Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

The Prophetic Confusion at Corinth

ing city of Greece. In Paul's day the population of Corinth was approxi mately seven hundred thousand, about two-thirds of whom were slaves. A helpful description of the city is provided by Sholem Asch, a Jew ish author devoted to historical accuracy, in his well-known novel The Apostle: Corinth was a young city, which was unfolding into greatness. The old and famous Corinth which had flourished under the rule of the Greek tyrants, the Corinth of ancient temples and ancient treasuries of art, had been completely destroyed by Pompey [146 B.C.]. Julius Caesar had begun the rebuilding of the city [46 B.C.], intending to make of it a Roman com mercial center. He settled it with freedmen and encouraged colonists from all parts of the Empire to settle in Corinth and to develop the commercial and industrial possibilities of Achaia, so that Corinth might take the place of Athens. But there was nothing whatsoever in the character of the city which entitled it to the proud title of the capital of Achaia. It was a city without tradition, without a dominant unifying language, without a uni form culture. It was a mixture of races and a Babel of tongues. Freedmen and slaves-the former predominating-worked in the foundries, the pot teries, the weaving and dye factories, the oil presses, and the gardens. Phoeni cian, Egyptian, and Asiatic cults of all kinds took root in the city. Some fame had already been acquired by the temple of a Venus Pandemos who was in reality a Phoenician Ashtoreth. More than a thousand girls served there under the overseership of the priests, conducting a huge trade in pros titution under the cover of a sacred service. The temple was naturally much frequented by transient sailors, who spent there the money saved up on long journeys. The city was always full of drunken sailors, who rioted in the streets, crowded the hostelries and restaurants, and lost their hard earned demeters and Roman dinarii at dice to the local sharps. From the narrow streets of Corinth there went up continuously the angry shouting of drunken and swindled sailors and the shrill laughter of whores. The vis itors who passed through Corinth carried the repute of its wealth and dis soluteness to the ends of the ancient world, and a constant stream of ped dlers, merchants, and artisans swelled the population of the city. It also happened, some time before Paul's arrival in Corinth, that riots broke out in the city of Rome because of popular resentment against a certain "Xrestos"; and the Emperor Claudius drove many Jews, both Messianists and non-Messianists, out of the capital. Among those that fled to Corinth were Aquila and Priscilla. 1 Arriving at Corinth, Paul was sickened to the core: Almost everything violated his Jewish upbringing and Christian character. His misery com pounded an already troubled heart. He was arriving somewhat discour aged in spirit, having just come from Athens, where he had attempted to 211 ■