고린도(Corinth) 는 그리스의 항구 도시로 상업과 무역이 번창한 상업도시이다.
기록에 의하면 이곳에는 최소 12개의 신전이 있었고, 특히 아폴로 신전과 아프로디테의 신전이 유명했다고 한다.
여신 숭배에 따른 신전 매춘도 활성화 되어 도시 전체적으로 음란의 죄가 만연했다고 한다.
Paul 은 이곳에 5번의 편지를 보냈고 그중 2개만 전해지는데 그것이 바로 고린도전서와 후서이다.
그리고 그 편지에서 이러한 성적인 타락을 질책한다.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
바울은 이곳에서 1년 6개월 정도 머물렀다.
1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth .
2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila , a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla , because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
3 and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.
4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia , Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
6 When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”
7 He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
8 Crispus , the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.
9 The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent;
10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
11 He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.