Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT home.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?
Mark,
While this is not a specific answer to the details of how monies were
transported for Paul, I hope this reply will be helpful.

To the degree that one considers Paul's collection effort an aspect of
Jewish communal (that is synagogue and Temple) Jewish life, as, for example,
I do, then it would be useful to check the sources related to the transport
of the Temple Tax from Diaspora communities to Jerusalem. (This would not
seem to me to apply if Paul is already a Christian, that is, a
representative of a religious order distinct from Jewish organizations,
which the Romans and Greeks--not to mention Jewish groups in Judea or the
Diaspora--would be left to regard as some new kind of pagan religion, and
thus not similarly protected for transport of monies under these provisions
anyway; even so, information about the issue of just how some monies were
transported might be gained.)

Sacred monies were apparently kept by some Jewish communities of Asia minor,
e.g., in Sabbath-houses or banquet halls, and this arrangement was secured
by a ruling from Augustus (Josephus, Ant. 16.164).

Discussion of the rights granted by the Roman government for Jewish
communities to save and transport monies to Jerusalem is referred to, e.g.,
in Josephus (Ant. 14.110-13, 213-16; 16.160-78 [note e.g., 166: "The Jews...
to bring sacred monies to send up to Jerusalem, may do this without
interference"]), Philo (Embassy 156-57, 313-16; esp. 216: "for every year
sacred messengers are sent to convey large amounts of gold and silver to the
temple, which has been collected from all the subordinate governments,
travelling over rugged, and difficult, and almost impassable roads....").
For some unfavorable Roman reactions which make salient the issues
surrounding such transportation of monies from Diaspora communities to
Jerusalem, Cicero defended Flaccus in the first century BCE when he sought
to interfere in the sending of gold to Jer. (Def. of Flaccus, 28.66-69), and
Tacitus was none too pleased with the results either (Hist. 5.4-5, esp.
5.5.1). 

These references seem to imply that the monies (including gold, silver, and
other precious materials) were actually transported, but that protection by
Roman law was important for a voluntary association or group of any kind
which sought to undertake this kind of activity.

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
nanosmd AT home.com