Where was Corinth?

Question

Where was Corinth?

Accepted Answer

Corinth stands in Greece at the isthmus that joins the Peloponnese to the mainland, below the rock of Acrocorinth, about 75 km west of Athens in a straight line (88 km by the road on the map) and about 1,315 km from Jerusalem. It had a harbour on each sea, Lechaeum on the Gulf of Corinth and Cenchreae on the Saronic Gulf, and ships were hauled across the isthmus on a paved way. "After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth", where he lodged with Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers lately expelled from Rome by Claudius. "And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." The Jews brought him before the proconsul Gallio, who refused to judge the case; an inscription at Delphi dates Gallio's year of office to 51–52, one of the firmest dates in Paul's life. Paul wrote two letters to the church, and Romans was probably written from Corinth: it commends Phoebe of Cenchreae. Corinth was a rich trading city from the seventh century BC. In 146 BC the Romans under Mummius sacked it, put most of those found there to the sword and sold the women and children, and the site lay desolate until Julius Caesar founded a Roman colony there in 44 BC, settled largely with freedmen; it became the seat of the proconsul of Achaia. Nero began a canal through the isthmus in AD 67, but the work was abandoned. About AD 96 the church of Rome wrote to the Corinthians the letter known as 1 Clement.