From Athens Paul went to the busy commercial city of Corinth, capital of the Roman province of Achaea, situated on the narrow isthmus connecting the peninsular part of Greece to the mainland. For centuries Corinth had been famed for its wealth, and though it was looted and burned in 146 B.C., it was rebuilt by a decree of Julius Caesar issued in 44 B.C. By Paul's time it had not only regained but enhanced its former prosperity. Known, like Athens, for its art and architecture, it had also a less pleasant reputation for lack of morals. Nevertheless Paul was to do much successful work in this city and to remain there for at least a year and a half (see Acts 18:1-18).
At Corinth he met a Jew from Pontus in Asia Minor named Aquila, who with his wife Priscilla had been driven out of Italy because of their religion. They may have been Christians already when Paul met them. He took lodgings with them, and he and Aquila worked at their common craft of tentmaking. Doubtless Paul worked far into the night as he did at Thessalonica, but he still found time to teach in the synagogue every sabbath, "and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks."
Two of his fellow missionaries, Silas and Timothy, who had remained in Macedonia while Paul was in Athens, joined him in Corinth. Silas may have brought one of those generous contributions that from time to time the Philippian church sent to Paul, enabling him to devote more of his time to the work of preaching. Timothy came from Thessalonica, bearing news of the situation in the church there and probably a written communication. About this time, A.D. 50 or 51, Paul composed the first of those letters that have immortalized his name, the First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
