Trip to Corinth

I am sitting at my dining room table looking over the Rhine River. It is a beautiful day here in Cologne and I thought I would share my trip to Corinth with you!

After spending 3 days in Athens, and a few days on the islands, Matt and had the choice to take a day trip to either Delphi or Corinth. We decided Corinth to see the sights, but more specifically to check out where St. Paul preached to the Corinthians for 1 1/2 years.

The ride there was 90 km and took us about 1h 20min. We had a guide on the bus who had a great understanding of scripture, philosophy, and Greek culture and history. He explained the walk from Athens to Corinth took about 2 days, which Paul did at least on one occasion.

Our guide, speaking about Socrates, said he was one of the first people to challenge the idea of polytheism. Recognizing the world was ordered in a way that seemed to give conclusive evidence of one author. He has no written works, but his ideas were written down by his students, most notably Plato. It was amazing to sit on the mountainside where Socrates would have discussions. I like the idea of philosophy in his day. The philosophers would just hang out and try to discover the truth contained within the world. It wasn't so much of a school subject but more of a way of life. To discover why we exist, among other things you can read a billion other places. Seeing the landscape of Greece, it is no wonder it drew them into these amazing conversations. Saw Socrates prison which was also where he died. To think if I would have been there 2500 years ago! Anyway, that was off the subject of Corinth.

The views in Corinth are breath-taking. There is a huge mountain where they had the Acropolis. This is where the "slaves of the Temple" lived. The main temple on the Acropolis of Corinth was for Aphrodite. To worship Aphrodite, you would have sex with a "slave of the temple." You could give them a donation to go towards the temple and their living - big, small, or nothing. When Paul started preaching, many of these men and woman converted, but there was one issue - in order that all people would recognize a slave of the temple, they had their heads shaved (apparently this didn't turn people off). For the men this wasn't a huge issue, but for the woman, it was a big deal. In order that people would not discriminate against these woman converts, Paul requested that all Christian woman cover their heads (1 Cor. 11:5).

Saw the road that was paved as a contribution by Erastus to the city of Corinth.(pictured) He is spoken about throughout scripture (Rom. 16:23, Acts 19:22, 2 Tim 4:20). The records from the city don't exist anymore so finding this stone proved that Paul's writings were not fictitious, as many scholars were arguing. It was so amazing to see this first hand. I am pictured here next to the stone with the inscription (translated from Latin) "Erastus laid this pavement at his own expense."

Saw the stone that was above the doorway to the Jewish synagogue where Paul would worship. This trip, being so close to Paul, really called me on to be a bad ass like he was. He totally put it all out there for the Lord, as I desire to do. He did not worry about his image or what others thought. He knew the Truth and he was so ecstatic about it, he wanted everybody to know Him/it. It is amazing, the Truth is a person, and his name is Jesus.

I learned that Christians weren't killed for believing in Jesus, that was no big deal. Jesus was seen as just another one of the multiple gods being worshiped. It was ok to worship Jesus as long as you worshiped the emperor Augustus as a deity as well. The Christians had two choices if they were tested. First, they were brought to the temple and literally, all they had to do was say Augustus was a god and throw some incense in front of a statue of him. If they did not do this, they were brought to the coliseum and thrown to the lions, killed by gladiators, or burned in front of screaming crowds. It was nutty to see both this temple and the coliseum where they were put to death. It further called me on; these people were murdered in the most gruesome ways for Christ. They had families and jobs and lives to live, and all they had to do was throw some incense and say a few words to carry on. First I think, if you know the truth and deny it at it's most fundamental level, what would there be to live for? Since you just denied the truth, you are obviously living a lie. Second I think, what do I possibly face that is similar to what the early Christians faced?!

The picture above is me standing next to this pole where Paul stood and anyone else would stand to be questioned by the Roman judges. When people were found guilty they had their arms strapped around this thing and they were beaten. Same thing (different place) Jesus had his arms around when he was flogged. It was in the public area, so everybody watched you get beat. That is actually where the movie, "Passion of Christ" got it wrong. They made it seem like he was flogged behind a wall, but this actually would have been in a place which was open to all the public. How humiliating.
Some people today call Socrates and many of the early philosophers the first Christians because they refused the false god's of the world and were seeking out the truth.

Well, this was essentially my trip to Corinth. There was so much to see, so much history to learn and so many blessings from being in this place.

I will never read the letters to the Corinthians the same!

May God's peace guide your feet into the ways of happiness,

Andy