1 Corinthians1chapter 1

Old Corinth had been destroyed by Rome in 146 BC and refounded a century later as a Roman colony, settled largely with freedmen. That made it a city with money but no aristocracy of ancient blood, where status was newly won and fiercely displayed. Nobody there inherited standing; everybody competed for it.

In such a city, attaching yourself to a famous teacher was a way to rise. Travelling speakers gathered paying followings, and a patron's household took on the prestige of the sage it hosted. The Corinthian factions — I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas — look less like doctrinal parties than status groupings around impressive names.

"Chloe's people" who brought the report were probably her slaves or workers travelling on business between Corinth and Ephesus. Paul names his source openly, which took nerve.

Crucifixion is the point of the chapter's argument because of what it meant socially. Rome reserved it for slaves and rebels, and Roman citizens of any standing found it too degrading to discuss in polite company. Preaching a crucified Lord in a status-obsessed colony was, as Paul says, an offence to Jews and idiocy to Greeks.