Background of 1 Corinthians The city of Corinth Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia, an important city for trade. Ships and their cargos were often transported across the “diolkos,” a stone tramway across the isthmus. This allowed traders to shorten their journey and avoid the often-stormy waters off southern Achaia. Corinth contained at least twelve temples at one time, the most infamous to the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. The temples priestesses practiced religious prostitution with worshipers. These practices gave rise to the Greek verb translated “to Corinthianize” meaning to practice sexual immorality. Paul in Corinth Paul preached in the Jewish synagogue and supported himself financially as a tentmaker or leatherworker. He soon faced opposition from local Jewish leaders. After being banished from the synagogue, Paul preached and taught next door at the house of the Gentile convert Gaius. When the new Roman proconsul Gallo arrived in Corinth in A.D. 51 or 52, the Jewish leaders went before Gallo and accused Paul of “propagating illegal religion.” Gallo reasoned the complaint was over differences of Jewish law interpretation—an area he was not responsible to pronounce judgment. This ruling provided a legal precedent for other Roman magistrates, allowing Paul to continue his apostolic mission for several years. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians Paul stayed in Corinth for approximately 18 months before journeying to Ephesus and Jerusalem, and then returning to Ephesus for another two years. It is believed Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians while in Ephesus sometime between A.D. 53-55. This letter exhorts the church to seek Christian wisdom and unity of church life, addresses specific problems in the Corinthian church life, and responds to questions posed to him in a letter from the Corinthians. Source The nation of Israel then serves as a negative example (10:1-13). Although they did not have the same freedoms that Christians now have, they did serve the same God (10:2) and they did have certain privileges. He fed them in the wilderness, taking care of their needs (10:3-4). But they still disobeyed and went after idols, resulting in their deaths (10:5-10). This is applied in an ambiguous way to believers (10:1-13), though Paul clears up his meaning in the next section. The warning to believers seems to be that if they take their privileges and freedoms for granted, they can slip into idolatry (10:14-22). On the one hand, although eating meat offered to idols may be permissible (cf. 8:8; 10:23), if it is done in the temple (10:18-21) one has overstepped even the bounds of liberty. Finally, Paul gives the basic principle once again: love takes precedence over liberty (10:23–11:1). Source