Raphael: Saint-Paul preaching in Athens
In the middle of our fourth week of sailing, we are going to reach Corinth. The town was the parent to many Greek colonies in Magna Graecia. Due to its strategic location right in-between Athens and Sparta and close to the Oracle of Delphi, it was a prominent Greek town. However, this is not how I learnt about Corinth. It was in Sunday School which our mother made my brother and me attend. There we heard about the letters Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians. I thought these must be very important people that a Saint wrote them.
View from the Fortress of Acro Corinth over the Gulf and Ancient Corinth
The town was important indeed. It counted around 90’000 people at its peak in 400 BC (compare that to Taranto’s 300’000!), had sponsored more than 20 colonies and was made Greece’s capital once the Romans fully controlled the country. Its Christian Community, or Ecclesia (the Greek word for church), was small though. It counted around 50 – 150 people only. It was founded by Saint Paul in 50 AD, on his second missionary trip.
Temple of Apollo in Corinth
But its make-up was remarkable and can be deduced from Saint Paul’s letters. Wealthy people like the city’s treasurer were members, but so were several slaves. Men and women were equals – a fact that embarrassed the Catholic Church later. The Ecclesia of Corinth included a few Jews but was largely composed of converted Gentiles. The composition of the group alone was revolutionary. That members of the elite would sit down with slaves and share a meal (holy communion) or women being treated as equals was unheard of. But God and Jesus are here for everybody and the gospel does not distinguish people by rank.
In his two letters, Saint Paul dealt with a few, quite ordinary matters which need to be understood in the socio-economic context of the time. The social divisions between the church members let to certain tensions - the wealthy apparently gorged on better food during communion than the slaves. In the absence of written gospels – the four were only written between 66 and 110 AD - the group had no cohesive interpretation of Jesus’ life but had to rely on oral tradition from several leader which – of course – contradicted each other. We all know what happens when you ask ten people in a circle to pass on a short story. When reaching person No 10, the story deviates substantially from the original. In Saint Paul’s view his Corinthian fellows were also far too cozy with other religions when participating in pagan festivities and meals. But overall it was an open-minded group that truly believed in God and Jesus.
Greek Odeon in Corinth
The new religion actually spread faster than the apostles could travel. It was a religion with high utility for travelling merchants, the people who spread it along the trading routes of the time. It was transportable! As a Christian, you did not need to know about the different Gods in the next harbor. We can pray wherever we are and God will hear us. You also do not need temples. Wearing a wooden cross around your neck is enough and you can commemorate Jesus’ sacrifice by participating in a simple evening meal with other fellow Christians. Also, your social status does not matter when you arrive in a new place. You are welcome in any Christian community as the person you are.
Christianity was the perfect antidote to the Caesar Gods which the Roman Emperor became. Temples were built for them everywhere – one of the reasons so many statues of Roman Emperors survived to today – every town needed to have at least one. The Roman Emperors were people, fought wars, tortured, took lives with impunity, debased money when it pleased and their lives was anything else but moral. That story does not to be told here.
Corinth's Forum Romanum
God and Jesus were completely the opposite. Spiritual in nature, not differentiating between believers, they were just, treating everybody equally whether rich or poor – free or slaves, giving all of us the chance for a happy life after death, issuing a few basic laws (ten commandments) which are making living in peace possible.
That this religion spread quickly is not surprising – it had mass appeal and was revolutionary. Am not surprised that so many Emperors feared it and tried to suppress it with brute force. Feeding Christians to the lions was just one of the treatments in store. Nevertheless, Christianity spread quickly and could not be stopped. By 300 AD, about 10% of Romans, were believers in this revolutionary underground religion. On its way to Rome, Christianity spread to all the towns in Magna Graecia we are going to visit this summer. They have some of the oldest churches outside Greece, the Levant and Anatolia.
Another great one