Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 18:1

"After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth." — Acts 18:1 (ASV)

Corinth was on a plateau overlooking the isthmus connecting central Greece to the north with the Peloponnesus to the south. It was built on the north side of the Acrocorinth, an acropolis rising precipitously to 1,886 feet and providing an almost impregnable fortress for the city. To the east was the port of Cenchrea leading out to the Aegean Sea, and to the west, the port of Lechaeum opening to the Adriatic. Smaller ships were actually dragged over wooden rollers across the isthmus for the three and one-half miles between Cenchrea and Lechaeum in order to avoid the long and dangerous trip around the southern tip of the Peloponnesus; cargoes of larger ships were carried overland from port to port.

Because of its strategic land and sea location, Corinth had become a prosperous city-state in the eighth century B. C., reaching its zenith during the seventh and sixth centuries with a population of approximately two hundred thousand free men and five hundred thousand slaves. In 338 B. C. the city was captured by Philip II of Macedon, who made it the center of his Hellenic League; and after Alexander the Great died, it became a leading member of the Achaian League of Greek city-states. In 196 B. C. Corinth was captured by the Romans and declared a free city. In 146 B. C., however, it was destroyed as retribution for the leading part it played in the revolt of the Achaian League against Rome. Julius Caesar decreed in 46 B. C. that it should be rebuilt; in 27 B. C. it became the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. The population of Corinth in NT times was probably over two hundred thousand, made up of local Greeks, freedmen from Italy, Roman army veterans, businessmen and governmental officials, and Orientals from the Levant— including a large number of Jews. Thanks to its commercial advantages, the city greatly prospered. But along with its wealth and luxury, there was immorality of every kind. Beginning with the fifth century B. C., the verb “to corinthianize” meant to be sexually immoral. Corinth was also the center for the worship of the goddess Aphrodite, whose temple at one time boasted of a thousand sacred prostitutes and crowned the Acrocorinth. Many other pagan shrines, such as those built to Melicertes (the god of sailors), Apollo, and Asclepius (the god of healing), were also located there.