What happened at Corinth?
Some have argued that Paul failed at Athens, so at Corinth subsequently he changed his approach to a simple, unargued proclamation. On this basis, the Athenian address was recorded as a detailed example of how not to do evangelism! But there is not even a hint of that. This muddle comes from a failure to understand the background. The Corinthians had specific expectations of their public speakers and Paul did not meet their requirements. They looked for someone with an impressive physical presence, who would give a bravado performance. The audience would tell the speaker what subject he should speak on, and they expected him to use fine words and rhetorical language. Paul was a big disappointment to them. He was physically weak, he was only prepared to talk about Christ and his language was ordinary. “I did not come with eloquence… I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ…I came in weakness and fear.” (1Cor 2:1-5). Far from adopting a different approach, it was to the Corinth
