el of Jesus to his
fellow-countrymen in the synagogue. He presently went to Corinth and
carried on Christian work there with success (Acts xviii. 24-28), "I
planted," says Paul (1 Cor. iii. 6), "Apollos watered." From this point
on our information comes from the epistles, of which the first was
written from Ephesus before Pentecost of the year in which Paul left
that city, i.e. A.D. 54-58 (1 Cor. xvi. 8).

It appears that the church grew in numbers, for Paul refers in 2 Cor. i.
1 to "saints who are in all Achaea." Its membership was mostly of humble
people (1 Cor. i. 26-29), but probably not exclusively so, for Crispus
and Stephanas (who with his household was able to render services that
may well have been costly, 1 Cor. xvi. 15), Gaius and Erastus (Rom. xvi.
23), would appear to have been persons of substance. The references to
law-suits perhaps imply fairly prosperous traders, the tone of the
letters suggests considerable education and a reasonable degree of
property on the part of many (though not all) of the readers.

The first need of the church for help from Paul seems to have grown out
of the dangers from surrounding heathenism. In 1 Cor. v. 9 we read of a
letter in which Paul had directed the Christians "not to have company
with fornicators." This letter, so far as we know, opened the
correspondence which was maintained during the three years of Paul's
stay in Ephesus, whence there was easy and frequent communication with
Corinth. He refers to it in order to explain the injunction which had
been (perhaps wilfully) misunderstood and exaggerated.[1]

While at Ephesus Paul was visited by persons of the household of Chloe
(1 Cor. i. 11), and by Stephanas with Fortunatus and Achaicus (probably
his slaves, xvi. 17). From them and from a letter (vii. 1), which was
brought perhaps by Stephanas, he was able to gain the intimate knowledge
which the epistles everywhere reveal. The letter from Corinth must have
contained inquiries as to practical conduct with regard to marriage
(vii. 1), meat offered to idols (viii. 1), and the "spiritual gifts"
(xii. 1), and may well have related to other matters, such as the
collection of money for Jerusalem (xvi. 1), the visit of Apollos (xvi.
12), the position of women (xi. 2). Paul's reply includes many other
topics. When it was sent, his trusted helper Timothy had also started on
his way (probably through Macedonia) to Corinth, to contribute there to
the edification of the Christia