May 11, 2007

Greece – Ancient Corinth

This day of touring has been on my wish list for months. To see the excavation site of Ancient Corinth, that has the closest period dating to the time when the apostle Paul taught and lived, brought reality to the bible. The bible is a factual account of actual human beings, but somehow this gets pushed into the back of the mind and is reduced to “nice stories” about somewhat mythical people, e.g. Apollo Mythology. (Nice Segway.)

One of the structures that Paul was sure to have seen was the Temple of Apollo, which still has remaining and standing ancient pillars.

(Paul thinking about "Paul", in front of the temple of A-pol-lo.)


The archeological dig has uncovered the street market where Paul would have sold his ropes and tents, as well as spent time teaching.



While in the adjoining museum, these three statues stood out to me because their original placement was inside the massive Roman Basilica. A Roman Basilica was not a Christian religious site but the name given to the town’s main meeting hall. When the hall was not employed for town councils or massive public announcements it was filled with vendors. These statues would have stood above the main floor in alcoves.



I really liked this second century Christian church, originally constructed of stone remnants from other Greek and Roman structures. I love this because the edifice obviously wasn’t the main focus. The structure was sound, as it has survived almost 2,000 years, but it is a functional space. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with beauty in church architecture, but I just find it interesting when that somehow becomes the point of spiritual awareness/enlightenment as opposed to the message or Word.



We finished the tour by visiting two water locations. First, the ancient sea port of Cenchrea, which Paul documents as his port of origin for the voyage to Ephesis.



An second the canal at Corinth, carved out of the solid rock and serving as the line of demarcation between the mainland of Greece and the Peloponnese peninsula and islands.