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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT intergate.ca>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Crispus, Titus, and the taking of new names
  • Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 16:25:41 -0700


On August 18th Kym Smith wrote:
>Crispus
>could not - and probably would not - continue in the synagogue because he
>believed the gospel Paul preached. That Sosthenes was (still) a ruler of
>the synagogue obviously some considerable time after Crispus joined Paul
>prohibits (to me) the possibility that both names belonged to the one
>person.

Kym,

you argued that Crispus would have given up the title of ARCHISUNAGOGOS
after joining Paul, and that he therefore could not be the same person as
Sosthenes, who was still ARCHISUNAGOGOS when he was beaten. Here are some
reasons why I think that your objection to the Crispus-Sosthenes hypothesis
does not work.

There is epigraphic evidence that for some synagogues the title of
ARCHISUNAGOGOS was held by a pagan. There are also cases where the title
was given for life. We should therefore not think of "ARCHISUNAGOGOS" as
the title of a job. Inscriptions show that ARCHISUNAGOGOI were often
benefactors who funded the construction of the synagogue building. The
individuals who held the title of ARCHISUNAGOGOS may often have had a
religious role in the running of the synagogue, but this was not always the
case, and we have no reason to believe that the title would have been given
up when its holder gave up any synagogue duties, if they had any.

In any case, the title 'ARCHISUNAGOGOS' for Sosthenes in Acts 18:17 is
probably given by Luke only to show that he is referring to the
aforementioned Crispus. The reference tells us nothing about whether the
title was still used for him.

For these reasons, I do not think Kym's objection to the Crispus-Sosthenes
hypothesis holds up.

For more on the title of ARCHISUNAGOGOS, see Tessa Rajak and David Noy,
"Archisynagogoi: office, title and social status in the Greco-Jewish
synagogue". The JOURNAL of Roman Studies Vol 83, p75-93.

>The likely answer, I think, is that
>both Crispus and Sosthenes were synagogue leaders before accepting the
>gospel and joining with Paul.

This sounds like a duplication caused by the double vision of the
two-person hypothesis. It is simpler to see Sosthenes as the re-named
Crispus, especially given the meaning of the name 'Sosthenes', and given
that it would be highly unusual to find Acts recording the beating of a
non-Christian.


Richard Fellows





  • Re: Crispus, Titus, and the taking of new names, Richard Fellows, 09/22/2002

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