Corinth

Acts 18:2 names Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, and his wife Priscilla, who had recently come from Italy because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul stayed and worked with them, since all three were tentmakers by trade. They later sailed with him from Corinth to Syria.

Acts 18:12-17 records the Jews of Corinth bringing Paul before Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, accusing him of persuading people to worship God contrary to the law. Before Paul could answer, Gallio ruled it a dispute about words, names, and their own law, refused to judge it, and drove them from the judgment seat. John Wesley's Explanatory Notes identify this Gallio as the brother of the famous Seneca, commended by ancient writers for the gentleness of his temper.

Acts 18:9-10 records a night vision in which the Lord told Paul not to be afraid and to keep speaking, promising that no one would harm him because God had many people in that city. Paul stayed on for a year and a half after that vision, teaching the word of God among the Corinthians.

Paul compares the Christian life to a footrace: many run, but only one receives the prize, so believers should run to win. Everyone who competes trains with strict discipline for a crown that fades, but Paul says believers run for a crown that never fades, and he disciplines his own body so that after preaching to others he will not be disqualified. Corinth was known for its games, and John Wesley's Explanatory Notes read this passage against those games kept at the isthmus near the city, though 1 Corinthians itself speaks generally of races and does not name them.

Romans 16:23 greets from Erastus, the city treasurer, in a letter widely held to have been written from Corinth. Acts 19:22 and 2 Timothy 4:20 both name an Erastus among Paul's coworkers, and 2 Timothy 4:20 says he remained at Corinth. Origen's Commentary on Romans reads the two as the same man, but states the identification as his own reasoning rather than as settled fact, and Scripture itself never confirms it directly.