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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul's collection and the Starvation in Judaea
  • Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 06:29:49 -0500

Hi Sakari,
Hope you are well. Just a few comments based on some work I have done on Gal. 2:1-10, but not managed to get finished up yet.

I am currently writing an article on The Poor of Jerusalem to a local publication. Paul called the believers in Jerusalem "Poor" in Gal 2,9-10 and Rom 15,25-27. What I have in mind is this:
According to Josephus (Ant. 20,50-53, 101) there was a big Starvation in Judaea at the time of Tiberius Alexander. A convert to Judaism, Queen Helena of Adiabene had bought grain from Egypt and shared it to Jews in need. Obviously the aid was centered on Jerusalem and perhaps its environments.This aid was meant to Jews only. Now, if there was any quarrell on who is a real Jew, as there most certainly was at that time,

What does this last statement mean? This issue is central to how you set up the question, and thus the result of your research. Who was, in Jerusalem, disputing whose identity as a "real Jew"? If you mean to imply the Christ-believing Jewish coalition, as your question seems to suggest, then I know of a dispute about the legitimacy of their claims regarding the meaning of the death of a Jewish martyr of the Roman regime, particularly where this is claimed to make a difference for gentiles and the kind of interaction they claim to have with them within their groups, but not of the legitimacy of these Jewish people being really Jewish. Jewish religion was not (and is not) in general the same kind of confession based religion that Christianity became much later, so that issues of practice do not constitute grounds for questioning inclusion (for removal), although they would constitute grounds for discipline. And in that sense the collection may indicate some socio-economic expression of disapproval for the policy of full inclusion of gentiles apart from completion of the conventional process of ritual conversion resulting in proselyte status. That would make sense of the debt of gentiles to these Jewish people in Judea.

it is quite understandable that these questions arise even more heavily on stage when there was a question of economy. The Jesus-believers in Jerusalem might have been suspected to brake the commands of Torah - or not giving it the same honorable status at more conservative Judaic currents did.

The issue is more likely that they resisted the social constraints on their expression of koinonia with the gentiles in their groups brought about by the prevailing authorities in Judea, although otherwise keeping Torah "zealously" in ways that would be approved by such authorities, with extra zeal in part perhaps to overcome the suspicion of compromising behavior that might have arisen. The reasons for disapproval could be any one of many, and the economic connection you are seeking to make makes sense here. A disputable coalition unwilling to compromise on this social policy might just be greeted with economic pressure, although it might not have any connection with the Helena example. The more likely case, I suggest, is in the everyday sphere of social interaction, where kin and fictive kinship reactions toward behavior suspected of indicating deviant social behavior in a way feared to compromise Judean family and neighborhood interests in an occupied land would constitute sufficient trouble. It should be remembered that for these people of this time religious life was not a separate sphere of social life in the way it can now sometimes be regarded, but was intimately connected with who they were in daily social life, and thus with how their social networks responded to them.

Of course the Helena example could have applied on these grounds as well, since this "new" interest group had less control of Judean political policies than did other ones, and might have suffered some discrimination in a relief measure such as this as well. (But not because they were less Jewish, rather because of inter-group politics, and they were the new group on the scene, with less power, and easily disputed policies that could be construed as "sleeping with the Roman enemy" where the influx of gentile adherents in the Diaspora who were not getting involved in proselyte conversion were concerned). But I wonder if this was already so clear to the leading Judean authorities under Tiberius that such public policy was already so shaped? Instead Paul's early actions against this coalition indicate a vigilante stirred to action by the failure of the prevailing authorities to act as decisively as he (and his less powerful interest group?) wished.

Also the relationships to Gentiles - thanks to Paul - were decreasing the possibilities of the Jesus-believers to be counted among the faithful Jews and thus were at least in danger to leave without the grain. Could this be the reason for the collection? If so, Paul was really in dept to the poor of Jerusalem.

It seems to me likely that the pressure upon this coalition in Judea increased in time with the growing public awareness of how it was operating among Diaspora Jewish groups, and that Paul was asked (according to Gal. 2:9-10) to help to alleviate the resultant fallout, to which he agreed, since the fate of the members of this Jewish coalition in Judea was directly related to the policies toward gentiles that the meeting confirmed (although a private meeting was sought, it became public because of outside agents who managed to get in; vv. 1-6).

Any comments? Does anyone know of some literature on the connection of the Starvation and Paul's collection to the Poor of Jerusalem?


Have you checked the books on the collection by Georgi? Nickle? Although they have different and more theologically based approaches to the issues, they might brush upon such an example along the way.

Regards,
Mark Nanos


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