• Corinth—City of the Two Seas
    Awake!—1991 | January 22

    • The Forum​—what a fascinating place! It consists of two rectangular terraces on an east-west axis. In the center of the upper terrace, flanked on either side by shops, there is an elevated platform called a bema, used by speakers on formal occasions. Our guide reminded us that when the physician Luke wrote of Paul’s day in court before Proconsul Gallio, the Greek word used for “judgment seat” was bema. (Acts 18:12) So the events of Acts 18:12-17 may have happened on this very spot! We were standing where Paul would have stood, ready to make his defense while surrounded by his Jewish accusers. But no! Gallio would not hear the case. He set Paul free and let the violent mob thrash Sosthenes instead.