In the year 50 B.C. (Acts 18) Paul came to Corinth for the first time. His evangelizing did not catch on with the Jews there. So he turned to the Gentiles and succeeded in making many conversions in that place. In 52 he left Corinth and spent a long time in Ephesus. There he met the people whose questions prompted him to write this letter. However it was preceded by an exchange of letters that has been lost. The content of the first Epistle to the Corinthians is informative and enlightening about the troubled situation of the church at the time… party factions, moral laxism, etc.