Paul and the Pagan Cults at Isthmia

Abstract

When the Apostle Paul came to Corinth, probably in the year 50, the Roman colony Laus Iulia Corinthiensis was a flourishing center of trade and industry and a vital link of communication between Italy and the eastern provinces of the empire. It was still in the process of rebuilding after the thorough destruction by the Romans in 146 B.C., followed by a century of virtual abandonment. The Isthmian Games, which the Sikyonians had taken over and had presumably transferred to Sikyon, were again celebrated on the site where they had been held for more than a half millennium. Since Paul remained in Corinth for eighteen months on his first visit, he would have been there in the spring of 51, when the games were held at Isthmia. If, as I believe, the biennial Isthmian festival played a contributing, if not decisive, role in his choice of Corinth as the chief base of his missionary work in Greece, he would have come to the Isthmus for the occasion, and this gave him the opportunity to become familiar at first hand with the pagan rites that formed an integral part of the festival.