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  • From: "John Dickson" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Paul's poverty in Ephesus and the cost of travel
  • Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 13:35:10 +1000

Dear Richard and others,
In response the following:
>In 1 Cor 4:11 we read that Paul and his companions were hungry, thirsty,
>poorly clothed and homeless. How, then, could they afford to make the
>unscheduled trips to Corinth that the commentators propose? Given that Paul
>was barely able to feed and clothe himself, he surely did not command the
>resources to fund journeys for which he had not budgetted. I find it
>difficult to reconcile the language of 1 Cor 4:11-12 with the idea that
>Paul had a store of money reserved for unexpected journeys.

It seems to me that we must distinguish between three different types of
financial giving which Paul did and did not expect from his congregations.
These may be termed: 'maintenance', 'occasional gifts' and 'sending'.
'Maintenance' constituted the basic right of the missionary/apostle. The
missionary (and his wife) was entitled to enjoy the hospitality - food and
board - of his hearers. For compassionate, apologetic, didactic and
missionary reasons, Paul surrendered his right to maintenance, refusing even
to accept 'bread' from his hearers without paying for it.

'Occasional gifts' are evidenced only in relation to Paul's dealings with
the Philippian church.

Of most significance for this discussion is that fact that while Paul
refused 'maintenance' from his converts and did not expect 'occasional
gifts' from them, he did expect them to 'send' him (and his team) on his way
with ample supplies. Here it is important to realise that PROPEMPW appears
to have become a technical term within early Christianity connoting the
provision of travelling expenses and/or personnel for the departing
missionary. Paul expected and explicitly requested his converts to
contribute to his mission in this way (1 Cor 16:6, 11; 2 Cor 1:16; Titus
3:13). The fact that Paul also made such a request of the Roman congregation
(Rom 15:24), a congregation he did not found, confirms the widespread nature
of the practice in Christian communities, as does the similar usage in 3
John. This meaning for PROPEMPW is well attested outside the NT: Xenophon
Anab. 7.2.8; Josephus Ant. 1.279; J.W. 2.104, 7.356; Let. Aris. 172.

The point for the present discussion is obvious. Paul may well have been
hungry and badly clothed at the time of writing to the Corinthians for the
simple reason that he was (as usual) refusing maintenance from the
Ephesians. However, to make a journey which the apostle regarded as
important for his mission and for the good of another congregation, Paul
will have felt no embarrassment (based on the evidence elsewhere) in asking
the local Christians to provide him with travelling expenses.

Your thoughts?

John



Dr. John P. Dickson

Department of Ancient History

Macquarie University

Sydney, Australia






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