The First Letter of Apostle Paul’s to the Corinthians Essay

The first letter of Apostle Paul’s to the Corinthians that we have access to is normally known as the book of love, or â€Å"the book that gets read at weddings† (Powell, 273). But when you get down to the nitty-gritty of this epistle to the Corinthians, Paul is addressing many problems that congregation had and that churches today face. Before we get into the actual letter and the occasion and purpose of this letter, I want to review a little of what we know of Corinth and its culture and history. Corinth was the capital of Achaia (Powell, 275) and it has been estimated that in Paul’s day the population of Corinth was about 250,000 free persons, plus as many as 400,000 slaves (Barker, 1732). There are four things I want to touch on about†¦show more content†¦The temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, whose worshipers practiced what is known as religious prostitution, is one of the more infamously known. About a quarter of a mile north of the theater stood the temple of Asclepius, the god of healing and, in the sixth century BCE, the temple of Apollo stood in the center of the city. In addition to all of these Grecian temples, the Jews had established a synagogue; the inscribed lintel of it has been found and is in the museum at old Corinth today (Barker, 1732). Its immorality: Cor inth, like any large commercial city, was a center for much immorality. The worship of Aphrodite fostered prostitution in the name of religion. At one time there were 1,000 sacred prostitutes serving her temple (Barker, 1732). So widely did the immorality of Corinth become known that the Romans would use the expression â€Å"to act like a Corinthian† referring to engaging in sexual promiscuity (Powell, 278). With all this in mind, no wonder Paul’s first recorded letter to the Corinthians dealt with numerous problems. The Intended Audience: In the salutation of 1 Corinthians (1:2), Paul addresses the letter to â€Å"the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours†. The converts at CorinthShow MoreRelatedWomen s Work And Worship Of The First Century Churches1726 Words   |  7 PagesWomen in Paul’s Letters: Women played an important role in the work and worship of the first century churches. In Paul’s letters he portrays women as equals to men. Paul’s ideas were to renew a community of God’s people; including all races, sexes, and religious backgrounds. While some people will argue that Paul is all for the equality of women, others say that he is misogynistic. 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