Corpus-Paul

[Daniel L Christiansen <dlc AT multnomah.edu>]

Richard Fellows wrote:

> What was the relationship between the Erastus of Rom 16:23 and the Erastus
> of Acts 19:22?  Were they the same person? Or were they father and son, or
> brothers, sharing the same cognomen?  Or were they unrelated?

    Erastus is also named in II Timothy 4:20, where Paul says he remained in
Corinth.  And we have an extra-biblical manuscript from the city of Corinth 
during
this period in which Erastus is said to be the “procurator of public 
buildings,” a
title which is certainly compatible with Paul’s “director of public works.”
    It seems to me very reasonable to posit an identity between the two 
references.
And, no, I am not attempting to once again open the debate on
Pauline/deutero-Pauline/pseudoPauline literature :)  But all the references 
to this
name (including the extra-biblical one) appear to point to a single 
individual.

> In the "A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names" (vol II Attica) the name
> "Erastus" accounts for only one in every 5,000 entries.  Can I therefore
> assume that only about 0.02% of people were called Erastus?  If that is the
> case, then we can be virtually certain that the two Erasti were not 
> unrelated.

    I would be less comfortable with using this argument, at least in the 
absence of
other evidence.  Just because a name is uncommon, does not in itself demand a
relationship between those holding that name.  However, given the evidence 
mentioned
above regarding the city and profession, I think the rarity of the name 
strengthens
the likelihood that these references are to the same man.

FWIW, Dan
--
Daniel L. Christiansen
Department of Bible
Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan Street
Portland, OR  97220
(Also Portland Bible College, Prof of Biblical Languages)
e-mail: dlc AT multnomah.edu