Corinth

The highlight of the day was without question visiting the city of Corinth.  We spent time walking the streets, and ruins where Paul lived and worked for 18 months of his life. We walked through the agora where he sold his tents and met Priscilla and Aquila. We stood at the place where Paul taught and shared the message of Christ. We saw the Roman temple to Apollo that Paul walked by each day. We saw the homes where Christians met in secret.

There is a palpable difference between reading what the city of Corinth was like in the scriptures or hearing about it in class and seeing the city with our own eyes. To see the kinds of homes where Christians gathered, the wells from which they drank, stores where they made their livings, even Paul’s tent-making business, and so much more makes the story tangible. Story and history come alive in these kinds of places. We are able to put the stories we have read into context, and it helps us to visualize some of who Paul was and the kind of work he did in and among real people. People who struggled with accepting and loving others. We are often those same people. It is easy to look at Paul’s letters and judge the Corinthians and others for their lack of faith and commitment because they seem so distant. They are foreign people from a foreign land and time. Walking through their homes, their temples their shops, reminded me of our shared humanity and struggle.

On an unrelated note, it is also so truly amazing to touch a marble column that has stood tall for thousands of years and is likely to stand on and outlast me. To have that physical connection to not just Greek, Roman, and world history, but to the foundations of our faith is indescribable. To be in places with that kind of history feeds my soul.

This picture is of the Temple of Apollo in Corinth, which Paul would have seen each and every day.

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