Monday, June 12, 2017
Quick Note on F.F. Bruce and 1st Century CE Corinth
I am trying to finish New Testament History by F.F. Bruce. On pp. 314-315, Bruce reviews the history of Corinth, then he mentions that after the city was restored, it became economically prosperous once again, but also started practicing immorality as evidenced by the temple of Aphrodite. The temple sanctioned a Hellenized version of "the Syrian cult of Astarte." However, while immorality existed in 1st century Corinth (compare 1 Cor. 7:1-5), Bruce remarks that a synagogue also was there--a place that contrasted sharply with Aphrodite's temple.
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"A famous temple to Aphrodite had stood on the summit of Acrocorinth in the Classical Age... It had fallen into ruins by Paul's time, but successors to its 1,000 cult prostitutes continued to ply their profession in the city below. Many of them were no doubt housed in the lofts above the 33 wine shops uncovered in the modern excavations. Corinth was a city catering to sailors and traveling salesmen. Even by the Classical Age it had earned an unsavory reputation for its libertine atmosphere; to call someone 'a Corinthian lass' was to impugn her morals. It may well be that one of Corinth's attractions for Paul was precisely this reputation of immorality." (The Biblical World In Pictures).
'a Corinthian lass' - this is the kind of misleading statement to which I have already referred. These were the phrase type that existed over a century before "Paul's time".
https://bbhchurchconnection.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/how-immoral-was-corinth-really/
It was a large urban center to which the evidence in places like Pompey is relevant.
Granted, the expression "Corinthian lass" existed before Paul's time. However, Bruce writes that Corinth quickly returned to the state wherein that old expression "to Corinthianize" was applicable once again. Paul also wrote that sexual immorality was then prevalent amongst those 1 century Christians. He did not write as though it were something in the distant past that he was addressing.
I doubt that the level of immorality in a place of its size was tied specifically to a temple of belief system although it could have been used as an excuse.
The temple was only part of the problem: it was apparently a microcosm of the city itself. In 2 Cor. 12:21:
"I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged." (NIV)
But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. (1 Cor 7:2)
διὰ δὲ τὰς πορνείας ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω, καὶ ἑκάστη τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα ἐχέτω.
“The Jewish religion was a religio licita and they were allowed to make
proselytes, but not among Roman citizens. To prove that Paul was acting
contrary to Roman law (for Jewish law had no standing with Gallio though
the phrase has a double meaning) these Jews had to show that Paul was making converts in ways that violated the Roman regulations on that subject. The accusation as made did not show it nor did they produce any evidence to do it.” (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament)
Some interesting background can be found here:-
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1561768
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161328.001.0001/acprof-9780195161328-chapter-2
http://www.theposthole.org/sites/theposthole.org/files/downloads/posthole_46_349.pdf
An interesting paper on the multiple definitions of infamia.
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