that I might not be burdensome to any of you.' And this I did, not iii. 9 because I am without the right [of being maintained by those to whom 2 I minister], but that I might make myself a pattern for you to imitate. For when I was with you I often3 gave you this rule: "If any man will 10 not work, neither let him eat." Whereas I hear that some among you 11 are walking disorderly, neglecting their own work, and meddling with that of others. Such, therefore, I charge and exhort, by the authority of 12 our Lord Jesus Christ, to work in quietness, and eat their own bread. Mode of deal. But you, brethren, notwithstanding," be not weary of doing 13 good. If any man be disobedient to my written word, mark 14 that man, and cease from intercourse with him, that he may be brought to shame. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a 15 brother. And may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace in all ways 16 and at all seasons. The Lord be with you all. ing with those who refuse obedience. An autograph postscript the The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, which is my 17 sign of genu- token in every letter. Thus I write." Ineness. Concluding bendiction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.' Such was the second of the two letters which St. Paul wrote to Thessalonica during his residence at Corinth. Such was the Christian correspondence now established, in addition to the political and commercial correspondence existing before, between the two capitals of Achaia and Macedonia. Along with the official documents which passed between the governors of the contiguous provinces, and the communications between the merchants of the Northern and Western Egean, letters were now sent, which related to the establishment of a "kingdom not of this world," 10 and to "riches" beyond the discovery of human enterprise." 1 Compare the speech at Miletus, Acts xx. • The characteristic paronomasia here is not exactly translatable into English. “Busy-bodies who do no business" would be an imitation. i. e. although your kindness may have been abused by such idle trespassers on your bounty. Literally, my word [sent] by the letter, which probably refers to the directions sent in the former letter, 1 Thess. iv. 11, 12. So a previous letter is referred to, 1 Cor. v. 9, and 2 Cor. vii. 8. 7" Thus." With this we may compare Gal. vi. 11. We have before remarked that St. Paul's letters were written by an amanuensis, with the exception of an autograph postscript. Compare Rom. xvi. 22. 8 "Amen "here (as in the end of 1 Thess.) is a subsequent addition. • Cicero's Cilician Correspondence furnishes many specimens of the letters which passed between the governors of neighboring provinces. 10 John xviii. 36. 18 The influence of great cities has always been important on the wider movements of human life. We see St. Paul diligently using this influence, during a protracted residence at Corinth, for the spreading and strengthening of the Gospel in Achaia and beyond. As regards the province of Achaia, we have no reason to suppose that he confined his activity to its metropolis. The expression used by St. Luke' need only denote that it was his headquarters, or general place of residence. Communication was easy and frequent, by land or by water, with other parts of the province. Two short days' journey to the south were the Jews of Argos, who might be to those of Corinth what the Jews of Bercea had been to those of Thessalonica. About the same distance to the east was the city of Athens," which had been imperfectly evangelized, and could be visited without danger. Within a walk of a few hours, along a road busy with traffic, was the seaport of Cenchrea, known to us as the residence of a Christian community. These were the "Churches of God" (2 Thess. i. 4), among whom the Apostle boasted of the patience and the faith of the Thessalonians," the homes of "the saints in all Achaia" (2 Cor. i. 1), saluted at a later period, with the Church of Corinth, in a letter written from Macedonia. These Churches had alternately the blessings of the presence and the letters- the oral and the written teaching-of St. Paul. The former of these blessings is now no longer granted to us; but those long and wearisome journeys, which withdrew the teacher so often from his anxious converts, have resulted in our possession of inspired Epistles, in all their freshness and integrity, and with all their lessons of wisdom and love. СНАРТER XII. The Isthmus and Acrocorinthus.-Early History of Corinth. -Its Trade and Wealth.Corinth under the Romans.-Province of Achaia. Gallio the Governor.- Tumult at Corinth. Cenchrea.- Voyage by Ephesus to Cæsarea. Visit to Jerusalem.-Antioch. NOW OW that we have entered upon the first part of the long series of St. Paul's letters, we seem to be arrived at a new stage of the Apostle's biography. The materials for a more intimate knowledge are before us. More life is given to the picture. We have advanced from the field of geographical description and general history to the higher interest of personal detail. Even such details as relate to the writing materials employed in the Epistles, and the mode in which these epistles were transmitted from city to city, - all stages in the history of an Apostolic letter, from the hand of the amanuensis who wrote from the author's inspired dictation, to the opening and reading of the document in the public assembly of the Church to which it was addressed,-have a sacred claim on the Christian's attention. For the present we must defer the examination of such particulars. We remain with the Apostle himself, instead of following the journeys of his letters to Thessalonica, and tracing the effects which the last of them produced. We have before us a protracted residence in Corinth,' a voyage by sea to Syria, and a journey by land from Antioch to Ephesus, before we come to the next group of St. Paul's Epistles. We must linger first for a time in Corinth, the great city where he staid a longer time than at any point on his previous journeys, and from which, or to which, the most important of his letters were written.' And, according to the plan we have hitherto observed, we proceed to elucidate its geographical position, and the principal stages of its history. The Isthmus is the most remarkable feature in the Geography of Greece; and the peculiar relation which it established between the land and the water—and between the Morea and the Continent- had the 1 See a note on this subject in Ch. XXVI. 2 Acts xviii. 11-18. 8 Acts xviii. 18-22. Acts xviii. 23. See xix. 1. The Epistles to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, and Romans. It is from this Greek "bridge of the sea chat the name isthmus has been given to every similar neck of land in the world. utmost effect on the whole course of the History of Greece. When we were considering the topography and aspect of Athens, all the associa tions which surrounded us were Athenian. Here at the Isthmus, we are, as it were, at the centre of the activity of the Greek race in general. It has the closest connection with all their most important movements, both military and commercial. In all the periods of Greek history, from the earliest to the latest, we see the military importance of the Isthmus. The phrase of Pindar is, that it was "the bridge of the sea:" it formed the only line of march. for an invading or retreating army. Xenophon speaks of it as "the gate of the Peloponnesus," the closing of which would make all ingress and egress impossible. And we find that it was closed at various times, by being fortified and re-fortified by a wall, some traces of which remain to the present day. In the Persian war, when consternation was spread amongst the Greeks by the death of Leonidas, the wall was first built. In the Peloponnesian war, when the Greeks turned fratricidal arms against each other, the Isthmus was often the point of the conflict between the Athenians and their enemies. In the time of the Theban supremacy, the wall again appears as a fortified line from sea to sea. When Greece became Roman, the provincial arrangements neutralized, for a time, the military importance of the Isthmus. But when the barbarians poured in from the North, like the Persians of old, its wall was repaired by Valerian. Again it was rebuilt by Justinian, who fortified it with a hundred and fifty towers. And we trace its history through the later period of the Venetian power in the Levant, from the vast works of 1463, to the peace of 1699, when it was made the boundary of the territories of the Republic.1 Conspicuous, both in connection with the military defences of the Isthmus, and in the prominent features of its scenery, is the Acrocorinthus or citadel of Corinth, which rises in form and abruptness like the rock of Dumbarton. But this comparison is quite inadequate to express the magnitude of the Corinthian citadel. It is elevated two thousand feet1 above the level of the sea; it throws a vast shadow across the plain at its base; the ascent is a journey involving some fatigue; and the space of ground on the summit is so extensive, that it contained a whole town, which, under the Turkish dominion, had several mosques. Yet notwithstanding its colossal dimensions, its sides are so precipitous, that a few soldiers are enough to guard it.' The possession of this fortress has been the object of repeated struggles in the latest wars between the Turks and the Greeks, and again between the Turks and the Venetians. It was said to Philip, when he wished to acquire possession of the Morea, that the Acrocorinthus was one of the horns he must seize, in order to secure the heifer. Thus Corinth might well be called "the eye of Greece" in a military sense, as Athens has often been so called in another sense. If the rock of Minerva was the Acropolis of the Athenian people, the mountain of the Isthmus was truly named "the Acropolis of the Greeks." It will readily be imagined that the view from the summit is magnificent and extensive. A sea is on either hand. Across that which lies on the east, a clear sight is obtained of the Acropolis of Athens, at a distance of forty-five miles. The mountains of Attica and Boeotia, and the islands of the Archipelago, close the prospect in this direction. Beyond the western sea, which flows in from the Adriatic, are the large masses of the mountains of north-eastern Greece, with Parnassus towering above Delphi. Immediately beneath us is the narrow plain which separates the seas. The city itself is on a small table-land of no great elevation, connected with the northern base of the Acrocorinthus. the edge of the lower level are the harbors which made Corinth the emporium of the richest trade of the East and the West. At We are thus brought to that which is really the characteristic both of Corinthian geography and Corinthian history, its close relation to the commerce of the Mediterranean. Plutarch says, that there was a want 1 Plutarch says that it was guarded by 400 soldiers, 50 dogs, and as many keepers. 2 Wheler's description is as follows: "We mounted to the top of the highest point, and had one of the most agreeable prospects in the world. On the right hand of us the Saronic Gulf, with all its little islands strewed up and down it, to Cape Colonne on the Promontory Sunium. Beyond that the islands of the Archipelago seemed to close up the mouth of the Gulf. On the left hand of us we had the Gulf of Lepanto or Corinth, as far as beyond Sicyon, bounded northward with all these famous mountains of old times, with the Isthmus, even to Athens, lying in a row, and presenting themselves orderly to our view. The plain of Corinth towards Sicyon or Basilico is well watered by two rivulets, well tilled, well planted with olive-yards and vineyards, and, having many little villages scat tered up and down it, is none of the least of the ornaments of this prospect. The town also that lieth north of the castle, in little knots of houses, surrounded with orchards and gardens of oranges, lemons, citrons, and cypress-trees, and mixed with cornfields between, is a sight not less delightful. So that it is hard to judge whether this plain is more beautiful to the beholders or profitable to the inhabitants." This was in 1675, before the last conflicts of the Turks and Venetians. 8 "As from the Parthenon at Athens we had seen the citadel of Corinth, so now we had a commanding view, across the Saronic Gulf, of Salamis and the Athenian Acropolis." - Dr. Clarke. See above, under Athens. 4 Leake's description entirely corresponds with Strabo's. |