Corpus-Paul

["Stephen C. Carlson" <scarlson AT mindspring.com>]

At 11:33 AM 2/13/01 -0000, Mark Goodacre wrote:
>When teaching about the collection for the saints in Jerusalem 
>yesterday, I began wondering how Paul actually carried the offering 
>to Jerusalem?  Does anyone care to speculate?  If I remember 
>correctly, Murphy O'Connor (_Paul: A Critical Life_), ever able to 
>use his imagination, suggested that he sowed the money into an 
>inner tunic.  Were there no other means available in the ancient 
>world for transporting large amounts of money around the 
>Mediterranean, banks, cheques, IOUs?

No one has responded to this yet, so I'll give it a shot.

I had originally thought that banking was invented for the
Western world in the late Middle Ages, but a quick investigation
on the Web indicates that some forms of banking, including
loans for ship underwriting, maritime insurance, and even
credit transfers between cities, did exist in the early Roman
empire (and lapsed into disuse after Rome's fall).

Now, such services were generally available for wealthy merchants,
which does not describe Paul.  However, one of Paul's associates
listed in Romans was Erastus, the city treasurer of Corinth (16:23),
so perhaps Paul did have the connections to effect a credit transfer
of funds to Jerusalem.  It would be safer than carrying a lot of
gold or silver.

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson                        mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
Synoptic Problem Home Page   http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35