Biblical Greece: Athens and Corinth

There is a Percy Jackson fangirl inside of me screaming right now. Give me a word, any word, and I will tell you how the root of that word is Greek. So as Paul is coming into port he's looking around and he's seeing all these different temples built to Aphrodite, built to Zeus, built to Hephaestus, built to Hermes, and built to a Poseidon in Athena. This is the temple of Apollo! This is Aphrodite. And he also sees one to a temple to the unknown God. Paul is going to use reason and logic to explain to the Athenians why the unknown God is really the ultimate God who they've been yearning for. When Paul came into Athens he walked through this ancient Agora and then he proceeded up that hill which is Mars Hill. Now at the top of Mars Hill. This is where Paul came in Acts chapter 17 when he was looking around he's like, look at that temple, look at that temple. In Athens the Athenians worshipped Athena, the goddess of wisdom and logic. Paul used wisdom and logic to explain to the Athenians who the God that they were searching for was. The people in Corinth, they worshipped the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Guys look, this is really cool. There's Ictuses right here. This is Corinth! Right now I am in Corinth, which is the place where Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians. So the church of Corinth was right around here. If we look below, that's the ancient city of Corinth. There's a saying in the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, where Aslan tells them further up and further in. So that's what we're doing. This is where the Agora was, which is the ancient marketplace. Just like many churches do today, the church in Corinth was struggling. Every city in the ancient world had their own god or goddess that they focused on, that they worshipped to. And in Corinth, that happened to be Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And then Paul reminds the Corinthians that God is love. And if I have faith to say to a mountain, jump, and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give all I own to the poor, or even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gone nowhere. So, no matter what I say, no matter what I believe, no matter what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. And when all else fades away, faith, hope, and love remain. But the greatest of these is love. I'm in the forum where Paul was most likely brought in when people accused him of going against Mosaic law. And they wanted to arrest him and send him to Rome to face imprisonment again. But the pro-council said, you guys have no legitimate cause for arresting this man, for he has not broken any Roman law. This is what's left of the port where Paul arrived in Corinth. It is also in 53 AD where he left Corinth to sail to Ephesus. Paul knew his audience, both in the case of the Athenians and the Corinthians. When he was in Athens, he used logic and reason. And then when he was in Corinth, he talked about love.