First Corinthians Introduction
The City of Corinth Geographical Location: “A glance at the map of Greece will show that Corinth was made for greatness. The southern part of Greece is very nearly an island. On the west, the Saronic Gulf deeply indents the land and on the east the Corinthian Gulf. All that is left to join the two parts of Greece together is a little isthmus only four miles across. On that narrow neck of land Corinth stands. It was necessary that all the north to south traffic of Greece should pass through Corinth; there was no other way for it to go. All traffic from Athens (56 miles distant) and from the north of Greece to Sparta and the Peloponnese had to be routed through Corinth. But it so happened that not only the north to south traffic of Greece passed through Corinth of necessity, but by far the greater part of the east to west traffic of the Mediterranean passed through her from choice. The extreme southern tip of Greece was known as Cape Malea, it was a dangerous cape, and to round Cape Malea had in ancient days much the same sound and implications as to round Cape Horn had in later times. The Greeks had two sayings which showed what they thought of the voyage round Malea, ‘Let him who sails round Malea forget his home’, and, ‘Let him who sails round Malea first make his will’. The consequence was that mariners followed one of two courses. They sailed up the Saronic Gulf, and, if 1