Smith's Bible Dictionary

(Frankie) #1

(Jude 1:11) [Korah, 1]
Coriander
The plant called Coriandrum sativum is found in Egypt, Persia and India, and has a round tall
stalk; it bears umbelliferous white or reddish flowers, from which arise globular, grayish, spicy
seed-corns, marked with fine striae. It is mentioned twice in the Bible. (Exodus 16:31; Numbers
11:7)
Corinth
an ancient and celebrated city of Greece, on the Isthmus of Corinth, and about 40 miles west
of Athens. In consequence of its geographical position it formed the most direct communication
between the Ionian and AEgean seas. A remarkable feature was the AcroCorinthus, a vast citadel
of rock, which rises abruptly to the height of 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and the summit
of which is so extensive that it once contained a whole town. The situation of Corinth, and the
possession of its eastern and western harbors, Cenchreae and Lechaeum, are the secrets of its history.
Corinth was a place of great mental activity, as well as of commercial and manufacturing enterprise.
Its wealth was so celebrated as to be proverbial; so were the vice and profligacy of its inhabitants.
The worship of Venus where was attended with shameful licentiousness. Corinth is still an episcopal
see. The city has now shrunk to a wretched village, ont he old site and bearing the old name, which,
however, is corrupted into Gortho. St. Paul preached here, (Acts 18:11) and founded a church, to
which his Epistles to the Corinthians are addressed. [EPISTLES TO THE Corinthians, First Epistle
To The, Corinthians, Second Epistle To The]
Corinthians, First Epistle To The
was written by the apostle St. Paul toward the close of his nearly three-years stay at Ephesus,
(Acts 19:10; 20:31) which, we learn from (1 Corinthians 16:8) probably terminated with the Pentecost
of A.D. 57 or 58. The bearers were probably (according to the common subscription) Stephanas,
Fortunatus and Achaicus. It appears to have been called forth by the information the apostles had
received of dissension in the Corinthian church, which may be thus explained:—The Corinthian
church was planted by the apostle himself, (1 Corinthians 3:6) in his second missionary journey.
(Acts 18:1) seq. He abode in the city a year and a half. (Acts 18:11) A short time after the apostle
had left the city the eloquent Jew of Alexandria, Apollos, went to Corinth, (Acts 19:1) and gained
many followers, dividing the church into two parties, the followers of Paul and the followers of
Apollos. Later on Judaizing teachers from Jerusalem preached the gospel in a spirit of direct
antagonism to St. Paul personally. To this third party we may perhaps add a fourth, that, under the
name of “the followers of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 2:12) sought at first to separate themselves from
the factious adherence to particular teachers, but eventually were driven by antagonism into positions
equally sectarian and inimical to the unity of the church. At this momentous period, before parties
had become consolidated and that distinctly withdrawn from communion with one another, the
apostle writes; and in the outset of the epistle, 1Cor 1-4:21, we have this noble and impassioned
protest against this fourfold rending of the robe of Christ.
Corinthians, Second Epistle To The
was written a few months subsequent to the first, in the same year—about the autumn of A.D.
57 or 58—at Macedonia. The epistle was occasioned by the information which the apostle had
received form Titus, and also, as it would certainly seem probable, from Timothy, of the reception
of the first epistle. This information, as it would seem from our present epistle, was mainly favorable;
the better part of the church were returning to their spiritual allegiance to the founder, (2 Corinthians

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