Paul in Corinth

According to the Christian New Testament, the apostle Paul lived in Corinth. When I arrived in Corinth, I couldn't help thinking about the apostle Paul who had lived in the city for quite some time. He had build here a loyal group of supporters, if we have to believe the stories.

Thus the city has also a history in Christianity. I do not want to go here in a debate what is right and what is wrong, if it all happened or not. That is beyond the scope of this website. All I do here is let my imagination go around.

While walking in the ruined city I was imagining that almost 2000 years ago one of the founders of Christianity had been walking here on the same paths. I could not resist to imagine that Paul, who has such a great influence had been sitting here at this very same place.

And then my imagination went further. I left the 20th century and came back in the first years after Jesus died. What had Paul been thinking? What was he doing for making a living? Or more general, what was it to live here anyway?!

I imagined him walking through the city, being convinced the city had to be converted otherwise the wrath of God would destroy it like Sodom and Gomorra had been destroyed. Paul himself was a Roman and although he had never met Jesus, a Jew, he was convinced he had a message to spread out over the whole Roman Empire. Corinth would be a good start.

He wandered through the city, stopped in front of the Temple of Apollo. Even though it was a pagan temple, he was still impressed by its beauty. Paul was working on a few letters to the still small church of Corinth. Every week he was making more converts. But many also fell back to their old pagan beliefs. Not surprising he thought while he looked at the temple. Whatever you thought, these Greek and Roman temples were a lot more impressive then their own little church. "It was hard work, to spread out the message of God", he thought.

Paul was in trouble, he could not easy go back to Jerusalem. James, Jesus brother had very different ideas about how the new Church should look like. "James is a dreamer, this was not what Jesus wanted", Paul thought. God had told him directly in a vision, and Paul knew he was right.

The Apollo temple of Corinth

Paul ran into Luke, his most beloved disciple. The good thing about Luke was that he didn't doubt Paul. Paul's word was law. James, Jesus brother in Jerusalem thought different. He never had trusted Paul. After all, it was Paul himself who had prosecuted many of the early Christians in Judea before God had called him.

Paul walked through the streets with Luke beside him who was asking about Jesus. Did Paul meet him? How did Paul know about Jesus? Where did Jesus live, what did he say, what did he look like, where he was born? Luke went on and on. Although Paul tried to answer the questions, on many he had no answers so he improvised.

Paul didn't really care about Jesus as a physical person. He cared about what he thought was Jesus message. To Paul the stories about Jesus where no more then a manifestation of Gods power. There was no need to debate the truth of the Jesus stories. That was what God had told him while he was traveling to Damascus.

Some of the Greeks moved in the temple to pray. Paul shook his head, these people were doomed to hell. "If only they would listen to him they would be saved", he thought.

Corinth in these days was a beautiful city. People had become rich of trading business. Corruption was nowadays widespread. Only the poor went to pray for a better life. The rich people didn't need God, at least that was what they thought.

Corinth from a hill top

Paul and Luke who kept asking questions continued their way to the small but significant church. In fact it was no more then a house with a big room where Paul taught his diciples the messages he received from God.

Although Paul was a Roman, he had to speak in the church in Greek. According to the Jewish bible a Messiah would stand up and would point out the way to God and although Paul didn't care that much about those Jew, he knew Jesus was a Jew and he was the prophesized messiah.

That was why Paul always pointed out that Jesus was the Christós, which literally means "The Anointed One", the Messiah. Funny, he thought, some of the people in his little community called Jesus the Christ. Some even didn't know Jesus' real name! Ah well, as long as they would listen to him, what would the name really matter?

It was time to move to the little church and tell more about Christós, Paul had many stories about the man he had never met. He didn't know if these stories were true or not but it didn't matter. As long as the people digested the stories it was all fine. And he knew Luke wrote them down, so they would not be lost. Slowly Paul entered the church and greeted his followers.

This story does not claim to be a true story, it was just a reflection of thoughts I had when I visited Corinth.

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