2. Paul at Athens

missionary journey between Athens. Berea and Athens Paul found no opportunity a longer stay or for missionary effort. At all events, Athena was the first point which he considered promising se a missionary field. In Paul's time Athens had risen in importance. In spite of its decay, it was revered by the Romans and the entire Hellenistic world, and had a powerful attraction for the educated. Many cultivated Ro-

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mans were settled there at that time (cf. Acts xvii. 21); and there were also Jews there (Acts xvii. 17). Paul may have been interested in the votive offerings of Herod (Josephus, War, I., xxi. 11) and while walking through the city (Acts xvii. 23) must have been greatly impressed by the profusion of sanotuaries. Of the many altars one especially attracted his attention, that devoted to "the unknown god" (Acts xvii. 23). He disputed in the synagogue, and appeared daily in the market and held discussions with those who chanced to be there (Acts xvii. 17), including Epicureans and Stoics. He was brought before the court of the Areopagus (Acts xvii. 19), which met in the market before the royal colonnade (Pausanias I., iii. 1), no doubt to determine whether he and his preaching should be tolerated in Athens. That "Areopagus" in the narrative means the court, not merely the locality where it met, is shown by the mention of "Dionysius the Areopagite" (Acts xvii. 34.)

Not being successful at Athens, Paul went to Corinth, which became the center of his missionary work in Greece. There he wrote his epistles to the Thessalonians, to the Romans, perhaps also to the Galatians. To the Corinthians he wrote several, perhaps four, epistles (see Paul the Apostle

3. Corinth

him much trouble. For Paul's mis- sionary method, for th3 difficulties to be overcome, for the typical experiences in the lives of the congregations, there is nothing more instructive and characteristic than what may be learned from all sources with regard to the Corinthian Church. At Corinth was to be found a mixture of Romans, Greeks, and Orientals, a cosmopolitan syncretistic "heathenism." That many Jews lived there is a matter of course (Acts xviii. 4, 7).

The city of Corinth was one of the most flourishing commercial cities of antiquity, and its situation between two seas made it the natural emporium between the Orient and the Occident. Naturally it had two ports. The western, Lecteeum, north of Corinth, was formerly connected with the city by walls; the eastern seaport was Cenchrea (Rom. xvi. 1; Acts xviii. 18), with a Christian congregation of its own. In the city was a sanctuary of the Ephesian Artemis; in the market a statue of Athene and a sanctuary of the Capitoline Zeus. On a rock which afforded a beautiful view stood the temple cf Aphrodite. There were also two sanctuaries of Isis, two of Serapis, altars to Helios, a temple of Anangke and Bia, and one of the mother of the gods. It can easily be imagined that in such a city immorality abounded; the catalogue of vices in Rom. i. 18-32 was written at Corinth, as was I Thess. iv. 1-12; and the epistles to the Corinthians show that Paul had to oppose there the base viciousness of heathenism. A great attraction for Greeks and Romans and for the rabble were the Isthmian games, and it is perhaps not accidental that Paul betrays an intimate knowledge of the stadium (cf. I Cor. ix. 24-27). The congregation in Corinth was composed of members belonging to the lower class of the population (I Cor. i. 26 sqq.), so that, since it was there less possible than elsewhere to speak to people of the lower and higher ranks at the same time, Paul there preached to the people. According to his own statement (I Cor. ii. 1 sqq.), he pursued there a method different from that followed in Athens. Like a popular speaker he relied entirely upon convincing, spiritual preaching, laying aside philosophic refinements. But this did not exclude the well-considered rhetorical form which he used in the epistles to the Corinthians. The rhetoric employed by him was the kind used by the popular orators among the Cynics, as may be seen from the diatribes of Epictetus and the much earlier Teles. About the time of Paul, or a little later, the cynic Demetrius, the friend of Seneca, labored at Corinth, and no doubt the apostle intentionally adopted the method of these popular orators.

A word may be added about Nioopolis (the mod ern Prevesa, situated in Albania, the old Epirus, at the outlet of the Gulf of Arta). Zahn 4. Nicopolis. (Einleitung in das Neue Testament, i., Leipsic, 1900, pp. 434-435) has proved that Titus iii. 12 refers to this city. This Roman colony (Aclia Niwpolis) was established by Augus tus in memory of the battle of Actium. Tacitus (Annales, ii. 53) speaks of it as belonging to Achma. Its special attractions were the sanctuary of Apollo and the Actian games indroduced by Augustus. Here again it was a modern, flourishing city that Paul selected for a longer residence. Nicopolis was afterward the scene of the labors of the Stoic Epio tetus.

(Johannes Weiss.)