Corpus-Paul

[Andrew Lincoln <alincoln AT chass.utoronto.ca>]

Patrick Nugent wrote:

> I can't follow the suggestion that "Paul" was only 'encouraging a
>responsible attitude,' because he so clearly worries about widows who are
>enrolled and those who are not (1 Tim 5:13-16).  Because they are
>responsible for 'washing the feet of the saints,' there may be an echo
>here of Jesus's deed in John's gospel, suggesting not just an ordinary
>ritual of hospitality but a fairly widespread, specifically "Christian" 
>ritual of servanthood that perhaps was thought to imitate Jesus; such a
>ritual would likely be the provenance of a person in authority.  The
>association here with the practice reflected in John may be too tenuous; I
>don't know research on the currency of that practice in the late 1C.  Even
>without that piece of speculation, it's hard for me to see "widows" having
>a sheerly ordinary meaning here.

A fairly comprehensive review of the practice of footwashing in Judaism,
the Graeco-Roman world and early Christianity is contained in J.C.Thomas,
Footwashing in John 13 and the Johannine Community (Sheffield: JSOT Press,
1991). His conclusions about 1 Tim 5:10 (cf. pp. 134-37) are in broad
agreement with Patrick's line of thought - that it is likely that this is
not simply an ordinary act of hospitality (slaves but not women in general
were expected to perform this) but a distinctive Christian rite based on
knowledge of the tradition on which John 13 is based and made a
qualification for those who want to be enrolled for a specific position
that would receive church support.

Andrew Lincoln


------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew T. Lincoln
alincoln AT chass.utoronto
Wycliffe College
University of Toronto
5 Hoskin Avenue
Toronto M5S 1H7
Canada