Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Sex, wine and Greek city ways
Greek and Roman men were expected to have sex outside marriage, with slaves or prostitutes, and the law allowed it. Jews and Christians called all of it porneia, sexual immorality; drunkenness at banquets and in taverns went with it, and the port of Corinth had an old name for it.
In the port town everyone knew which streets to avoid, and nobody pretended the sailors stayed away. In Greek and Roman cities most men took it for granted that they could have sex before and outside marriage, with slaves or with prostitutes. Prostitution was legal, a business like any other, and some thinkers said that what you did with your body did not matter. Many expected only the wife to be faithful. Jews thought this the clearest mark of Gentile life, and Corinth, a busy port, had a name for it going back centuries. Even so, some lines, such as sex with a stepmother, shocked pagans too.
For most Greek men under thirty, sex was most available with slaves or prostitutes (Keener). Roman law permitted prostitution and forbade fornication only when both parties were of aristocratic birth. Prostitution was counted a business like any other. It was found in inns and taverns and stocked with slave girls raised from abandoned babies. Some pagans thought it a useful deterrent to adultery. Before marriage, most free Roman men and still more Greek men slept with slaves or others. Many Gentiles expected only the wife to be faithful, and Jewish tradition stressed Gentile sexual immorality. Corinth had a particular and long-standing reputation for prostitution. Dio Chrysostom, as Bailey reports, put the crowds at Corinth down to its harbors and its prostitutes. Wright's biography of Paul notes the large temple of Aphrodite on the Acrocorinth. His commentary says prostitution was often linked to temples "but was much wider as well, especially in a port city like Corinth." Some lines still held. Parent-child incest was abhorred everywhere in the Roman world, and relations with a stepmother counted as incest. Roman law punished it with banishment to an island. Wright notes that even lax Greco-Roman morals had taboos no self-respecting pagan would cross. Drink went with it. Drunkenness was common at the late-night banquets of the rich, often with sexual immorality, and in the taverns of the poor. The barmaids of travelers' inns were typically slaves who served as prostitutes at night. People linked drunkenness with loss of self-control and sometimes with possession by Dionysus, god of wine. His most active worshipers performed sexual acts, to the distaste of conservative Romans. Jewish wisdom despised drunkenness (Proverbs 23:20-35).
An analogy: a garrison town where the bars and brothels by the gate are part of the local economy and nobody in authority objects. A congregation there that says no to all of it is swimming against the whole town.
Because sex outside marriage was ordinary for Greek and Roman men, the command to flee sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18 asked converts to break with what their city took for granted. The Jerusalem letter in Acts 15:29 names sexual immorality among the few things Gentile believers must avoid, and 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 sets self-control against the passion of Gentiles who do not know God.
Not a vice tolerated at the edge of town. In a garrison town the brothels sit by the gate. In Greek cities prostitution was legal, respectable men used it openly, and the women were often slaves raised from abandoned babies. It was often linked to temples too, so the Jewish and Christian line ran against the law, the custom and the worship of the city.
Did Roman Corinth still have sacred prostitution at the temple of Aphrodite? Bailey holds that pagan worship in the city included sacred prostitution with Aphrodite's priestesses. The CSB Study Bible thinks cult prostitution at her temple was likely a major threat to the believers. The cultural backgrounds notes place the prostitutes dedicated to Aphrodite in old Corinth. Keener speaks of the religious prostitution common in pre-Roman Corinth. Wright says only that prostitution was often linked to temples. Carson, Moo and Morris think Strabo's thousand temple prostitutes belonged to the old city and were probably exaggerated. They warn against reading the old city's character into the new, though a great port was unlikely to be known for virtue. The Zondervan atlas and dictionary apply Strabo's figure to Paul's Corinth. A smaller difference concerns incest. Keener says Roman law punished it with banishment to an island. The CSB Study Bible says that for a son and his stepmother it was a capital crime in a Roman colony, punished by death or banishment.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-13-1-6\/","n":"Hebrews 13:1-6, Strangers, angels, prisoners","s":"The writer turns to everyday duties: brotherly love, hospitality to strangers, since some have entertained angels without knowing it, care for prisoners as if in prison with them, honor for marriage, and freedom from the love of money.","r":"Hebrews 13:1-6"}
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Corinthians, Corinth; on 1 Corinthians 5:1; introductions to 6:12-20 and 7:1-7; and on 6:15-16 and 6:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 5:1, 5:11, 6:15-17, 6:19 and 7:4
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comments on 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and 6:12-20
- N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 9, Corinth I
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, sections 1.2, 2.3 and 4.1
- CSB Study Bible, word study porneia with the notes on 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, and note on 1 Corinthians 5:1
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Ephesians 4:17-19, 5:3-6 and 5:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Ephesians 5:4, 5:11 and 5:18
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Destination
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Journeys of Paul, Paul's Second Missionary Journey
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Corinth
