“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
1 Corinthians 9:25
Believers in Jesus in Corinth would have connected with Paul’s athletic metaphors in 1 Corinthians 9. Corinth was the place where the Isthmian games convened. Craig Keener notes in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: “Corinth itself hosted major games for all Greece every two years on the isthmus; these were the best-attended Greek festivals next to the Olympic games.” Running and boxing (v. 26) were just two of the events in which athletes would compete.
Other events included wrestling, throwing the discus and javelin, the long jump, chariot racing, poetry reading, and singing. Paul makes athletic references in 1 Timothy 4:8, 2 Timothy 2:5, and in these verses from 2 Timothy 4:7–8: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day.”
Note: excerpt from ODB
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