This section focuses on the socio-economic, political, religious and cultural factors at Corinth during Paul's time since these provide some insight into the reconciliation that Paul deals with in 2 Corinthians, especially about the allegations that he was facing concerning the Jerusalem collection and his conflicts with other Jewish Christians.
9 In this dissertation I will be using both "I" and "We" to mean the readers of today's world. This also might be used to refer to the Christian or non-Christian community in Rwanda.
m
Paul's audience consists of those whom he has converted in Corinth on his missionary journey and the Christians throughout Achaia (2 Corinthians 1:1). Hawkins says that though we have Paul's book and his story in Acts, in studying Paul one needs to be sceptical, bearing in mind that "no analysis of such a complex body of material as our Pauline canon can hope to be final" (1943:19). In other words, he is cautious of what we read about Paul because different people have different understandings of Paul's writings such as 2 Corinthians.
3.2.1 Setting of Corinth
Corinth is situated near the Isthmus, which links the rest of Greece with the Peloponnese (Szesnat 1987:58, Barrett 1973:1, Furnish 1984:2-7). The city of Corinth was north of the mountain citadel, which in the classical and Hellenistic period, though the region was not fertile, formed the centre of an important economy because of its commerce. After being destroyed by Rome in 146 BC, the city was rebuilt by Caesar in 46 BC. The word
"reconciliation" had been in the minds of the Corinthian community, since Caesar's reconstruction of Corinth. Raharilalo comments,
Lors de la reconstruction de la ville de Corinthe en 44 avant Jesus Christ, C6sar avait proclame une reconciliation general, accueillant de la Grece et tout PEmpire, des gens au passe compromis qui beneficiaient d'une amnistie; les habitants de Corinthe constituaient ainsi une population cosmopolite (1991: 22-23).
At the time of Paul, Corinth had about seventy to eighty thousands inhabitants.
Meinardus, points out that Corinth during Paul's time was not a Greek provincial town but the capital of a Roman province, a busy metropolis that flourished as a commercial center because of its advantageous geographical location (1993:61, cf. Theissen 1982:100-102).
3.2.2 Social and Economic Context of Corinth
In the time of the Roman Empire, society was highly diverse. The society in the Roman Empire can be divided into three classes: the propertied class (e.g. Emperor, officials, etc.), non-propertied class (e.g. peasants) and a negligible "middle class" (e.g. artisans).
Nevertheless, Szesnat points out, "Though some of these people managed to accumulate a certain wealth, their status cannot be compared with the middle class of a modern
capitalist society" (1992:48). Furthermore, the urban group had more opportunities than the rural non-propertied class. In cities and towns more people were able to exercise citizen rights and there were great opportunities upward for social mobility, but in rural areas they had almost nothing (Szesnat 1992: 41-5). In his conclusion on the social context of the Roman Empire, Szesnat says, "The propertied class therefore strongly tended to be closed off to the non-propertied class" (1992:44). Corinth's culture, though it was not like Athens, was characterized by typical Greek culture because people mostly were interested in Greek philosophy and placed a high value on wisdom.
The economy during the Roman Empire was mainly based on land and agriculture in the surrounding areas of the city at Corinth and on trade and commerce (Garnsey & Sailer 1987: 44-50). The city of Corinth derived much of its wealth from the work of the slaves of the propertied class (landowners). It also had a group of workers including artisans, small traders, slaves, day laborers, small farmers and shopkeepers whose work produced subsistence-level earnings. Szesnat (1992:39-41) says that the economy of the Empire can be described as underdeveloped because there seems to have been no developed industry; rather there were skilled artisans working on their own or in small groups rather than large scale industries.
Barrett, referring to the economic situation at the time of Paul's writing to Corinthians, says, "Economic and military advantages combined in favour of Corinth, and it is not surprising that it reached a position of eminence in the ancient world; it is perhaps surprising that it never achieved preeminence" (1973:1). Murphy O'Connor (1983:68), Furnish (1984:7-8), and Barrett (1973:1-2) are in agreement that because of its location near the Isthmus, Corinth controlled the various main roads and sea routes between East and West, the main trade route linking Italy and Asia and also the southern part of Greece and Peloponnese. This means they could gain revenue through the levies or taxes from the merchandise transported through its territory. There was not only income from commerce, trade, and levies, but there were also income from the artisans, banking and traders (Theissen 1982: 101).10
10 Paul and his companions seem to have been among the artisans of this time, tent-makers.
3.2.3 Religious Context of Corinth
Furnish (1984:15-22) points out four kinds of religious life during Roman Corinth, through the archeological evidence and documents, namely the deities and cults of Greece, the Roman imperial cult, Egyptian cults and Judaism. Corinth contained at least
12 temples and one of the famous was the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility whose worshipers practiced religious prostitution (Witherington III 1995:12-13).
The immoral reputation of the Corinthians in the time of Paul was most likely "little better and little worse than any other great sea port and commercial centre of the age"
(Barrett 1973:2). Corinth was a center for open and unbridled or ungoverned immorality.
In the time of Paul people were still worshiping Aphrodite in Corinth. Corinth was still a centre of sexual immorality because the worship of Aphrodite fostered prostitution. From this, the Greek verb "to corinthianise" implied as "to practice sexual immorality". In the above setting, it is not surprising that the Corinthian church always had numerous problems, including divisions in the church, false teachers who were challenging both Paul's integrity and authority as an apostle, sexual immorality and the need for reconciliation that Paul talks about in relation to the Corinthians (cf. Georgi 1986:16).