isthmus upon which Corinth was built separates the waters of the Gulf of Corinth in the north-west from those of the Saronic Gulf in the south-east. On the north-western side of the isthmus, bordering the Gulf of Corinth, was the port-city of Lechaeum,and on the south-eastern side, bordering the Saronic Gulf, lay the port of Cenchreae (the port used by Paul when travelling to or from Corinth by ship, cf. Acts 18:18). The overland journey between the two ports was approximately ten miles, while the journey by sea around the southern tip of the Peloponnesus (Cape Maleae) was about two hundred miles. The Cape Maleae region was notorious for its violent storms and treacherous currents ...

... the new Corinth became a centre for the worship of many of the old Graeco-Roman gods. (Pausanias) refers to temples or altars dedicated to Poseidon, Palaemon, Aphrodite, Artemis, Dionysus, Helius, Hermes, Apollo, Zeus, Isis, Eros and others. Strabo records that in his time there was a small temple to Aphrodite on the summit of Acrocorinth, while by the time Pausanias wrote the ascent to Acrocorinth was punctuated by places of worship dedicated to various deities including Isis, Helius, Demeter and Pelagian. On the summit there was still found the temple of Aphrodite with images of Helius, Eros and Aphrodite herself.

Clearly, then, the new Corinth of Paul's day was still a centre for the worship of Aphrodite, as the old city had been prior to its destruction in 146 BC. But it is a mistake to apply to it Strabo's description of the worship of Aphrodite with its thousand cult prostitutes which relates to the Corinth of the earlier period. We should think of Corinth in Paul's day as similar to any other cosmopolitan Roman trade centre, no worse and no better. ...

2. Paul and the Corinthians

Paul's relationship with the Corinthian Christians, which stretched over a period of several years (c. AD 50-57), was a very complex affair. The apostle made three visits to Corinth. Emissaries of Paul made visits to Corinth, and members of the Corinthian congregation visited Paul when he was ministering in Ephesus. In addition, Paul sent several letters to the Corinthians during this period, and received at least one from them.

Due to the fragmentary nature of the information available to us, it is very difficult to reconstruct the details of the historical relationship between Paul and the Corinthians with any degree of certainty.

Both our primary sources (extant letters of Paul) and the major secondary document (the Acts of the Apostles) provide only partial information. To add to the difficulty, our main primary sources (1 and 2 Corinthians) present us with some puzzling literary problems which need to be resolved before a compelling historical reconstruction can be made, but the literary problems themselves can be resolved properly only by recourse to an adequate historical reconstruction.

In order to provide a framework for understanding 2 Corinthians, a suggested reconstruction of the sequence of events in Paul's relationship with the Corinthian church is provided below. This reconstruction assumes certain decisions regarding the literary and historical problems involved. However, in the interests of a clear statement of the suggested sequence of events, the discussion of these critical issues is omitted from the reconstruction, and taken up later (see pp.27-54), where reasons for the decisions taken are provided. ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0851118771
• ISBN 13: 9780851118772
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224