18:1 Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia and was a Roman colony. The Romans razed Corinth in 146 B.C., but it was rebuilt a century later in 46 B.C. Its site lay about 50 miles southwest of Athens at a very strategic location. Land traffic from northern Achaia to its southern peninsula, the Peloponnesus, crossed a land bridge very near Corinth. Stevedores hauled smaller ships travelling from one of Corinth's port towns, Lechaeum on the west or Cenchrea on the east, to the other overland on wooden rollers. They handled the cargoes of larger ships the same way. The distance between the ports was three and a half miles. Sea captains preferred this inconvenience because they did not want to sail 200 miles around dangerous Cape Malea at the southern tip of the Peloponnesus. Consequently Corinth constantly buzzed with commercial activity, and it possessed all the vices that have typically haunted cosmopolitan ports.
Corinth was about 20 times as large as Athens at this time with a population of over 200,000 inhabitants.727The city was infamous for its immorality that issued from two sources: its numerous transients and its temple to Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, and here devotees promoted immorality in the name of religion.728Her temple, which boasted 1,000 religious prostitutes, stood on the Acrocorinth, a 1,857 foot flat-topped mountain just outside the city. It is easy to understand why sexual problems plagued the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 5; et al.).
"Beginning with the fifth century B.C., the verb to Corinthianize' (korinthiazesthai) meant to be sexually immoral, a reputation that continued to be well-deserved in Paul's day."729
Archaeologists have also discovered the remains of temples to Melkart, the god of sailors, to Apollo, the god of music and poetry, and to Asclepius, the god of healing, and there were others.
When Paul entered Corinth he was fearful (1 Cor. 2:1-5), probably because of the wicked reputation of this city and perhaps because his fellow workers were not with him.
"To move from Athens to Corinth was to exchange the atmosphere of a provincial university city for that of a thriving commercial metropolis . . ."730
It was as though Paul had left Boston and had landed in Las Vegas.
18:2-3 Pontus was the Roman province in Asia Minor that lay east of Bithynia on the Black Sea coast (in modern northern Turkey).
Priscilla had another name, Prisca (Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19; 2 Tim. 4:19), the latter being more formal.731Her name frequently appears before her husband Aquila's in the New Testament (e.g., 18:18-19, 26; Rom. 16:3; 2 Tim. 4:19). This may indicate that she came from a higher social class than Aquila or that others regarded her as superior to him in some respect. Here, however, Luke mentioned Aquila first.
The Roman writer Suetonius referred to an edict by Emperor Claudius ordering non-Roman citizen Jews to leave Rome, and he dated this expulsion at 49-50 A.D.732
"Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Crestus, he [Claudius] expelled them from the city."733
"It was commonly supposed that Suetonius was referring to riots in the Jewish community over the preaching of Christ, but that he has misspelled the name and has perhaps erroneously thought that Christ was actually a rebel leader in Rome (Suetonius was born in A.D. 69, and wrote considerably after the event)."734
Normally tradespeople set up shop on the ground floor of a building and lived on the floor above. We do not know if Aquila and Priscilla were Christians when Paul first met them, but it seems likely that they were since Luke did not mention their conversion.
Paul evidently had a financial need, so he went to work practicing his trade of tent-making (cf. 20:34; 1 Cor. 4:12; 9:1-18; 2 Cor. 11:9; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:7-10).
"Apart from occasional gifts (Phil. 4:15ff), Paul's practice was to be self-supporting by working at his trade and not to be dependent on the charity of church members . . ."735
Tent-makers made and repaired all kinds of leather goods, not just tents.736It would be more accurate to describe Paul as a leather-worker (Gr. skenopoioi) rather than as a tent-maker. This was a common trade in his home province of Cilicia, which produced a fabric made from goats' skins called cilicium. It was common practice for Jewish rabbis to practice a trade as well as study and teach the Hebrew Scriptures.737
"Paul was a Rabbi, but according to Jewish practice, every Rabbi must have a trade. He must take no money for preaching and teaching and must make his living by his own work and his own efforts. The Jew glorified work. Love work,' they said. He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him robbery.' Excellent,' they said, is the study of the law along with a worldly trade; for the practice of them both makes a man forget iniquity; but all law without work must in the end fail and causes iniquity.' So we find Rabbis following every respectable trade."738
18:4 Paul continued his usual evangelistic strategy in Corinth. He reasoned with (Gr. dielegeto, 17:2, 17; 18:19; 19:8-9; 20:7, 9; 24:12, 25) and tried to persuade (epeithen, 13:43; 19:8, 26; 21:14; 26:28; 28:23) both Jews and Gentiles in the local synagogue.
