A Week in the Life of Corinth

by Ben Witherington III

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2012

Overview

Ben Witherington III attempts to re-enchant your reading of Paul in this creative reconstruction of ancient Corinth. Following a fictitious Corinthian man named Nicanor through an eventful week of business dealings and conflict, you’ll encounter life at various levels of Roman society—eventually meeting Paul himself and gaining entrance into the Christian community there. The result is an unforgettable introduction to life in a major center of the New Testament world. Numerous full-page text boxes expand on a variety of aspects of life and culture as you encounter them in the narrative.

Logos Bible Software dramatically improves the value of A Week in the Life of Corinth by enabling you to find what you’re looking for with unparalleled speed and precision. The Logos edition is fully searchable and easily accessible. Scripture passages link directly to your preferred English translation and to the original language texts, and important theological concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of resources in your digital library.

Key Features

• Makes the social world of Paul’s Corinth come alive
• Supplements or replaces customary textbooks on Paul’s social and cultural world
• Gives a sense of what early Christian life and worship was like

Praise for the Print Edition

Ben Witherington III, a good creative writer and accomplished NT scholar, has given us a treat in his short novel A Week in the Life of Corinth. Rather than providing a list of facts about life and culture in NT times, Witherington has composed an interesting story in which we can see and learn this information along the way. This will be a fun way to enhance our understanding of the world in which the NT takes place—and it would be helpful for preachers to read some good fiction along the way!

—Preaching

This very readable—indeed, gripping—book gives us an imaginative insight into the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s mission to Corinth. The details of everyday life for Paul and those he met are set in their historical context by an expert scholar who knows the New Testament and its background very well. I recommend it to all who want to understand the setting in which early Christianity grew and flourished.

—Alanna Nobbs, professor of ancient history, Macquarie University

If you want to know what it would have been like to live in ancient Corinth, spend a week in the life of a freedman, traverse the olive groves and cobblestone streets, survive the cutthroat politics of a Greek city, encounter pagan priestesses and converse with a Jewish tentmaker named ‘Paulos,’ then Ben Witherington has written the book for you. This short novella, with pictures and explanations of customs in ancient Corinth, provides a window into the world of Paul’s Corinthian letters. Witherington creatively brings the setting of Paul’s Corinthian ministry to life with historical rigor and narrative artistry. Witherington brings to us the sights, smells, sounds and culture of Corinth as the apostle Paul knew it.

—Michael F. Bird, Crossway College, Australia

This imaginative narrative brings the New Testament world to life by following the freedman Nicanor around ancient Corinth, relating his encounters with religion, gladiators, politics, domestic life and the nascent Christian movement (including several biblical characters). Though it may not solve all the riddles of the Corinthian correspondence, here is an engaging and informative introduction to Corinth and the wider cultural context of the first-century Roman Empire.

—Brandon D. Crowe, assistant professor of New Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary

This book provides a uniquely enjoyable way to learn about ancient culture and Paul’s mission in Corinth by immersion. Although I found the story delightful and intriguing, I could also see behind it careful research on a large array of details.

—Craig Keener, professor of New Testament at Palmer Theological Seminary

Whether you’re well acquainted with Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church or are encountering them for the first time, this book will bring the biblical text to life.

—Bible Study Magazine

Product Details

• Title: A Week in the Life of Corinth
• Author: Ben Witherington III
• Publisher: IVP Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Pages: 159

About the Author

Ben Witherington III (PhD, Durham University) is Amos Professor for Doctoral Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY, and is on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University, Scotland. Witherington has twice won the Christianity Today best Biblical Studies book-of-the-year award, and his many books include We Have Seen His Glory: A Vision of Kingdom Worship and socio-rhetorical commentaries on Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

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Contents

Top Highlights

“the paidagogos is not really the educator, but more like a parental figure who helps with the homework and child care” (Page 53)

“Indeed, by the 50s, the town, with its two ports and active slave market, had become the epicenter of trade going both east and west in the middle of the Mediterranean.” (Page 15)

“Roman Empire was not merely dependent on slave labor, it was largely built on the backs of slaves. Slavery was a burgeoning enterprise. Estimates suggest that up to half the population of Rome, the Eternal City, were slaves.” (Page 9)

“.d. One denarius, in 2010 dollars, was worth somewhere around twenty U.S. dollars or a bit more” (Page 49)

“One of the most dangerous things a person could do was to refuse a gift from a social superior” (Page 58)

Product Details

• Title: A Week in the Life of Corinth
• Author: Ben Witherington III
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2012
• Logos Release Date: 2013
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Paul, the Apostle, Saint › Fiction; Bible. N.T. › History of Biblical events--Fiction; Christian saints › Fiction; Apostles › Fiction; Corinth (Greece) › Fiction
• ISBNs: 9780830866991, 083086699X
• Resource ID: LLS:WKLFCORINTHWTHRTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:50:59Z

About Ben Witherington III

Ben Witherington III (PhD, University of Durham) is Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. A prominent evangelical scholar, he is also on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. Witherington has written over forty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. His other works include The Indelible Image, Women and the Genesis of Christianity, The Gospel Code, A Week in the Life of Corinth and commentaries on the entire New Testament. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications and is a frequent contributor to Patheos and Beliefnet. Witherington is an elected member of the prestigious Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. He is a John Wesley Fellow for Life, a research fellow at Cambridge University and a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Society of Biblical Literature, Society for the Study of the New Testament and the Institute for Biblical Research. He previously taught at institutions like Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. An ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church and a popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings around the world. He has led numerous study tours through the lands of the Bible and is known for bringing the text to life through incisive historical and cultural analysis. Along with many interviews on radio and television networks across the country, Witherington has been seen in programs such as 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline and the Peter Jennings ABC special Jesus and Paul—The Word and the Witness.

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