Paul and the Roman Imperial Order

PAUL ROMAN IMPERIAL O R D E R

PAUL Tu'i ROMAN IMPERIAL O R D E R

EDITED BY

RICHARD A. HORSLEY

TRINITY PRESS INTERNATIONAL A Continuum imprint HARRISBURG • LONDON • NEW YORK

Copyright © 2004 Trinity Press International M rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Trinity Press International. Trinity Press International, P.O. Box 1321, Harrisburg, PA 17105 Trinity Press International is a member of the Continuum International Publishing Group. Except as otherwise indicated, the Bible text is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and is used by permission. Cover art: Lesueur, Eustache. The Sermon of Saint Paul at Ephesus, 1649. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY. Louvre, Paris, France. Cover design: Wesley Hoke Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paul and the Roman imperial order / edited by Richard A. Horsley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56338-421-3 (pbk.) 1. Paul, the Apostle, Saint—Political and social views. 2. Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 3. Christianity and politics— History of doctrines—Early church, ca. 30-600. 1. Horsley, Richard A. BS2655.P64 P38 2004 227'.067—dc22 2003016692 Printed in the United States of America 03 04 05 06 07 08

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Abbreviations INTRODUCTION Richard A. Horsley 1

THE CORRUPTION AND REDEMPTION OF CREATION:

vii 1 25

Reading Rom 8 : 1 8 - 2 3 within the Imperial Context Robert Jewett 2.

"UNMASKING T H E POWERS":

47

Toward a Postcolonial Analysis of 1 Thessalonians Abraham Smith 3.

THE APOSTLE PAUUS SELF-PRESENTATION AS ANTI-IMPERIAL PERFORMANCE

67

Neil Elliott 4.

RESISTING IMPERIAL DOMINATION AND INFLUENCE:

89

Paul's Apocalyptic Rhetoric in 1 Corinthians Rollin A. Ramsaran 5.

PATRONAGE AND COMMENDATION, IMPERIAL AND ANTI-IMPERIAL

103

Efrain Agosto 6.

PHIL 2:6-11 AND RESISTANCE TO LOCAL TIMOCRATIC RULE:

125

Isa thed and the Cult of the Emperor in the East Erik M. Heen 7.

PAUL AND THE POLITICS OF VIRTUE AND VICE

155

Jennifer Wright Knust 8.

RESPONSE

175

Simon R. F. Price Contributors

185

Index

187

Abbreviations --

AB

Anchor Bible

ABD

Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York, 1992

AGJU

Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums

AJP

American Journal of Philology

AnBib

Analecta biblica

ANRW

Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt. Edited by H. Temporini and W. Haase. Berlin/New York, 1 9 7 2 -

ANTC

Abingdon New Testament Commentaries

BAGD

Bauer, W., W. R Arndt, R W. Gingrich, and F. W. Danker. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2d ed. Chicago, 1979

BASOR

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

BBR

Bulletin for Biblical Research

Bijdr

Bijdragen: Tijdschrift voor ftlosofte en theologie

BR

Biblical Research

CAH

Cambridge Ancient History

CBQ

Catholic Biblical Quarterly

ConBNT

Coniectanea biblica: New Testament Series

EDNT

Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by H. Balz, G. Schneider. 3 vols. ET. Grand Rapids, 1990-1993.

EKKNT

Evangelisch-katholischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament

Abbreviations

ExpT

Expository Times

FRLANT

Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

GLQ

GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies

HBT

Horizons in Biblical Theology

HNT

Handbuch zum Neuen Testament

HNTC

Harper's New Testament Commentaries

HTKNT

Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament

HTR

Harvard Theological Review

ICC

International Critical Commentary

Int

Interpretation

JB

The Jerusalem Bible

JBL

Journal of Biblical Literature

JJS

Journal of Jewish Studies

JRS

Journal of Roman Studies

JSNT

Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSNTSup

Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement Series

JSOT Press

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Press

JSOTSup

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series

JTS

Journal of Theological Studies

KEK

Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar uber das Neue Testament (Meyer-Kommentar)

LCL

Loeb Classical Library

LXX

Septuagint

NASB

New American Standard Bible

NewDocs

New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity. Edited by G. H. R. Horsley and S. Llewelyn. North Ryde, N.S.W., 1 9 8 1 -

NICNT

New International Commentary on the New Testament

NovT

Novem

Testamentum

Abbreviations

NovTSup

Novum Testamentum Supplements

NRSV

New Revised Standard Version

NT

New Testament

NTS

New Testament Studies

OBT

Overtures to Biblical Theology

RAC

Reallexikon fUr Antike und Christentum. Edited by T. Kluser et al. Stuttgart, 1 9 5 0 -

RB

Revue biblique

RGG

Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Edited by H. D. Betz et al. 4th ed. Tubingen, 1 9 9 8 -

RSPT

Revue des sciences philosophiques et theologiques

RSV

Revised Standard Version

SBL

Society of Biblical Literature

SBLDS

Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series

SBLSP

Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers

SMTSMS

Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

TDNT

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by G. Kittel and G. Friedrich. Trans. G. W. Bromiley 10 vols. Grand Rapids, 1 9 6 4 - 7 6

ThWAT

Theologisches Worterbuch zum Alten Testament. Edited by G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren. Stuttgart, 1 9 7 0 -

TPINTC

TPI [Trinity Press International] New Testament Commentaries

UBS

United Bible Societies

WBC

Word Biblical Commentary

WMANT

Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament

WUNT

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

YCS

Yale Classical Studies

ZNW

Zeitschrift fiir die neutestamentliche und die Kunde der dlteren Kirche

ZPE

Zeitschrift fUr Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Wissenschaft

INTRODUCTION Richard A. Horsley

P

rotestant interpreters have traditionally u n d e r s t o o d Paul in opposition t o Judaism. Luther's discovery o f "justification by faith" in Paul's Letter

to the R o m a n s , the solution t o his frustrating quest for a sense o f righteousness, b e c a m e the formative religious experience t h r o u g h v^hich Paul's letters have been read. Paul b e c a m e the paradigmatic homo

religiosus

w h o s e quest for salvation by a compulsive keeping o f the Law in his native Judaism drove h i m t o his d r a m a t i c conversion to God's grace manifested in Christ. As the great apostle o f Christ, Paul then created a new, universal, a n d spiritual religion, Christianity, which transcended the parochial a n d particularistic b o u n d s o f Judaism. Protestant theology has thus determ i n e d b o t h the overall f r a m e w o r k in which Paul has been understood, that o f Christian theology, a n d the o t h e r against which Paul was always j u x t a posed, Judaism. • This a p p r o a c h t o Paul that has d o m i n a t e d N T studies for generations is based o n the unquestioned a n d distinctively m o d e r n Western a s s u m p tions that Paul is concerned with religion a n d that religion is n o t only separate f r o m political-economic life, but also primarily a m a t t e r o f individual faith. T h e t e m p o r a l k i n g d o m a n d spiritual k i n g d o m have little to d o with each other, except insofar as the f o r m e r maintains a civil o r d e r in which the latter can be cultivated. A n d , o f course, Paul himself supposedly insisted o n

L Wayne A. Meeks, "Judaism, Hellenism, and the Birth of Christianity," and Dale Martin, "Paul and the Judaism/Hellenism Dichotomy: Toward a Social History of the Question," both in Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Paul beyond the Judaism/Hellenism Divide (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 2001), provide an excellent recent overview of the issue since the dominant influence of Ferdinand Christian Baur.

2

Richard A.

Horsley

unquestioning obedience t o the civil magistrates, even imperial o r m o n a r chic rulers, as God's instruments o f civil order. W h e n N T scholars struggled t o rethink their theology and exegesis in the aftermath o f the Holocaust, they m a d e two d r a m a t i c shifts. In one, the great hero o f faith w h o articulated foundational Christian theology was discovered to share the s a m e fundamental "covenantal n o m i s m " o f Judaism, fi-om which he originated. Paul's n e w religion o f personal faith was n o longer seen as sharply opposed to Judaism. " I n short, this is what Paul finds w r o n g with Judaism: it is n o t Christianity."^ T h e issue, however, remained strictly o n e o f religion, a n d in effect, Paul was still understood as involved in, a n d indeed the creator of, a n e w religion different f r o m his old o n e . In the o t h e r and m o r e significant shift, Krister Stendahl changed the focus f r o m Paul's theology to the people with w h o m Paul was dealing in his mission, as indicated in the title o f his influential b o o k Paul among

Jews

and Gentiles,^ This was a far m o r e serious challenge to standard N T scholarship a n d its theological basis. Paul was n o t intending to found a n e w religion,

argued

Stendahl.

Paul

as homo

religiosus

obsessed

introspective conscience is a Western Christian projection. His

with

an

apokalypsis

o f Christ was n o t a conversion to a new religion but a c o m m i s s i o n i n g for mission. Paul himself never left Judaism, o r m o r e accurately, Israel. H e merely b r o u g h t the gospel o f Christ to the Gentiles. A n d their positive response t o that g o o d news created a crisis in which he struggled t o u n d e r stand the relations between the Jews a n d the Gentiles in God's overall plan o f salvation ( R o m 1 - 1 1 ) . Neither o f these p o s t - H o l o c a u s t shifts in Pauline scholarship sufficed to change the fundamental

framework

within which Paul is u n d e r s t o o d .

T h e fundamental p r o b l e m for Paul-interpreters was still Paul a n d Judaism. Stendahl's shift o f focus from theology t o people, however, a n d his insistence that Paul did n o t leave Israel, prepared the way for an eventual change in framework. It was still necessary to question the assumption o f the separation o f religion and political-economic life. O n c e that peculiar m o d e r n Western assumption was questioned, it was then possible t o contextualize

historically

Paul's w o r k a m o n g Jews a n d Gentiles. T h e c o n t e x t

was the R o m a n E m p i r e . B o t h the Jews a m o n g w h o m Paul originated a n d

2. E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), 5 5 2 - 5 3 . Critical discussion of these shifts in understanding of Paul is in Neil Elliott, Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1994), esp. ch. 3; and John G. Gager, Reinventing Paul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), ch. 2. 3. Krister Stendahl, Paul among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), reprints his highly influential essay "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West."

Introduction

3

the Gentiles a m o n g w h o m he carried o u t his mission were subjects o f the R o m a n E m p i r e . T h e R o m a n imperial order, in all its facets, constituted the c o n t e x t in which the m o v e m e n t that Paul joined a n d helped t o lead t o o k its origins in the province o f Judea. A n d it was the context into which h e t o o k his gospel o f Jesus Christ, w h o had been crucified by the R o m a n s b u t h a d been vindicated by G o d in resurrection as L o r d a n d S a v i o r — i m p e r i a l titles ordinarily used only for Caesar. F o c u s o n the R o m a n imperial order as the c o n t e x t o f Paul's mission, however, is leading t o a n o t h e r recognition. Instead o f being o p p o s e d t o Judaism, Paul's gospel o f Christ was o p p o s e d t o the R o m a n E m p i r e . Paul, o f course, was hardly a rabble-rousing revolutionary, fomenting provincial rebellion against R o m a n rule; R o m 1 3 : 1 - 7 is the virtual opposite o f active revolution. H e did n o t preach a b o u t h o w R o m e oppressed subject peoples. So far as we know, he did n o t p r o n o u n c e prophetic oracles o f divine judgm e n t against the e m p e r o r in R o m e . N o r did he actively o p p o s e o r agitate against local representatives o f R o m a n rule in the cities where he organized n e w c o m m u n i t i e s . Indeed, he insisted that the Thessalonians "live quietly" a n d " m i n d [their] o w n affairs" (1 Thess 4 : 1 1 ) . N o r did he even p r o c l a i m his gospel in public space, so far as we know, b u t in the less conspicuous space o f households. Instead, Paul set his gospel o f Christ a n d the n e w c o m m u nities he catalyzed in opposition to the R o m a n imperial order: the whole system o f hierarchical values, power relations, a n d ideology o f "peace a n d security" generated by the "wealthy, powerful, and nobly b o r n " and d o m i nated by " t h e rulers o f this age," at the a p e x o f which stood the imperial savior. Imperial power relations operated in c o m p l e x ways through culturalreligious f o r m s integrally related t o s o c i a l - e c o n o m i c f o r m s o f d o m i n a t i o n , a n d n o t simply by the sword; likewise, Paul pursued his mission in c o m plex cultural m o d e s integrally related to the social f o r m a t i o n that he a n d others were catalyzing. T h a t Paul's gospel o p p o s e d the R o m a n imperial order, n o t Judaism, b e c o m e s increasingly evident the m o r e we r e e x a m i n e principal facets a n d key t e r m s o f his gospel, as evident in virtually all his letters."* In 1 Thessalonians, from beginning t o end, God's k i n g d o m and the true L o r d , Jesus Christ, are o p p o s e d to the R o m a n E m p i r e a n d its ideology o f " p e a c e a n d security," which stand u n d e r the i m m i n e n t destruction o f God's judgm e n t ( 1 : 1 0 ; 2 : 1 2 , 1 9 ; 3 : 1 3 ; 4 : 1 4 - 1 8 ; 5 : 1 - 1 1 , 2 3 ) . In 1 Corinthians,

from

Paul's first long a r g u m e n t to his ecstatic " e x p l a n a t i o n " o f the resurrection.

4. Neil Elliott, Liberating Paul; Dieter Georgi, Theocracy in PauVs Praxis and Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991); Richard A. Horsley, ed., Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1997).

4

Richard A.

Horsley

Paul opposes his gospel t o the R o m a n rulers a n d the imperial order. " T h e rulers o f this a g e " have been o u t s m a r t e d in God's mysterion,

the a p o c a l y p -

tic plan for the fulfillment o f history; having "crucified the L o r d o f glory," they are " d o o m e d to perish" ( 2 : 6 - 8 ) . G o d has chosen the foolish a n d weak o f the world, the very opposite o f the powerful, nobly b o r n , wealthy, a n d wise elite, w h o d o m i n a t e the imperial order ( 1 : 2 6 - 2 7 ; 4 : 8 - 1 0 ) . T h o s e c h o sen ones, the saints, will soon participate in God's j u d g m e n t o f the (Roman)

world order, whose f o r m

is passing away ( 6 : 1 - 4 ;

7:31).

Meanwhile, the resurrected Christ is e n t h r o n e d in heaven, preparing t o destroy "every

ruler

and

every authority

and

power"

(15:24).

In

Philippians, Christ Jesus appears to have displaced Caesar as emperor, having been "highly exalted" and given a n a m e "above every n a m e " ( 2 : 9 ) . Indeed, Christ has b e c o m e the t r u e ( c o u n t e r - i m p e r i a l ) Savior w h o will i m m i n e n t l y bring into effect God's "political o r d e r " o r " c o m m o n w e a l t h " for his assemblies ( 3 : 1 9 - 2 1 , RSv). In the Letters to the R o m a n s a n d Galatians as well, where this message is less explicitly stated a n d m o r e implied in the key a r g u m e n t s , Paul opposes Christ a n d the gospel t o Caesar a n d the R o m a n imperial order, n o t t o the Law a n d Judaism. At the outset o f his long m a i n a r g u m e n t in R o m 1 - 1 1 , Paul states that Christ has displaced Caesar, has been "declared to be Son o f G o d with p o w e r " ( 1 : 4 ) . His m a i n point, w h e n he reaches the c l i m a x o f the a r g u m e n t in R o m 9 - 1 1 , is that according to God's m y s tery/plan, Israel is t o be included in the fulfillment o f history along with the o t h e r peoples (see esp. 1 1 : 2 5 - 3 6 ) . In that a r g u m e n t "Christ is the goal [not the terminus] o f the L a w " ( 1 0 : 4 , a u t h o r ) . T h r o u g h o u t the whole a r g u m e n t , implied if n o t expressed is the belief that history, as G o d is bringing it t o fulfillment, is n o t r u n n i n g t h r o u g h R o m e — c o n t r a r y to all a s s u m p tions a n d p r o p a g a n d a in the imperial metropolis. Similarly in Galatians 3, where Paul argues that Christ instead o f the M o s a i c covenant has b e c o m e the m e a n s t h r o u g h which other peoples c a n b e c o m e adopted as children a n d heirs o f the p r o m i s e t o A b r a h a m , Paul's a r g u m e n t takes the b r o a d p e r spective o f universal international history. Christ has b e c o m e the m e a n s by which fulfillment has c o m e in history, which has been running t h r o u g h Israel, n o t t h r o u g h R o m e , c o n t r a r y to all appearances under the R o m a n imperial order. In contrast to the standard Protestant theological a s s u m p tions o f previous Pauline studies, therefore, Paul does n o t o p p o s e Christ a n d the Gospel events o f fulfillment to the Law a n d Judaism. In Paul's Letters, Christ a n d Gospel events stand o p p o s e d to Caesar a n d the R o m a n imperial order. Moreover, just as Paul's gospel o f Christ as L o r d evidently stood opposed to the R o m a n imperial order, so the local representatives o f that imperial order evidently opposed Paul and his assemblies. T h e opposition

Introduction

5

was reciprocal. Paul says he was "shamefully mistreated at Philippi" (1 Thess 2 : 2 ) , apparently for "advocating c u s t o m s that are n o t lawful for . . . R o m a n s t o adopt o r o b s e r v e " (Acts 1 6 : 2 1 ) . T h e n in Thessalonica his recruits a n d apparently Paul himself suffered " p e r s e c u t i o n " (1 Thess 1:6; 2 : 1 4 - 1 6 ; see Smith's article below), apparently for "acting c o n t r a r y to the decrees o f the emperor, saying that there is a n o t h e r king [or e m p e r o r ] n a m e d Jesus" (Acts 1 7 : 7 ) . After working in C o r i n t h for a year and a half, Paul was evidently compelled t o leave the city by the R o m a n proconsul o f Achaia, Gallio (cf. Acts 1 8 : 1 2 ) . A n d while working in Ephesus he was imprisoned, perhaps so seriously that he was anticipating his m a r t y r d o m (Phil 1 : 7 , 1 4 ; 2 : 1 7 ; cf. 1 C o r 1 5 : 3 2 ; 2 C o r 1 : 8 ) . These m a n y indications in Paul's Letters show that his gospel and m i s sion stood sharply opposed t o Caesar a n d the R o m a n imperial order, a n d n o t to the Jewish Law. Hence, Pauline scholarship needs to take a keen interest in understanding why and in what ways R o m a n power a n d the R o m a n imperial order impinged u p o n , and were objectionable to, Paul and the people a m o n g w h o m he worked. Because o f the separation o f religion a n d politics in m o d e r n Western N T scholarship, however, it has generally been assumed that such questions were irrelevant to o u r understanding o f Paul a n d his Letters. Thus, the field is only beginning to investigate the conflictual relationship o f Paul and the R o m a n imperial order. This has been o n e o f several interrelated areas o f focus for the " P a u l a n d Politics G r o u p " o f the Society o f Biblical Literature, as exemplified in a n u m b e r o f contributions to a previous collection o f articles.^ Accordingly, that g r o u p sponsored a session at the 2 0 0 0 Annual Meeting o n "Paul a n d the R o m a n Imperial Order," for which the papers by Efrain Agosto, Erik H e e n , Jennifer Knust, a n d A b r a h a m Smith were originally written. S i m o n Price was invited to respond t o those papers because o f the i m p o r t a n c e o f his b o o k Rituals and Power in helping N T interpreters toward a m o r e a d e quate understanding o f the integral relationship o f the imperial cult a n d b o t h imperial and local power relations.^ T h o s e four articles are n o w s u p plemented by the explorations o f o t h e r key aspects o f Paul a n d the R o m a n imperial order, by Neil Elliott, Robert Jewett, a n d Rollin R a m s a r a n . M o s t o f these articles deal with the ideological, rhetorical, a n d o t h e r cultural aspects o f Paul's a n d his assemblies' conflict with the R o m a n imperial order, while several focus o n political-economic aspects. It m a y be helpful

5. The essays by Briggs, Callahan, Elliott, Horsley, Wan, and Wright in Richard A. Horsley, ed., Paul and Politics: Ekklesiay Israel, Imperium, Interpretation (Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 2000). 6. Simon R. P. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984).

6

Richard A.

Horsley

at the outset, as a general b a c k g r o u n d to all o f these articles, t o envisage h o w the R o m a n imperial o r d e r determined the conditions o f a n d for Paul's mission a n d letters.

The New World (Dis)Order as the General Conditions of Paul's Mission Recent constructions o f " t h e social world o f the apostle P a u l " have perpetuated the standard view that the pax Romana

provided a benign context

for the Pauline mission a n d rise o f "Christianity." T h e R o m a n imperial order established after the great victory o f Octavian at A c t i u m created a "general climate o f stability a n d security . . .

for u r b a n people in the

provinces."^ T h a t was surely true for the tiny m i n o r i t y o f power a n d privilege w h o headed the R o m a n imperial order in the cities o f Greece a n d Asia Minor. A n d such a picture is precisely what is portrayed in m o s t literary a n d epigraphic sources, which were the p r o d u c t s o f privilege.^ Paul's letters and the later b o o k o f Acts, as well as the writings o f the Judean historian Josephus and the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo, however, all indicate just the opposite. Judging f r o m these sources, it appears that the "new world o r d e r " established by the R o m a n s under Augustus and his successors was experienced as disorder by m a n y urban as well as rural subject peoples in the provinces. T h e R o m a n s a n d the wealthy aristocracies o f the peoples a n d cities they conquered, whose d o m i n a n c e they confirmed and strengthened, strove to establish and perpetuate a political-economic order that underwrote their power a n d privilege. Yet subject peoples did n o t simply acquiesce in the new imperial order, a n d s o m e o f the arrangements imposed did m o r e to exacerbate local conflicts than to pacify the subject populace. This is often n o t discerned and discussed, perhaps largely because the literary a n d epigraphic sources express the viewpoint o f the elite, w h o had a considerable stake in the R o m a n imperial order.^

7. Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983), 11-12. 8. Extensive survey and illuminating discussion of such material is in Clifford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). C f the unevenness of acquiescence in the Roman imperial order evident in D. J. Mattingly, ed., Dialogues in Roman Imperialism: Pow/er, Discourse, and Discrepant Experience in the Roman Empire {Journal of Roman Archaeology, Suppl. 23; Portsmouth, R.I.: JRA, 1997). 9. See now the "Introduction" and articles in Mattingly, Dialogues in Roman Imperialism, Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty, asserts repeatedly (e.g., xii, 5, 6) that "the populations" of the provinces around the Empire found Roman power attractive, appreciated the political and economic stability, and even accepted Roman coercion as legitimate. It is questionable, however, whether the extensive source material he cites gives evidence for any but the elites.

Introduction

7

W e are best i n f o r m e d a b o u t the area a n d people o f Palestine by " C h r i s t i a n " sources such as Paul a n d the Gospels as well as the histories o f Josephus. T h e r e the m o v e m e n t ( s ) o f Jesus-believers t o o k its origins a m o n g Galileans a n d Judeans after the R o m a n execution o f Jesus o f Nazareth by crucifixion,

a p p a r e n t l y for s e r i o u s d i s r u p t i o n

o f t h e pax

Romana,

Josephus, like o t h e r provincial aristocrats, m a y himself have believed that R o m a n conquest a n d R o m a n rule worked by the grace o f (his o w n ) G o d . B u t his histories provide extensive a c c o u n t s o f h o w in Judea a n d Galilee resistance persisted against R o m a n rule for centuries after the initial c o n quest by P o m p e y in 6 3 B . C . E . A t the death o f the R o m e - i m p o s e d king H e r o d , a r o u n d the t i m e Jesus was b o r n , widespread revolts erupted in every m a j o r district, led by p o p u l a r messiahs, evoking a brutally punitive R o m a n reconquest. Ten years later, at the imposition o f direct R o m a n rule in Judea, activist Pharisees a n d o t h e r scribal intellectuals led a n organized resistance t o the R o m a n tribute. In the Jerusalem temple that H e r o d h a d rebuilt in g r a n d R o m a n - H e l l e n i s t i c style as o n e o f the w o n d e r s o f the R o m a n imperial world, R o m a n t r o o p s h a d t o stand guard against popular agitation at the annual celebration o f the festival o f Passover that c o m m e m o r a t e d the people's original liberation f r o m foreign rule. In mid-first century, peasant prophets led n u m b e r s o f followers in anticipating new divine acts o f liberation, such as a n exodus-like crossing into t h e p r o m i s e d land, a Jericho-like collapse o f the walls o f Jerusalem, a n d disappearance o f the o c c u p y i n g R o m a n s a n d their client rulers, the priestly aristocracy. Diaspora Jews, descendants o f earUer generations o f Judeans resettled in various cities o f the eastern E m p i r e , such as Saul o f Tarsus, c a m e o n pilgrimage t o the temple a n d Jerusalem. S o m e o f t h e m b e c a m e zealous defenders o f the Judean way o f Ufe against the encroachments o f the d o m i n a n t Hellenistic-Roman culture (what Paul calls ioudaismos,

Gal 1 : 1 1 - 1 7 ) .

Such fanatical attempts to preserve the traditional ways and official attempts to clamp dovm o n resistance both led to internecine conflict. Resistance movements were repressed by the rulers for threatening the imperial order a n d / o r persecuted by self-appointed leaders o f long-range resistance because their agitation might bring d o w n the massive destructive violence o f the Empire.

10. In the following paragraphs I am drawing on my examination of the many facets of Roman rule and Judean and Galilean resistance in several books and articles, including Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), chs. 1-5. For resistance in other areas, see Stephen L Dyson, "Native Revolts in the Roman Empire," Historia 20 (1971): 2 3 9 - 7 4 ; and "Native Revolt Patterns in the Roman Empire," ANRW 2.3 (1975): 138-75. For more general resistance to the Roman imperial order, see Ramsay MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), the perspective of which is indicated by the title.

8

Richard A.

Horsley

Such are precisely the circumstances o f t u r m o i l a n d agitation, repression a n d persecution, that b o t h Paul (Gal 1:13; Phil 3 : 4 - 6 ) a n d the b o o k o f Acts ( 4 - 5 ; 7 : 5 4 - 8 : 3 ) describe in p o r t r a y i n g the m o v e m e n t o f Jesus' follov^ers in Jerusalem a n d beyond, at the t i m e Paul received his call to join rather than c o n t i n u e his attacks against that m o v e m e n t . Such conditions continued in Jerusalem a n d Judea during the formative period o f his m i s sion activity, as the m o v e m e n t spread rapidly outv^ard f r o m Jerusalem a n d then f r o m o t h e r centers such as A n t i o c h in Syria. F o r example, the e m p e r o r Gaius's brazen order t o install his statue in the Jerusalem temple, by milit a r y force if necessary, evoked massive resistance t h r o u g h o u t Galilee a n d Judea and vvrould have led to revolt if Gaius h a d n o t suddenly died. T h e R o m a n s then installed the H e r o d i a n king Agrippa I in Jerusalem ( 4 1 - 4 4 C.E.) as well as Galilee, w h o actively attacked the leaders o f the Jesus m o v e m e n t (Acts 1 2 : 1 - 5 ) . T h e t u r m o i l only escalated further in the next two decades, as Paul extended his mission t o Asia M i n o r and Greece. A g r o u p o f scribal intellectuals k n o w n as the Sicarioi

(dagger m e n ) , utterly frustrated at the col-

laboration between the predatory high priestly families and the repressive R o m a n governors, even launched terrorist attacks o n key priestly aristocrats at festival times. T h e continuing Judean resistance a n d R o m a n repression that escalated until full-scale insurrection erupted in 6 6 is significant for Paul's mission a n d o t h e r branches o f the new m o v e m e n t because that m o v e m e n t a n d its leaders would have been identified with/as Judeans elsewhere in the R o m a n E m p i r e . A n d , o f course, Paul himself u n d e r s t o o d his mission a n d m o v e m e n t as an extension o f the promises to Israel. T h e general climate o f instability and insecurity, while less e x t r e m e t h a n in Jerusalem, also prevailed

for u r b a n

people

in o t h e r

provinces.

C o m m u n i t i e s o f Jews resident in several cities o f the eastern R o m a n E m p i r e sought to maintain their identity a n d way o f life, resisting assimilation into the d o m i n a n t political a n d cultural o r d e r . A p p a r e n t l y through influence o n R o m a n s in high places, they m a n a g e d t o obtain special permission from the R o m a n s t o c o n d u c t their o w n c o m m u n i t y affairs according to their o w n cultural traditions. In Alexandria a n d in o t h e r cities as well, this evoked the hostility o f other subject peoples, either at the exemptions the Jews enjoyed o r in jealousy o f their rights to pursue indigenous traditions. In Alexandria, for example, anti-Jewish riots broke o u t under the e m p e r o r Gaius, which led to an imperial c r a c k d o w n o n Jewish rights in o t h e r cities a n d his brazen m o v e against the Jerusalem temple. F r o m Philo's "defense" written to the e m p e r o r Gaius, we c a n recognize just h o w

11. See, e.g., Paul Trebilco, Jewish Communities Cambridge University Press, 1991).

in Asia Minor

(Cambridge:

Introduction

9

serious an issue it was, even for Jewish elites w h o were culturally heavily assimilated into H e l l e n i s t i c - R o m a n culture, t o c o n t i n u e t o be subjected t o imperial rule; we see h o w i m p o r t a n t it was t o t h e m t o resist further assimilation a n d subjection t o the R o m a n imperial order. B u t w h a t could b e d o n e a b o u t t h e R o m a n rulers, w h o c o u l d b e c o m e ferocious a n d brutal, o t h e r t h a n t o t r y t o t a m e a n d s o o t h e t h e m {Legatio

ad Gaium;

De

somniis

2 . 8 9 ) ? As Philo, w h o was realistically aware o f " h o w mightily t h e winds o f n e c e s s i t y , . . . force, v i o l e n c e , a n d p r i n c e d o m " c o u l d blow, advised his fellow Jews, " W h e n the t i m e s are right, it is g o o d t o set ourselves against t h e violence o f o u r enemies a n d s u b d u e it; b u t w h e n the c i r c u m s t a n c e s d o n o t present themselves, t h e safe c o u r s e is t o stay quiet." H e did n o t w a n t t o p u t t h e w h o l e c o m m u n i t y in d a n g e r o f riot o r repression {Somn,

2 . 8 9 , 9 2 ; cf.

2.83-84).^^ A similar climate o f instability a n d insecurity characterized u r b a n life in A n t i o c h , the large city o n the Empire's eastern frontier, w h e r e Paul was based during a n intermediate phase o f his mission. A n t i o c h already hosted a large c o m m u n i t y o f Jews, which helps explain Herod's lavish beneficence t o t h e city (paving the m a i n street with m a r b l e ; Josephus, Jewish

Antiquities

1 6 . 1 4 8 ; Jewish War 1 . 4 2 5 ) . C o n t e m p o r a r y with Paul's mission based there, it was from A n t i o c h that Gaius launched his invasion o f Judea, w h i c h a l m o s t resulted in massive insurrection. This conflict was s o m e h o w t h e trigger for a circus riot between " t h e Blues" a n d " t h e Greens," which in t u r n led t o attacks against Jews a n d Jewish synagogues in the city (Malalas Chronographia

2 4 4 . 1 5 - 2 4 5 . 1 ) . S i m m e r i n g hostilities against the

Jews

e r u p t e d again in the 6 0 s (Josephus, Jewish War 7 . 4 6 - 6 2 ) . Political stability m a y have prevailed in the cities where Paul carried o u t his o w n distinctive mission, b u t that stability i m p o s e d by the R o m a n imperial o r d e r surely m e a n t insecurity for m a n y if n o t m o s t u r b a n people. M o s t o f the cities a n d peoples a m o n g which Paul carried o u t his mission were sites a n d subjects o f R o m a n imperial conquest a n d / o r colonization. T h e m o s t d r a m a t i c case w o u l d have been Corinth.'^ In o n e o f the key steps by which the R o m a n warlords established themselves as the sole superp o w e r in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n basin, they utterly destroyed the ancient city o f C o r i n t h in 1 4 6 B.C.E. a n d left the area desolate. A c e n t u r y later, in 4 4 B.C.E., Julius Caesar established a c o l o n y there, p e o p l e d by the surplus

12. See further Neil ElHott, "Romans 1 3 : 1 - 7 in the Context of Royal Propaganda," in Horsley, ed., Paul and Empire, 197-202; and E. R. Goodenough, Introduction to Philo Judaeus (2d ed.; Oxford: Blackwell, 1962), 5 5 - 6 2 . 13. Short sketch of the historical background to Pauls mission in Corinth, in Richard A. Horsley, 1 Corinthians (ANTC; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 2 2 - 3 0 ; lengthy historical survey with extensive documentation, in James Wiseman, "Corinth and Rome I: 228 B.C.-A.D. 267," in ANRW2.7A (1979): 4 3 8 - 5 8 4 .

10

Richard A.

Horsley

p o p u l a c e o f freed slaves a n d o t h e r undesirables from R o m e itself as well as veterans o f Caesar's Gallic wars. C o r i n t h b e c a m e the center o f

Romanitas

in Greece, as well as t h e eastern h u b o f t h e Empire's c o m m e r c e . In t h e p e r i o d before Paul's mission, therefore, C o r i n t h w o u l d have b e e n filled with people displaced from their places a n d cultures o f origin, including slaves a n d descendants o f slaves, a n d v a r i o u s people following the routes of commerce. T h e R o m a n s h a d taken c o n t r o l o f M a c e d o n i a early in the s e c o n d c e n t u r y B.C.E. T h e building o f the great military r o a d , the Egnatian Way, greatly strengthened their c o n t r o l a n d enabled t h e m t o use M a c e d o n i a as a base for extension o f their power into Asia Minor.^^ T h e t o w n o f Philippi was colonized twice by the great R o m a n warlords. A n t o n y refounded t h e t o w n with a c o l o n y o f his veterans in 4 2 / 4 1 B.C.E., followed by a s e c o n d imposition o f R o m a n a r m y veterans after t h e battle o f A c t i u m ( 3 1 B.C.E.). At t h e t i m e o f Paul's mission, the descendants o f the R o m a n veterans d o m inated the city in a typically R o m a n administration, with the descendants o f the earlier Hellenistic towns in the area, o t h e r m i g r a n t Greeks, a n d native T h r a c i a n s f o r m i n g the bulk o f the populace, m a n y in s u r r o u n d i n g villages. T h e R o m a n i t a s a n d R o m a n orientation o f the d o m i n a n t elite is clear. T h e r e was considerable potential for inherent tensions between the elite a n d the p o p u l a c e a n d a m o n g factions o f the populace. T h e key battle in which A n t o n y a n d Octavian defeated B r u t u s a n d Cassius, thus "saving" the R o m a n people, was celebrated by t w o f a m o u s altars c o n s t r u c t e d o n the battlefield near the t o w n . Philippi thus played a special symbolic role in R o m a n imperial history. Thessalonica, although n o t colonized by R o m a n veterans, displayed a relatively intense cultivation o f R o m a n a n d p a r t i c u larly imperial favor in its coins a n d temple t o Caesar. T h e city's emphasis o n the imperial cult was an expression o f its sense o f political insecurity since it h a d backed the losing side at two critical points during the R o m a n civil wars. This strong orientation toward R o m e was reinforced by the R o m a n garrison in its citadel a n d a significant b u t semi-separate g r o u p o f R o m a n businessmen in the city. R o m e itself, finally, was hardly an imperial metropolis that provided security for its residents. Bread a n d circuses did n o t extend far into the vast majority o f the teeming population w h o were economically marginal. Foreign i m m i g r a n t s a n d newly f o r m e d groups could easily b e c o m e suspect. T h e Jewish couple Prisca and Aquila, w h o worked shoulder t o shoulder

14. Recent surveys of the historical context of the Pauline mission in Philippi and Thessalonica, in Craig de Vos, Church and Community Conflicts (SBLDS 168; Atlanta: Scholars, 1999), chs. 4 and 6; Peter Oakes, Philippians: From People to Letter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Introduction

11

with Paul a n d others in C o r i n t h a n d Ephesus, h a d been a m o n g the Jews w h o m Claudius expelled from R o m e in 4 9 (Acts 1 8 : 2 ) , because o f c o n t r o versy over a certain Chrestus (Suetonius, Claudius

2 5 . 4 ) . A n d fifteen years

later, in 6 4 , N e r o b l a m e d the great fire in R o m e o n "Christians," w h o were crucified a n d b u r n e d as living torches to illuminate the e m p e r o r ' s races in the Vatican Circus (Tacitus, Annafes 1 5 . 4 4 ; Suetonius, Afero 1 6 . 2 ) .

Impact of Roman Imperial Order on the Peoples of Paul's Mission A m i d the general c o n t e x t o f instability a n d insecurity for m a n y o f the city inhabitants o f the eastern R o m a n E m p i r e , there were particular ways in w h i c h the R o m a n imperial o r d e r affected their l i v e s . A m o n g these were s o m e o f the fundamental political-religious a n d e c o n o m i c f o r m s that virtually constituted power relations in the imperial order.

Disruption and Displacement of Subject Peoples A m a j o r factor in the insecurity a n d instability o f local life under the R o m a n imperial o r d e r was the violent disruption a n d displacement o f indigenous peoples by R o m a n conquest, enslavement, a n d colonization. T h e effects would have been considerable, d e e p - r u n n i n g , a n d long-lasting, as the parallel experiences o f imperial conquests and disruptions o f peoples in the nineteenth a n d twentieth centuries m i g h t suggest. N o t only Judeans a n d Galileans in Palestine b u t also even relatively assimilated elite Jews such as Philo o f Alexandria realized that they were subject people. O t h e r peoples shared the experience o f subjugation t o R o m e . Galatia, the first stop in Paul's o w n separate mission, h a d only recently been taken over b y the R o m a n s , a n d acquiescence a n d a d j u s t m e n t t o R o m a n rule was only in the beginning stages there, as in Palestine. In the small city o f Philippi, t w o successive sets o f R o m a n military veterans had been imposed as the d o m i n a n t political-economic class, a n d indigenous farmers had been dispossessed by the R o m a n colonists. It is difficult to imagine that the M a c e d o n i a n a n d T h r a c i a n people a n d m o r e recent Greek i m m i g r a n t s would have lacked a sense o f being a subject people.'^ A m o n g the Thessalonians the m e m o r y o f rebellion put d o w n by a R o m a n c o m m a n d e r was kept fresh by officially h o n o r i n g the R o m a n c o m m a n d e r s as the "savior" o f the city.

15. The impact of the Roman imperial order is not the same as what is called "Romanization." Ramsay MacMullen, Romanization in the Time of Augustus (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000), provides a recent discussion of the limited degree of Romanization in various areas of the Empire. Cultural influences, moreover, were multilateral and multidirectional. 16. De Vos, Church and Community Conflicts, 238-47; Oakes, Philippians, 19-35.

12

Richard A. Horsley

A l t h o u g h each o f t h e cities in w h i c h Paul helped catalyze a n " a s s e m b l y " was different f r o m the others, C o r i n t h surely constituted the m o s t diverse a n d

fragmented

social a t m o s p h e r e . T h e r e was n o c o n t i n u i t y o f

stabilizing tradition from ancient times, since the R o m a n s h a d destroyed the city in 1 4 6 B.C.E. B y Paul's t i m e a n e w clique o f wealthy a n d powerftil m a g n a t e s , lacking even the m i n i m a l prestige o f " n o b l e b i r t h " a n d l o n g standing leadership, w o u l d have e m e r g e d from the R o m a n c o l o n y o f a r m y veterans, free slaves, a n d undesirables sent there in 4 4 B.C.E. A n d as C o r i n t h e m e r g e d as the central city o f R o m a n Greece a n d the principal center o f trade between R o m e a n d the East, a great diversity o f o t h e r r o o t less people gradually gathered there. It is n o t clear w h a t if any principles o f social cohesion would have existed below the level o f the newly c o n s t r u c t e d civic culture in this multicultural, multilingual, a n d multiethnic m e t r o p o lis. W h i l e m o s t o f the people Paul interacted with in Galatia, Philippi, a n d Thessalonica w o u l d likely have experienced local disruption, those he worked with in C o r i n t h m a y well have been the p r o d u c t s o f m o r e e x t e n sive a n d pervasive disruption a n d displacement.

Slavery T h e m o s t e x t r e m e f o r m o f displacement, o f course, was slavery. It h a d been basic to the political e c o n o m y o f ancient Greece, a n d it b e c a m e increasingly fundamental t o the R o m a n political e c o n o m y as well during the period o f expansive imperial conquests in the late Republic.^^ In a r e m a r k able coincidence o f forces, d u r i n g their conquests o f new territories the R o m a n warlords seized tens o f t h o u s a n d s o f new slaves. These slaves were t h e n b o u g h t by R o m a n patricians, including the warlords, t o w o r k lands that they seized from the peasants because o f debts acquired while the m e n were serving in the legions that the warlords used in their conquests. R o m a n soldiers were replaced o n the land by the slaves they helped to c a p ture while serving in t h e legions. T h e resulting dependence o n slave labor

17. Recent studies of Roman slavery include Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978); Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982; and Keith R. Bradley, Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire (Brussels: Latomus 1984); Slavery and Society in Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Survey of recent scholarship appears in Richard A. Horsley, "The Slave Systems of Classical Antiquity and Their Reluctant Recognition by Modern Scholars," Semeia 83/84 (1998): 19-66. Further discussion and documentation of the points and issues in the following paragraphs can be found in the above studies. The implications of these more critical analyses of ancient slavery for PauFs mission and letters are explored in Horsley, "Paul and Slavery: A Critical Alternative to Recent Readings," Semdfl 83/84 (1998): 153-200.

Introduction

13

in the R o m a n e c o n o m y thus powerfully reinforced slavery as a standard feature o f life in the Greek cities a n d o t h e r areas o f the E m p i r e . Even t h o u g h m o s t families, being extremely poor, could n o t afford slaves, the slaveholding patriarchal family was u n d e r s t o o d as t h e f u n d a m e n t a l building block o f society a n d civilization in Greek a n d R o m a n

antiquity.

Slaveholding was thus n o t only the e c o n o m i c basis o f the elite w h o d o m i n a t e d the R o m a n imperial o r d e r but also b o t h the poHtical-economic basis o f t h e social o r d e r a n d the n o r m a t i v e ideal o f imperial culture. N e w Testament scholarship, heavily d e p e n d e n t o n a traditional western E u r o p e a n classics scholarship that idealized Greek a n d R o m a n civilization, has generally underestimated the severity o f slavery a n d its basic i m p o r t a n c e in the ancient Greek a n d R o m a n political e c o n o m y .

Only a

generation ago, slavery was being p o r t r a y e d as relatively benign, o n the false a n d misleading a s s u m p t i o n s that in the early E m p i r e slaves could reasonably expect e m a n c i p a t i o n after age thirty (life e x p e c t a n c y for m o s t slaves was probably less) a n d that slaves m u s t have been relatively h a p p y since the incidence o f slave revolts is low. T h o s e assumptions, however, were based o n a misreading o f Augustan directives a n d o n a lack o f attent i o n t o a whole system o f social a n d political constraints, repressive m e a s ures, and physical a n d psychological intimidation a n d degradation that left little o r n o r o o m for slaves t o c o m m u n i c a t e a n d organize across h o u s e holds. Recent discussions o f slavery as a m e a n s o f " u p w a r d mobility" have been based o n a limited a n d unrepresentative sample o f epigraphs and a n overestimate o f the "influence" that "managerial slaves" such as those high in the familia

Caesaris would have wielded. Precisely because the N T field has

downplayed slavery and its effects in the R o m a n E m p i r e , it is necessary t o consider the various and wide-ranging ways that it affected subject peoples. W e c a n focus o n a few o f the obvious c o n n e c t i o n s in which R o m a n practices o f slavery m a y have affected the people Paul worked with, since a m o r e extensive survey is impossible in this c o n t e x t . S o m e o f the t h o u s a n d s o f Galileans enslaved in the areas o f Magdala and Nazareth in 5 2 and 4 B.C.E., respectively, o r their descendants, likely e n d e d u p in cities such as R o m e o r C o r i n t h . W h e t h e r o f Galilean o r Syrian o r Galatian e x t r a c t i o n , a certain n u m b e r o f slaves in cities such as C o r i n t h a n d Ephesus b e c a m e participants in the assemblies Paul helped catalyze. O t h e r s w h o joined Paul's

18. Reviewed in Horsley, "The Slave Systems of Classical Antiquity." On the other hand, some previous discussions of Paul and slavery have proceeded on the assumption that it would have been an option in the Roman Empire to advocate the abolition of slavery (and that Paul must have been conservative for not advocating its abolition). But slavery was integral to the Roman imperial order in much the same way as capitalism is to "the American way of life."

14

Richard A.

Horsley

assembly in a city such as C o r i n t h were probably descendants o f freed slaves. T h o s e slaves a n d

freedmen/women,

along with others in Paul's

assemblies, k n e w well the circumstances in which people b e c a m e slaves a n d what those m e a n t in t e r m s o f "natal alienation" as well as in t e r m s o f h u m a n degradation. M o r e generally, the very presence o f slaves in t h e society u n d e r m i n e d any e c o n o m i c leverage that free laborers, the vast m a j o r i t y o f w h o m were p o o r o r m a r g i n a l anyhow, m i g h t have h a d with the wealthy a n d powerful w h o controlled each city. A n d o f c o u r s e , in t h e c o n t e x t o f the obvious "pecking o r d e r " a n d s h a m e a n d degradation that slavery entailed, the p o o r a n d marginal were always faced with the threat o f sinking into slavery.

Patronage O n e o f the principal reasons that little attention has been given to power relations in that part o f the R o m a n E m p i r e where Paul pursued his mission is the ostensibly "kinder-gentler" face that the R o m a n imperial order p r e sented t o its subjects in such already "civilized" areas. Following its military conquest o f the cities o f Greece a n d Asia Minor, R o m e did n o t maintain large armies o f o c c u p a t i o n there, as it did in "uncivilized" frontier areas. N o r did Augustus a n d his successors develop an elaborate imperial b u r e a u c r a c y t o " a d m i n i s t e r " the E m p i r e . Rather, w h a t held the E m p i r e together as m u c h as anything was the elaborate network o f personal relations between the imperial family a n d the provincial elite a n d the elaborate " h o n o r s " sponsored by the latter for the former. City a n d provincial elites cultivated the personal patronage o f the emperor, a n d in t u r n patronized public life in the c i t i e s . T h e R o m a n imperial o r d e r thus presented a public face o f

19. See esp. the works by Price, Zanker, and Gordon, reprinted in Horsley, Paul and Empire. Basic treatments of the patronage system include Richard Sailer, Personal Patronage under the Early Empire (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982); Sailer, "Status and Patronage," ch. 28 in The High Empire, A.D. 70-192 (ed. Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, et al.; CAH 11; 2d ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), esp. 8 3 8 - 5 1 ; Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, ed., Patronage in Ancient Society (London: Routledge, 1989), esp. the reflective theoretical article by Wallace-Hadrill; and Wallace-Hadrill, "The Imperial Court," ch. 7 in The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C-A,D. 69 (ed. Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, et al.; CAH 10; 2d ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 2 9 6 - 3 0 6 . Summary of the implications of these studies and analyses appears in Horsley, Paul and Empire, 8 8 - 9 5 , "Introduction" to part 2. The closely related development of an imperial patronage network and the sponsorship of the imperial cult by local elites belong to the general maneuvering of provincial aristocracies to situate themselves favorably in the new imperial order; see, e.g., Price, Rituals and Power; Susan Alcock, ed.. The Early Roman Empire in the East (Oxbow Monograph 95; Oxford: Oxbow, 1995); and Greg Woolf, Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

Introduction

15

beneficence to its subject peoples, at least in the cities. N e w Testament scholars have previously explored h o w patron-client relations provided a pattern that m a y have influenced relationships in Pauline c o m m u n i t i e s a n d c o n c e p t i o n s o f the people's relationship with G o d . Patronage relations a m o n g the imperial elite, however, are also o n e o f the principal ways by which the local elite m a i n t a i n e d public o r d e r a n d exerted control over the people. It is difficult, moreover, t o imagine that subject peoples were totally unaware o f this. T h e cohesion o f the imperial o r d e r at the top a n d its c o n trol o f the people was structured in a variety o f interconnected personal a n d public relationships. T h e R o m a n e m p e r o r a n d / o r Senate did, o f course, send o u t governors to the various provinces. But besides cultivating such R o m a n officials, wealthy a n d powerful city a n d provincial figures also cultivated personal relations with the e m p e r o r a n d / o r imperial family m e m b e r s . T h e y m a d e lavish gifts t o the imperial family and e n d o w e d public h o n o r s in various f o r m s , in gratitude for the award o f imperial favors they sought a n d received. T h e y also developed reciprocal relations with other figures in R o m e close t o the center o f power (see Plutarch, Moralia

8 1 4 C ) . Because

the city a n d provincial m a g n a t e s involved in these relationships were also the highest-ranking officials o f their local city governments, such personal patronage relations overlapped with the official patronal relations

of

e m p e r o r a n d city o r province. Yet the personal patronage relations between the e m p e r o r a n d the local elite constituted the m o r e i m p o r t a n t a n d effective lines by which power flowed between imperial center a n d local a n d regional wielders o f power. Pliny portrays the g o o d e m p e r o r as m o r e o f a paternal

protector

(Panegyricus

and benefactor

than

a n efficient

administrator

2.21).^° T h e E m p i r e was held together at the top by a vast net-

w o r k o f patronage. A n d patronage was the m e a n s by which p r o m i n e n t figures e n h a n c e d a n d m a i n t a i n e d their wealth a n d p r o m i n e n c e in cities such as C o r i n t h o r Ephesus. W i t h their positions o f wealth, power, a n d privilege thus secured b y their personal relations with the imperial c o u r t , local elites c o n t i n u e d t o generate the wealth a n d power t o d o m i n a t e affairs in given cities. There, in r e t u r n for their beneficence to the city, by the fiinding o f a public building o r festival, they were elected t o high office a n d h o n o r e d with public inscriptions a n d m o n u m e n t s . O n a m o r e limited scale, as well, wealthy m e n b e c a m e patrons o f local thiasoi o r collegia o f artisans or burial clubs, funding their banquets a n d in return having their n a m e s h o n o r e d a n d birthdays celebrated. T h e flow o f power at the top for the m u t u a l benefit o f the imperial and provincial elite was thus m a d e to appear t o w o r k for 20. Peter Garnsey and Richard Sailer, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 149.

16

Richard A.

Horsley

the benefit o f the subject peoples. A n d there was n o separation o f religion a n d politics, " c h u r c h a n d state," since the public beneficence o f the local magnates often consisted o f building a temple to the gods o r the emperor, in reward for which they attained public religious as well as civic office. Hence, their patronage o f their cities manifested the necessity o f the politicale c o n o m i c gulf between the elite a n d the people. It was g r o u n d e d in, a n d expressed in, the divine world o n which the public order was founded. A n d u n d e r the R o m a n E m p i r e , that divine world b e c a m e imperial as well.

Imperial Cult T h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t a n d effective way that u r b a n and provincial oligarchies c o n s t r u c t e d a n d maintained the R o m a n imperial o r d e r was their sponsorship o f the imperial cult.^^ To cultivate imperial favor a n d o p e n access to imperial p o w e r a n d favors, local elites h o n o r e d the e m p e r o r o r imperial family m e m b e r s by setting u p shrines a n d building temples in redesigned city centers (agorai)

a n d by funding festivals a n d imperial

games. T h e imperial cult was n o t i m p o s e d f r o m the imperial center, where R o m a n reserve required that living e m p e r o r s decline to be worshiped as a g o d . T h e celebration a n d h o n o r i n g o f Augustus a n d his successors as divine figures. Lords a n d Saviors o f the world, was developed by the elite in the Greek cities themselves, o n the basis o f the already-existing civil religion, in cities such as Ephesus, C o r i n t h , a n d Thessalonica. N e w Testament interpreters h a d tended to underestimate the i m p o r t a n c e o f the imperial cult, dismissing it as m o r e o f a set o f e m p t y political gestures t h a n a serious religious expression. Classical historians, o n the o t h e r hand, h a d tended to dismiss the e m p e r o r cult as having little serious political role in the imperial order. O n e o f the significant contributions o f S i m o n Price to the n e w appreciation o f the i m p o r t a n c e o f the R o m a n imperial order for understanding Paul's gospel a n d mission is his theoretical critique o f m o d e r n Western Christian assumptions about religion. N o t only is religion n o t separate f r o m politics, b u t religious expressions include far m o r e t h a n personal faith, a n d can even include the architectural c o n struction o f the u r b a n e n v i r o n m e n t . Indeed, religious expressions can p a r ticipate in the c o n s t r u c t i o n o f political power relations. T h e inscriptional, n u m i s m a t i c , a n d o t h e r archaeological evidence that Price and others have investigated a n d interpreted indicate that in the early R o m a n E m p i r e , the imperial cult went far toward constituting R o m a n imperial power relations in the Greek cities. In the p r o m i n e n t placement o f temples, statues, a n d shrines dedicated t o the emperor, the presence o f

21. See esp. the important work of Simon R. E Price, Rituals and Power; excerpted in Horsley, ed., Paul and EmpirCy 4 7 - 7 1 .

Introduction

17

the e m p e r o r c a m e to " p e r v a d e public space." Insofar as the emperor's birth v^as celebrated n o t only as the beginning o f the year b u t the beginning o f a n e w era, the imperial cult c a m e t o structure u r b a n t i m e . Insofar as m a j o r regional festivals such as intercity games were n o w dedicated t o the e m p e r o r o r founded in his h o n o r , the imperial cult b e c a m e the m o s t i m p o r t a n t expression a n d g u a r a n t o r o f social cohesion. A n d insofar as the e m p e r o r was n o w the principal divine force in each city's p a n t h e o n , the e m p e r o r stood at the center o f the divine powers in which societal life was grounded. T h e locally developed a n d sponsored imperial cult thus c a m e n o t only to e m b o d y a public cognitive system o f imperial power relations, but also to c o n s t r u c t the o r d e r o f the imperial world. T h e i m p a c t o f the imperial cult o n people in the Greek cities would have been persistent a n d unavoidable. E m p e r o r a n d E m p i r e were s t r u c t u r e d a n d literally inscribed into their very u r b a n environment. In order t o i m a g i n e h o w the p r e s e n c e o f the e m p e r o r

p e r v a d e d public

space,

A m e r i c a n s could think o f h o w the visual displays, music, a r o m a s , a n d advertising o f the five-week festival o f C h r i s t m a s pervade public and private life f r o m Thanksgiving to N e w Year's Day. Although the imperial cult a n d its festivals did n o t invade private life, they did last n o t simply for five weeks, but all year r o u n d .

Rhetoric Yet another f o r m by which imperial power relations were constituted was public rhetoric.^^ N e w Testament scholars have investigated Greek a n d R o m a n rhetoric in o r d e r t o appreciate better the f o r m taken by Paul's a r g u m e n t s . Again, the m o d e r n Western a s s u m p t i o n o f the separation o f cultural a n d religious f o r m s f r o m political life a n d power relations blocked recognition o f rhetoric as a m a j o r m e a n s by which the R o m a n imperial o r d e r was maintained. R o m a n officials a n d writers such as Cicero h a d long since theorized explicitly that the t w o basic motives leading to c o n f o r m i t y to the established o r d e r were fear o f the sword a n d consent, which was generated by persuasion. U n d e r the R o m a n E m p i r e , however, rhetoric

fiinc-

tioned quite differently f r o m the way it h a d u n d e r the earlier Greek city-state. R h e t o r i c developed as an i n s t r u m e n t o f participatory politics in w h i c h rival politicians w o u l d a t t e m p t t o persuade the city assembly t o take a particular c o u r s e o f a c t i o n o r reach a particular verdict in a judicial case. In a society c o m p o s e d o f slaveholding patriarchal families, o f course, r h e t o r i c also a s s u m e d a n d articulated particular relations o f d o m i n a t i o n .

22. The following paragraphs draw upon Richard Horsley, "Rhetoric and Empire—and 1 Corinthians," in Paul and Politics, 7 2 - 8 2 , and sources listed there.

18

Richard A.

Horsley

legitimating slavery a n d the erosion o f women's rights. It seems a bit o f an overstatement t o i m a g i n e that " r h e t o r i c provided the rules for m a k i n g critical j u d g m e n t s in the course o f all f o r m s o f social intercourse,"^^ even in a d e m o c r a t i c classical Athens. U n d e r the R o m a n E m p i r e , however, the decisions a b o u t all i m p o r t a n t matters o f city affairs had already been m a d e , either in R o m e o r by the oligarchies whose power R o m e strengthened. Indeed, the R o m a n patricians w h o created the E m p i r e h a d always o p p o s e d d e m o c r a c y . To guarantee elite c o n t r o l o f the Greek cities, the R o m a n s simply abolished city assemblies, gradually destroyed the lawc o u r t s , a n d established a p r o p e r t y requirement for holding public ofifice.^^ Correspondingly, the R o m a n a n d Greek aristocracies further developed rhetoric as a key i n s t r u m e n t o f imperial order. As lawcourts b e c a m e m o r e a n d m o r e the instruments o f the aristocracies, judicial rhetoric served to legitimate their decisions. Stripped o f their power, ekklesiai

deliberated

a b o u t inconsequential issues, mainly in the service o f established power relations, such as additional h o n o r s to the e m p e r o r o r the election o f oligarchs t o office in r e t u r n for their m a g n a n i m o u s public beneficence, such as building a temple. Civic festivals, o f course, required public eloquence. A n d the a g o r a o r theater was a g o o d place to hear a g o o d speech. Indeed, public d e c l a m a t i o n b e c a m e a principal f o r m o f public e n t e r t a i n m e n t in lecture halls as well as temples and theaters. B u t those public speeches were delivered by figures o f power, influence, a n d / o r wealth w h o belonged t o the oligarchic circle.^^ A n d the m o s t p r o m i n e n t t h e m e in o r a t o r y o f the early E m p i r e "is that o f peace, established a n d maintained by the e m p e r o r t h r o u g h o u t the whole w o r l d , . . . an end t o s t a s i s , " . . . a n d a "recognition that the E m p i r e provides its inhabitants with asphaleia,

security against external attack."^^ Greek

intellectuals such as Plutarch e x p o u n d e d for all to hear h o w beneficial R o m a n rule was for subject peoples. F o r in contrast to o t h e r empires, u n d e r R o m a n power they were "free," n o t "enslaved." Indeed, R o m a n

23. Burton L. Mack, Rhetoric and the New Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 2 9 , 3 1 . 24. G. E. M. de Ste. Crobc, Class Struggle in the Ancient World (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981), 3 0 0 - 2 6 ; confirmed for Achaia and Corinth, by Susan Alcock, Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). 25. See, more broadly, Simon Swain, Hellenism and Empire: Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World, A.D. 50-250 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996); and Ewen Bowie, "Literature and Sophistic," ch. 7 in The High Empire, esp. 9 0 0 - 3 . 26. V. Nutton, "The Beneficial Ideology," in Peter Garnsey and C. R. Whittaker, eds.. Imperialism in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 2 1 0 - 1 1 , with references.

Introduction

19

d o m i n i o n was truly the w o r k o f the gods (Mor. 8 1 4 F ; The Fortune Romans

of the

3 1 6 , 323).^^ T h a t t h e m e o f an end t o strife in the imperial "peace,"

however, also betrays an uneasiness a m o n g the oligarchs a b o u t

the

"exploitation and inequality" in the R o m a n imperial o r d e r o f which they were the beneficiaries.^^ As Aristotle had observed centuries before, " P a r t y strife is everywhere due to inequality" {Pol. 5 . 1 . 6 1 3 0 1 b 2 7 ) . Oratory, however, provided m o r e than entertainment. It constituted a principal source o f culture. Along with the imperial temples, shrines, a n d festivals a n d the other c o n s t r u c t i o n s o f the very e n v i r o n m e n t o f civic life, rhetoric p r o d u c e d the d o m i n a n t cultural c o n t e n t o f civic life. T h e i m p a c t o n the life a n d consciousness o f the residents o f cities such as C o r i n t h o r Thessalonica would have been ubiquitous, steady, a n d pervasive. T h e c o m bined i m p a c t o f the imperial cult a n d public o r a t o r y o n o r d i n a r y people subject to the R o m a n imperial o r d e r would have been analogous to that o f television p r o g r a m m i n g a n d advertising in late-twentieth-century u r b a n life. W i t h all i m p o r t a n t political-economic-religious matters already dictated by imperial power a n d nothing significant to be decided any longer by ostensibly d e m o c r a t i c civic institutions, the d o m i n a n t f o r m s o f culture e n c o u r a g e tacit acceptance of, a n d consensus about, the order o f things.

Paul and the Roman Imperial Order T h e essays in this v o l u m e provide explorations o f particular aspects o f Paul's opposition to the R o m a n imperial order. Because o f the standard orientation o f N T studies, little has been d o n e previously in this connection. Only recently has it been suggested that Paul c o u c h e d his gospel in pointedly anti-imperial t e r m s a n d that he understood his assemblies as c o m m u nities o f an alternative society.^^ So the essays below are all somewhat exploratory ventures into uncharted territory. These investigations lead to the conclusion that Paul was "in but n o t o f " the R o m a n imperial order. H e shared the language o f the E m p i r e and even s o m e o f the particular forms o f persuasion, he borrowed the themes and t e r m s o f the E m p i r e , a n d he established communities that remained resident in the d o m i n a n t culture. Yet he

27. As Edward Said comments about modern Western imperial culture, "The rhetoric of power all too easily produces an illusion of benevolence when deployed in an imperial setting." Culture and Imperialism (New York: Random House, 1993), xvii. 28. Fuller discussion is in Lawrence L. Wellborn, "On the Discord in Corinth: 1 Corinthians 1-4 and Ancient Politics/'/BL 106 (1987): 9 4 - 9 6 . 29. For example. Dieter Georgi, Theocracy in PauVs Praxis and Theology; Elliott, Liberating Paul; the essays or chapters reprinted in Horsley, Paul and Empire, parts 3 - 4 ; and the essays by Neil Elliott, N. T. Wright, and Allen Callahan, in Horsley, Paul and Politics.

20

Richard A.

Horsley

used those themes a n d terms to articulate the gospel of, and build assemblies loyal to, a L o r d a n d a G o d w h o not only offered an alternative to, b u t stood in j u d g m e n t over, the imperial Savior and the ostensible "peace a n d security" he offered. T h e investigation by Robert Jewett d e m o n s t r a t e s that the opposition between Paul a n d the R o m a n imperial o r d e r extends even t o their respective understandings o f the natural order. Jewett closely examines h o w differently R o m 8 : 1 8 - 2 3 reads w h e n set against the b a c k g r o u n d o f the R o m a n imperial ideology o f the renewal o f nature. Central to the p r o p a g a n d a o f Augustus, a n d his successors, were massive m o n u m e n t s , such as the A r a Pacis, and celebrative festivals in R o m e a n d t h r o u g h o u t the E m p i r e that claimed that his imperial peace h a d restored M o t h e r E a r t h t o a veritable supernatural fertility a n d productivity, bringing a b o u t a golden age o f prosperity. In the diverse m e m b e r s h i p o f the R o m a n assembly, Paul was addressing an audience that knew quite well that R o m a n imperial c o n quests a n d e c o n o m i c exploitation had in fact devastated villages a n d fields, deforested m o u n t a i n s , and eroded the natural e n v i r o n m e n t in general. A n d to t h e m he portrayed the world as " g r o a n i n g a n d travailing" as it awaited its liberation, along with that o f " t h e sons o f God," f r o m the futility t o which it had been subjected—^by implication, by arrogant and sinful imperial practices. A b r a h a m Smith finds that Paul's mission a n d c o m m u n i t y f o r m a t i o n was enmeshed in the continuing political conflict between p r o - R o m a n elites and m o r e p o p u l a r resistance a m o n g various subject peoples. T h e personal t u r m o i l o u t o f which Paul c a m e t o join the m o v e m e n t o f Jesusfollowers, o f course, was fully e m b e d d e d in, a n d inseparable from, just such a struggle a m o n g Diaspora and Judean Jews over R o m a n imperial rule. A n d Smith observes that m u c h o f the conflict in Judea itself during late-Second Temple times was between the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy a n d their retainers, o n o n e hand, a n d o n the o t h e r h a n d Judean groups that c a m e together in resistance to R o m a n rule. C o n v i n c e d by those w h o view 1 Thess 2 : 1 4 - 1 6 as original to Paul's letter. Smith argues that a parallel c o n flict in Thessalonica accounts for Paul's reference t o events in Judea a n d is the context in which to understand Paul's exhortation to the Thessalonians. H e urges t h e m to stand fast in their c o m m u n i t y solidarity against their attackers, w h o defend a n d boast in the "peace a n d security" supposedly guaranteed by the R o m a n imperial order. Neil Elliott explains h o w Paul b o r r o w e d key symbolism from R o m a n imperial ideology to oppose the Empire, focusing primarily o n imagery o f the imperial t r i u m p h in 2 Corinthians. In pointed contrast to the imperial triumphal procession that acclaims the irresistible power o f the conquering military hero, Paul portrays himself as the defeated and despised victim o f

Introduction

21

imperial violence. In his reversal o f the public p e r f o r m a n c e o f the imperial t r i u m p h , God's power is manifest in Paul's humiliation a n d Christ's c r u c i fixion, because Christ's crucifixion by " t h e rulers o f this a g e " is the inaugural event by vsrhich G o d is n o w subjecting the imperial rulers. Elliott also provides a vivid recent e x a m p l e o f h o w c o n t e m p o r a r y Christians draw u p o n Paul's anti-imperial p e r f o r m a n c e o f e m b o d i e d divine power t o c o u n t e r the t o r t u r e o f personal bodies and the b o d y politic by the P i n o c h e t national-security state sponsored by the United States. Rollin R a m s a r a n provides a timely a n d provocative reminder that rhetoric is political a n d that Paul's rhetoric m u s t be heard in the R o m a n imperial context. W h e t h e r o r n o t he had been formally educated in the f o r m s o f G r e c o - R o m a n rhetoric, he clearly used standard types o f a r g u m e n t in his Letters. T h e overall agenda a n d perspective o f his a r g u m e n t s , however, can only be u n d e r s t o o d in the c o n t e x t o f resistance to the R o m a n imperial o r d e r in the Judean apocalyptic tradition. In 1 Corinthians in particular, Paul appears t o deploy G r e c o - R o m a n f o r m s in the b r o a d e r pattern a n d perspective o f a Judean apocalyptic rhetorical register. R a m s a r a n thus provides an i m p o r t a n t corrective a n d antidote to recent presentations o f Paul's a r g u m e n t s as if they simply replicated the f o r m s in G r e c o - R o m a n rhetorical h a n d b o o k s . Efrain Agosto examines G r e c o - R o m a n letters o f r e c o m m e n d a t i o n t o the e m p e r o r o r high-ranking persons by p a t r o n s such as Cicero a n d Pliny for their proteges, c o m m u n i c a t i o n s instrumental to the patronage system that held the E m p i r e together at the top, a n d h o w the c o m m e n d a t i o n passages in Paul's Letters c o m p a r e . H e finds that Paul's c o m m e n d a t i o n s differ significantly from letters o f r e c o m m e n d a t i o n seeking positions o f power a n d status for the a d v a n c e m e n t o f personal careers o f m e m b e r s o f the R o m a n o r provincial elite. Despite s o m e similarities in motif, such as close personal relations, Paul rather emphasizes sacrificial service to the m o v e m e n t he and others are building. Paul's c o m m e n d a t i o n s d o apparently a i m at strengthening his o w n network o f friends a n d trusted associates in the leadership o f the m o v e m e n t he is building. T h a t m o v e m e n t itself, however, stands in opposition to the imperial system that the elite are administering. Drawing o n the research o f classical historians such as Price, Erik H e e n shows h o w Paul used a key image from the imperial ideology t o oppose it. H e e n highlights the aristocratic passion for h o n o r s as perhaps a key factor driving their sponsorship o f h o n o r s to the e m p e r o r a n d their beneficent funding o f c o n s t r u c t i o n o f public spaces a n d buildings (euergetism),

which

effectively secured their positions o f power, privilege, a n d local d o m i n a n c e in the imperial order. H e is thus able to provide an illuminating new c o n text for, and a compelling new perspective on, the " C h r i s t - h y m n " in Phil 2 : 6 - 1 1 . Instead o f being a "christological" expression o f Christ's preexistence.

22

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this h y m n uses a key phrase from the imperial cult to p o r t r a y Jesus Christ as the very opposite o f the e m p e r o r : far from valuing and seeking h o n o r s equal to g o d , he was m a r t y r e d by the R o m a n rulers ( o n a c r o s s ) — a f t e r which he was elevated into the highest position as the c o u n t e r - e m p e r o r . Drawing o n James C. Scott's w o r k o n disguised m o d e s o f resistance, H e e n enables us t o see h o w Paul's c o m m u n i t i e s carved o u t a breathing space for an alternative c o m m u n i t y living o u t an alternative set o f values by imaging Christ, n o t Caesar, as the t r u e ruler o f their lives, precisely because he h a d b e c o m e a p a r a d i g m o f m u t u a l service. Jennifer W r i g h t Knust finds that Paul's critique o f the d o m i n a n t society as hopelessly c a u g h t u p in sexual lust a n d p r o m i s c u i t y is largely an adaptation o f standard criticism in Greek a n d R o m a n cultural discourse. Early R o m a n imperial ideology, however, claimed that Augustus a n d his successors h a d restored public morality. Indeed, the e m p e r o r himself, fiilly in control o f his o w n passions, h a d t a m e d vice a n d i m m o r a l i t y in the p u b lic order by the preservation o f law a n d c u s t o m . In this imperial context, Paul's claim that society at large is fiill o f fornication would have b e e n u n d e r s t o o d as a critique o f b o t h e m p e r o r a n d E m p i r e . To argue that the e m p e r o r in fact has failed a n d that Christ is the t r u e answer t o sin suggests a n anti-imperial stance. In thus adapting a standard critique o f sexual i m m o r a l i t y t o o p p o s e the imperial order, however, Paul in effect reinscribed into his o w n anti-imperial discourse the hierarchical assumptions o f sex, gender, a n d slavery implicit in that critique. While these essays are all focused primarily o n Paul a n d the politics o f the E m p i r e , m a n y o f t h e m inevitably deal with o t h e r aspects o f the overall agenda o f the Paul a n d Politics G r o u p . Nearly all o f t h e m discuss "Paul a n d the politics o f interpretation" in s o m e way. T h o s e by Agosto, Elliott, M a r t i n , R a m s a r a n , a n d Smith deal with " P a u l a n d the politics o f his a s s e m blies" to a lesser o r greater extent. A n d those by R a m s a r a n a n d Smith also t o u c h o n " P a u l a n d the politics o f Israel." In that s a m e c o n n e c t i o n , the essays by Elliott a n d Jewett, like those o f R a m s a r a n a n d Smith, m a k e clear that Paul's opposition to the R o m a n imperial o r d e r draws heavily o n the Israelite/Judean cultural tradition in which he was deeply g r o u n d e d a n d t o which he r e m a i n e d t h o r o u g h l y c o m m i t t e d . Keying from w h a t was c o n s t r u e d as his acceptance o f slavery, a n d working o n conservative o r reformist assumptions that the established o r d e r is acceptable o r inevitable, standard N T scholarship has consistently read Paul as a social conservative.^^ T h e only question is whether he was trying to challenge o r change certain aspects o f the social order, such as

30. Elliott, Liberating Paul 3 1 - 5 2 .

Introduction

23

gender o r ethnic relations. T h e explorations o f various issues, themes, a n d passages in Paul's letters in this v o l u m e indicate that in m a n y interrelated respects, the R o m a n imperial o r d e r is the context in v^hich Paul's gospel a n d mission m u s t be u n d e r s t o o d . T h e y also indicate that Paul presented his gospel a n d organized his assemblies in opposition to that order, a n d even in effective resistance to it. Nevertheless, although Paul was primarily "in b u t n o t o f " the R o m a n imperial order, insofar as he b o r r o w e d key t e r m s a n d standard discourse from

the d o m i n a n t culture, he perpetuates certain imperial images a n d

patterns o f social relations. I n a s m u c h as we are also c o n c e r n e d with the subsequent "politics o f interpretation," we m u s t take into a c c o u n t the influence a n d i m p a c t o f Pauline imagery, language, a n d Letters o n the Christian c h u r c h and culture that read t h e m as sacred Scripture. However m u c h Paul m a y have been using imperial t e r m s for Jesus Christ in opposition to the imperial R o m a n lord a n d savior, he bequeathed imperial images o f Christ t o the c h u r c h that b e c a m e the established imperial religion u n d e r Constantine a n d remained so in western E u r o p e . B u t Christ thus b e c a m e the imperial L o r d , and n o longer the anti-imperial imperial L o r d . It seems a great irony, then, that such imperial images o f Christ were used b y Western Christianity in its collaboration with the powerful

Western

nation-states in their imperial conquests a n d d o m i n a t i o n o f o t h e r peoples. A related aspect o f that irony, moreover, is that "critical" N T studies develo p e d n o t only during the heyday o f western E u r o p e a n imperialism but as o n e o f m a n y a c a d e m i c disciplines in complicity with it.

- 1

-

T H E C O R R U P T I O N A N D REDEMPTION OF CREATION Reading Rom 8:18-23 within the Imperial Context Robert Jewett

I

Introduction n the i m m e n s e literature a b o u t Paul's letter to the R o m a n s , including the extensive debate over the interpretation o f chapter 8 , 1 have n o t e n c o u n -

tered an effort to relate the details o f Paul's a r g u m e n t to G r e c o - R o m a n ideas about the c o r r u p t i o n a n d r e d e m p t i o n o f nature. F o r example, in his influential studies o f R o m a n s in the c o n t e x t o f imperial propaganda, Neil Elliott points t o t h e m a t i c parallels betv^een chapters 8 a n d 13 a n d observes that the references to suffering " w o u l d have evoked sharp e c h o e s " o f i m p e rial violence; b u t rather than dealing with the issue o f creation itself, Elliott follows the traditional track in concluding that Paul "requires subordination rather than defiant opposition to the a u t h o r i t i e s " ' Although Jacob Taubes interpreted Paul's "pohtical theology" as " a pohtical polemic against the Caesars," he m a d e n o effort to address the issue o f creation.^ B r u n o Blumenfeld's recent discussion o f this passage makes n o reference to R o m a n attitudes toward nature.^ Dieter Georgi states in passing that R o m a n s 8 differs

1. Neil Elliott, "Romans 13:1-7 in the Context of Imperial Propaganda," in Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (ed. R. A. Horsley; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1997), 194, 196. While Neil Elliott, in Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1994), 173, does refer to Paul's yearning for the "redemption of the whole creation (Rom. 8:22-23)," that evokes his "personal agony for his people, the Jews," he does not suggest that Paul has Roman imperial views of creation in view. 2. Jacob Taubes, Die Politische Theologie des Paulus: Vortrdge gehalten an der Forschungsstdtte der evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft in Heidelberg 23-27 Februar 1987, ed. A. Assmann et al. (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1995), 27. 3. Bruno Blumenfeld, The Political Paul: Justice, Democracy and Kingship in a Hellenistic Framework (JSNTSup 210; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 3 6 0 - 6 4 . 25

26

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from R o m a n views o f the "idyllic" quality o f n a t u r e / H e cites the Saeculare

Jewett

Carmen

that H o r a c e w r o t e in connection with the imperial games o r g a n -

ized by Augustus, although he concentrates o n the glorification o f the e m p e r o r rather than o n the restoration o f nature.^ Following Georgi's lead 1 would like t o bring imperial views into m o r e direct correlation with Paul's argument. Since understanding Paul's a r g u m e n t depends o n knowledge o f G r e c o - R o m a n views, I begin with the imperial ideology o f nature.

The Corruption and Redemption of Nature in Greco-Roman Culture Hesiod's influential view o f nature envisioned an original, golden age as a t i m e o f happiness w h e n " t h e earth p r o d u c e d spontaneously," w h e n there was n o violence, while the entire h u m a n race lived with luxurious happiness.^ In Works and Days ( 1 0 9 - 2 0 1 ) Hesiod articulates a t h e o r y o f decline from this idyllic beginning, in which h u m a n failure is linked with nature's c o r r u p t i o n . T h e later ages o f silver, bronze, a n d iron are m a r k e d by increasing levels o f violence a n d impiety, w h e n h u m a n s lose their superior m e n tal a n d m o r a l qualities. " T h e Golden Race disappears for n o assigned cause; the Silver because o f hyhris and impiety; the Bronze by internecine war; the H e r o e s by external war; the Iron by exhaustion, o r perhaps because o f their evil-doing."^ In Aratus's Phaenomena Ovid's Metamorphoses

(100-135)

and

( 1 . 8 9 - 1 1 2 ) are similar descriptions o f the ages o f

Gold, Silver, a n d Bronze. In 4 4 B.C.E. the y o u n g Augustus used the a p p e a r a n c e o f a c o m e t a n d the p r o p h e c y o f Vulcanius c o n c e r n i n g the end o f o n e age a n d the beginning o f a n o t h e r t o justify the apotheosis o f the assassinated Julius Caesar.^

4. Dieter Georgi, "God Turned Upside Down," in Paul and Empire (ed. R. A. Horsley), 155. 5. Dieter Georgi, "Who Is the True Prophet?" in Paul and Empire (ed. R. A. Horsley), 3 6 - ^ 6 . 6. Arthur O. Lovejoy et al., Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1935; repr. New York: Octagon, 1965), 28. See also Lutz Kappel, "Hesiod," i?GG 3 (2000): 1703-04; A. Kurress,"Aetas,Aurea,"iMC 1 (1950): 144-50; K. Kubusch, Aurea saecula, Mythos und Geschichte: Untersuchung eines Motives in der antiken Literature bis Ovid (Frankfurt am Main/New York: P. Lang, 1986). 7. Lovejoy et al., Primitivism, 31. 8. See John T. Ramsey and A. Lewis Licht, The Comet of 44 B.C. and Caesars Funeral Games (American Philological Association American Classical Studies 39; Atlanta: Scholars, 1997) 140-45. They note (145) that when Augustus later wrote his Memoires, Vulcanius's prophecy about the end of the ninth age and the beginning of the tenth was "made to concern the return of a Golden Age."

The Corruption

and Redemption

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27

Virgil provided a "messianic"^ d e v e l o p m e n t in this line o f t h o u g h t d u r i n g the period o f upheaval after the assassination. In his Fourth

Eclogue

a

regent is prophesied w h o would restore the golden age o f paradise, w h e n the earth w o u l d again p r o d u c e its b o u n t y w i t h o u t any h u m a n work, a n d w h e n the blight o f h u m a n impiety would n o longer pollute the earth.'° In the light o f Virgil's later s u p p o r t o f A u g u s t u s , t h i s p r o p h e c y was t h o u g h t t o have been fulfilled w h e n he estabHshed the pax

Romana:

A n d in y o u r c o u n s e l s h i p . . . shall this glorious age b e g i n — U n d e r y o u r sway, any lingering traces o f o u r guilt shall b e c o m e void, a n d release the earth f r o m its continual d r e a d . . . . But for y o u , child, shall the earth untilled p o u r forth. . . . Uncalled, the goats shall bring h o m e their udders swollen with milk, a n d the herds shall fear n o t huge lions

T h e serpent, t o o , shall perish, a n d the false

p o i s o n - p l a n t shall perish; Assyrian spice shall spring u p o n every soil

T h e earth shall not feel the harrow, n o r the vine the pruning-

h o o k ; the sturdy p l o u g h m a n , t o o , shall n o w loose his oxen fi-om the yoke. (Virgil, Eel In Virgil's Aeneid

4.11-41)

( 6 . 7 8 9 - 7 9 4 ) , the link with t h e reigning Augustus

b e c o m e s explicit: " H e r e is Caesar a n d all o f lulius's progeny, c o m i n g beneath the revolving heaven. This m a n , this is he, w h o m y o u often hear p r o m i s e d t o y o u , Augustus Caesar, son o f a god, w h o will establish o n c e m o r e . . . the Golden Age in the fields o n c e ruled by Saturn." This tradition provides the b a c k g r o u n d for proclaiming Augustus a n d his successors as inaugurators o f a new, golden age, the "Age o f Saturn," in which paradisial conditions o n the earth w o u l d b e restored. T h e Saecular G a m e s were organized by Augustus in 17 B.C.E. t o m a r k " t h e birth o f a new a g e " in which the "fertility o f M o t h e r E a r t h " was seen

9. Hildebrecht Hommel, "Vergils 'messianisches' Gedicht," in vol. 1 of H. Hommel, Sebasmata: Studien zur antiken relilgionsgeschicte und zum friihen Christentum (Tubingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1983), 2 6 7 - 7 2 , shows that the poem was written in 41 B.C.E., during the period of uncertainty and revolution. 10. Andreas Alfoldi, "Der neue Weltherrscher der vierten Ekloge Vergils," Hermes 65 (1930): 3 6 9 - 8 5 , esp. 369, analyzed the propaganda of the divine ruler who would emerge to redeem Rome from its decline and restore paradisial conditions of plenty on the earth. 11. Hommel, "Vergils *messianisches' Gedicht," 303, notes that the predicted redemptive king in the poem was the son of the consul Asenius Pollio, Virgil's patron. Apparendy it was only later that this prediction was applied to Augustus.

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t o be restored and "guarded by the Fates a n d the Goddesses o f ChUdbirth."'' While there h a d been earlier plans to inaugurate this celebration, which had been postponed for political reasons,'^ Augustus used the appearance o f another c o m e t to justify this celebration that a n n o u n c e d the beginning o f the new age.'^ H o r a c e was c o m m i s s i o n e d to write the official p o e m for the celebration, the Carmen

Saeculare,

which featured the renewal o f nature:

M a y the earth be fertile for harvests a n d herds a n d give to Ceres her garland o f wheat ears; m a y the crops be nourished by Jupiter's g o o d breezes and showers. A later stanza o f Horace's p o e m celebrates the fusion o f morality, peace, a n d prosperity: N o w Faith a n d Peace and H o n o r a n d ancestral D e c e n c y a n d slighted Virtue venture to return, a n d blessed Plenty appears o n c e m o r e with her b r i m m i n g horn.'^ In the ensuing years o n e m o n u m e n t after a n o t h e r was erected t o celebrate this restoration o f the "fruitfulness o f nature,"'^ a sequence that reached its high point in the A r a Pacis Augustae. T h e i m a g e r y o n the Altar o f the Augustan Peace symbolizes " t h e r e t u r n o f this lost age o f b o u n t y a n d goodness."'^ Allusions t o the p r o m i s e d regeneration o f the e a r t h are visible in every aspect o f this magnificent altar. T h e motifs o f the ivy a n d grapevine t h a t appeared in Virgil's Fourth

Eclogue

as signs o f the n e w age

12. Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Rice, Religions of Rome, vol. 1: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 203. 13. Beard et a l , Religions of Rome, 1:205 n.l26; see also Georgi, "True Prophet?" 37. 14. Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988,1990), ch. 5; trans, of Die Bildnisse des Augustus: Herrscherbild und Politik im kaiserlichen Rom (Sonderausstellung der Glyptothek und des Museums fiir Abgiisse klassischer Bildwerke; hrsg. von Klaus Vierneisel und Paul Zanker; Miinchen, 1979), 171. See also Ramsey and Licht, The Comet of 44 B.C., 140-45. 15. Joseph Clancy, trans.. The Odes and Epodes of Horace (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 189-90. 16. Zanker, Die Bildnisse des Augustus, 177. 17. David Castriota, The Ara Pacis Augustus and the Imagery of Abundance in Later Greek and Early Roman Imperial Art (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), 125.

The Corruption

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29

are p r o m i n e n t l y displayed.'^ N e w plants are invented to depict the p a r a disial conditions o f a world m a d e truly new, while the organization o f plants a n d animals in rows a n d ranks conveys the new, hierarchical order. T h e floral displays a n d allusions to Apollo a n d Bacchus convey the message " I f the Golden Age was t o return, this would surely depend in g o o d m e a s ure u p o n the renewal o f the pristine R o m a n values a n d religious tradition" b r o u g h t by Augustus.^^ These scenes are coordinated with scenes o f v i c t o r y over the Parthians, which serve t o c o n f i r m the divine blessing o n the n e w regime.^' T h e twin pillars o n the altar symbolize piety a n d conquest, b o t h o f which were allegedly blessed by the gods. T h e altar gives expression t o Virgil's idea that " t h o s e w h o adhere to divinely appointed law a n d justice m a y in a way sustain o r capture the blessing formerly enjoyed by the Golden Race."^^ T h e political implication was reinforced by the placement o f the Altar o n the C a m p u s M a r t i u s in relation to the gigantic Solarium Augusti in such a way that the pointer o f the sundial would shine directly o n t o the altar o n September 2 3 , Augustus' birthday.^^ T h e central figure o n the peace altar is M o t h e r E a r t h restored, a female figure representing R o m e sitting at ease with " t w o children a n d p o m e granates, grapes a n d nuts o n her lap; in front o f her a c o w a n d a sheep [She] clearly represents notions o f fertility ( h u m a n a n d agricultural), set between images o f sky a n d s e a , . . . 'earth' o r 'fertility' in the sense o f Italy."^'* T h e feminine figure o f Tellus ( M a t e r ) c o m b i n e s features o f Venus, Ceres, a n d Cybele, whose depiction a n d surroundings imply a supernatural world in which plants are larger than life and animals live in peace with o n e another.^^ T h e fused goddesses serve as guarantors o f the new golden age that Augustus was seen t o have restored. " F o r the R o m a n s o f the Augustan period, the c o n c e p t i o n o f the Golden Age e m b o d i e d o n the A r a Pacis [altar] was essentially o n e o f r e n e w a l — t h e renewal o f t i m e a n d the renewal o f b o u n t e o u s life." This was p r o d u c e d by " t h e renewal o f traditional religious practices and m o r a l values."^^ T h e A r a Pacis was widely emulated as depictions o f a fruitful M o t h e r E a r t h c a m e t o center stage o n coins and altars in the period o f Augustus

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

Ibid., 135. Zanker, Power of Images, 184-86. Castriotsiy Ara Pacis Augustus, 139. ZankeTyPower of Images, 189. Castriota, Ara Pads AwgMsrws, 138. Ibid., 131. Beard et al.. Religions of Rome, 204; discussing fig. 4.6. Zankery Power of ImageSy 178,182. Castriota, Ara Pads Awgwstws, 141,144.

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a n d his successors.^^ F o r instance, the g r a n d pubHc altar erected in the Augustan period near the R o m a n colony in C a r t h a g e features a similar "seated female figure, with children in her a r m s , her lap full o f fruit, animals at her feet. This figure is closely based o n the scene o f ' E a r t h ' o n Augustus' A r a Pacis in Rome."^^ A n o t h e r altar in C a r t h a g e has the figure o f E a r t h with a "globe a n d c o r n u c o p i a in front o f her," probably adapted f r o m a R o m a n design.^^ W h i l e these motifs were present o n R o m a n coins in the decades prior t o Augustus, he c o m b i n e d t h e m with the t h e m e o f pieta,

the

p r o p e r h o n o r i n g o f the gods that would ensure the Golden Age with his victory.^° O n e o f his coins has the ruler with divine light streaming f r o m his head while he stands with his foot o n the globe a n d holds the symbols o f the " r e t u r n o f the Golden Age," including the cornucopia.^' Augustus a n d later e m p e r o r s used this symbol o n coins a n d sculpture to indicate that their regimes were the sources o f plentitude. C a p r i c o r n , the nativity star o f Augustus, was associated with the c o r n u c o p i a , indicating that his birth inaugurated the n e w age o f prosperity, a t h e m e a d o p t e d from Hellenistic kingship ideology.^^ Following this tradition, " n u m e r o u s R o m a n Caesars, queens, princes, a n d princesses depict themselves as bringers o f salvation by m e a n s o f the single o r double cornucopia."^^ While n o n e o f the subsequent e m p e r o r s u p until Paul's t i m e was as successful in the p r o p a g a n d a that associated their reigns with the r e d e m p tion o f nature, the t h e m e s r e m a i n e d alive in poetry, art, and the civic cult. Calpurnius Siculus relates these t h e m e s t o the ruling e m p e r o r ( N e r o ) : Rejoice, first o f all, dwellers in the forests, rejoice, O m y people. T h o u g h all y o u r flocks w a n d e r without a guardian, a n d the shepherd neglect to close t h e m in at n i g h t , . . . yet n o thief shall lay his traps near the sheep-fold n o r loosen the tethers o f the beasts o f burden t o drive t h e m off. T h e golden age o f untroubled peace is b o r n again, a n d kindly T h e m i s returns to earth freed from stain a n d rust. T h e h a p p y times are ruled by a y o u t h [Nero] w h o w o n the v i c t o r y while still in his m o t h e r ' s a r m s . W h e n he shall himself reign as a g o d , . . . peace will a p p e a r , . . . a n d c l e m e n c y has broken

27. See Ilona Opelt,"Erde,"iMC5 (1962): 1136-38. 28. Beard et al., Religions of Rome 331, with the altar depicted on 332. 29. Ibid., 333. 30. Alfoldi, "Der neue Weltherrscher," 376. 31. Ibid., 385, provides a number of other Roman coins containing the cornucopia motif 32. Johannes B. Bauer, "Horn I," RAC 16 (1994): 5 4 4 - 4 6 . 33. Ibid., 546.

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

in pieces the weapons o f m a d n e s s

31

Full peace will c o m e u p o n

us, a peace which . . . shall bring back a second reign o f Saturn. {Eel

1.33-99)

Since the " m a d n e s s " o f n o n - R o m a n warfare a n d the c o r r u p t i o n o f barbaric impiety had ruined the world, Nero's reign brings peace that is blessed b y the gods. His magical " v i c t o r y " allegedly restores nature to its original state in the primeval Age o f Saturn, w h e n beasts o f the field were so t a m e that they herded themselves, a n d w h e n the earth b r o u g h t forth its harvest witho u t the use o f the plow. This imperial vision o f the f o r m e r c o r r u p t i o n a n d c u r r e n t r e d e m p t i o n o f M o t h e r E a r t h differs f r o m Paul's letter to the R o m a n s at virtually every point a n d provides a suitable foil for reassessing the relevance o f its a r g u m e n t .

A Reading of Rom 8:18-23 within the Imperial Context R o m a n s is an epideictic letter that does n o t indulge in polemics. W e should therefore anticipate that the relation o f this passage t o the prevailing R o m a n view o f nature is implicit rather t h a n explicit. In thinking t h r o u g h the implications o f Paul's formulation against the foil o f the imperial c o n text, we also need to take a c c o u n t o f the i m p a c t o f the previous a r g u m e n t in the letter. W h e r e a s the R o m a n cult touted piety a n d conquest as the m e a n s whereby the golden age was restored, Paul's letter rejects salvation by works in all its f o r m s . W h e r e a s the R o m a n premise was that disorderly barbarians a n d rebels caused the c o r r u p t i o n o f nature, Paul argues that all h u m a n s reenact Adam's fall. In place o f imperial celebrations a n d a d m i n istration as the hinge o f the golden age, Paul touts the power o f the gospel t o convert the world. Moreover, as the wording o f R o m 8 : 1 8 - 2 3 indicates, the natural world is far f r o m idyllic, a n d it has certainly n o t been restored by the R o m a n i m p e r i u m . D r a w n f r o m a f o r t h c o m i n g c o m m e n t a r y , I t r a n s late R o m 8 : 1 8 - 2 3 as follows: ' T o r I reckon that the sufferings o f the present t i m e are n o t equivalent with the c o m i n g glory to be revealed t o us. ' T o r the eager expectation o f the creation awaits the revelation o f the sons o f G o d . ^Tor the creation was subjected t o futility, n o t voluntarily but o n a c c o u n t o f the o n e w h o subjected it in h o p e ^'because the creation itself will also be freed f r o m the slavery to c o r r u p t i o n a n d obtain the liberation consisting o f the glory for the children o f G o d . ^Tor we k n o w that the whole creation groans together a n d travails together until now.

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" a n d n o t only [the creation] but even ourselves w h o have the first fi-uits o f the spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves as we await the r e d e m p tion o f o u r body. While noting the sufferings t o be experienced by the saints in the eschaton (last/new age) as a traditional motif,^^ c o m m e n t a t o r s tend to overlook the contextual implications that this formulation would have carried for the R o m a n believers. T h e y h a d already experienced h a r a s s m e n t a n d deportation, a n d their everyday life as m e m b e r s o f the R o m a n underclass was anything but idyllic. Paul's formulation simply assumes, w i t h o u t a r g u ing the point, that the Caesarean view a b o u t the presence o f a peaceftil, magically prosperous golden age is illusory. T h e t e r m pathemata

(passions,

sufferings) a p p e a r s in R o m 8 : 1 8 with the article, indicating t h a t t h e t o p i c is k n o w n to the audience. T h e plural f o r m is typical o f Pauhne usage (2 C o r 1:5, 6, 7; Gal 5 : 2 4 ; Phil 3 : 1 0 ; C o l 1 : 2 4 ) , referring to the sufferings that believers should expect in following a suffering Christ.^^ This wording follows the idea o f suffering together with Christ in R o m 8:17. W h i l e in 7:5 the entire fallen world remains subject t o " t a pathemata

ton hamartion

(the

sinful passions)," these particular sufferings in R o m 8 : 1 8 - 2 3 are a sign o f eschatological solidarity with Christ, whose new age is n o w dawning. T h e expression ''ten mellousan

doxan'

should be translated in the

adjectival sense o f " t h e future g l o r y " rather t h a n linking the participle with the verb to depict the close p r o x i m i t y o f " a b o u t t o be revealed" (1:18).^^ Paul used a similar e x p r e s s i o n apokaluphthenai

in Gal 3 : 2 3 ,

(the future faith to be revealed),'

'Hen

mellousan

pistin

indicating that such faith

b e c a m e available only in the future. I find it particularly significant that Paul uses the expression " t o be revealed" in a m a n n e r parallel t o the thesis o f Romans,^'' conveying an apocalyptic disclosure o f the t r i u m p h o f G o d

34. See, for instance, Heinrich Schlier's discussion based on 4 Ezra 13:16-19; 2 Bar. (Syriac Apocalypse) 2 5 : 1 - 3 ; 2 Thess 1:4; in Romerbrief (HTKNT 6; Freiburg: Herder, 1977), 257. James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38a; DaUas: Word, 1988), 4 6 8 - 6 9 , cites Dan 7 : 2 1 - 2 2 , 2 5 - 2 7 ; 12:1-3; Jubilees 23:22-31; Testament of Moses 5 - 1 0 ; IQH 3:28-36; Sibylline Oracles 3:632-56; and Matt 3:7-12 and parallels, in support of the contention that "Paul is taking over an earlier eschatological schema" in this verse. Walther Bindemann, in Die Hojfnung der Schopfung: Romer 8,18-27 und die Frage einer Theologie der Befreiung von Mensch und Natur (Neukirchener Studienbiicher 14; Neukirchen: Neukirchener, 1983), 8 2 - 9 5 , claims that Paul is polemicizing here against an apocalyptic scheme stressing the distance of God; but this argument seems overly abstract and unrelated to the cultural context. 35. See Wilhelm Michaelis, "pathemar TDNT 5 (1967): 9 3 0 - 3 4 . 36. BAGD 501. 37. See Dunn, Romans 1-8, 470.

The Corruption

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33

over adversity a n d the c o r r u p t i o n o f the c o s m i c order. Despite the illusions o f the R o m a n civic cult, the originally intended glory o f the creation shall yet b e restored, including specifically the glory h u m a n s v^ere intended t o bear. T h e phrase ''eis hemas'

that ends R o m 1 : 1 8 could be translated " f o r

us," implying, in J o h n Murray's view, that the glory is " t o be bestowed u p o n us, so that we b e c o m e the actual partakers; it is n o t a glory o f which we are t o b e m e r e spectators."^^ In c o n t r a s t to imperial claims, this is n o t a glory that shines f r o m the head o f Caesar alone. T h e c o n c e p t o f " g l o r y " implied in this passage is in fact quite distant f r o m the classical G r e c o - R o m a n sense o f opinion, reputation, o r r e n o w n ascribed by public o p i n i o n ; it is closely related t o the H e b r e w sense o f kahod (doxa) as innate weightiness, h o n o r , beauty, fiery presence, splendor, o r power.^^ This t e r m is c o m p a r a b l e t o w h a t m o d e r n s refer t o as " s t a r d o m , " the innate capacity s o m e people have t o p e r f o r m with inspiration, to b e intensely attractive, a n d t o shine b e y o n d others. T h e "glory o f G o d " has t h e c o n c r e t e m e a n i n g o f " a fiery p h e n o m e n o n issuing f r o m radiance a n d brilh a n c e , a n d a n abstract m e a n i n g o f h o n o r , worthiness, a n d majesty."'*^ H u m a n beings were created t o reflect such glory (Ps 8 : 1 , 5 ) , which is p a r ticularly visible in the wise ( P r o v 1 1 : 1 6 ; 2 0 : 3 ) a n d symbolized t h r o u g h o u t the ancient N e a r East by the royal c r o w n o r diadem.^' W h e n persons o r nations b e c o m e c o r r u p t , they lose their glory ( H o s 4 : 7 ; 9 : 1 1 ; Jer 2 : 1 1 ; Ezek 2 4 : 2 5 ) , b u t w h e n Yahweh redeems t h e m , their glory is restored

(Isa

3 5 : 1 - 2 ) . T h e c o n n e c t i o n in R o m 8 : 1 8 between "revelation" a n d the restoration o f " g l o r y " is derived f r o m a m a j o r s t r e a m o f prophetic a n d postexilic expectations. Isaiah 2 4 : 2 3 foresees the t i m e " w h e n the LORD o f hosts will reign o n M o u n t Z i o n a n d in Jerusalem, a n d before his elders he will m a n i fest his glory." This expectation reflects E x o d 2 4 : 9 - 1 0 , where Yahweh revealed himself t o the elders at M o u n t Sinai.^^ Deutero-Isaiah foresaw a universal extension o f this idea in 4 0 : 5 : " T h e n the glory o f Yahweh shall b e revealed, a n d all flesh shall see it t o g e t h e r " ( a u t h o r ) . T h e revelation o f divine radiance a n d glory, t o be seen by all the nations, is also expressed in Isa 6 0 : 1 - 3 , which reiterates the t h e o p h a n i c vision o f Deut 3 3 : 2 a n d H a b 3 : 3 - 4 , a vision that will o n e day "fill the whole w o r l d " (Isa 6 : 3 ; N u m 1 4 : 2 1 ; Ps 7 2 : 1 9 ) , thus d e m o n s t r a t i n g God's t r i u m p h over evil.^^

38. John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition, and Notes (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 301. 39. See Gerhard Kittel, ''doxa;' TDNT 2 (1964): 2 3 3 - 5 1 , esp. 247. 40. Weinfeld, "kdbod," ThWAT 4 (1982): 38. 41. Ibid., 3 0 - 3 1 . 42. Ibid., 36. 43. See ibid., 37.

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In the light o f this b a c k g r o u n d and o f Paul's a r g u m e n t c o n c e r n i n g the present experience o f faith in the midst o f suffering, it seems inappropriate t o restrict " g l o r y " in this passage to a future state o f " i m m o r t a l i t y " to be enjoyed by the saints.^ As evident in 8 : 3 0 , v^here the past-tense verb, " h e glorified" is employed, Paul intends the beleagered Christ-believers in R o m e to discern in the growing t r i u m p h o f the gospel the initial evidence o f this glory that will o n e day fill the creation ( c f 2 C o r 3 : 1 8 ) . In R o m 8 : 1 9 Paul explains the c o s m i c scope o f divine glory by introducing the concept o f ktisis (creation), probably referring primarily to the various n o n h u m a n c o m p o n e n t s o f the universe.^^ In contrast to G r e c o R o m a n views o f the eternal M o t h e r Earth, ktisis implies purposeful creation o f the natural order by G o d at a particular m o m e n t in time. T h e biblical creation stories are in view, but in contrast to Genesis, there is a striking measure o f personification in Paul's view o f the n o n h u m a n world; it is capable o f apokaradokia

(eager expectation), just as h u m a n s are (Phil 1 : 2 0 ) .

This word, attested only in these two passages written by Paul, conveys a positive c o n n o t a t i o n o f "confident expectation,"^ very m u c h in contrast to the relaxed depictions o f M o t h e r E a r t h in the A r a Pacis. T h e attitude is c o n trasting, but t h e personification is similar. This personification o f creation is also paralleled in an apocalyptic t r e a t m e n t o f the flood tradition (1 E n o c h 7:6) where the earth takes o n h u m a n qualities as it lays accusation against

44. See Brendan Byrne, "Sows of God"'—'Seed of Abraham'": A Study of the Idea of the Sonship of God of All Christians in Paul against the Jewish Background (AnBib 83; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1979), 107. Similarly, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 33; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 506, restricts glory to that which will occur "in the eschaton." 45. In Rom 1:20-25 ktisis referred to all created things, including birds, reptiles, and humans. But Ulrich Wilckens, Der Brief an die Romer (EKKNT 6; Zurich: Benziger; Neukirchen—Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978-82), 2:152-53; and C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (ICC; Edinburgh: Clark, 1975), 4 1 1 - 1 2 , advance compelling arguments that neither nonChristian believers nor the angelic forces are implied in the formulation of 8:19. See also B. R. Brinkman, "'Creation' and 'Creature' II. Texts and Tendencies in the Epistle to the Romans," Bijdr 18 (1957), 3 5 9 - 7 4 ; and John G. Gibbs, Creation and Redemption: A Study in Pauline Theology (NovTSup 26; Leiden: Brill, 1971). 46. D. R. Denton, "'apokaradokia;' ZNW 73 (1982): 139, in contrast to Georg Bertram's problematic argument from etymology that the term carries a sense of anxious waiting, in ''apokaradokia^' Z N W 49 (1958): 2 6 4 - 7 0 . Bertram's case was accepted by Schlier, Romerbrief 259; and Ulrich Wilckens, Romer, 152. As noted by Gustav Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (trans. L. R. M. Strachan; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965), 374 n. 5, a verbal form of the word that lacks any sense of anxiety appears in Polybius, Hist. 18.31, "to expect earnestiy (apokaradokein) the arrival of Antiochus."

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

35

its a b u s e r s / ' (See also Gen 4 : 1 0 ; Deut 4 : 2 6 ; 3 0 : 1 9 ; 3 1 : 2 8 ; Josh 2 4 : 2 7 . ) Paul's idea o f the natural world eagerly awaiting its o w n r e d e m p t i o n m o v e s in the direction o f m o d e r n ecological theory, which is beginning to recapture a n ancient view o f the world as a living o r g a n i s m ; thus, TeiUiard de C h a r d i n perceived an inchoate longing in the created o r d e r toward higher a n d higher levels o f evolution. In a vision with e x t r a o r d i n a r y relevance for the m o d e r n world, Paul implies that the entire creation waits with bated breath for the emergence a n d e m p o w e r m e n t o f those w h o will take responsibility for its restoration, small groups o f the huioi

tou theou

(sons o f God),^^

which the mission envisioned in R o m a n s hopes to e x p a n d t o the end o f the k n o w n world, to Spain. These converts take the place o f Caesar in the imperial p r o p a g a n d a a b o u t the golden age, b u t they e m p l o y n o weapons t o vanquish foes. W h e n Paul speaks o f their "revelation/unveiling," there is a clear reference t o God's glory advancing in the world t h r o u g h the t r i u m p h o f the gospel. Persuasion rather than conquest is the m e a n s o f their t r a n s f o r m a t i o n . As the children o f G o d are r e d e e m e d by the gospel, they begin to regain a rightful d o m i n i o n over the created world (Gen 1 : 2 8 - 3 0 ; Ps 8 : 5 - 8 ) ; in m o r e m o d e r n t e r m s , their altered lifestyle a n d revised ethics begin to restore the ecological system that h a d been t h r o w n o u t o f balance by w r o n g d o i n g ( R o m 1 : 1 8 - 3 2 ) a n d sin ( R o m 5 - 7 ) . In contrast t o the civic cult, Paul does n o t have a magical t r a n s f o r m a t i o n o f nature in view. T h e b a c k g r o u n d o f Paul's idea o f the fall a n d r e d e m p t i o n o f nature is surveyed by D o n a l d G o w a n , w h o shows that the apocalyptic writers r e m a i n largely within the biblical parameters.*^ B u t like o t h e r biblical scholars, G o w a n does n o t take a c c o u n t o f the peculiar kind o f R o m a n n e w age ideology that provides the foil for R o m a n s . In Paul's case the avenue o f divine action is the conversion o f h u m a n s rather t h a n their enslavement u n d e r a ruler pretending to be a g o d . So w h a t the creation awaits with eager longing is the e m e r g e n c e o f this t r i u m p h o f divine righteousness (cf. R o m 1 : 1 7 ) , which will begin t o restore a rightful balance to the creation,

47. Olle Christoffersson, The Earnest Expectation of the Creature: The FloodTradition as Matrix of Romans 8:18-2 (Stockholm: Ahnqvist & Wiksell, 1990), 120. 48. Fitzmyer, Romans, 507, states the widely shared consensus: " T h e revelation o f the sons of God' refers to glorified Christians." Christoffersson s suggestion in Earnest Expectation, 120-24, that the "sons of God" are the angelic powers widely discussed in apocalyptic literature, does not comport well with the references to the "sonship" of believers in Rom 8:15 and 23. However, his study helps to highlight the fact that Paul places believers in the role of the redemptive angels of 1 Enoch and elsewhere, or in the immediate context of the Roman civic cult, in the role of Caesar. 49. Donald E. Gowan, "The Fall and Redemption of the Material World in Apocalyptic Literature," HBT 7 (1985): 8 3 - 1 0 3 .

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o v e r c o m i n g the A d a m i c legacy o f c o r r u p t i o n a n d disorder that fell as a calamitous curse u p o n the g r o u n d (Gen 3 : 1 7 - 1 9 ) . Paul concentrates o n the t r a n s f o r m e d children o f G o d rather than o n specific actions a n d policies they m a y be led to follow in carrying o u t the ethic o f t r a n s f o r m a t i o n ( R o m 1 2 : 1 - 2 ) ; he assumes that the renewed m i n d o f such groups will be able to discern what G o d wills for the ecological system. So the eager longing o f the creation awaits the appearance o f such t r a n s f o r m e d persons,^" knowing that the sources o f disorder will be addressed by t h e m in due season. Here, as in m a n y o t h e r p o r t i o n s o f this letter, scholars have refrained from thinking t h r o u g h the implications o f Paul's a r g u m e n t because they failed to take the mission c o n t e x t into a c c o u n t . T h e very barbarians that R o m e believed it m u s t subdue in o r d e r to bring about the golden age are the persons t o w h o m Paul feels "obligated" ( R o m 1:14) to share the gospel that constitutes a n e w m e t h o d o f global reconciliation ( 1 5 : 7 - 1 3 ) . In R o m 8 : 2 0 , the explanation o f creation's yearning for r e d e m p t i o n is provided by allusion t o the Genesis story, where the perversion o f t h e originally g o o d a n d glorious garden c o m m e n c e d . In this m y t h , it is the progenitor o f the entire h u m a n race w h o was responsible for the c o r r u p tion o f the creation, n o t the enemies o f R o m a n imperialism. T h e use o f the divine passive, ''hypetage

(was subjected)," points to God's action

in

response to Adam's fall.^' In the Genesis a c c o u n t , the divine curse u p o n the g r o u n d resulted in its p r o d u c i n g " t h o r n s a n d thistles," causing c h r o n i c frustration

symbolized by the "sweat" o n the face o f Adam's descendants

(Gen 3 : 1 7 - 1 9 ) . In this powerful symbolization, h u m a n s trying t o play G o d ended u p ruining n o t only their relations with each other b u t also their relation to t h e natural world ( c f H o s . 4 : 1 - 3 ) . T h e R o m a n m y t h system claimed the exact opposite: that a ruler w h o plays g o d c a n restore the world to a paradisial condition by his piety and military d o m i n a n c e . Paul's choice o f the t e r m mataiotes (emptiness, vanity, fruitlessness) t o depict this situation would have led hearers t o think o f the s o m b e r d i c t u m o f Ecclesiastes, which portrays this same d i l e m m a :

50. See Bindemann, Hoffnung der Schopfung; and Anton Vogde, Das Neue Testament und die Zukunft des Kosmos (Diisseldorf: Patmos, 1970), 193-96; Rom 8:19-22: Eine Schbpfungstheologische oder anthropologisch-soteriologische Aussage? (Gemblaux: Duculet, 1970), 3 5 1 - 6 6 . For a skeptical appraisal of the significance of the cosmological dimension of Paul s argument, see Jorg Baumgarten, Paulus und die Apokalyptik (WMANT 44; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1975), 171-74. 51. See the discussion in Wilckens, Romer, 154; Murray, Romans, 303, refers to this verse as "Pauls commentary on Gen. 3:17, 18." Dunn, Romans 1-8, 470, observes that there is "now general agreement" on this point.

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

37

"Vanity o f vanities," says the Teacher/Preacher, "vanity o f vanities! All is vanity.'" (Eccl 1:2) This d i l e m m a is m o r e basic t h a n the resultant " c o r r u p t i o n " t o be m e n tioned in R o m 8 : 2 1 . " Given the use o f mataiod ( m a k e vain, e m p t y ) in R o m 1:21 to describe the frustration a n d destructiveness o f persons o r groups v^ho suppress the t r u t h a n d refuse to recognize G o d , it seems likely that Paul has in m i n d the abuse o f the natural world by A d a m a n d all o f his descendants. T h e basic idea is that the h u m a n refusal t o accept limitations ruins the world. By acting o u t idolatrous desires to have unlimited d o m i n ion over the garden, the original p u r p o s e o f the c r e a t i o n — t o express divine goodness (Gen 1:31) a n d reflect divine glory (Ps

19:1-4)—^was

e m p t i e d . " As in Eccl 2 : 1 - 1 7 , it is the drive for fame, prestige, a n d i m m o r tal achievement that evacuates the goodness and glory o f the creation a n d piles up endless frustrations in the h u m a n interaction with the natural e n v i r o n m e n t , symbolized in Genesis by the " t h o r n s a n d thistles" ( 3 : 1 8 ) . W i t h such clear allusions to this biblical tradition, Paul's audience could well have t h o u g h t a b o u t h o w imperial ambitions, military conflicts, a n d e c o n o m i c exploitation h a d led to the erosion o f the natural e n v i r o n m e n t t h r o u g h o u t the Mediterranean world, leaving ruined cities, depleted fields, deforested m o u n t a i n s , a n d polluted streams as evidence o f this universal h u m a n vanity. T h a t such vanity in the f o r m o f the pax Romana

had p r o m -

ised the restoration o f the age o f Saturn appears utterly preposterous in the light o f this critical, biblical tradition. T h e s o m e w h a t awkward qualification that the futility o f the n o n h u m a n creation was ''ouch

hekousa

( n o t willingly, n o t voluntarily)" makes

clear that Paul does n o t subscribe to a gnostic view o f the world as innately frustrating a n d evil. T h e fall o f nature was " n o t t h r o u g h its o w n fault"^* because it is the h u m a n race that remains responsible for the defacing o f the ecological system. Paul h a d used this classic t e r m for free will in P h l m

52. See Schlier's critique in Romerbrief 2 6 0 - 6 1 , of the exegetical consensus of most ancient and modern commentators, who argue for the essential identity of "vanity" and "corruption." He mentions Ambrosiaster, Theodoret, Augustinus, Thomas Aquinas, Estius, Bisping, H. W. Schmidt, Althaus, Lietzmann, and Michel; to this list one could add Chrysostom, Julicher, Lipsius, Zahn, Kiihl, and others; see Otto Kuss, Der Romerbrief ubersetzt und erkldrt (Regensburg: Pustet, 1957-78), 626. 53. Cranfield, Romans, 413, refers to the creation "not being able properly to fulfill the purpose of its existence." Schlier s explanation in Romerbrief 260, is so subtiy existential, with the creation absolutizing itself just as humans do, that the causative link between human sin and ecological futility is rendered obscure. 54. Cranfield, Romans, 414.

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Robert

14, describing his preference for the slave owner

Jewett

t o act voluntarily rather

t h a n under c o m p u l s i o n , "in o r d e r that y o u r g o o d deed might n o t be d o n e o u t o f necessity but o u t o f free wiR (kata hekousion)!'

Here Paul continues

the personified m a n n e r o f speaking a b o u t nature, as if it vsrould have p r e ferred n o t t o participate in the sinful ftitility caused by A d a m a n d Eve a n d their descendants. T h e phrase contrasting "voluntarily" is ''dia ton

hypotax-

anta, eph' helpidi ([variant: ep' elpidi] o n a c c o u n t o f the o n e vs^ho subjected it, in h o p e ) , " clearly referring to God's curse against the land in response t o h u m a n s i n . " W e find the same idea derived f r o m Genesis in 4 E z r a 7 : 1 1 : "And v^hen A d a m transgressed m y statutes, w h a t h a d been m a d e was judged." A later rabbi expressed the s a m e idea: "Although things were c r e ated in their fiilness, w h e n the first m a n sinned they were c o r r u p t e d , a n d they will n o t c o m e b a c k to their order before B e n Perez [the Messiah] comes."^^ T h e curse thus remains provisional, awaiting the d a w n o f a genuinely new age w h e n nature will be restored to its original beauty a n d glory. Paul used the s a m e expression ep' elpidi (in hope/anticipation) in R o m 5:2 with specific reference to o v e r c o m i n g suffering. T h e " h o p e " in this passage, to be elaborated in 8 : 2 1 , is that the h u m a n race, which has defaced the world, would be r e d e e m e d a n d begin t o participate in r e m o v i n g the curse f r o m the land.^' Paul's wording makes it absolutely clear that such r e d e m p t i o n is a m a t t e r o f future h o p e , a n d n o t a present political achievem e n t as the R o m a n civic cult was maintaining. In R o m 8:21 Paul formulates this h o p e , that the creation "itself will be set f r e e " " f r o m the A d a m i c distortion. This takes u p a significant t h e m e in Jewish p r o p h e t i s m a n d apocalypticism,^^ which articulate in a contrasting m a n n e r s o m e o f the t h e m e s in the R o m a n expectation. Isaiah's vision o f a messianic fixture includes b o t h a king w h o will restore righteousness a m o n g h u m a n s (Isa 1 1 : 4 - 5 ) and a restoration o f Edenic conditions between animals a n d h u m a n s (Isa 1 1 : 6 - 9 ; 6 5 : 1 7 , 2 5 ; 6 6 : 2 2 ) . Jubilees envisions the

55. It is implausible to suggest that either Adam or Satan may be identified as the "one subjecting it in hope," because neither can be understood as acting "in hope." See Kuss, Romerbrief, 6 2 7 - 2 8 . 56. Cited by Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (trans. E. W. Bromiley; London: SCM; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 233, from Gen. Rab. 12:6. 57. See Franz-J. Leenhardt, The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans: A Commentary (trans. H. Knight; London: Lutterworth, 1961), 125-26. 58. The emphatic ''kai aute (also itself)" explicitly includes nature in the redemptive process, rendering implausible C. K. Barrett's comment in A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (HNTC; 2d ed.; New York: Harper, 1991), 165, that Paul "is not concerned with creation for its own sake." 59. Gowan's survey in "Fall and Redemption," 100-2, concludes that apocalyptic literature echoes but does not extensively develop the biblical theme.

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

39

t i m e w h e n " t h e heavens a n d the earth shall be r e n e w e d " ( 1 : 2 9 ) . First E n o c h speaks o f regaining access to the "fragrant t r e e " o n the seventh m o u n t a i n which restores the joy a n d long life o f E d e n (chaps. 2 4 - 2 5 ; see also 9 1 : 1 6 - 1 7 ) , while the Testament o f Levi anticipates a messianic priest w h o "shall o p e n the gates o f paradise, a n d shall remove the threatening sword against A d a m . A n d he shall give t o the saints to eat f r o m the tree o f life, a n d the spirit o f holiness shall be o n t h e m " ( 1 8 : 1 0 - 1 1 ) . F o u r t h E z r a e x p e c t s the messianic " M a n f r o m the Sea" t o "deliver his c r e a t i o n " f r o m the perils o f violence ( 1 3 : 2 6 ) . T h e Sibylline Oracles predicts a t i m e after the day o f j u d g m e n t a n d the arrival o f a just empire, w h e n the earth will o n c e again b e c o m e " t h e universal m o t h e r w h o will give to m o r t a l s her best fruit in countless store o f c o r n , wine a n d oil

A n d the cities shall be frill o f g o o d

things a n d the fields r i c h " ( 3 . 7 4 4 - 7 4 5 , 7 5 0 - 7 5 1 ) . These oracles reiterate Isaiah's vision o f wolves a n d lambs eating grass together, with n o creature h a r m i n g others ( 3 . 7 8 8 - 7 9 5 ) . As we have seen, Paul's version o f this E d e n i c h o p e features the c o n verted "children o f G o d " ( R o m 8 : 1 9 ) in place o f the righteous king, priest, or

empire whose ministration

Although

the

''eleutherdthesetai

future

tense

would overturn

o f the verb

Paul

the Adamic selects

curse.

in verse

21,

(it will be freed)," clearly correlates with the "revelation

o f the sons o f G o d " in verse 19,^^ the inference is rarely d r a w n c o n c e r n i n g the m e a n s by which G o d intends to restore the natural world. Heinrich Schlier is exceptional in referring t o the "responsibility that Christians have n o t only for themselves b u t also for the realm o f pure creatureliness."^' O v e r c o m i n g ecological disorder is depicted here as a divine gift e n a c t e d as a result o f God's restoration o f h u m a n i t y to its position o f rightful d o m i n i o n , reflecting God's intended glory. Instead o f a Caesar with a sunburst a b o u t his head, the glory p r o c l a i m e d by Paul will be shared by every converted person, whether slave o r free, m a l e o r female, R o m a n o r barbarian. In this passage, as O t t o Michel points out, " B o n d a g e stands in opposition t o freedom, c o r r u p t i o n t o glory."" In verse 2 1 , the t e r m phthora

( c o r r u p t i o n , decay, destruction) refers t o the consequence o f

the perverse " v a n i t y " o f the h u m a n race, namely, the disruption a n d death o f natural ecological systems. This o c c u r s in a process that takes a course

60. Cranfield, Romans, 415. 61. Schlier, Romerbrief 2 6 2 - 6 3 , restricts this responsibility to the arena of a proper existential attitude toward nature, refraining from any discussion of ethical responsibility. 62. Otto Michel, Der Brief an die Romer (KEK 4; 14th ed.; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978), 268.

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o f its o w n , thwarting h u m a n efforts at d o m i n i o n a n d p r o d u c i n g a veritable " b o n d a g e t o c o r r u p t i o n A correlative inference is d r a w n in 8 : 2 1 b , t h a t t h e restored creation will serve the p u r p o s e o f the liberation o f the children o f G o d . This is a p u z zling reversal, because o n the basis o f 8 : 1 9 , it h a d appeared that the revelation o f such liberation o n the p a r t o f the r e d e e m e d would b e c o m e the divinely appointed agency for the restoration o f n a t u r e . But if the achievem e n t o f ''ten eleutherian

tes doxes

(liberation consisting o f g l o r y ) " ^ is

u n d e r s t o o d in t e r m s o f h u m a n s regaining a p r o p e r d o m i n i o n over t h e creation, participating responsibly in the "righteousness o f G o d , " w h o s e scope is c o s m i c (see R o m 1 : 1 7 ) , this corollary is understandable. F o r Paul, it is inconceivable that h u m a n s c o u l d exercise a n y absolute f o r m o f liberation, related only to themselves.^^ F r e e d o m m u s t b e responsibly e m b o d i e d in the real world as the " n e w c r e a t i o n " manifests itself in the lives a n d actions o f believers.^^ Again, there are ecological insights that fit this p e r spective, that n o o n e c a n be free if the e n v i r o n m e n t is poisoned, that h u m a n fiilfiUment is contextual a n d c o s m i c . M u r r a y states the theological corollary, that " t h e glory o f the people o f G o d will be in the c o n t e x t o f the restitution o f all things" ( c f Acts 3 : 2 1 ) . ' ' Despite the interpretive difficulties in understanding R o m 8 : 2 1 b , it provides a barrier against the c h r o n i c individualizing o f salvation that has m a r k e d the tradition o f Pauline theolo g y just as it stood against the glorification o f Caesar. In R o m 8 : 2 2 - 2 3 Paul m o v e s o n to place h u m a n suffering within the context o f the creation's groaning for r e d e m p t i o n . " W h e r e a s elsewhere Paul always emphasizes the contradiction between nature a n d the n e w

6 3 . 1 take the second genitive in the phrase "apo tes douleias tes phthoras" as an objective genitive, "from the bondage to corruption," following Lipsius, who refers to corruption as "a ruling power." For an argument in favor of a genitive of quaUty, see Gunther Harder, yhtheiro W TDNT 9 (1974): 104; and Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 322. 64. See Cranfield's argument in Romans, 4 1 5 - 1 6 , against the adjectival construal of "tes doxes (of glory)"; he wishes to preserve the correspondence with the phrase "bondage to corruption" in 8:21a and to retain the dependence of the genitive "tow teknon (of the children)" on the adjacent word "glory" rather than on the more distant word "freedom." The genitive "of glory" thus becomes epexegetical, "libertyresulting-from-glory." 65. See Samuel Vollenweider, Freiheit als neue Schopfung: Eine Untersuchung zur Eleutheria bei Paulus und in seiner Umwelt (FRLANT 147; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1989), 3 3 1 - 3 6 , 4 0 2 - 6 . 66. See Vollenweider's argument in Freiheit, 386-88, that freedom in this passage is both a present and a future reality. 67. Murray, Romans, 305.

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

41

m a n , here he uncovers a p r o f o u n d c o r r e s p o n d e n c e — a c o m m o n longing that joins n a t u r e ' a n d the spirit."'^ T h e wording, ''oidamen

gar hoti (for we

k n o w t h a t ) " (see 2 : 2 ; 3 : 1 9 ) makes clear that Paul assumes the R o m a n Christ-believers are acquainted with the idea o f nature's c o r r u p t i o n . It h a d played a decisive role in the R o m a n civic cult, as we have seen, a n d was explained in a n o t h e r way by the Genesis story. T h e expression " p a s a he ktisis (the whole c r e a t i o n ) " includes the entire range o f animate a n d inanimate objects o n earth and in the heavens. T h e personification o f creation n o t e d earlier is c o n t i n u e d in this verse by the birth m e t a p h o r s o f groaning a n d travailing. T h e s e m e t a p h o r s

resonate with G r e c o - R o m a n

images

of

M o t h e r E a r t h . O n c e again, the personification stands parallel t o R o m a n usage, but in place o f nature's joy at its deliverance t h r o u g h Augustus a n d his successors, Paul hears only agonized groans. T h e verb stenazd g r o a n ) , used here in the c o m p o u n d f o r m o f sustenazd

( c r y out,

( c r y out, g r o a n

t o g e t h e r ) , appears with a similar m e a n i n g in Job 3 1 : 3 8 - 4 0 , where the link established in Gen 3 : 1 7 - 1 8 between h u m a n sin and the groaning o f nature provides the basis for Job's protestation o f innocence: If at any t i m e the land has g r o a n e d (estenazen) its furrows also have m o u r n e d together madon),

against m e , and if (eklausan

homothy-

a n d if I alone have eaten its yield without p a y m e n t , and if

I have grieved the soul o f the o w n e r by expropriation, let nettle g r o w u p instead o f wheat, brambles instead o f barley! (LXX) T h e idea that the earth "languishes," " m o u r n s , " a n d suffers "pollution" u n d e r the b u r d e n o f h u m a n exploitation also appears in Isa 2 4 : 4 - 7 a n d H o s 4 : 1 - 3 . W i t h i n the R o m a n context, it is i m p o r t a n t t o observe that this m o u r n i n g is a present reality. N o t h i n g whatsoever remains o f the illusion that the golden age has already arrived a n d that nature "rejoices" in Caesar's victories. T h e t h e m e o f birth pangs is frequently employed as a m e t a p h o r for the painful prospect o f divine j u d g m e n t (Isa 1 3 : 8 ; 2 1 : 3 ; 2 6 : 1 7 - 1 8 ; Jer 4 : 3 1 ; 2 2 : 2 3 ; H o s 1 3 : 1 3 ; M i c 4 : 9 - 1 0 ; 1 E n o c h 6 2 : 4 ; 4 Ezra 1 0 : 6 - 1 6 ; 1 Thess 5 : 3 ) . B o t h the inevitability o f p u n i s h m e n t and the happy o u t c o m e o f the establishment o f divine justice, s o m e t i m e s in the f o r m o f the messianic era ( M a r k 13:8; John 1 6 : 2 1 ) , m a y be conveyed by this m e t a p h o r . A G r e c o R o m a n writer c a n also refer to the regeneration o f nature after the g r o a n ing o f winter's d o r m a n c y : " T h e groaning earth gives birth in travail to what

68. Gerd Theissen, Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology (trans. J. P. Galvin; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 333.

42

Robert

Jewett

has been f o r m e d within h e r ? " ' ' Paul's usage at this point is s o m e w h a t r e m iniscent o f the later rabbinic c o n c e p t o f the "messianic woes,"'° except that such woes were expected to be intensified in the period just before the c o m i n g o f the Messiah, and they were anticipated t o fall u p o n h u m a n s rather than o n the creation as a whole. T h e exclusive c o n c e n t r a t i o n o n h u m a n s is also visible w h e n birth pangs are used to depict the suffering o f the innocent at the h a n d s o f the wicked ( I Q H 3 . 7 - 1 8 ) o r the painful birth o f Israel (Isa 6 6 : 7 - 8 ) . Paul m o v e s b e y o n d this familiar range o f usage in two ways, by i m a g ining nature as a whole undergoing such birth pangs, a n d by the a n a p h o r i c reduplication o f syn (with), that brings the expression ''systenazei synddinei

kai

(groans together a n d travails t o g e t h e r ) " into a rhetorically u n i -

fied expression ( R o m 8 : 2 2 ) . T h e first o f these verbs recalls the m o r e c o m m o n p l a c e reference in Euripides, Ion 9 3 5 : ''hos systenazein

g oida

gennaids

philois (indeed, I genuinely k n o w h o w t o g r o a n with friends)." In Paul's formulation the " t o g e t h e r " refers to the shared experience o f believers a n d the creation as a whole, b o t h yearning for the future restoration. T h e r e is an unparalleled c o h e r e n c e in this expression that c o m b i n e s the suffering o f creation from the t i m e o f A d a m with a m e t a p h o r o f h o p e — t r a v a i l , the agony that leads t o a n e w birth. In Schlier's words, "All o f the pain o f the creature in the entire world . . . is n o t a p r o c l a m a t i o n a n d beginning o f death, but o f salvation, and all the sighs o f the entire w o r l d . . . signify its glorification, the glorification o f the children o f G o d ' in the glory o f Christ."'' Paul views the creation as a hohstic, interdependent system with a life a n d development o f its o w n , yet anticipating appropriate h u m a n intervention t o c o u n t e r Adam's fall. T h e emphatic reference t o the " w h o l e " creation and the unique use o f the c o m p o u n d verbs with sus-/syn-

points to the o p t i o n p r e -

ferred by Origin, Athanasius, Schlatter, Asmussen, and Lipsius,'^ that h u m a n beings along with the rest o f creation appear t o be included in this groaning. Perhaps it w o u l d be better t o say that these clues provide r h e t o r ical hints at h u m a n participation, which b e c o m e s explicit in 8:23.'^ T h e

69. BAGD 793, from Heraclitus Stoicus, Questiones Homericae (ed. societatis philologae Bonnensis sodales; Leipzig, 1910), c. 39, p. 58; cited by Fitzmyer, Romans, 509, with reference to A.-M. Dubarle, "Le gemissement des creatures dans I'ordre divin du cosmos (Rom 8:19-22)," i^5PT 38 (1954): 4 4 5 - 6 5 . 70. See Schlier, Romerbrief, 2 6 3 - 6 4 ; Cranfield, Romans, 416. 71. Schlier, Romerbrief 264, referring to Paul Claudels discussion in Conversations dans le Loir-et-Cher (Paris: Gallimand, 1935), 255. 72. See the refutation in Kuss, Romerbrief 629. 73. See E R. Montgomery Hitchcock, "'Every Creature,' Not 'All Creation' in Romans viii. 22," ExpT 8 (1916): 3 7 2 - 8 3 .

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

43

m a i n s t r e a m interpretation rejecting this option'* a i m s t o i m p r o v e t h e logic o f Paul's a r g u m e n t by m a k i n g the v^ording o f 8 : 2 2 consistent with 8 : 1 9 , at the expense o f denying its rhetorical suggestiveness for the audience. T h a t the groaning o f 8 : 2 2 lasts ''achri tou nyn (until n o w ) " echoes t h e eschatological emphasis o f 8:18'^ while including t h e suffering presently experienced a n d witnessed in the natural world within the painfiil legacy o f t h e Fall.'' If the g r o a n i n g really lasts "until now," this would exclude the Augustan premise that the golden age h a d been inaugurated by the Saecular G a m e s o f 17 B.C.E., o r that N e r o h a d ushered in a "golden age o f u n t r o u b l e d peace." T h a t believers are included in the suffering o f creation, the t h e m e o f R o m 8 : 1 8 , is developed in verse 2 3 with the contrasting f o r m u l a " o «

monon

de, alia kai ( n o t only, b u t also)," w h i c h serves t o eliminate any exceptionalism for those w h o have the s u p r e m e gift o f the Spirit. I take the participle ''echontes''

in the simple attributive sense o f believers " h a v i n g " the

first-

fruits o f the Spirit, rather t h a n in a strictly c a u s a l " o r concessive'^ sense. T h e elimination o f any exception is emphatically driven h o m e by the repeated ''autoi.

. . kai autoi ( o u r s e l v e s , . . . even ourselves)," closing the

d o o r t o the kinds o f charismatic enthusiasm Paul h a d earlier e n c o u n t e r e d in Thessalonica a n d C o r i n t h that u n d e r s t o o d the gift o f the Spirit as a f o r m o f apotheosis, rendering believers invulnerable t o suffering. This c o n c e r n probably also explains the expression ''ten aparchen

tou pneumatos

(first-

fruits o f the Spirit),"'' a unique Pauline c o m b i n a t i o n o f the Hebrew c o n c e p t

74. See Kuss, Romerbrief 6 2 9 - 3 6 ; Dunn, Romans 1-8, 472. 75. Barrett, Romans, 166, and Dunn, Romans 1-8,473, move beyond a verbal echo to contend that this expression conveys a unique eschatological emphasis. 76. See Cranfield, Romans, 417; Wilckens, Romer, 2:156. 77. Kuss, Romerbrief 638, argues for the causal sense, "because we have the firstfi'uits," following Gutjahr and Bernard Weiss. Dunn, Romans 1-8, 473, accepts this view. 78. Kasemann, Romans, 237, follows JiiUcher's line in arguing that "Christians do not sigh because they do not yet have the Spirit totally but in spite of the fact that they have him." 7 9 . 1 feel that the context favors the possessive genitive here, in which the Spirit remains the active force of God within believers, a theme elaborated in 8:26-27. Kasemann's advocacy of an epexegetical genitive {Romans, 237) has a similar implication. The active role of the Spirit is downplayed by the theory of the partitive genitive, advocated by Bardenhewer, Bisping, and Lietzmann, implying that the firstfruits is only partially represented by the work of the Spirit; and also downplayed by the theory of a genitive of apposition, advocated by Gutjahr, Kiihl, Michel, Bernard Weiss, Zahn, and Kuss, which identifies the present experience of the Spirit as constituting the firstfruits.

44

Robert

Jewett

o f the firstfruits o f the harvest t o be dedicated to God^° a n d the early church's c o n c e p t o f the Spirit as the identifying m a r k o f believers.^' T h e o d d feature o f this expression is that " t h e relationship o f giver a n d recipient is reversed,"^^ since it is n o t h u m a n s v^ho give the firstfruits to G o d , b u t G o d w h o bestows t h e m o n believers. Although the expression "firstfruits o f the Spirit" is highly evocative, with n u m e r o u s implications,^^ Paul's point is that n o m a t t e r h o w charismatically they m a y be endowed, believers c o n tinue to participate in the suffering to which the entire world has been s u b jected as a result o f sin. Christ-believers also " g r o a n , " with the expression "ew heautois'' specifying the arena as being "within ourselves," in the inner life o f individual believers, where the tension between the "already" and the " n o t yet," between the h o p e o f righteousness a n d the weight o f c o r r u p t i o n , is m o s t intensely felt. Paul referred in R o m 5:5 to the heart as the locale o f the Spirit's action a n d in 7 : 2 1 - 2 4 t o the inner conflict that will n o t be c o m pletely set aside until the eschaton; he goes o n in 8 : 2 6 - 2 7 to describe h o w the Spirit sustains believers in the meanwhile within the secret places o f their hearts. By associating the charismatic Spirit with h u m a n vulnerability, Paul effectively eliminates any project o f apotheosis such as he had c o n fronted in C o r i n t h . This is highly relevant for the R o m a n context, where the city's civic cult centered o n the apotheosis o f Caesar. At first glance it is rather puzzling that Paul would refer t o "awaiting sonship" as a future fulfillment w h e n he h a d spoken so clearly in 8 : 1 5 o f the Spirit confirming the sonship o f behevers as a present experience. T h e clue is in his repetition o f apekdechomai

(await), which h a d been used in 8 : 1 9

to refer t o awaiting the "revelation o f the sons o f God."^* T h e c o n t e n t o f the

80. See the extensive discussion in Dunn, Romans 1-8,473, citing Deut 12:6; 26:2; Exod 22:29; 23:19; Lev 2:12; 23:10; Num 15:20; 18:12-13, 30; 2 Chron 31:5; Neh 10:37, 39; Mai 3:8; Jdt 11:13. Whether the association of firstft-uits with Pentecost, and of Pentecost with the gift of the Spirit, influenced this expression is possible but not demonstrable. 81. For the somewhat more distant Greco-Roman parallels to the use of ten aparchen (firstfruits), see Arrian, Cynegeticus 33.1; Theopompos 115 (frg. 334); Porphyry, De abstinentia 2.61. Fitzmyer, Romans, 510, identifies these sources on the basis of Rafal Taubenschlag, Opera minora 2 (Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1959): 2 2 0 - 2 1 ; C. C. Oke,"A Suggestion with Regard to Romans 8:23," Int 11 (1957): 4 5 5 - 6 0 ; and H. Stuart Jones, "SPILAS—APARCHE PNEUMATlKOS'7T5 23 (1922) 2 8 2 - 8 3 . The latter infers from the legal use of aparche in Egyptian papyri that it is "the birth-certificate of a free person." 82. Gerhard Delling, ''aparche," TDNT 1 (1964): 486. 83. See Dunn, Romans 1-8, 4 7 3 - 7 4 . 84. This is an instance where the literal language of "sonship" needs to be preserved despite its chauvinistic implications, because if the less offensive term "adoption" is used in 8:15 and 23 as in the N R S V and Dunn, Romans 1-8, 4 5 2 , 4 7 4 , the link

The Corruption

and Redemption

of Creation

45

future h o p e is that the full a n d undistorted d o m i n i o n o f God's children will o n e day manifest itself in the c o n t e x t o f a restored creation. In the R o m a n context, this futurity has decisive significance. T h u s the phrase Paul selects to explain this restoration is ''ten apolutrosin

tou somatos hemon

(the

r e d e m p t i o n o f o u r b o d y ) , " since b o d y is the basis o f c o m m u n i c a t i n g a n d interacting with the world.^^ Paul does n o t h o p e for " r e d e m p t i o n f r o m the body,"^' o r as the peculiar singular reference to " b o d y " seems to suggest, for a resurrection o f the b o d y in s o m e individualistic sense o f being detached f r o m the creation a n d its corruptibility,^' b u t for a socially t r a n s f o r m e d corporeality within the c o n t e x t o f a t r a n s f o r m e d creation that is n o longer subject t o "corruption."^^ T h e verb apolutrdsis

ordinarily has a military

c o n n o t a t i o n , referring t o the r e d e m p t i o n o f captives o r prisoners o f w a r either by v i c t o r y o r by paying a ransom.^' In the R o m a n c o n t e x t only persons with status and m e a n s could h o p e for that kind o f r e d e m p t i o n ; here Paul speaks o f all m e m b e r s o f the c o m m u n i t y , w h o share in the groaning as well as in the future release.'^

with "the revelation of the sons of God" m 8:19 is obscured. The translation "adoption" is in any case a secondary choice, since adoption places a person in the category of sonship. For a discussion of the use of huiothesia in the sense of legal adoption, see G. H. R. Horsley "kath huiothesian"NewDocs 4 (1987): 173; the reflections of Greek legal practice render implausible Francis Lyall s contention in "Roman Law in the Writings of Paul—Adoption," JBL 88 (1969): 4 5 8 - 6 6 , that Paul's usage reflects only Roman practice. In "Petition to a Prefect," NewDocs 3 (1982): 16-17, G. H. R. Horsley discusses an alternate term for adoption not used by Paul, technothesis, indicating the adoption of a girl. 85. See Robert Jewett, PauVs Anthropological Terms: A Study of Their Use in Conflict Settings (AGJU 10; Leiden: BriU, 1971), 2 1 8 - 1 9 , 2 5 4 - 7 9 . 86. See Hans Lietzmann, An die Romer (HNT 8; 3d ed.; Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1971), 85. 87. See the discussion of individual resurrection without the cosmic context in Morris, Romans, 324. Some of the older commentaries by Beck, Zahn, Nygren, and Schmidt stress the redemption of individual behevers from temptation, corruption, and mortaUty. See the critique in Schlier, Romerbrief 266. 88. See John A. Ziesler, PauVs Letter to the Romans (TPINTC; London: SCM; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1989), 222. 89. See Friedrich Buchsel, ''apolutrdsis," TDNT 4 (1967): 351: "to set free for a ransom"; Karl Kertelge, "apolutrdsis," EDNT 1 (1990): 138: redemption "of prisoners and slaves." The military context is clear in Posidonius, fr. 213.20; Diodorus Siculus 37.5. 90. Kertelge, "apolutrdsis," 139, offers an abstraction in place of a contextual explanation that might have arisen out of the consideration of the Roman context: "The completed form of redemption is given when this mortal body is 'further clothed' with that new corporeality which God has prepared for his own (2 Cor 5:1-5; c f 1 Cor 15:37f)."

46

Robert Jewett

T h e " n e w c r e a t i o n " o f 2 C o r 5 : 1 7 a n d Gal 6 : 1 5 is clearly in view here, but n o t merely in the traditional f o r m o f an inaccessible theological ideal; the guiding m e t a p h o r is provided in R o m 8 : 1 9 , where the disclosure o f rightful, future d o m i n i o n is a n n o u n c e d . Sons o f G o d d e m o n s t r a t e their sonship by exercising the kind o f d o m i n i o n that heals rather t h a n destroys. Although the tension between the "already" a n d the " n o t y e t " will n o t be o v e r c o m e until the Parousia, Paul's p u r p o s e is to e n c o u r a g e the R o m a n c h u r c h m e m b e r s to begin enacting their sonship right now, in refusing t o c o n f o r m to the fallen age, a n d resolutely acting rightly toward the g r o a n ing creation, o f which their bodies are a part. T h e arena for such action was narrower for the m e m b e r s o f R o m a n h o u s e a n d t e n e m e n t churches t h a n for later Christian c o m m u n i t i e s ; it probably consisted mainly o f the spheres o f bodily responsibility in work, family, congregational life, a n d , given the p u r p o s e o f R o m a n s , the sphere o f mission. B y participating in the projected Spanish mission, Paul is offering the R o m a n s a c o n c r e t e o p p o r tunity to e n a c t their rightful sonship a n d contribute to the ultimate restoration o f the creation. Given the p r e s u m p t i o n o f powerlessness o n the p a r t o f the underclass represented by m o s t o f the R o m a n h o u s e a n d t e n e m e n t churches in a dictatorial society, such prospects would have appeared grandiose a n d unrealistic if undertaken w i t h o u t the foundation o f eschatological h o p e . However, c o m p a r e d with believing that the R o m a n gods h a d already ushered in the golden age t h r o u g h a victorious Caesar, Paul's h o p e could lead to a far m o r e realistic f o r m o f collective responsibility for the creation.

- 2 "UNMASKING T H E P O W E R S ' Toward a Postcolonial Analysis of 1 Thessalonians Abraham Smith

P

opularly read for m o r e than a c e n t u r y as the basis for fanciful speculation a b o u t a "rapture," 1 Thessalonians has m o r e recently been touted

as a w a r m , friendly letter that expresses "longing for absent friends" ( 2 : 1 7 ; 3 : 6 ) . ' T h e standard conceptual apparatus o f Pauline studies, however, m a y

have blocked o u r view o f b o t h the b r o a d e r c o n t e x t o f the letter a n d o f o n e o f its principal concerns. O n c e o u r view is less obstructed, we can see that in 1 Thessalonians Paul was taking an a d a m a n t stand against the R o m a n i m p e rial order. Paul was "unmasking the powers" operative in Thessalonica.^

Reading Paul against the Empire: A Postcolonial Move? R e c e n t scholarship has suggested t h a t Paul be r e a d as o p p o s i n g t h e R o m a n E m p i r e . Religion a n d politics were n o t separate. Paul's diction is political as well as religious. H e u n d e r s t a n d s the m o v e m e n t h e is s p r e a d ing as an alternative t o the R o m a n imperial order, w h i c h stands u n d e r

I.Abraham Malherbe, "Did the Thessalonians Write to Paul?" in The Conversation Continues: Studies in Paul and John: In Honor of J. Louis Martyn, ed. Robert Fortna and Beverly Gaventa (Nashville: Abmgdon, 1990), 249, 250. C f Johannes Schoon-JanPen, "On the Use of Elements of Ancient Epistolography in 1 Thessalonians," in The Thessalonians Debate: Methodological Discord or Methodological Synthesis? ed. Karl P. Donfried and Johannes Beutler (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 179-93. 2. On the expression, see Walter Wink, Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986).

47

48

Abraham

Smith

God's judgment.^ First Thessalonians figures p r o m i n e n t l y in this n e w scholarship. Key t e r m s such asparousia 4 : 1 5 ; 5 : 2 3 ) ; apantesis

( " c o m i n g " o r "presence," 2 : 1 9 ; 3 : 1 3 ;

("meeting," 4 : 1 7 ) a n d asphaleia

("security," 5 : 3 ) were

n o t politically i n n o c u o u s . Such t e r m s p o r t r a y e d Jesus' " c o m i n g "

or

" r e t u r n " as that o f an e m p e r o r greeted by a ceremonial delegation that p o u r s o u t o f the city t o m e e t h i m ( 4 : 1 4 - 1 8 ) . ' * In Paul's view the g r a n d ceremonial Parousia o f the L o r d is " a n event that will shatter the false peace and

security

of the

Roman

establishment."^

The

city officials

of

Thessalonica cultivated R o m a n beneficence.^ But in an allusion t o the official p r o p a g a n d a o f the pax Romana,

its " p e a c e a n d security," Paul focuses

o n the eschatological battle in which G o d will bring the imperial o r d e r u n d e r j u d g m e n t (1 Thess 5:3, 8 ) . ' W i t h an allusion to the p r o p h e c y o f Isa 5 9 : 1 7 , Paul suggests that the role o n c e reserved for G o d as a w a r r i o r seeking the restoration o f creation is n o w transferred to his Thessalonian assembly in their resistance t o the R o m a n imperial order.^ This recent scholarship o n Paul, including the essays o n 1 Thessalonians, opens toward a postcolonial analysis o f Paul.' W i t h roots in the earlier w o r k o f W. E. B. DuBois, m a n y artists o f the H a r l e m Renaissance, C. L. R. James, a n d Frantz F a n o n , the postcolonial criticism o f Chinua Achebe, W o l e Soyinka, W i l s o n Harris, and m a n y others has received m o r e theoretical formulation recently by Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and H o m i Bhabha. Generally speaking, postcolonial analysis examines the historical a n d discursive ways in which the colonial o r imperial powers seek t o subdue o t h e r peoples, a n d the historical

a n d discursive

m e a n s available t o subjected

3. Richard A. Horsley, "General Introduction," in Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (ed. R. A. Horsley; Harrisburg, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1997), 1-8. On the inseparabiUty of politics and religion in the ancient world, as in Philo, see Dieter Georgi, Theocracy in PauVs Praxis and Theology, trans. David Green (MinneapoUs: Fortress, 1991), 14. On the communal nature of salvation, see Georgi, 2 0 , 2 9 . 4. Helmut Koester, "Imperial Ideology and Paul's Eschatology in 1 Thessalonians," in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley), 158-66; cf. Hehnut Koester, "From Paul's Eschatology to the Apocalyptic Schemata of 2 Thessalonians," in The Thessalonian Correspondence, ed. Raymond F. CoUins (Leuven: University Press, 1990), 446. 5. H. Koester, "From Paul's Eschatology," 447. 6. Karl P. Donfried, "The Imperial Cults of Thessalonica and Political Conflict in 1 Thessalonians," in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley), 2 1 5 - 2 3 . 7. Georgi, Theocracy, 28. 8. Ibid., 27. 9. Postcolonial studies is a broad umbrella term for many types of studies across a wide range of periods, places, persons, and practices, as discussed by Bart Moore-Gilbert, Post-Colonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics (London: Verso, 1997).

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peoples to resist such d o m i n a t i o n . T h e recent w o r k o n 1 Thessalonians a n d this essay represent s o m e first steps toward a postcolonial analysis insofar as we e x a m i n e historical a n d discursive

ways in which the R o m a n E m p i r e

s o u g h t to subdue the Jewish people, including those small " s p i n - o f f " c o m munities that Paul helped f o r m in cities o f the eastern Mediterranean. F r o m postcolonial criticism biblical scholars c a n learn to trace the shadow o f the E m p i r e within a n d b e y o n d biblical texts. Postcolonial critics insist that besides tracing the historical f o r m s o f colonialism, it is crucial t o appreciate also the discursive f o r m s o f colonialism that " i m p l y a relation o f structural d o m i n a t i o n . " Moreover, a closer look at Paul's writings m a y reveal the historical a n d discursive

m e a n s available t o Paul as he resisted the E m p i r e . T h u s , a post-

colonial analysis m a y help us b o t h t o recover " s u b m e r g e d h i s t o r y " a n d t o reread 1 Thessalonians against s o m e o f the conventions o f power in the R o m a n imperial world. T h e analysis below unfolds in three steps. First, t o explore the historical a n d discursive m e a n s t h r o u g h which Paul could resist the R o m a n imperial order, it is necessary to situate Paul in a larger c o n t e x t o f resistance to the E m p i r e . Next, we m u s t appreciate the p r o R o m a n forces in the G r e c o - R o m a n world, mainly the local u r b a n aristocracies a n d provincial elites, with which resistance h a d t o c o n t e n d , with a focus o n Judea a n d Thessalonica. Finally, we e x a m i n e t w o key passages t o see h o w Paul sharply criticized p r o - R o m a n stances o f those forces that m o s t likely b o r e o n the Thessalonians. In 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 a n d 5 : 1 - 1 1 , in particular, Paul was criticizing the controlling aristocracy o f Thessalonica for their a c c o m m o d a t i o n t o the R o m a n imperial o r d e r a n d their persecution o f his assembly in Thessalonica. First Thessalonians 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 is n o t an interpolation, b u t Paul's critique o f the d o m i n a t i n g p r o - R o m a n elite in Thessalonica t h r o u g h an analogy with the p r o - R o m a n priestly aristocracy

10. Postcolonial criticism has been criticized on a variety of ft-onts, especially for its perpetuation of the anti-foundationahst perspectives of poststructuralism (a la Derrida and Foucault), for the apparent lack of appreciation for political agency in some brands of postcolonialism, and the aversion to any "totalizing theory" or "grand narrative." See Rosalind O'Hanlon and David Washbrook, "After Orientalism: Culture, Criticism, and Politics in the Third World," in Comparative Studies in Society and History 34 (1992): 141-67. For self-criticism by a postcolonial critic, see Tejumola Olaniyan, "On 'Post-Colonial Discourse': An Introduction," Callaloo 16 (1993): 7 4 3 - 4 9 . Critics of postcolonial discourse are not opposed to "the emancipation of previously submerged colonial histories and identities" (O'Hanlon and Washbrook, 141). On the use of the work of Michel Foucault, see Abraham Smith, "'1 Saw the Book Talk': A Cultural Studies Approach to the Ethics of an African American Biblical Hermeneutics," Semeia 77 (1997): 115-38. 11. Laura E. Donaldson, "Postcolonialism and Biblical Reading: An Introduction," Semew 75 (1996): 3.

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in Judea. First Thessalonians 5 : 1 - 1 1 u n m a s k s the supposed " p e a c e a n d security" offered by R o m a n p o w e r in the light o f the eschatological events that are a b o u t t o bring p e r m a n e n t " p e a c e a n d security" for Paul's assembly, which he calls to maintain its corporate sohdarity in resistance to the d o m i n a n t imperial order. Postcolonial analysis also exposes n o t only established Western scholarship's s e p a r a t i o n

o f politics f r o m

religion, b u t also t h e

peculiar

Christian-centric conceptual apparatus with which it operates.'^ Like m o s t o t h e r a c a d e m i c fields, N T studies originated in western E u r o p e during the heyday o f its imperial d o m i n a t i o n o f o t h e r peoples; hence, its orientation a n d conceptual apparatus often betray its Western imperial origins.'^ It has thus been difficult for Western biblical scholarship t o b e c o m e critically aware o f the shadow that E u r o p e a n e m p i r e casts across biblical criticism itself, particularly t h e distinctively Christian, o r m o r e narrowly, Protestant character o f its questions, concepts, a n d solutions.'^ T h e postcolonial e x p o sure o f Western biblical studies will be m o r e implicit than explicit here, given the limitations o f space.

Historical and Discursive Resistance to Roman Power: Judeans and Philosophers In b o t h historical a n d discursive ways, Paul's c o n t e m p o r a r i e s

resisted

R o m e , a n d Paul w o u l d likely have drawn o n similar social a n d literary c o n ventions t o indicate his opposition t o the R o m a n g o v e r n m e n t . Having spent t i m e in Jerusalem and Judea prior t o his c o m m i s s i o n i n g as an a p o s tle o f Jesus Christ, Paul would surely have been familiar with various historical and discursive f o r m s o f resistance in Judea. A n d as a Jew w h o was widely traveled in the cities o f the eastern R o m a n E m p i r e , he seems likely t o have been familiar also with various f o r m s o f discursive resistance a m o n g Hellenistic philosophers. If s o m e scholars a n d popular interpreters o f Paul have seen h i m as an a c c o m m o d a t i o n i s t o r as o n e w h o simply c h o s e

12. S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 9 , 1 5 , points to the pitfalls of interpreting ancient rituals of power with narrow Christianizing assumptions—as if the imperial ruler cult were not only not religious but also had nothing to do with unperial power. 13. On these larger imperialistic influences and socioreHgious movements, see Fernando Segovia, "Biblical Criticism and Postcolonial Studies: Toward a Postcolonial Optic," in The Postcolonial Bible, ed. R. S. Sugirtharajah (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998), 5 8 - 6 0 . 14. For an excellent critique of modern scholarship on Paul, see Shawn Kelley, Racializing Jesus: Race, Ideology and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship (London: Roudedge, 2002).

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n o t t o resist the ruling powers o f his day, perhaps such readings are r o o t e d in a failure t o situate Paul's writings within the resistance conventions o f the time.'^ W h i l e the r e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f the resistance a n d conventions given here c a n n o t be exhaustive, they are intended to intimate some o f the resistance m e a n s k n o w n b o t h t o Paul a n d his assemblies.

The Judean-Israelite Tradition of Resistance T h e tradition o f Israelite resistance t o foreign rule was as old as origins o f the people itself Israel's foundational m o v e m e n t arose o u t o f " G o d ' s liberation o f Israel from b o n d a g e t o the p h a r a o h in

Egypt."Subsequent

retellings o f the story (as, e.g., in Deutero-Isaiah) a n d the celebration o f Passover kept the tradition alive.'' It is little w o n d e r that the popular p r o p h e t i c m o v e m e n t s that e m e r g e d shortly after Jesus' crucifixion m o d eled themselves o n the exodus, Jordan, o r Jericho traditions. In 4 4 C.E., Theudas's p r o m i s e that the waters o f the Jordan w o u l d p a r t was likely an a t t e m p t t o reenact deliverance o n analogy with the exodus. Later, an u n n a m e d p r o p h e t from Egypt led a popular m o v e m e n t that reenacted " t h e battle o f J e r i c h o " led by Joshua.'^ A m o r e serious challenge to R o m a n rule in Judea t h a n these nonviolent popular prophetic m o v e m e n t s were the revolts that t o o k the f o r m o f p o p u l a r messianic m o v e m e n t s in 4 B.C.E., following the death o f H e r o d , a n d again as p a r t o f the "Jewish W a r " in 6 6 - 7 0 C.E. These resemble the "native revolts" a m o n g the o t h e r peoples subjected by the R o m a n s , in n o r t h e r n Italy, Sardinia, Spain, Gaul, Africa, Britain, a n d even Macedonia-Thrace.'^ Even scribal circles generated protests a n d m o v e m e n t s against R o m a n rule in Judea. W h i l e these (e.g., the covenanters at Q u m r a n ,

some

Jerusalem sages a n d their students, a n d " t h e F o u r t h P h i l o s o p h y " ) were all nonviolent p r i o r to the 5 0 s c.E.,^° in the 5 0 s a n d 6 0 s t h e scribal-led Sicarii a d o p t e d terrorist tactics (Josephus, Jewish War, 7 . 2 5 3 - 2 5 5 ) , apparently in

15. For critiques of these readings of Paul, see Neil Elliott, Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1994), 3 - 9 0 . 16. Richard A. Horsley, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002), 38. 17. See, e.g., Bernhard W. Anderson, "Exodus Typology in Second Isaiah," in B. W. Anderson and W. Harrelson, eds.. Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (New York: Harper, 1962), 177-95. 18. Horsley, Jesus and Empire, 52. 19. See Stephen L. Dyson, "Native Revolt Patterns in the Roman Empire," ANRW 2.3 (1975): 138-75. 20. On the anti-Roman sentiment in the Qumran literature, see Geza Vermes, Discovery in the Judean Desert (New York: Desclee, 1956), 7 9 - 8 5 . C f the Qumran War Rule (IQM 11.8; 13.2; 15.1; 18.3; 19.29).

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response to the increasingly repressive measures taken by the R o m a n governors.^' T h e Sicarii carried o u t assassinations a n d t o o k hostages a m o n g the Judean aristocracy, who were collaborating in R o m a n rule. Paul's m i n i s t r y in Thessalonica t o o k place just as political conflict intensified in Judea. W h i l e Paul in n o way shared the violent tactics o f the Sicarii, he c a n hardly be interpreted as acquiescent in the R o m a n imperial o r d e r o r socially conservative. Like others before h i m , Paul d r e w

discur-

sively o n the Israelite tradition o f resistance in his a p p r o p r i a t i o n

of

Scripture. W h i l e Paul's use o f Scripture was varied, it is clear that he at least read " S c r i p t u r e as a vast n e t w o r k o f typological pre-figurations o f himself a n d his communities."^^ Paul u n d e r s t o o d his call a n d c o m m i s s i o n t o the Gentiles within the p r o p h e t i c tradition, for his description o f his call a n d c o m m i s s i o n in Gal 1:15 is reminiscent o f Isa 4 9 : 1 - 6 a n d Jer 1 : 4 - 5 . ' ^ A n d as Jeremiah ( 1 1 : 2 0 ; 1 2 : 3 ) spoke o f G o d as o n e w h o "tests the heart," Paul speaks o f G o d as o n e " w h o tests o u r h e a r t s " (1 Thess 2 : 4 ) . It is also likely that Paul drew his understanding o f the " g o s p e l " (cf. R o m 1 0 : 1 5 - 1 6 ) f r o m Deutero-Isaiah, a text t h a t repeatedly speaks a b o u t the " g o o d n e w s " o f God's salvation in its L X X (Septuagint) f o r m (cf. Isa 5 2 : 7 ; 61:1).^'* Perhaps Paul saw his collection for the saints in Jerusalem as a fulfillment

o f the Isaianic "prediction that Gentiles would bring their gifts

( 6 0 : 1 1 ) in t h a t final eschatological g r a n d p r o c e s s i o n " o f the last days.^^ Likewise, perhaps Paul's repeated diction o f consolation (1 Thess 4 : 1 8 ; 5 : 1 1 ; 2 C o r 1 : 3 - 7 ) is an e c h o o f that t h e m e in Isa 4 0 : 1 - 1 1 ; 57:18.^^ F u r t h e r m o r e , Paul's c o n s t r u a l o f God's a c t i o n o f reconciliation,

as

a n n o u n c e d in " n e w c r e a t i o n " diction o f 2 C o r 5 : 1 7 - 6 : 2 , clearly echoes the " s e c o n d e x o d u s / r e s t o r a t i o n / n e w creation perspective" o f Isa 4 3 : 1 8 - 1 9 , which was designed t o e n c o u r a g e the exiles.^^

21. Horsley,/esws and Empire, 43. 22. Richard Hays, "The Role of Scripture in Paul's Ethics," in Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters: Essays in Honor of Victor Paul Furnish, ed. Eugene H. Lovering Jr. and Jerry Sumney (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996), 41. 23. See J. Christiaan Beker, Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought (PhUadelphia: Fortress, 1982), 115. C f Hays, "Role of Scripture," 33. 24. C f Beker, Paul the Apostle, 116. 25. Calvin Roetzel, Paul, The Man and the Myth (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 63. 26. Ibid., 79. C f Karl L. Donfried, "The Epistolary and Rhetorical Context of 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12," in The Thessalonians Debate: Methodological Discord or Methodological Synthesis? ed. Karl P. Donfried and Johannes Beuder (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 49. 27. S. Hafemann, "Pauls Argument from the Old Testament on 2 Cor 1-9: The Salvation-History/Restoration Structure of Paul s Apologetic," in The Corinthian Correspondence, ed. R. Bieringer (Leuven: University Press, 1996), 301 n. 46. On "new creation," also c f Isa 65:17-25; 66:22-23, as noted in Hays, "Role of Scripture," 34.

"Unmasking

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If Paul is drawing o n the prophetic tradition a n d especially D e u t e r o Isaiah in 1 Thessalonians and t h r o u g h o u t his corpus, he assuredly is writing resistance literature. T h a t is, Paul reads events in light o f an eschatological vision o f G o d bringing a n e w era o f justice for t h o s e w h o have faced alienation and oppression. Paul s language o f consolation in 1 Thessalonians then is n o t simply another reminder o f Paul's friendliness toward the Thessalonians. Rather, it is an affirmation o f the consolation a n d salvation o f G o d in the tradition o f words o n c e spoken t o oppressed exiles.

Resistance and Alternative Communities among the Philosophies Ever since the ascent o f Hellenistic kings, power had been a keen concern in the Mediterranean world. T h e Greek cities in which Paul conducted his mission sought power both in gods and m godlike heroes, whether local benefactors or foreign saviors w h o provided resources for urban buildings and public welfare. S o m e people, however, formed alternative communities. As alternative communities with wider connections than the usual local voluntary associations, Jewish synagogai and Paul's ekklesiai were similar to certain philosophies "whose p r o m o t i o n o f g o o d living as well as right thinking, philanthropy as well as piety, could involve sharp criticism o f the ruling classes."^^ T h e Jewish way o f Ufe was classified as philosophy, and for apologetic reasons, s o m e Jews adopted the classification themselves. Paul also shared m u c h with certain philosophers o f his age. There is evidence that the Cynics, Stoics, Pythagoreans, Epicureans, and others o f the period embraced the psychagogic tradition o f exhortation designed to transform a person. Recent comparisons o f the Pauline communities with Epicurean c o m m u n i ties o f late republican times suggest not a genetic relationship but a c o m m o n " c o m m u n a l pattern o f mutual participation by c o m m u n i t y m e m b e r s in exhortation, edification, and correction."^^ In both Pauline and Epicurean communities, a wide variety o f persons were admitted, including slaves and w o m e n , and in both, the goal was character formation in accordance with c o m m u n a l unity ideals.^° Neophytes could acquire a teacher status and thus use the same reformatory ethic to help others,^' and leaders recognized the different conditions o f those in their respective communities a n d tailored their hortatory means to fit the varying dispositions o f their charges.^^

28. S. G.Wilson, "Voluntary Associations: An Overview," in Voluntary Associations in the Graeco-Roman World, ed. John S. Kloppenborg and Stephen G. Wilson (London: Roudedge, 1996), 3. 29. Clarence Glad, Paul and Philodemus: Adaptability in Epicurus and Early Christian Psychagogy (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 7. 30. Ibid., 8. 31. Ibid., 105. 32. Ibid., 137-52. See Seneca, Epistles 5 2 . 3 - i .

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W i t h respect to the d o m i n a n t cultural ethos o f the time, the net effect o f the alternative c o m m u n i t i e s wras to create a viable, oppositional netv^ork o f shared values across time a n d space. These alternative c o m m u n i t i e s often shifted the loyalty o f their constituents f r o m their traditional families to the new group o r philosophy.^^ M e m b e r s o f the groups frequentiy d e n o u n c e d the f o r m e r h o n o r they received when they achieved wealth a n d reputation. Thus, Paul's creation o f a network o f assemblies was an

historical

m e a n s o f resisting the R o m a n E m p i r e . T h a t is, the network ftinctioned like an alternative m o v e m e n t designed to create solidarity in a distinctive set o f values. O f course, this distinctive set o f values should easily be recognized in light o f Paul's apocalyptic gospel, for that gospel was n o t politically i n n o c u o u s b u t was a fundamental "critique o f this age and its values."^^ To the extent that the R o m a n g o v e r n m e n t was a part o f "this age," it also was subject to the critique o f Paul's gospel. Given the repressive character o f the imperial order, it is n o t difficult t o imagine that Paul would find subtle o r indirect ways t o direct his c r i tique in his writings. A n d given the afflictions Paul notes that he experienced in Philippi (1 Thess 2 : 2 ) , moreover, o n e could expect h i m t o use indirect critique in order n o t t o offend the R o m a n authorities in a blunt fashion.^^ Yet, Paul's p r o d u c t i o n o f a " b r o t h e r h o o d that extend [ed] b e y o n d the city, t h r o u g h o u t M a c e d o n i a , Achaia, a n d b e y o n d ( 1 : 8 - 9 ) " constituted a strategy o f resistance t o the d o m i n a n t order. T h a t is, he urged all the m e m bers o f the " b r o t h e r h o o d , " his assemblies such as the o n e in Thessalonica, t o refuse t o "participate in the intricate web o f local cults that gave sacred legitimation to the Empire."^^

The Philoromanoi (Pro-Roman Elites) R o m e systematically established control o f the ancient Mediterranean by b o t h military conquest and self-justifying ideology.^^ After R o m e successfully

33. Carolyn Osiek, "The Family m Early Christianity: 'Family Values' Revisited," CBQ 58 (1996): 7. 34. J. Paul Sampley, Walking between the Times: PauVs Moral Reasoning (Minneapohs: Fortress, 1991), 108. 35. See discussion of Paul's use of indirect speech by J. Paul Sampley, "*The Weak and Strong,' Paul's Careful and Crafty Rhetorical Strategy in Romans 14:1-15:13," in The Social World of the First Christians: Studies in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks, ed. L. M. White and O. L. Yarbrough (MinneapoUs: Fortress, 1994), 4 3 - 4 6 . C f Frederick Ahl, "The Art of Safe Criticism in Greece and Rome" American Journal of Philology 105 (1984): 174-208. What deserves attention now is Paul's use of indirect speech as a form of resistance. 36. EHiotty Liberating Paul, 195. 37. On Rome's establishment of its Empire, see Erich S. Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Leiden: Brill, 1990), esp. 1 2 9 , 1 3 8 ; and Peter K. Nelson,

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c a m p a i g n e d against the Greek cities o f southern Italy a n d Sicily, it defeated C a r t h a g e in a series o f wars. R o m e then e x p a n d e d t o the n o r t h a n d west, a n d advanced an eastern c a m p a i g n that subdued Asia Minor, A r m e n i a , a n d Syria. R o m a n warlords a c c r u e d untold s u m s o f wealth. By the t i m e o f the Principate, R o m e exercised political a n d e c o n o m i c imperium

over the

Mediterranean world a n d beyond. Crucial for the justification o f its imperial rule fi-om Augustus o n w a r d were its divine expansionist claims. Virgil's Aeneid justified Rome's right t o rule the world ( 2 7 9 ) . Virgil does n o t simply p o r t r a y Aeneas, o n e o f the heroes o f the Trojan War, as a wanderer like Odysseus; he also places the protagonist in a war t o win L a t i u m , from which R o m e was established. F u r t h e r m o r e , Aeneas is " t h e e x e c u t o r o f a divine universal plan which did n o t b e c o m e visible until Virgil's time," in the reign o f Augustus.^^ Moreover, Virgil portrays Augustus' reign as the n e w reign o f Saturn, the R o m a n equivalent o f K r o n o s , the ruler o f the golden age (first m e n t i o n e d in Hesiod's Works and Days)J^

T h u s , in the Aeneid,

R o m e is depicted as

divinely ordained to be ruler o f the world,^° a n d Augustus is depicted as the long-awaited restorer o f peace (VirgH, Aeneid

3 ; Livy 1 . 1 - 2 . 6 ) .

In a rapidly escalating process that began with Augustus' accession t o power, the cities a n d provincial assemblies o f Greek and Asia lavished n u m e r o u s h o n o r s in multiple f o r m s o n the R o m a n e m p e r o r s . In the f o r m o f decrees, coin issues, temples, statues, a n d public festivals, the e m p e r o r s were h o n o r e d by the subjects cities, all at their o w n initiative.^' T h o u g h

Leadership and Discipleship: A Study of Luke 22:24-30 (Adanta: Scholars, 1994), esp. 28-29. 38. Albrecht Dihle, Greek and Latin Literature of the Roman Empire: From Augustus to Justinian, trans. Manfred Malzahn (London: Roudedge, 1994), 32. 39. On Virgil's adoption of Hesiod's "Ages of Metal" myth and the "Life under Kronos" myth from another Greek tradition, see Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, "The Golden Age and Sin in Augustan Ideology," Past and Present 97 (1982): 20. Virgil first used the golden-age theme in his fourth Eclogue, in a period of civil unrest. Later, when Octavian became the undisputed ruler of Rome, Virgil composed Georgics, which chanted a similar theme and posited Augustus as a "potential savior" (Wallace-Hadrill, 20). Then, when Augustus actually gained a tight grip on Rome, Virgil composed the Aeneid, which returned yet again to the Eclogue theme and signaled "a confident recognition of Augustus as savior" (Wallace-Hadrill, 22). Also, Wallace-Hadrill (25) notes how the golden-age theme is repeated in Nero's imperial reign through the writings of Seneca and Calpurnius Siculus. 40. Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives a similar portrait of Rome as divinely ordained to rule the world. See John T. Squires, The Plan of God in Luke-Acts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 41. 41. See esp. S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); excerpts in Richard A Horsley, "Introduction to the Gospel of Imperial Salvation," in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley), 20.

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anti-imperial sentiment was n o t u n c o m m o n , R o m e ' s subjects, led by the local elite, a c c o m m o d a t e d themselves t o R o m a n rule because o f R o m e ' s unavoidable presence a n d power. In Judea in particular, where the m o v e m e n t Paul h a d joined originated, the ruling priestly elite acceded t o R o m e ' s d o m i n a t i o n as long as " t h e r e was n o specific interference in Jewish practices o f worship a n d laws."^^ T h e ruling elite sought t o a c c o m m o d a t e themselves t o the R o m a n s , moreover,

even as t h e y a i m e d t o m a i n t a i n

Jewish t r a d i t i o n s .

The

I d u m a e a n s Antipater a n d his son H e r o d , principal a d m i n i s t r a t o r a n d king, respectively, o f greater Judea in the

first-century

B.C.E., "ingratiated t h e m -

selves with p r o m i n e n t R o m a n s such as Julius Caesar, M a r k A n t o n y a n d Octavian."^^ T h e historian Josephus, a wealthy priest a n d client o f the Flavian e m p e r o r s , c o m m e n d s the R o m a n s in lavish t e r m s : " W i t h o u t God's aid so vast an E m p i r e could never have been built u p " {Jewish

War

2 . 3 9 0 - 3 9 1 ) . Indeed, in its rebellion the Jerusalem populace " w a s w a r r i n g n o t against the R o m a n s only, b u t also against G o d " {Jewish War 5 . 3 7 8 ; cf. 5 . 9 . 3 ; 5 . 9 . 4 ; 6 . 2 . 1 ) . ^ Correspondingly, he blames n o t the R o m a n s but the Sicarii ( a m o n g others) for the w a r against R o m e a n d the destruction o f the Jerusalem temple {Jewish War 1.27; 5 . 4 4 4 ; 6 . 2 5 1 ) . " T h e y o u t d o each o t h e r in acts o f impiety t o w a r d G o d a n d injustice t o their n e i g h b o r s , . . . oppressing the m a s s e s , . . . b e n t o n t y r a n n y . . . . V i o l e n c e , . . . p l u n d e r i n g , . . . lawlessness a n d c r u e l t y , . . . n o w o r d unspoken t o insult, n o deed untried t o r u i n " {Jewish War 7 . 8 . 1 ) . A c c o m m o d a t i o n i s t practices also included violent repression o f persons o r groups deemed subversive.^^ New Testament literature itself provides evidence o f such repressive acts by the rulers o f Judea a n d Galilee, such as the arrest a n d beheading o f J o h n the Baptist a n d the arrest o f Peter a n d the stoning o f Stephen a n d James in Jerusalem. H e r o d Antipas likely killed J o h n the Baptist, at least according t o Josephus, because he feared " t h a t John's followers m i g h t t u r n t o insurrection stasis'' {Jewish Antiquities

18.5.2 [116-119]).^^

42. David M. Rhoads, Israel in Revolution, 6-74 C.E.: A Political History Based on the Writings of Josephus (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 11. 43. Richard A. Horsley, "Introduction to Patronage, Priesthoods, and Power," in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley), 93. 44. On Josephus as Roman client and historian, see Per Bilde, Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome: His Life, His Works, and Their Importance (Sheffield: JSOT, 1998). Josephus'/^^5/i War, written to persuade Jews in the East not to resist Rome in the aftermath of the Roman reconquest of Judea, was commissioned by the emperor Titus. 45. See Richard A. Horsley, "Popular Prophetic Movements at the Time of Jesus: Their Principal Features and Social Origins,"/SNT 26 (1986): 3-27. 46. David Fiensy, "Leaders of Mass Movements and the Leader of the Jesus Movement,"/SNT 74 (1999): 15.

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W i t h regard to Macedonia Livy gives the account o f Onesimus, a Macedonian and a pro-Roman,^^ v^hose speech to the R o m a n Senate castigates Perseus for not abiding by his father's treaty with R o m e ( 4 4 . 1 6 . 5 ) . This is the same Perseus (the son o f Phihp V ) who lost the decisive battle o f the Third Macedonian W a r with R o m e , the battie at Pydna, which led to the Macedonian settlement o r the division o f M a c e d o n i a into four republics in 167 B.C.E. B y mid-first c e n t u r y B.C.E. the aristocratic rulers in Thessalonica, the provincial capital o f M a c e d o n i a , cultivated R o m a n favor a n d beneficence. Despite occasional a n t i - R o m a n revolts by o t h e r Macedonians,^^ there is a m p l e literary, n u m i s m a t i c , epigraphic, a n d statuary evidence for a rich history o f h o n o r s given t o the R o m a n s by the city o f Thessalonica a n d p a r ticular figures o f wealth a n d power.^^ A Thessalonian inscription praises Metellus, w h o h a d quashed the revolt o f the M a c e d o n i a n s , as a " s a v i o r " (soter).

A n o t h e r inscription h o n o r s the quaestor C. Servilius Caepio as

"savior." A series o f coins praises A n t o n y a n d Octavian a n d c o m m e m o r a t e s the city's "liberation" t h r o u g h Antony's defeat o f B r u t u s in 4 2

B.C.E.

Thessalonica c o m m e m o r a t e d Antony's v i c t o r y as the inauguration o f a n e w era, c o m p l e t e with celebratory g a m e s . After the battle o f A c t i u m (31 B.C.E.), the city issued coinage h o n o r i n g the deification o f Julius. W h i l e Augustus is n o t deified o n the coins, the coins j u x t a p o s e h i m with his father, a n d thus the issue suggests the "Thessalonians' awareness o f the Imperator's status as divifilius

[son o f a G o d ] . " S o m e o f Augustus' succes-

sors ( f r o m Gaius t o C o m m o d u s ) also appear o n the city's coins. A partial statue o f Augustus survives f r o m the Claudian period. O n e inscription indicates the presence o f a temple o f Caesar, while others praise " R o m a n b e n e f a c t o r s " o r R o m a in association with R o m a n benefactors. T h e inscription praising the first-century T h r a c i a n prince Rhoimetalus 11, as priest a n d agonothete

(judge o f public g a m e s ) o f the I m p e r a t o r Caesar Augustus,

suggests that the Thessalonians were actively cultivating the p a t r o n a g e o f the e m p e r o r a n d imperial figures in seeking political leverage.

47. On the term philoromanoi, see Douglas R. Edwards, Religion and Power: Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greek East (New York: Oxford University, 1996), 18. 48. Dyson, "Native Revolt Patterns," 169-70, mentions several revolts in late Republican or early imperial times. 49. Documentation for the following evidence is mainly in Holland Lee Hendrix, "Thessalonicans Honor Romans," (diss., Harvard University, 1984; on microfilm, Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMl, 1997), respectively on 2 6 6 , 1 5 6 , 1 7 2 , 1 9 8 , 1 3 5 , 1 9 2 , 3 1 5 , 3 7 ; Hendrix, "Benefactor/Patron Networks in the Urban Environment: Evidence from Thessalonica," Semeia 56 (1992): 50; Holland Lee Hendrix, "Archaeology and Eschatology," in The Future of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester (ed. Birger A. Pearson et al; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 117; Raymond F. Collins, The Birth of the New Testament: The Origin and Development of the First Christian Generation (New York: Crossroad, 1993), 6.

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This a b u n d a n t evidence o f their active cultivation o f R o m a n power makes clear that the d o m i n a n t Thessalonian aristocracy, like its c o u n t e r p a r t in Judea, were the local instruments o f the R o m a n order. It is critical for us t o realize h o w visible the R o m a n imperial ideology w o u l d have b e e n as a p a r t o f the everyday w o r l d o f the Thessalonians w h e n we read 1 Thessalonians.

Paul's Criticism of the Thessalonian Aristocracy W h e n read against the clear evidence that the aristocratic rulers o f b o t h Judea and Thessalonica were strongly p r o - R o m a n and, indeed, the local instruments o f the R o m a n miperial order, 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 and 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 appear to be Paul s encouragement o f resistance to that imperial order.

First Thessalonians 2:13-16 Traditional readings o f 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 hardly m e n t i o n the R o m a n s at all despite the fact that, as we have seen, the R o m a n imperial presence was visible everywhere in Thessalonica.^^ Indeed, t h e interpretation o f this passage is m i r e d in debate over whether it is an interpolation o r an original p a r t o f the letter.^' While the debate c a n n o t be fully reviewed o r settled in this essay, m a n u s c r i p t evidence supports the originality o f the passage, a n d reasonable arguments can be given o n other g r o u n d s — f o r m a l o r t h e o l o g i c a l — for its authenticity. Formally, the repetition o f a thanksgiving notice ( c f 1:2; 2 : 1 3 ) is not problematic because the passage in question appears to repeat

50. The exception is the case when some scholars interpret an act of the Romans against the Jews (cf Suetonius, Claudius 25.4) as the wrath of God (1 Thess 2:16). E. Bammel, "Judenverfolgung und Naherwartung," ZTK 56 (1959): 2 4 9 - 3 1 5 ; Robert Jewett, The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Millenarian Piety (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 3 7 - 3 8 . C f ]osephus Jewish Antiquities, 20.112; Jewish War, 2.224-27. 51. The earhest supporters of an interpolation hypothesis are catalogued in Werner Kummel's "Das literarische und geschichtiiche Problem des ersten Thessalonicherbriefes," in Neotestamentica et patristica: Eine Freundesgabe, Herrn Professor Dr. Oscar Cullmann zu seinem 60. Geburtstag Uberreicht (Novum Testamentum Suppl. 6; Leiden: Brill, 1962), 2 2 0 - 2 1 . The most notable recent advocate is Birger Pearson, "1 Thessalonians 2:13-16: A Deutero-Pauline Interpolation," HTR 64 (1971): 79-94. Pearsons argument diat 1 Thess 2:13-16 is an interpolation has three pivotal bases: (1) an historical one, the presumption of the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E. as the event of the wrath in 1 Thess 2:16 (94); (2) a theological one, the presumption that Paul could not have written an anti-Jewish polemic (85); and (3) a formal one, the apparent disruption that 1 Thess 2:13-16 causes between 2:12 and 2:17 ( 8 8 - 9 1 ) . For a critique of Pearsons position, see Karl P. Donfried, "Paul and Judaism: 1 Thessalonians as a Test Case," Int 38 (1984): 2 4 2 - 5 3 .

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and amplify the earUer emphasis o n imitation o f suffering ( 1 : 6 ; 2 : 1 4 ) , with b o t h passages endmg o n a note about the wrath o f G o d ( 1 : 1 0 ; 2 : 1 6 ) . " TheologicaUy, s o m e d o u b t that Paul could have written a passage with an anti-Jewish valence. T h e r e are at least four c o u n t e r a r g u m e n t s t o this n o t i o n . First, 2 : 1 4 - 1 6 is n o t directed toward aU Jews, just some.^^ Second, debate a n d conflict between various Judean groups a n d m o v e m e n t s o f Jews (or between Judean groups a n d their rulers) was often intense in R o m a n times (e.g., Josephus, Jewish Antiquities

1 . 1 5 . 9 1 ; Philo

Cherubim

1 7 ) , even at points leading to violence (Josephus, Jewish War 1.4.3; 1.7.5; 1 . 2 9 . 1 ; 2 . 1 . 3 ; 2 . 3 . 1 ) ; this passage m u s t be u n d e r s t o o d precisely in this c o n text.^'' Third, the passage does n o t conflict with R o m a n s 11, " w h e r e far f r o m suggesting the final j u d g m e n t o f the Jews, [Paul] speaks c o n c e r n i n g the continuing validity o f God's covenant with t h e m and indeed o f their eventual salvation."^^ N o t only m u s t R o m a n s be read for its o w n situation, b u t in any respect, Paul's reference t o " s o m e Jews" is an analogy designed t o speak about the character o f the Gentiles in Thessalonica w h o cause suffering for Paul's assembly.^^ F o u r t h , any specific referencing o f " t h e w r a t h "

52. On 1 Thess 2:13-16 as an amplification of 1:2-10, see F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Word BibUcal Commentary 35; ed. Ralph P. Martin; Waco, Tx.: Word, 1982), 44. On ampUfication, the author of Ad Herennium (4.54-56) says: Refining consists in dweUing on the same topic and yet seeming to say something ever new. It is accomplished in two ways: by merely repeating the same idea, or descanting upon it. We shall not repeat the same thing precisely—for that, to be sure, would weary the hearer and not refine the idea—^but with changes. Our changes wiU be of three kinds: in the words, in the delivery, and in the treatment. Our changes wUl be verbal when, having expressed the idea once, we repeat it once again or oftener in other, equivalent terms. See also Cicero, Orator 63.212; Dionysius of HaUcarnassus, Demosthenes 48. 53. See Frank GilUard, "The Problem of die Anti-Semitic Comma between 1 Thessalonians 2:14 and 15," NTS 35 (1989): 4 8 1 - 5 0 2 . C f W. D. Davies, "Paul and die People of Israel," NTS 24 (1977): 6 - 9 ; WiUi Marxsen, Der erste Brief an die Thessalonicher (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1979), 149. 54. Luke Timothy Johnson, "The New Testament's Anti-Jewish Slander and the Conventions of Ancient Polemic" Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989): 4 1 9 - ^ 1 ; Donald Hagner, "Paul's Quarrel with Judaism," in Anti-Semitism and Christianity: Issues of Polemic and Faith, ed. Craig A. Evans and Donald A. Hagner (MinneapoUs: Fortress, 1993), 130-36. It is necessary to consider critically Josephus' defensive estabUshment viewpoint and sharp castigation of dissenting or disruptive groups. 55. Hagner, "Paul's Quarrel widi Judaism," 131. 56. Abraham Smith, Comfort One Another: Reconstructing the Rhetoric and Audience of 1 Thessalonians (LouisviUe, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 35-37.

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t o the (later) destruction o f the temple o r a massacre o r something else is highly speculative.^^ Yet, the debate likely lingers because the a p p r o a c h to Paul o n either side o f the debate examines Paul's statement in this passage so

narrowly,

that is, only W\\h reference to ( o t h e r ) Jews a n d without considering the larger c o n t e x t in the R o m a n E m p i r e . W h i l e the tragic history o f antiSemitism requires that we never bring closure to any scriptural passage that has been used by later Christians t o s u p p o r t racial hatred, it is possible that the recent t u r n in Pauline scholarship offers us a way forward in understanding the wider polemical and political dynamics o f the passage, if we assign it to Paul's hands.^^ Given the strong p r o - R o m a n a t m o s p h e r e in Thessalonica

(where

Paul's assembly h a d suffered at the hands o f o t h e r Thessalonians) a n d the frequent repressive action by the p r o - R o m a n Judean rulers against Jewish groups there (including the assemblies o f Christ-believers), it seems likely that in 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 Paul is criticizing the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy in Thessalonica by way o f an analogy with the p r o - R o m a n rulers o f Judea.^^ T h r e e principal a r g u m e n t s s u p p o r t this suggestion. First, the diction o f 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 is political. F o r Paul, Jesus Christ, n o t the emperor, is " L o r d " and " S o n o f God," in pomted contrast to the visible signs o f the " l o r d s h i p " a n d "divine sonship" o f the e m p e r o r

in

Thessalonica.^^ F u r t h e r m o r e , the expression " t h a t they m i g h t be saved"

57. In agreement, see George Lyons, Pauline Autobiography: Toward a New Understanding (SBL Dissertation Series 73; Adanta: Scholars, 1985), 203; Abraham Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 2000); 168-69. For a sterling critique of the basic arguments against the authenticity of 1 Thess 2:13-16, see Jon A. Weatherly "The Authenticity of 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16: Additional Evidence/'/SNT42 (1991): 7 9 - 9 8 . 58. In passing, it should be noted that Thessalonica (modern-day Salonika) bears several tragic connections for the Jews. Some went there when they were forced out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. During World War II, moreover, "60,000 of them were deported [from Salonika] by the Nazis and nearly all of them slain." Sherman E. Johnson, "The Aposde Paul in Macedonia," Lexington Theological Quarterly 19 (1987): 77. 59. On the analogy, c f Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, 168. loudaioi should be read as "Judeans" rather than all "Jews," as explained by Beverly Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation; Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1998), 36. 60. To Paul's insistence on Jesus Christ as Lord, and not the emperor, compare the exclusive commitment of the Fourth Philosophy to God as their sole Lord and Master versus Caesar (hence, the impossibility of paying the Roman tribute) and the insistence of the Sicarii holding out on Masada: no degree of torture could get them "to confess that Caesar was their lord" (Josephus, Jewish War, 2.118; 7.418.

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presupposes that the Gentiles needed to be saved; they were n o t already saved by Caesar, despite the power o f the E m p i r e a n d the long-standing claim in imperial ideology that the e m p e r o r as savior had already established salvation.^' Moreover, Paul's use o f the standard political t e r m "assemblies" (ekklesiai)

for his c o m m u n i t i e s clearly suggests that they were

an alternative to the assemblies o f Greek cities such as Thessalonica. As mentioned, Christ-believers, like Diaspora Jews, saw themselves as m e m bers o f alternative c o m m u n i t i e s that were wider than the usual local voluntary associations. Paul's references not only to the "assembly" o f the Thessalonians but to assemblies in Judea and in Macedonia a n d Achaia indicate that he imagines the further development o f alternative c o m m u n i ties in the E m p i r e . Paul's assemblies m a y have been small, but for h i m they represented the power o f his God's presence beyond, as well as within, the beleaguered assembly at Thessalonica. Second, the way in which the afflictions (persecutions) are discussed in 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 indicates an apocalyptic (political) worldview in which " t h e Day o f the L o r d " is near. In the Judean apocalyptic worldview, serious afflictions w o u l d o c c u r just before the t i m e o f God's j u d g m e n t a n d deliverance (cf. D a n 1 2 : 1 ; M a r k 1 3 : 1 9 , 2 4 ; M a t t 2 4 : 9 - 1 4 ) . ' ' In other words, Paul's reading o f the times is that the persecution that believers are n o w facing is a sure indicator o f the i m m i n e n c e o f the Parousia o f Christ a n d God's j u d g m e n t o f the old order. F o r this interpretation, o f course, 1 Thess 2 : 1 6 b m u s t be translated n o t as "God's w r a t h 'has overtaken' [ephthasen]

at last," as the

NRSV reads, b u t as " G o d ' s w r a t h 'has d r a w n near' [ephthasen]

at last" (cf.

Luke 1 1 : 2 0 ) . " This view o f the world, however, m e a n s that Paul anticipates the i m m i n e n t beginning o f a n e w era for his assemblies, in pointed c o n trast to the official Thessalonian declarations that n e w eras had begun with the victories o f the R o m a n warlords A n t o n y a n d Octavian. Third, the characterization o f the Thessalonian persecutors (partly by analogy) as relentless in 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 appears to be a polemical indication o f their lack o f self-control. Various suggestions have been m a d e regarding the c h a r a c t e r o f the afflictions caused by the " c o m p a t r i o t s " o f Paul's assembly at Thessalonica.'^ S o m e think that "Paul was the target o f (at

61. See, e.g., Craig R. Koester, '"The Savior of the World' (John 4:42)," JBL 109 (1990): 6 6 5 - 8 0 . 62. On the suffering of the prophets as a sign of the end, see the Ascension of Isaiah 5:14; c f W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1965), 58. 6 3 . 1 . H. Marshall, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 8 0 - 8 1 . 64. Donfried, in "Paul and Judaism," 243, thinks that the compatriots in 2:14 include Jews and Gentiles. On the one hand, Donfried's argument seems to be influenced by a desire to attenuate the disparities between 1 Thessalonians (which never

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least) slanderous a b u s e " ("shamefully mistreated," 1 Thess 2 : 2 ) / ' Perhaps the Christ-believers v^ere being harassed because they refused t o take p a r t in their f o r m e r cultic activities (the "sufferings" in 1 Thess 1:6b; 2 : 2 , 1 4 - 1 5 ; 3 : 1 - 5 ) , ' ' o r w^ere even being martyred.'^ In any case, Paul's charge that the Thessalonian " c o m p a t r i o t s " are severely repressing his assembly m e m b e r s is a polemical accusation o f a lack o f self-mastery, a wrell-known p h i l o sophical topos. Remarkably, moreover, this topos h a d been adopted by Augustus a n d his culture shapers.'^ So, if Paul is indeed developing this t o p o s here, the passage ironically suggests that the o p p o n e n t s are o u t o f c o n t r o l even t h o u g h they h o n o r a n d collaborate in an E m p i r e that has claimed self-control as the basis for its governance o f the entire world.'^

expUcidy mentions Jewish opposition in Thessalonica) and Acts (which does; 17:5). Lidce's tendentious portrait is known, however, not simply because Luke yields a set idealized pattern, as I have shown elsewhere {Comfort One Another: Reconstructing the Rhetoric and Audience of 1 Thessalonians [Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1995], 117 n. 53), but as well, because Luke's insistence that Thessalonica had a synagogue of the Jews simply cannot be supported. For a balanced treatment of the issue, see Collins, Birth of the New Testament, 111-12. 65. John Barclay "Conflict in Thessalonica," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 55 (1993): 513. 66. Jeffrey Weuna, "How You Must Walk to Please God," in Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament, ed. Richard N. Longenecker (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 106. 67. Kari R Donfried, "Imperial Cults of Thessalonica," 221. According to de Vos, however, Paul does not "specifically link these deaths [in 4:13-18] with the confUct [of 1 Thess 2:14-16]," as Donfried contends. Craig Steven de Vos, Church and Community Conflicts: The Relationships of the Thessalonian, Corinthian, and Philippian Churches with Their Wider Civic Communities (Adanta: Scholars, 1997), 159. 68. Catharine Edwards, The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 25; Abraham Smith, "Tull of Spirit and Wisdom': Luke's Portrait of Stephen (Acts 6:1-8:la) as a Man of Self-Mastery," in Asceticism and the New Testament, ed. Leif E. Vaage and Vincent L. Wimbush (New York: Roudedge, 1999), 100. 69. Some scholars (e.g., Hagner, 135) think Paul's description of the opponents here is similar to some of the polemical descriptions of the Jews as espoused by Gentile writers. While Gentile writers (Hecataeus of Abdera, Manetho, Apollonius Molon, Diodorous Siculus, Strabo, Pompeius Trogus, Lysimachus, Apion, and Tacitus) charged the Jews with either misanthropy or xenophobia, both polemical motifs were a part of a Greek and Roman tradition that was used by Jews, Greeks, and Romans against other ethnic groups, select persons within a group, or even single individuals. Thus, the presence of the motif does not indicate a sweeping indictment of the entire Jewish nation, whether by Paul or by a later redactor of Paul's earliest extant letter. On the tradition of misanthropy and xenophobia and its varied uses, see Peter Schaefer, Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 173-75. See Tacitus, Histories 5.5.2. Josephus notes Apion's use of the polemic, in Against Apion 2 All.

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63

5:1-11

Paul does n o t direct 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 at failures within the Thessalonian assembly. This is n o t a passage a b o u t the delay o f the Parousia.^^ Paul's " u s / t h e m " rhetoric here suggests, rather, an attack o n outsiders.^^ " P e a c e a n d security" in 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 is " a direct allusion t o R o m a n p r o p a g a n d a o r t o Greek propagandistic responses t o R o m a n beneficence."^' T h u s , we n e e d here only t o indicate the very real c o n c e r n that people in Thessalonica h a d for the issue o f " p e a c e a n d security," a n d then t o read 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 as Paul's critique o f those w h o trusted in the R o m a n s t o provide. T h e history o f M a c e d o n i a a n d its capital Thessalonica reveals that " p e a c e a n d security" was a c o n t i n u o u s c o n c e r n . O n the o n e h a n d , b o t h k n e w that " p e a c e a n d security" entailed military action. T h e

Roman

" p e a c e " that c a m e t o M a c e d o n i a in 167 B.C.E. arrived by virtue o f Paulus's defeat o f Perseus. Moreover, while that peace gave tacit overtures to freed o m (e.g., use o f "their o w n laws, a n d election o f their o w n magistrates"),^^ it also c a m e with the d e p o r t a t i o n o f Macedonia's military officers, the division o f the land into four republics, a n d restrictive laws o n inter-republic trade.^^ This type o f " p e a c e a n d security," a p r o p a g a n d a slogan that simply "affirmed the existing order,"^' did n o t change with the Principate. O n the o t h e r h a n d , imperial M a c e d o n i a a n d Thessalonica knew f r o m earlier centuries o f invasions that the established o r d e r m i g h t b e difficult t o m a i n t a i n . M a c e d o n i a h a d been invaded several times, by the Skordiskoi to the north

in

119 and

1 1 0 B.C.E., by several g r o u p s inspired

by

Mithridates in 8 7 B.C.E., a n d again by the Skordiskoi, with the M a d o i a n d the Dardanians, in 8 4 B.C.E.^' Thessalonica itself c a m e u n d e r direct threat

70. As demonstrated convincingly by H. Koester, "From Paul's Eschatology," 16-17. C f Hendrbc, "Archaeology and Eschatology," 109-10. Widi Hendrix, I diink Paul's "peace and security" does not stem from the Septuagint because the reference in 1 Thessalonians has a temporal and causal force that is not found in LXX prophetic denunciations and because the two terms never appear together in the Hebrew Scriptures. 71. For a different opinion, see Abraham Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians, 303. 72. Hendrbc, "Archaeology and Eschatology," 114. 73. N. G. L. Hammond and E W. Walbank, A History of Macedonia, vol. 3 : 3 3 6 - 1 6 7 B,c. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988), 5 5 9 - 6 7 . 74. Hammond and Walbank, 564. 75. Klaus Wengst, Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), 78. 76. David W. J. Gill, "Macedonia," in The Book of Acts in Its First-Century Setting, vol. 2 of The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting (ed. David W. J. Gill and Conrad Gempf; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 403. By the time Paul wrote his letter, Macedonia and Achaia were two separate senatorial provinces, a change put into place by Claudius in 44 C.E.

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d u r i n g the governorship o f L. Calpurnius Piso, leading t o the fortification o f the citadel (Cicero, De provinciis Pisonem

consularibus

2 . 4 ; L.

Calpurnium

oratio 1 7 . 4 0 ) . T h e effect o f such incursions left Thessalonica v^ith

a bit o f a siege mentality up t o the beginning o f the civil v^ars.^^ T h e n d u r ing the civil v^ar period, by shifting their loyalty f r o m o n e v^arlord t o a n o t h e r in their search for security, the Thessalonian aristocracy developed a habit o f backing the losers. Feeling vulnerable, therefore, after Octavian's ascendancy following his v i c t o r y at A c t i u m , they quickly heaped lavish h o n o r s o n "Augustus," a n d received benefits f r o m him.^^ In 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 , therefore, Paul is likely referring t o the Thessalonian aristocracy's continuing obsession with " p e a c e a n d security," with w h i c h his assembly at Thessalonica was all t o o familiar.^^ F u r t h e r m o r e , Paul sets " p e a c e a n d security" within the f r a m e w o r k o f apocalyptic b a t d e i m a g e r y (children o f light vs. children o f darkness, 5 : 4 - 5 ) similar t o that in the Community

Rule a n d the War Rule o f the Q u m r a n covenanters

(IQS

3 . 1 3 - 4 . 2 6 ; I Q M 1.1, 3 ) . Assuming that the Q u m r a n covenanters were referring to t h e R o m a n s as the " K i t t i m " ( I Q M 2 . 1 ; 1 5 . 4 ; 1 6 . 1 3 ; 1 8 . 5 ; 1 9 . 1 ) , they show that Paul's Jewish c o n t e m p o r a r i e s were expecting the e s c h a t o logical battle t o be against the R o m a n s . C o n t i n u i n g the battle i m a g e r y ( 5 : 8 ) , Paul insists o n sober d e p o r t m e n t that reflects belonging t o the day as o p p o s e d to t h e night ( c f 5 : 6 - 7 ) . Moreover, with the earlier triad o f faith, love, a n d h o p e

(cf

1:3), he portrays

his T h e s s a l o n i a n

assembly's

" w e a p o n r y for the eschatological battle."^^ Critical for us t o n o t e , however, is that the aorist o r past-tense p a r t i c i p l e — u s u a l l y translated (as in t h e NRSV) as "let us . . . p u t o n " {endysamenoi,

5 : 8 ) , as if it were p r e s e n t —

should be translated as "already having p u t on." H e n c e , the sobriety is a consequence

o f the believers' having been clothed in battle gear.

T h e m e n t i o n o f the eschatological w e a p o n r y is likely a n e c h o o f Isa 5 9 : 1 7 , where Yahweh is depicted as a " m a n o f war."^' Now, however, the assembly has the eschatological weaponry. T h e " D a y o f the L o r d " imagery, with which 5 : 1 - 1 1 begins ( 5 : 2 ) , is also an e c h o f r o m Isa 2 : 1 2 , where it "describes God's decisive intervention."^' Paul's allusion t o the " D a y o f the

77. De Vos, Church and Community ConflictSy 125. 78. Ibid., 126. 79. C f Jouette Bassler, "Peace in All Ways: Theology in the Thessalonian Letters: A Response to R. Jewett, E. Krentz, and E. Richard," in Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon, vol. 1 of Pauline Theology (ed. Jouette Bassler; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 84. 80. H. Koester, "From Paul's Eschatology," 451. 81. Malherbe, Letters to the Thessalonians, 297. 82. Ibid., 290.

"Unmasking

the Powers"

L o r d " i m a g e r y a n d his general d e p e n d e n c e u p o n

65

Isaiah

(especially

Deutero-Isaiah) again suggests that he is n o t simply c o m m u n i c a t i n g w a r m feelings o f encouragement to his friends. Rather, he is speaking the diction o f resistance as he reflects o n eschatological events that have already occurred (e.g., the preparation o f his assembly with eschatological weaponry) and those which will shortly c o m e to pass when the Day o f the Lord arrives. T h e realization o f the Day o f the L o r d will c o n s u m m a t e God's intervention in the world. R o m e will n o longer hold power. G o d alone will rule. This profusion o f battle imagery, moreover, suggests that the ignorance o f the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy is that they have placed their trust in forces that c a n n o t provide the stable " p e a c e and security" which they h a d sought for so long. Instead o f "peace and security," they would face "sudden destruction." For Paul, o f course, the ignorance o f the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy extends further. T h e y belong t o the sphere o f the night ( c f 5 : 4 ) because they d o n o t k n o w that the new age has already begun. Already the battle is engaged; already Paul's b a n d o f believers are clothed in battle a r m o r . Salvation does n o t c o m e f r o m the emperor, as if the e m p e r o r were a t r u e savior. Rather, for Paul, salvation c o m e s f r o m G o d , w h o has n o t destined the foundational t e a m a n d Paul's assembly for wrath, but t o obtain salvation t h r o u g h Jesus Christ ( 5 : 9 ; c f Phil 3 : 1 9 - 2 1 ) . F u r t h e r m o r e , by c o n n e c t ing 5 : 1 - 1 1 a n d 4 : 1 3 - 1 8 with the repetition o f the expression " w i t h "

(syn)

the L o r d ( 4 : 1 7 ; 5 : 1 0 ) , Paul indicates that the p e r m a n e n c e o f the salvation has already begun; for the earlier verse indicates that, with the Parousia,^^ the assemblies o f Christ will "always" o r " f o r e v e r " be with the L o r d (4:17).^^ W h a t Paul guarantees for his assembly is an alternative society o f m u t u a l love a n d support, dramatically different from the security in their d o m i n a n t positions sought by the Thessalonian elite w h o placed their faith in the imperial order.

83. The word "parousia" has two essential meanings: "presence" (2 Mace 15:21; 3 Mace 3:17; 2 Cor 10:10; Phil 2:12); and "arrival" (Jdt 10:18; 2 Mace 8:12; 1 Cor 16:17; 2 Cor 7:6-7). Tracy Howard, "The Literary Unity of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11," Grace Theological Journal 9 (1988): 176, notes that the word "came to have particular associations with the arrival of a central figure" and indicated both "the physical act of arrival" and "the attendant circumstances in which the ruler was honored." It is generally believed that the early followers of Jesus adopted these "particular associations" to speak about Christ's coming as his Parousia. It is likely, moreover, that the term "would have evoked the image of the return of a triumphant conqueror in the Hellenistic world and the idea of a coronation on that occasion" (Collins, Birth of the New Testament, 112). 84. First Thess 4:13-18 also exploits military imagery. Note the "cry of command" and "the sound of God's trumpet" (4:16).

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Smith

Conclusion A m o r e t h o r o u g h postcolonial analysis would require m o r e self-reflective analysis a b o u t t h e p r e - i n t e r p r e t i v e r e a d i n g c o n s t r a i n t s o f s t u d e n t s o f 1 Thessalonians (in line with Price's caveats a b o u t Christianizing a s s u m p t i o n s ) . Nevertheless, this essay is a m o d e s t first step in revealing the m i x ture o f politics and religion that Paul a n d the auditors o f 1 Thessalonians likely shared a b o u t their m o v e m e n t and the ruler cult at Thessalonica as well. Paul's earliest extant letter, while friendly in its efforts to console a beleaguered assembly, offers a harsh critique o f those w h o have stood in the way o f his f o r m a t i o n o f assemblies a m o n g the Gentiles across the provinces o f the Mediterranean world. In 1 Thess 2 : 1 3 - 1 6 , Paul criticizes p r o - R o m a n Thessalonian aristocrats w h o have persecuted his assembly t h r o u g h an implicit c o m p a r i s o n with the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy in Judea. F o r Paul, b o t h evince a lack o f self-control even while they align themselves with the R o m a n s , w h o justify their right t o rule the world o n the putative claim that they have self-control. In the case o f 1 Thess 5 : 1 - 1 1 , Paul criticizes the p r o - R o m a n aristocracy yet again because o f their ignorance a b o u t " p e a c e a n d security" a n d a b o u t the real eschatological battle that has already begun with the death a n d resurrection o f Jesus. F o r Paul, the " p e a c e a n d security" that has eluded the Thessalonian elite for centuries c a n n o t be f o u n d in the R o m a n s . Genuine peace c a n only c o m e f r o m Paul's deity, the " G o d o f p e a c e " (1 Thess 5 : 2 3 ) , a n d that deity's representative, the L o r d Jesus Christ, t h r o u g h whose death G o d brings salvation and a p e r m a n e n t u n i o n o f believing assemblies at Jesus' Parousia (1 Thess 4 : 1 5 , 1 7 ) .

-

3

-

T H E APOSTLE PAUL'S SELF-PRESENTATION AS A N T M M P E R L M PERFORMANCE Neil Elliott

R

o m a n imperial ritual and propaganda filled the environment in which

the aposde Paul worked.^ In convergent ways, recent studies o f the i m p e -

rial cult, o n the one hand, and o f Paul's "theology," o n the other, are moving away f r o m the individualistic, cognitivist c o n c e r n s o f classical Christian

theology, and toward an understanding o f the meaning o f symbols and the function o f rituals in representing relationships o f power. I argue here that both imperial imagery and cult, and the performance o f Paul's apostolic parousia

(presence), constituted ritual representations o f power.

Further, the evidence o f Paul's Letters tells us that, despite the vaunted "religious t o l e r a n c e " o f the E m p i r e , ' these two ritual strategies did n o t

1. Dieter Georgi and Stanley K. Stowers regard Roman imperial ideology as a more relevant context for understanding the letter to the Romans than a presumed debate with Judaism: See Georgi, Theocracy in PauVs Praxis and Theology (trans. David E. Green; MinneapoUs: Fortress, 1991); and Stowers, A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, Gentiles (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994). HoUand Lee Hendrix, "Archaeology and Eschatology at Thessalonica," in The Future of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Helmut Koester (ed. Birger A. Pearson; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997), 107-18, has used archaeological and numismatic evidence in a systematic reconstruction of the imperial context for 1 Thessalonians. See also the important collection of essays in Richard A. Horsley, ed., Paul and Empire: Religion and Power in Roman Imperial Society (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1997). 2. Richard Gordon, "The Veil of Power: Emperors, Sacrificers and Benefactors," in Pagan Priests: Religion and Power in the Ancient World (ed. Mary Beard and John North; Ithaca, N.Y.: CorneU University Press, 1990], 207, notes that one ideological function of religion in the early Principate "was to insulate Rome from the cultural consequence of her own imperialism: the religion of Rome became a guarantee not merely of her supremacy but also of her freedom from contamination by her

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coexist peacefully. T h a t is, they did n o t keep to neatly segregated "political" a n d "religious," o r pubHc and private, spheres (as citizens o f m o d e r n Western d e m o c r a c i e s are t o o p r o n e to imagine, o n the analogy o f o u r division between " c h u r c h a n d s t a t e " ) . Instead, Paul's apostolic p e r f o r m a n c e constituted a rival representation o f power, even if that representation was realized o n the public landscape o f the R o m a n city only rarely (and in p a r a doxical ways, as we shall see below)

Informed by the covenantal and apoca-

lyptic traditions o f Israel, and by the apokalypsis 1 : 1 5 - 1 6 ) , Paul understands his parousia

o f Jesus Christ (Gal

t o actualize an invasive power that

is at o d d s — i n d e e d , at war!—^with the imperial power o f " t h e rulers o f this a g e " (1 C o r 2 : 8 ) .

Ritual Representations of Power in the Roman Civic Landscape Recent studies bring valuable light to bear o n the symbolic representations o f power in Hellenistic-Roman society. Especially i m p o r t a n t in this regard is S. R. F. Price's w o r k o n power a n d ritual. Price d e m o n s t r a t e s that in Paul's day, imperial rituals h a d saturated public life t h r o u g h o u t the provinces, including long-standing local festivals which t o o k o n new imperial aspects, as well as n e w celebrations a n d games, festivals, a n d sacrifices offered to, o r o n behalf of, the imperial family. These rituals were n o t irregular a n d passing events, b u t cults institutionalized o n a regular basis. Further, they were n o t simply occasional a c c o m m o d a t i o n s i m p o s e d o n an indifferent p o p u lation by imperial fiat. Usually, rituals celebrating R o m a n power were "created a n d organized by the subjects o f a great e m p i r e " themselves—in the absence o f the e m p e r o r o r even his representative—"in o r d e r t o represent t o themselves the ruling power."^ Price argues that "Christianizing" assumptions still hinder an adequate understanding o f the imperial cult. These misapprehensions include, first, privileging the individual's feeling at the expense o f ritual action. " W i t h the imperial cult, the processions a n d the sacrifices, the temples a n d the images fill o u r sources. T h e y are the crucially i m p o r t a n t collective constructs t o w h i c h the individual

r e a c t e d . Ritual is w h a t t h e r e w a s . " ' A n o t h e r

s u b j e c t s — Rome was different from her Empire and her reUgion was an emblem of that difference. The so-called tolerance of the indigenous religions of the provinces is rather to be understood as a consequence of this colonial attitude." 3. Compare Georgi, Theocracy, 83-88, and Stowers, Rereading, 14-15. Raymond Pickett's program in The Cross in Corinth: The Social Significance of the Death of Jesus (JSNTSup 143; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997), 9 - 3 6 , is very similar to what I wish to accomplish here on a smaller scale. 4. S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 1. 5. Ibid., 11.

The Apostle PauVs Self-Presentation

as Anti-imperial

Performance

69

Christianizing bias is the "theological" focus o n the question o f how widespread a n d h o w sincere was belief in the e m p e r o r ' s divinity, a question abstracted f r o m the social m a t r i x o f the R o m a n city in which the imperial cult t o o k place. Price criticizes a scholarship t o o often p r e o c c u p i e d with a p r e s u m e d skepticism o n the p a r t o f the R o m a n e l i t e — a p r e s u m p t i o n that reduces imperial rituals t o a cynical political m a n i p u l a t i o n o f religious symbolism. Instead, Price argues, imperial rituals constituted " a public cognitive system," a social " e m b o d i m e n t o f thinking," an a t t e m p t o n the part o f the Greek cities " t o represent to themselves their new masters in a traditional guise," a n d thus " t o c o m e to t e r m s with a n e w type o f power." H e finds the origins o f the imperial cult in public Hellenistic cults for rulers a n d p r o m i n e n t citizens. T h e transitions t o cults o f R o m a — o f the " R o m a n benefact o r s " in general, o r o f R o m a n

individuals in

particular—represent

"clear-sighted perception o f the new situation" o f R o m a n

hegemony,

expressed in Greek i d i o m . ' Taking seriously Price's attention t o the

cultural

m e c h a n i s m s o f imperialism does n o t m e a n we should minimize the role o f b r u t e force in establishing R o m a n hegemony, o f course. Paul's insistence that in o n e particular act o f R o m a n b r u t a l i t y — t h e humiliation and c r u c i fixion o f Jesus o f N a z a r e t h — t h e "rulers o f this a g e " h a d exposed their o w n fraudulence a n d folly (1 C o r 2 : 4 - 6 ) , requires that we w h o seek to u n d e r stand the aposde n o t divert o u r gaze f r o m imperial violence, in the ancient world o r in o u r o w n . Rather, Price points us to the thickly textured cultural process by which provincial elites sought to a c c o m m o d a t e themselves to a force that would have been "otherwise unmanageable."^ Price's study o f imperial cult in Asia M i n o r has found i m p o r t a n t echoes in o t h e r recent works^ that d e m o n s t r a t e the aggressive, pervasive, a n d systematic representation o f imperial power in public space. T h e redesign o f city squares, the c o n s t r u c t i o n o f new temples, the a p p r o p r i a tion o r transfer o f existing shrines, m o n u m e n t a l architecture, dedicatory inscriptions, a n d the proliferation o f standardized images o f the e m p e r o r all served the interests o f the R o m a n g o v e r n m e n t , clearly e n o u g h . Yet the imperial cult was enthusiastically p r o d u c e d a n d maintained by the provincial elites, w h o were eager to participate in the n e w networks o f power.

6. Ibid., 8 - 9 ; 2 5 - 4 3 . 7. Ibid., 52. 8. For example, Susan E. Alcock, Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); also worthy of note is Ramsay MacMullen, Romanization in the Time of Augustus (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002). On the Romanization of the Mediterranean economy, see Greg Woolf, "Imperialism, Empire, and the Integration of the Roman Economy," World Archaeology 23 (1992): 2 8 3 - 9 3 .

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privilege, a n d prestige. T h e cult served as " a system o f exchange," linking Greek a n d provincial elites t o R o m e ; it " e n h a n c e d the d o m i n a n c e o f local elites over t h e populace, o f cities over o t h e r cities, a n d o f Greek over indigenous cultures."^ Public rituals served as the m e d i u m t h r o u g h which the i m a g e o f t h e e m p e r o r c a m e to represent the network o f military, e c o n o m i c , a n d social relationships o f R o m a n hegemony. M o s t persons in the e m p i r e o f R o m e knew the e m p e r o r only t h r o u g h the proliferation o f images t h r o u g h o u t t h e provinces, a n d these d o m i n a t e d the celebration o f the cult. C e r e m o n i a l processions

frequendy

involved the c a r r y i n g - a b o u t o f images o f t h e

e m p e r o r ; p r o d u c i n g the image for the reverential gaze o f the citizens was a sacred action. T h e o m n i p r e s e n c e o f imperial images, a n d their strategic m a n i p u l a t i o n t h r o u g h ritual, p r o d u c e d a considerable effect, providing a c o n s t a n t r e m i n d e r o f w h o ruled t h e world.

T h e ritualized m a i n t e n a n c e o f

public o r d e r was in the imperial era focused increasingly o n the person o f the e m p e r o r himself, in R o m e ; a n d o n the successful m a n i p u l a t i o n o f his image, in the provinces.'^ Several aspects o f the imperial cult m e r i t particular note. First, while the p r o d u c t i o n o f imperial images was a p r o p a g a n d a project f r o m the c e n ter, R o m e , their manipulation

and representation

in civic ritual, public cere-

m o n i a l , a n d everyday conversation was enthusiastically carried o n at t h e "periphery," by the Greek elites in the p r o v i n c e s . S e c o n d , the rise o f Augustus m a r k e d a n a b r u p t e n d t o the proliferation o f cults t o h u m a n benefactors and a consolidation o f cults t o the gods with the imperial cult, transparently a reflection o f the colonial r e l a t i o n s h i p . T h i r d , following his d r a m a t i c triple t r i u m p h in 2 9 B.C.E., O c t a v i a n , later called Augustus, consistently refused t h e Senate's offers o f t r i u m p h s in his h o n o r , a n d in a

9. Price, Rituals and Power, 6 5 - 7 7 , 248; Alcock, Graecia Capta, 2 1 5 - 3 0 . See also G. W. Bowersock, "The Imperial Cult: Perceptions and Persistence," in Self-Definition in the Greco-Roman World, vol. 3 of Jewish and Christian Self-Definition (ed. Ben F. Meyer and E. P. Sanders; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); and CUfford Ando, Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (Berkeley: University of Cahfornia Press, 2000), a work that came to my attention too late to be considered in this paper. 10. Bowersock, "Imperial Cult," 173-74; Price, Rituals and Power, 170-206. Price reUes explicidy ( 7 - 9 , 2 3 9 - 4 0 ) on Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), for his understanding of ritual. 11. See Wilfried Nippel, Public Order in Ancient Rome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 4 - 1 7 (on Republican Rome), and 8 5 - 1 1 9 (for the early Principate); and Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1990). 12. Price, Rituals and Power, 172-76. 13. Ibid., 4 9 - 5 1 ; 5 4 - 5 6 ; Gordon, "Veil of Power," 2 0 6 - 7 .

The Apostle PauVs Self-Presentation

as Anti-imperial

Performance

71

deliberate a n d unified political p r o g r a m , restricted the official t r i u m p h s , celebrated by others, to his o w n potential successors. At the s a m e time, he actively p r o m o t e d the use o f the image a n d tide o f triumphator

in other rit-

uals (acclamations, supplications) and o t h e r m e d i a (architecture, coins, statues). T h e result was an effective imperial umph,^^

monopoly

on the imagery

oftri-

T h e effect in R o m a n cities was t h a t sacrifices b y individual

e m p e r o r s in specific rituals increasingly b e c a m e manifestations o f a generalized and distinctly Roman piety, practiced a n d p r o m o t e d by the e m p e r o r s in the n a m e o f the E m p i r e . T h u s the e m p e r o r was able t o a c c u m u l a t e "symbolic capital" for himself, a n d piety in the provinces b e c a m e saturated with the symbolized presence o f the e m p e r o r . ' '

Power and Rhetoric in Paul To the extent that R o m a n imperial power a n d ideology f o u n d ritualized representation o n the R o m a n civic landscape, we should expect that Paul's apostolic w o r k o n that same landscape would engage imperial ritual, at least obliquely. Until recendy, however, imperial ritual a n d symbolization have been curiously underappreciated in Pauline studies.^' This is curious, since

14. Frances V. Hickson, "Augustus Triumphator: Manipulation of the Triumphal Theme in die Political Program of Augustus," Latomus 50 (1991): 124-38. 15. Gordon, "Veil of Power," 2 0 5 , 2 0 8 , 2 1 9 . 16. Important recent efforts include Georgi, Theocracy: and the essays collected in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley). Recent interpretation of the Corinthian correspondence has also focused on apparent competition within the ekklesia over power, especially as represented in eloquence ("wise speech"), and upon social stratification and friction between classes. The relationship between imperial ideology and codes of "vertical reciprocity" in Roman patronage has been ably investigated by Peter Marshall, Enmity in Corinth: Social Conventions in PauVs Relations w/ith the Corinthians (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1987), and John K. Chow, Patronage and Power: A Study of Social Networks in Corinth, JSNTSup 75 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992); also David G. Horrell, The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996). The notion of a "new consensus" regarding the social setting of the Pauline ekklesiai, depending on the work of Gerd Theissen {The Social SeUing of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth [trans. John Schutz; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977]) and Wayne A. Meeks {The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul [New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1983]), has been challenged regarding its implicit fiinctionalism and overgeneralizing from the particular situation in Corinth. See Mary Ann Tolbert, "Social, Sociological, and Anthropological Methods," in Searching the Scriptures, vol. 1 (ed. Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza; New York: Crossroad, 1993), 2 5 5 - 7 1 ; Richard A. Horsley "Pauls Counter-Imperial Gospel: Introduction," in Paul and Empire (ed. Horsley), 140-^7; idem, 1 Corinthians (ANTC; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998); Justin J. Meggitt, Paul, Poverty, and Survival (Studies of die New Testament and Its World; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998); and Stephen Friesen, "Poor Paul," at the Paul and Politics Section of the SBL, 2002.

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Paul does n o t merely speak about power: he intended his letters to function within a larger public, apostolic strategy that represented

and

expressed

power and power relations in a way different from, a n d often subversive of, imperial symbol a n d ritual. A n adequate rhetorical criticism will not be content to interpret Paul's Letters as vehicles for conveying theological c o n cepts; they are instruments o f persuasion within a larger apostolic strategy. Paul describes his o w n apostolic activity as the manifestation o f divine power. I focus below o n several key m e t a p h o r s : the t r i u m p h a l procession, the spectacle o f the arena, a n d c o m b a t imagery, m e t a p h o r s t h r o u g h which Paul seeks to represent the death a n d resurrection o f Jesus as the decisive manifestation o f divine power. First, however, we m u s t attend t o s o m e aspects o f the rhetorical performance

o f Paul's Letters.

T h o u g h the Hellenistic world was far from a purely oral culture, it is nevertheless t r u e that reading was oral performance,^''

In dictating letters t o

be read aloud t o his c o m m u n i t i e s , Paul sought to extend the presence o f his apostolic a u t h o r i t y a n d power, his "apostolic parousia,''

in circumstances

where his personal presence, the p r i m a r y m e d i u m t h r o u g h which he p r e ferred to m a k e his a u t h o r i t y effective, was impossible. Paul's Letters did m o r e than m a i n t a i n personal c o n t a c t over distance. In contrast to o u r visual way o f taking in the text o f a letter, holding it quite literally "at arm's length," oral p e r f o r m a n c e situates people in the midst o f " a world o f voices." T h e effect o f Paul's message performed

orally would have been to create an

atmosphere o f effectual energy, an orbit o f power. W e expect the creation o f this "acoustic s p a c e " t o have been the responsibility o f the associate t o w h o m Paul entrusted his letter; thus, Paul would presumably have taken care to prepare this messenger to perform

the letter as a part o f his apostolic

strategy, for the letter h a d only d o n e its w o r k o n c e it was performed.'^

17. As Paul Achtemeier declares, late antiquity knew nothing of the "silent, solitary reader"; "Omne verbum sonat: The New Testament and the Oral Environment of Late Western Antiquity,"/5L 109 (1990): 16-19. 18. See Robert W. Funk, "The Apostolic Parousia: Form and Significance," in Christian History and Interpretation: Studies Presented to John Knox (ed. W. R. Farmer, C. F. D. Moule, and R. R. Niebuhr; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), 249, 258; William G. Doty, Letters in Primitive Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1973), 45—47; Bengt Holmberg, Paul and Powder: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978), 5 7 - 9 3 ; Werner Kelber, The Oral and Written Gospel: The Hermeneutics of Speaking and Writing in the Synoptic Tradition, Mark, Paul, and Q (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 140-83; Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986): 23; David E. Aune, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987), 192; Pieter Botha, "The Verbal Art of the Pauline Letters: Rhetoric, Performance and Presence," in Rhetoric and the New Testament: Essays from the 1992 Heidelberg Conference (ed. Stanley E.

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Ancient rhetorical h a n d b o o k s gave specific instructions regarding the b o d y and h a n d gestures m o s t effective in oral p e r f o r m a n c e . Even if Paul h a d n o direct c o n t a c t with those h a n d b o o k s , we m a y expect that Paul's colleagues would have arrived in a city like C o r i n t h prepared t o present a vivid p e r f o r m a n c e o f his letters. T h e troubled interactions recorded in the C o r i n t h i a n c o r r e s p o n d e n c e show the high esteem in which s o m e in the C o r i n t h i a n ekklesia held polished rhetorical p e r f o r m a n c e , such as that attributed to Apollos o f Alexandria (Acts 1 8 : 2 4 - 2 8 ; c f 1 Cor. 1 : 1 7 - 1 8 , 2 : 1 - 5 ) . Also evident is the reaction o f these s a m e Corinthians t o what they c a m e to regard as Paul's inadequate rhetorical p e r f o r m a n c e , a n d the c o n sequent crisis for an apostie compelled to restore his authoritative

parousia

(his strategic presence) t h r o u g h an effective c o u n t e r p e r f o r m a n c e by an apostolic colleague ( o r colleagues).'^ If (as 2 C o r 10:10 indicates) s o m e o f the Corinthians found Paul's perf o r m a n c e disappointing, the challenge facing h i m was to establish the authenticity o f his o w n apostolic presence without participating self-commendation

that he condemns

in the same

in his rivals. His strategy in both l e t t e r s —

heightened in the second—is to represent himself, not merely as a particularly able speaker a m o n g others, but as an agent o f the "power o f God," distinct f r o m m e r e practitioners o f rhetoric (so 1 C o r 4 : 1 9 - 2 0 ) . ^ ° Using terminology

Porter and Thomas H. Olbricht; JSNTSup 90; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993), 4 1 5 - 2 3 ; Joanna Dewey, "Textuality in an Oral Culture: A Survey of the Pauline Traditions," Semeia 65 (1994): 3 7 - 6 5 ; Arthur J. Dewey "A Re-Hearing of Romans 10:1-15," Semeia 65 (1994): 109-28; Vernon K. Robbins, "Oral, Rhetorical and Literary Cultures: A Response," Semeia 65 (1994): 7 5 - 9 1 ; Richard Ward, "Pauline Voice and Presence as Strategic Communication," Semeia 65 (1994): 102-3. 19. Quintilian, Inst. 1.11; Ward, "PauHne Voice," 9 9 - 1 0 1 ; Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians: A Commentary on PauVs Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979), 131; Antoinette Clark Wire, "Performance, Politics, and Power: A Response," Semeia 65 (1994): 129. The argument that a Corinthian disparagement of Paul's rhetoric was a key issue in the correspondence was first made by Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation ofMankind (trans. Frank Clarke; Atlanta: John Knox, 1959), 135-67; compare Nils Dahl, Studies in Paul: Theology for the Parly Christian Mission (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1977), 4 0 - 6 1 ; Hans Dieter Betz, "The Problem of Rhetoric and Theology according to the Aposde Paul," in VApotre Paul: PersonnalitCy style et conception du ministere (ed. A. Vanhoye; Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium 73; Louvain: Louvain University Press/Peeters, 1986), 2 4 - 3 9 ; Meeks, First Urban Christians, 117-18. 20. On the challenge and Paul's response, see Steven J. Kraftchick, "Death in Us, Life in You: The Apostolic Medium," in i and 2 Corinthians, vol. 2 of Pauline Theology (ed. David M. Hay; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 166; Elizabeth CasteUi, "Interpretations of Power in 1 Corinthians," Semeia 54 ( 1 9 9 1 ) : 2 0 5 - 6 ; Antoinette Clark Wire, Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction through PauVs Rhetoric (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 1 7 6 - 8 0 ; Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, "Rhetorical

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familiar from the rhetorical h a n d b o o k s , Paul calls his o w n p e r f o r m a n c e a m o n g the C o r i n t h i a n s a " d e m o n s t r a t i o n [apodeixis]

o f the Spirit a n d o f

p o w e r " (1 C o r 2 : 4 ) , n o t m e r e "persuasive w o r d s o f w i s d o m " (NASB). O n e m i g h t say his rhetoric is apodeictic—"demonstrative t h a n epideictic

of power"—rather

(rhetorical display). God's p o w e r is at w o r k in Paul: thus

Paul is n o t a s h a m e d o f the gospel because it is " t h e saving p o w e r o f G o d " ( R o m 1:16; cf. 1 Thess 1 : 5 ) . Paul's "signs a n d w o n d e r s " are the w o r k o f Christ ( R o m 1 5 : 1 8 - 1 9 ) , o r o f the Spirit (Gal 3 : 3 - 5 ) ; they are " t h e signs o f a t r u e a p o s d e " ( 2 C o r 12:12).^' Recognizing w h a t I a m calling the " a p o d e i c t i c " c h a r a c t e r o f Paul's r h e t o r i c m e a n s shifting attention from the aposde's "consciousness, that is, w h a t Paul thought''

a b o u t a subject, t o the effects h e wished t o a c h i e v e —

including the w o r k he intended his letters t o p e r f o r m , t h r o u g h divine power. T h r o u g h t h e m h e m e a n s t o fulfill his o w n calling as aposde and t o realize the calling o f his hearers as " h o l y ones," by securing their faithftd obedience ( R o m 1:5) a n d thus the sanctity o f " t h e offering o f the n a t i o n s " ( R o m 1 5 : 1 4 - 1 6 , author).^^ But this m e a n s that the conventional rhetoricalcritical approaches t o Paul's letters m u s t be e x p a n d e d . T h e "rhetorical situa t i o n " addressed in a n y letter is m o r e t h a n t h e n e t w o r k o f relationships a n d expectations that c o n n e c t the a p o s d e with his audience. T h e "deep e x i g e n c e " o f Paul's Letters is nothing less than the apocalyptic horizon o f God's c o m i n g t r i u m p h in power. This "deep e x i g e n c e " necessarily impinges

Situation and Historical Reconstruction in 1 Corinthians," NTS 33 (1987): 1 7 5 - 8 6 . In 1 Corinthians, Castelli, Wire, and Schussler Fiorenza detect Paul's effort to curtail the autonomy, authority, and power of charismatic women in the Corinthian congregation, an assessment depending heavily on the authenticity of 1 Cor 14:34-35 and its alignment with 11:2-16.1 suspect the first passage is an interpolation, and regard Paul's rhetorical power-play as aimed at a different segment of the Corinthian church; see Neil Elliott, Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (MaryknoU, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1994), 5 2 - 5 4 ; 2 0 4 - 1 4 . 21. Betz, "Rhetoric and Theology," 3 5 - 3 7 ; Schussler Fiorenza, "Rhetorical Situation," 392; Hohnberg, Paul and Power, 7 4 - 7 5 . 22. Compare Pickett, The Cross in Corinth, 9 - 3 6 ; similarly Jouette M. Bassler speaks of Paul's mission as activity: "Paul's Theology: Whence and Whither?" in 1 and 2 Corinthians, vol. 2 of Pauline Theology (ed. Hay; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 3-17. See also Nils Dahl, "Paul's Letter to the Galatians: Epistolary Genre, Content, Structure," in The Galatians Debate (ed. Mark Nanos; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2002); idem, Studies in Paul, 73; Kelber, Oral and Written Gospel, 145, 1 4 8 - 5 1 ; Neil Elliott, The Rhetoric of Romans: Argumentative Constraint and Strategy and PauVs Dialogue with Judaism, (JSNTSup 45; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990), 9 4 - 1 0 4 ; Holmberg, Paul and Power, 7 0 - 7 4 ; John L. White, "New Testament Epistolary Literature in the Framework of Ancient Epistolography," ANRW 2.25.2 (1984): 1745.

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directly o n the " n e a r exigence" o f the letter's audience, for Paul clearly w r o t e in anticipation o f G o d acting in the congregation.^^ W e m u s t n o t let o u r orientation to the Pauline text restrict the h o r i z o n o f Paul's parousia.

While we have n o direct access t o Paul's o w n oral p e r -

f o r m a n c e , we d o have the aposde's characterization o f his p e r f o r m a n c e . T h e fact that Paul repeatedly uses powerful m e t a p h o r s d r a w n f r o m the sphere o f public ceremonial a n d the display o f imperial power merits close e x a m i n a t i o n , t o which I n o w t u r n .

The Apostle "Led in Triumph" In 2 C o r 2 : 1 4 - 1 6 Paul takes u p the language o f the imperial t r i u m p h t o describe his o w n apostolic presence: B u t thanks be to G o d , w h o in Christ always leads us in t r i u m p h a l procession, and t h r o u g h us spreads in every place the fragrance that c o m e s from knowing h i m . F o r we are the a r o m a o f Christ t o G o d a m o n g those w h o are being saved a n d a m o n g those w h o are perishing; t o the o n e a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. While earlier generations o f translators a n d c o m m e n t a t o r s regarded as " m o s t unsuitable" the implication that Paul had been " c o n q u e r e d " by God,^^ m o r e recendy interpreters have emphasized precisely this t h e m e as a key to Paul's rhetorical strategy in 2 Corinthians 8 - 9 . Lexical evidence from the period indicates that thriambeuein

plus accusative has the sense " t o

celebrate a victory already w o n " over s o m e o n e , specifically, in a triumphal procession. To be led in such a procession m e a n s b e m g subjected to humiliation and, routmely, to be led to one's death. T h e t e r m could thus be used as

23. Compare J. Louis Martyn's comments regarding Galatians: "Events in Galatia," in Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon, vol. 2 of Pauline Theology (ed. Jouette M. Bassler; MinneapoUs: Fortress Press, 1991), 161. Martyn speaks of a "theological event" (163; 178-79) where Paul speaks of God's action. See also Ernst Kasemann, "The ^Righteousness of God' in Paul," in New Testament Questions of Today (trans. W. J. Montague; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969), 168-82. On "rhetorical situation," see Lloyd A. Bitzer, "The Rhetorical Situation," Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968): 1-14; Scott Consigny "Rhetoric and Its Situations," Philosophy and Rhetoric 7 (1974): 175-86. On die "deep exigence" of Paul's letter to die Romans, Elliott, Rhetoric of Romans, 1 7 - 2 1 , 7 0 - 9 3 . 24. G. Findlay "St. Paul's Use of thriambeuo," Expositor 10 (1879): 4 0 4 - 5 ; C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Black; New York: Harper 8c Row, 1973), 9 7 - 9 8 .

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a m e t a p h o r o f shame a n d humiliation, a n d Paul rehes o n just that meaning as he confi-onts the e n m i t y o f a social elite a m o n g the Cormthians.^^ Paul's o p p o n e n t s have accused h i m o f breaching a relationship o f reciprocal friendship based o n faith. T h e y m a y suspect h i m o f initiating the collection for his o w n profit; ftirther, they m a y even regard his subsequent i m p r i s o n m e n t a n d m o r t a l trial in Ephesus ( 2 Cor. 1 : 8 - 1 0 ) as evidence o f God's p u n i s h m e n t for his a t t e m p t t o "fleece" the church.^^ Paul responds that his c o n d u c t toward the Corinthians has been o p e n and transparent, a n d that his o w n humiliation a n d m i s t r e a t m e n t is in fact evidence that he is a genuine aposde! T h e t r i u m p h a l m e t a p h o r allows Paul to reconfigure his apparent disgrace: even if G o d has displayed h i m as a figure o f s h a m e a n d ridicule, it r e d o u n d s t o God's t r i u m p h ; the apostie remains the locus o f God's power! Paul relies u p o n the imagery o f t r i u m p h a l o r epiphany processions elsewhere in 2 Corinthians: " T h e love o f Christ has taken us captive" ( 5 : 1 4 , a u t h o r ) . Paul's presence is a fragrant substance such as the a r o m a spread in epiphany processions, t o indicate the god's presence ( 2 : 1 4 - 1 6 ) . Paul a n d his co-workers " c a r r y a b o u t in the b o d y the dying o f Jesus, so that the life o f Jesus m a y also be manifested in o u r b o d i e s " ( 4 : 1 0 , a u t h o r ) . Paul bids the Corinthians " m a k e w a y " as for a ceremonial procession ( 7 : 2 ) . Paul D u f f detects in this proliferation o f ritual images a single strategic purpose: P a u l . . . " p l a y s " w i t h the definition o f thriambeueiriy it

expanding

Although Paul might look like he is being "led in t r i u m p h , "

a victim o f defeat, the object o f the vengeance o f God, he is in fact a captive o f the "love o f Christ." H e is a participant n o t in a military victory parade but in an epiphany procession. H e has been c a p tured, n o t as a prisoner o f war, but as a devotee o f the d e i t y . . . . H e describes himself with an image which would be eagerly e m b r a c e d by his opponents; b u t t h r o u g h o u t the course o f the letter fragment.

25. Lamar WiUiamson, "Led in Triumph: Paul's Use of ThriambeuOy" Int 22 (1968): 321; Cilliers Breytenbach, "Paul's Proclamation and God's 'thriambos' (Notes on 2 Corinthians 2:14-16b)," Neotestamentica 24 (1990): 2 5 9 - 6 2 ; Jan Lambrecht, "The Defeated Paul, Aroma of Christ: An Exegetical Study of 2 Corinthians 2:14-16b," Louvain Studies 20 (1995): 170-86 (with survey of interpretation); Peter Marshall, "A Metaphor of Social Shame: thriambeuein in 2 Cor. 2:14," NovT 25 (1983): 302-17; Scott Hafemann, Suffering and the Spirit: An Exegetical Study of II Cor. 2:14-3:3 within the Context of the Corinthian Correspondence ( W U N T 2/19; Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1986), 33. 26. Victor R Furnish, II Corinthians (AB 32A; Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday 1984), 369; Paul Brooks Duff, "Metaphor, Motif, and Meaning: The Rhetorical Strategy behind the Image *Led in Triumph' in 2 Corinthians 2:14," CBQ 53 (1991): 8 6 - 8 9 .

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he subtly redefines it, using m e t a p h o r s a n d allusions d r a w n firom the processions o f the G r e c o - R o m a n world.^^ This is n o t m e r e rhetorical " p ' ^ Y "

course. W h i l e p a r t o f PauFs p u r -

pose is to address C o r i n t h i a n charges that he has proved false by delaying his return to t h e m (2 C o r 1 : 1 5 - 1 7 ; 1 : 2 3 - 2 : 4 ; 2 : 1 2 ) , he m u s t also revise their understanding o f the "affliction" he suffered ( 1 : 8 - 1 0 ; see below). By taking u p key images f r o m the imperial ritualization o f power (the t r i u m p h p r o cession), Paul acknowledges that he has b e e n m a d e the object o f public ridicule a n d s h a m e in civic representations o f R o m a n power (he refers obliquely t o receiving " t h e sentence o f death," 1 : 9 ) . Indeed, the later Pauline tradition uses the language o f t r i u m p h s a n d processions precisely in the c o n t e x t o f public spectacles o f t o r t u r e , expulsion, o r execution.^^ B u t Paul insists that the C o r i n t h i a n s m u s t perceive in his humiliation the decisive display o f God's power; wherever he goes, the " f r a g r a n c e o f the knowledge o f G o d " is spread ( 2 : 1 4 , author, c f 2 : 1 2 ) . T h e peculiar double effect o f this f r a g r a n c e — t o those perishing, " a fragrance f r o m death t o d e a t h " ; to those being saved, " a fragrance f r o m life t o life"—is clearly an invitation a n d a challenge to the C o r i n t h i a n s t o discern Paul's c o n d u c t f r o m God's perspective.

Paul's "Afflictions" All o f 2 Corinthians 1 - 9 stands u n d e r the t h e m e s o f "affliction" a n d " c o n solation" ( 1 : 3 - 7 ) . Paul was "afflicted" in Asia ( 1 : 8 ) , m o s t probably at m o r tal risk d u r i n g

an E p h e s i a n

imprisonment;^^

h e was

subsequently

"afflicted" in M a c e d o n i a , enduring " c o m b a t s without a n d fears within" ( 7 : 5 , a u t h o r ) . Even his solicitude toward the Corinthians has been an "affliction" ( 2 : 4 , 1 3 ) ! Paul repeatedly lists his afflictions: in 4 : 8 - 1 2 , where being " a f f l i c t e d , . . . p e r p l e x e d , . . . p e r s e c u t e d , . . . struck d o w n , . . . always being given u p t o death for Jesus' sake" is characterized, in t e r m s o f the epiphany procession, as "carrying about in the b o d y the death o f Jesus so that the life o f Jesus m a y be manifested in o u r bodies" ( 4 : 1 0 , a u t h o r ) . T h e triumph/epiphany m e t a p h o r in 2 C o r 2 : 1 4 a n d the allusion to the epiphany procession in 4 : 1 0 reveal a parallel structure: In b o t h cases the afflictions o f

27. Duff, "Metaphor," 8 7 , 9 1 . 28. Heidelberg and Hamburg Papyri: see Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, Writings Relating to Apostles, Apocalypses, and Related Subjects, vol. 2 of New Testament Apocrypha (rev. ed.; trans. R. McL. Wilson; Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 2 4 4 - 4 5 , 253. 29. Furnish, II Corinthians, 122-25.

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the apostohc workers are characterized as the public, ceremonial manifestation o f the knowledge o r power o f God.^° Again in 6 : 4 - 1 0 , Paul protests that his p a r t y o f God's servants have c o n d u c t e d themselves with openness a n d purity in the face o f "afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, i m p r i s o n m e n t s , riots, labors, sleepless nights, h u n g e r " ; he t h e n appeals to the Corinthians to " m a k e w a y " (choresate)

for these afflicted ministers, as for a sacred procession (7:2),^'

a n d thus to fulfill their sacred service (diakonia)

t o G o d ( 6 : 3 - 4 ) . In 1 C o r

4 : 9 - 1 3 , Paul presents a n o t h e r "affliction list" u n d e r a different t h o u g h related metaphor, that o f the ritualized spectacle o f the arena: I think that G o d has exhibited us aposdes as last o f all, as t h o u g h sentenced t o death, because we have b e c o m e a spectacle t o the world, to angels a n d t o m o r t a l s

[theatron]

To the present h o u r we

are h u n g r y a n d thirsty, we are p o o r l y clothed and beaten a n d homeless, a n d we g r o w weary f r o m the w o r k o f o u r o w n hands. W h e n reviled, we bless; w h e n persecuted, we endure; w h e n slandered, we speak kindly. W e have b e c o m e like the rubbish o f the world, the dregs o f all things, t o this very day. As in the passages fi*om 2 Corinthians, the afflictions suffered by the aposdes are here represented in ritual t e r m s : first, the ghasdy rehearsals o f imperial power in the arena; then also the (often violent) public expulsions o f ritual victims (perikatharmata,

peripsema)

in a p o t r o p a i c rituals.^^ W h i l e Paul's

reference to fighting "wild animals at Ephesus" (1 C o r 15:32) should perhaps n o t be taken literally (as it was, however, by the author o f the Acts o f Paul!), neither is the phrase merely an extravagant m e t a p h o r for facing opposition.^^ In Jewish a n d Christian tradition, the m e t a p h o r o f facing wild beasts was clearly associated with confronting ruling authorities, and with the possible

30. Duff, "Metaphor," 89-90; Hafemann, Suffering, 73; on die affliction lists in general, J. T. Fitzgerald, Cracks in an Earthen Vessel: An Examination of the Catalogues of Hardships in the Corinthian Correspondence (Adanta: Scholars, 1988). 31. Duff, "Metaphor," 8 7 - 8 8 . 32. The N R S V translates with "rubbish" and "dregs," but the Greek words are technical terms from apotropaic rituals; see B. Hudson McLean, The Cursed Christ: Mediterranean Expulsion Rituals and Pauline Soteriology (JSNTSup 126; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1996), 9 8 - 9 9 , 107. On the arena, see Roland Auguet, Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games (New York: Roudedge, 1972). 33. Anthony Tyrrell Hanson, The Paradox of the Cross in the Thought of Paul (JSNTSup 17