It was a bit of a drive this morning, first to get out of Athens in the Monday rush-hour traffic, then to make it to Corinth, about an hour and a half east of Athens.
Going from one location to another, it would seem that Paul spent a lot of time in transit. The distances between these places he traveled to are rather significant, and he didn’t have a tour bus to make it go faster.
Corinth was a significant city from 900 BC to 146 BC, known for its commerce and strategic location. It was destroyed by Rome in 146 BC but was refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. By 27 BC, Augustus made it a Roman colony and the capital of Achaia. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 1 highlights the transformation of Corinth from a city of former slaves and soldiers to a prosperous Roman colony, emphasizing that God's grace is the source of salvation.
First stop here was the Museum at Corinth, a rather small building which seems rather ill-prepared for bus-loads of tourists that swamp the space multiple times per day. We were one of the those bus loads. And we got in just ahead of another group, so we were kind-of pushed through the exhibits, not having a real good chance to read any signs or study the exhibits. We were encouraged to take pictures and read them later. One of the down sides of traveling in a tour group.
One thing of note: A whole courtyard filled with statues with no heads. And it’s not because the neck is the weakest point and breaks when the statue falls over. These are deliberately designed this way so that the head can be changed out at the whim of whoever is in charge.. Get a new city leader or new official, pop off the old head and put on a new one. A lot faster and a lot cheaper than commissioning an entire sculpture to someone who may be deposed or assassinated in a few years. Our guide likened it to ancient Photoshop. Just Photoshop in a different head...
Outside the temple of Apollo dominates a rather large area overlooking the remnants of theaters, a fountain and a Roman-era temple dedicated to Emperor Augustus. We stopped at a few of these for teachings and to learn about the particular artifact.
For example, the Temple of Apollo was destroyed by earthquakes in the 5th century AD and later abandoned. As happens in a lot of these cases, the rubble was used as building material for new construction, so there isn’t a lot left of the original.
Since idol worship was such a thing in that day, one of the dilemmas for Christians was the eating of meat offered to idols. Meat was often offered to idols, and what was left was then sold into the local meat market, so anything purchased there could very well have been used in idol worship. We have farm-to-table products, temple-to-table was a real thing back then. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 10.
We stopped at a couple other highlights of this area: the Bema Seat and a place where the Ithmus Games were held, unfortunately I was trying to check into the next day’s flights and my multitasking prevented me from fully engaging in the teaching. I made audio recordings of the teachings, and will go over them when I have more time. There is just so much information disseminated during something like this that it’s impossible to hold it all in.
Ironically, the seat assignments put Deb and I in different locations on the plane. Serves me right for trying to multitask. We’ll have to try to rectify that at the ticket counter tomorrow. The phone app for Turkish Airlines does not work well at all.
As we were leaving here, we had one more little surprise. Just down the hill on the other side of the parking lot, a road was being unearthed. A square in this road contains an inscription of the public works manager that laid the road, at his own expense. His name is inscribed in the stone: Erastus. He is also referenced in the Bible, in Romans 16:23, where he is greets the readers of the Romans letter. A reference in 2 Timothy 4:20 indicates that he traveled with Paul.
And we got to see his signature set in stone. So cool.
We had lunch near the Corinthian Canal, a deep ditch connecting the Gulf of Corinth to the Aegean Sea. This ditch is used for shipping between the two bodies of water. The emperor Nero first attempted to do this, but a workable shipping channel was not completed until the 19th century. At nearly 300 feet deep, I can see why.
Lunch was a five-course meal. Most of us thought the appetizer (I think it was called Moussaka) was the main course but there was another pork and potato dish after we were all mostly full, and then a cake and ice cream dessert after that. Hunger has not been a problem on this trip.
We had some time to walk around town near the hotel after returning from Corinth, then it was our last dinner together and packing for the trip home.
I didn’t have much time to do any writing so now I am catching up on the long airplane ride from Istanbul to Chicago. When we checked in to the airport this morning, I asked if we could get seats together. The agent worked at his computer for a bit and then told us, “All set, is an exit row OK on the second flight?”
Of course it is!
So now we’re sitting here with acres of leg room and eight hours to go.
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