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| Welcome to the ancient city of Corinth! |
Day 4 was at least tied with all the others for my favorite day in Greece.
Our tour guide was a wonderful man named Costas (you'd be hard pressed to find a better tour guide or theologian).
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| Costas |
He would weave these elaborate stories using geography, history, Scripture, and mythology to paint the most vivid picture of First Century life that I've ever seen.
What was even more meaningful was that Costas had had heart surgery the day before and wasn't supposed to be with us - but because he loves this stuff so much - he came anyway!!!
That's passion!
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| the Canal |
Corinth back then was home to the easiest passage between the East and West. The only trick was getting through this slice of land. The Corinthians developed an overland solution using wheels, oxen and slaves.
It was effective but took time so lots of people spent lots of time in Corinth.
Including Paul the writer of many of the Epistles of the New Testament. He wrote several of the most important letters while he was staying in Corinth, including Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians.
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| Abby is always one to stop and smell the flowers |
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| even tiny ones |
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| mach of the city is still not excavated. |
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| A column sitting there in a farmer's field |
If I had a couple million dollars lying around I'd pay for some archaeologists to continue the work of exploring this place.
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| Tim in front of the acropolis |
The patron god of the city of Corinth was Aphrodite, the goddess of sex. Sex slaves would travel up and down from the mountain behind Tim with sandals that made footprints saying "Follow Me" for folks to go and make offerings to the goddess.
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| the acropolis |
It's quite a hike which is why prostitution was so rampant.
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| Costas teaches |
We learned that the sex slaves had to shave their heads to distinguish themselves from others, which is why Paul writes for women to cover their heads. It was a way to help erase the shame of the sex slaves as well as a way for women to show solidarity with each other. It had nothing to do about women being subservient or anything. This is just one thing we learned.
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| Temple to Apollo |
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| on top of the acropolis |
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| Bryan and Christian with temple to Apollo in the back |
We also learned about this character I never heard about in the Bible named Erastus.
Dude! Ask a Fellow about him. He's crazy cool!
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| The city is mostly intact - but much is unexamined |
Costas also taught us about the "bema" the central platform, often mis-translated "judgment seat" in Scripture. We were standing right there when he taught us about it.
It was the place where people would declare their devotion to Rome or deny it and be punished.
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| This small pedestal is where it went down |
There was a ring on one side of the pedestal where you would be bound and flogged. The same thing would have been where Jesus was beaten in Jerusalem.
This is the very one where Paul was beaten!
Just like this!
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| a surreal moment to say the least |
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| sitting on history |
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| Garrett and Tim standing on history |
What a day!
We drove back for a late lunch - seafood next to the canal.
We had to hold back Bryan from jumping in. (His time would come!)
That night, we had dinner back home and heard a story from a guy named Thanos that you would not believe.
He then raced us through Athens to the best Loukoumades Store on the planet.
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| Me and Julio down by the Loukoumades Shop |
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| best dessert of my life |
It was a life changing moment.
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| Ned and Mihalis - twin brothers - different mothers |
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| the gang |
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| taking it in |
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| oh. you were taking a picture eh? |
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| yes I was! |
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| me and Paul |
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| this might be from Day 6 |
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| Christian looking across the sea to Delphi |
Stay tuned for more!
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