Corinthian Matters

Category: Religion, Roman

  • The Vampire on the Isthmus: A Halloween Tale

    It is hard to know why ancient writers found Corinth and its territory a region suitable for placing ghosts, witches, and vampires, and whether the region was any more haunted than other towns and countrysides of the ancient world.  The destruction of Corinth by the Romans in 146 BC made the city a gloomy ghost…

  • Histories of Peirene

    There are no monuments of ancient Corinth more famous and iconic than the Fountain of Peirene.  Any modern visitor who has wandered among the ruins will likely have shot a photo like the one below of the Roman spring facade and court.  And anyone who walks into a tourist shop will have seen plenty of…

  • Preaching Corinthians from Historical and Archaeological Background: Some Resources

    How important is understanding cultural and social background for preaching and teaching on 1 and 2 Corinthians?  In late July, I stumbled upon Michael Bird’s post at Evangelion on the importance of understanding background for effective preaching.  He comments on video discussion (reposted below) between D.A. Carson and John Piper about whether a pastor whose…

  • Corinth in Context at Society of Biblical Literature, London 2011

    Last week I spent conferencing in London at the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.  With the exception of one rainy day, the weather was cool and beautiful.  My own visit was improved by the presence of my wife, Kate, and toddler son James, who ensured that I spent more time at London’s…

  • SBL – Day 3-4

    More good 1 and 2 corinthians papers today at the SBL International: Kar-Yong Lim, Seminari Theoloji Malaysia, “Paul’s Use of Temple Imagery in the Corinthian Correspondence and the Formation of Christian Identity: A Contextual Reading from the Perspectives of A Chinese Malaysian” Jeremy Punt, Universiteit van Stellenbosch – University of Stellenbosch, “Foolish Rhetoric in 1…

  • Corinthian Scholarship (May-June 2011)

    It’s been a couple of months since the last Corinthian Scholarship update, so we have a full list here.  The following list compiles the works I happened to see and the (imperfect) results of various google alerts.  If you have material to add to these monthly compilations, send to corinthianmatters@gmail.com.  As usual, 1 and 2…

  • SBL International – London, July 4-7

    The Society of Biblical Literature has posted its schedule of papers for the international conference in London, July 4-7, 2011.  There are three sessions that focus entirely on Corinth and many scattered papers that touch on Corinthian matters.  Clicking on the links below will pull up the abstracts from the SBL website.   First, the…

  • Corinthian Scholarship (March 2011)

    I stumbled upon a good number of Corinthian papers, presentations, and publications this month that cover topics from Isthmia, Kenchreai, Aphrodite and prostitute, and Paul’s ascent in 2 Cor. 12. First, Corinthian archaeology and history: Anne Pippin Burnett has a piece in GRBS 51 (2011) on Pindar and prostitution at Corinth: “Servants of Peitho: Pindar fr.122 S”…

  • Corinthian Scholarship (Winter 2011)

    Google Scholar has a very useful alert feature for staying up on research although one has to filter to remove all the junk for words like Corinth.  Some recent and forthcoming papers and publications related to things Corinthian A number of AIA chapters have featured or will feature some Corinthia lectures this year.  Ron Stroud…

  • More Corinth in Contrast

    On Monday I posted a general overview of the conference Corinth in Contrast and today I want to comment on a few of the specific papers that focused on material culture.  Defining which papers fit into the category of material culture is not straightforward.  Most of the papers, including those by New Testament scholars, made…