out of the temperament and circumstances of the Corinthians soon
manifested themselves. The city was the capital of Roman Greece,
a wealthy commercial centre, and the home of a restless,
superficial intellectualism. Exuberant verbosity, selfish
display, excesses at the Lord's table, unseemly behaviour of
women at meetings for worship, and also abuse of spiritual gifts,
were complicated by heathen influences and the corrupting customs
of idolatry. Hence the Apostle's pleas, rebukes, and
exhortations. Most noteworthy of all is his forceful treatment of
the subject of the Resurrection of Christ; and this only a
quarter of a century after the event. Of the Letter mentioned in
5:9 we know nothing.

Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians

The second Letter to the Corinthians was probably written
in the autumn of 56 A.D., the first Letter to them having been
sent in the spring of that year. But there are other letters of
which we have no clear account. One, lost to us, evidently
preceded the first Letter (1Co 5:9). In our "second" Letter we
find mention (2:2,4) of a severe communication which could not
but give pain. Can this have been our "first" to the Corinthians?
Some think not, in which case there must have been an
"intermediate" letter. This some students find in 2Co 10 1-8:1O.
If so, there must have been four letters. Some have thought that
in 2Co 6:14-7:1, and 8, 9, yet another is embedded, making
possibly five in all. The reader must form his own conclusions,
inasmuch as the evidence is almost entirely internal. On the
whole it would seem that our first Letter, conveyed by Titus, had
produced a good effect in the Corinthian Church, but that this