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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Gaius Titius Justus a.k.a. Stephanas

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  • From: Frich107 AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Gaius Titius Justus a.k.a. Stephanas
  • Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 08:26:01 EDT


rfellows AT shaw.ca writes:

>>But if our hypothesis is correct, all
>>these people were absent from Corinth at the time, and there may have been
>>NO wealthy believers present.

lists AT actually.me.uk writes in response:

>So why, exactly does Paul write to deal with the problems caused by the
>wealthy, and why is it the "strong" (which certainly correlates with
>wealthy) who seem to be the primary implied readers? They seem to be in his
>sights as those who took people to court to display the forensic rhetoric,
>and who could afford large dinner parties with the conspicuous consumption
>of meat.

My response:

Although I would agree with the objection voiced above that it is probably best not to read the Corinthians correspondence (1 Cor. at least) as saying there are no wealthy believers (see 1 Cor. 1:26f.) Hereby I would make what I would consider a logical step in identifying the 'not many (who) were powerful' and the 'not many (who) were of noble birth' (NRSV) as being in all likelihood wealthy. The numbers were likely very small of this kind of socio economic grouping, perhaps best described by Wayne Meeks' beautiful phrase 'status inconsistant' people. However, to go from there to then identify these as the 'strong' seems to be going too far. On what basis would you propose this identification? I am not convinced by the implied readership issue raised above. Considering the importance of fellowship/ ritual meals in the ancient world, as has been put forward so convincingly by people such as Philip Esler in his Galatians book, then it would seem reasonable that this could apply to virtually any Corinthian believer, provided that they weren't a slave.

Regards,

Fred Rich

Ph.D. Student,
Department of Biblical Studies,
University of Sheffield, UK.



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