Paul visited Corinth during his second apostolic journey, around 52 AD. Finding himself in Corinth amidst the prevailing corruption, he formed very pessimistic views regarding the success of his work and for this reason considered for a moment returning to Macedonia. However, through a special revelation (Acts 18:9-10), he was informed that many of the Lord's people were in Corinth and that he was commanded to speak the word with boldness.

First, after those with whom the Apostle associated in Corinth, were his fellow worker Aquila and his wife Priscilla, both Jews, who had come from Rome following the persecution of the Jews by Emperor Claudius. Having lived with them, Paul drew them to the faith and later had them as important collaborators in his apostolic work. Then the Apostle addressed the Jews in Corinth and preached to them initially in their synagogue. When he was expelled from there by them, he made the house of Justus, which was near the synagogue, the center of his teaching. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, along with his entire household, became the most important among the Jews whom the Apostle brought to faith. Among the first Christians of Achaia was also Stephanus, whom the Apostle himself baptized along with his entire household (1 Corinthians 1:16). For a year and a half, Paul prolonged this stay in Corinth and became the founder of this renowned Church, about which he writes (1 Corinthians 3:6) that he planted it himself, but it was Apollos who watered it.

Having departed from Corinth around the end of 52 AD with Aquila and Priscilla, Paul left them in Ephesus and went up to Jerusalem, and from there he came to Antioch in Syria, from whence he began his third apostolic journey. Meanwhile, Aquila and Priscilla brought the Jew Apollos to faith, who traveled to Achaia and, settling in Corinth, gave instruction to the Christians there through his skill in rhetoric and continued the work of Paul.

But possibly because of a motive and also of admiration, which Apollo had aroused among many, the Church of Corinth was divided into different factions, because some considered Apollo as their leader, others Paul, and others Cephas. Furthermore, other disorders were noted, and various issues arose, for the resolution of which the Corinthians wrote a letter to Paul, who in the meantime had come to Ephesus. Thus, from Ephesus, the divine Apostle wrote this letter of his between the years 54 and 55 A.D., and while he reproves the Corinthians for the disorders and scandals that had occurred among them, he also simultaneously addresses their difficulties regarding the issues they had raised.