D. 1
1. It was of immense importance to Paul that he was the founder of the church in Corinth, the one who laid their foundation, however many supplementary builders they may have had (3:10). As his ‘work in the Lord’, the existence of the Corinthian church is, for Paul, proof enough of his apostleship (9:1–2), even if it is clear from chs. 1–4 and 9 that not all the Corinthians are willing to recognize his status or authority. Paul recalls bringing the gospel to Corinth at a time which was fraught with ‘weakness, fear and trembling’ (2:1–3). Some of the details which we may piece together from 1 Corinthians accord well with the narrative of this founding visit in Acts 18:1–17, for instance the conversion of Crispus (1 Cor 1:14; Acts 18:8), the contact with Prisca and Aquila (1 Cor 16:19; Acts 18:2–3) and his labour in Corinth with his own hands (1 Cor 4:12; Acts 18:3). Paul’s own comments do not allow us to date this founding visit, but Acts connects it (at its close, after 18 months) with a trial before the proconsul of Achaia, Gallio. By good fortune, an inscription enables us to date Gallio’s period of office to 50–1 CE, thus giving helpfully precise parameters to the date of Paul’s time in the city. Acts also mentions, as a prelude to Paul’s visit, Claudius’ expulsion of Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). Conflicting evidence in our sources leads some scholars to think that that expulsion took place in 41 CE, and it has been proposed that Acts 18 actually combines the accounts of two separate visits by Paul to Corinth, one in 41 and one in 50/5I CE (see Lüdemann 1984: 157–77). However, Jews were probably not expelled from Rome until 49 CE (see Barclay 1996: 303–6), and there is thus no reason to doubt the integrity of the account in Acts 18 or the dating of Paul’s initial visit to 50/51 CE.