Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

Sakari Hakkinen commented:

>>How about if Paul had not 31 gold coins like someone suggested
yesterday but 30 silver coins... ? (do not take the last question too
seriously, I am quite tired right now ;).<<

Perhaps this is what was hinted at in Acts 21:23-24,26:

RSV Acts 21:23 Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are
under a vow; 24 take these men and purify yourself along with them and
pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will
know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but
that you yourself live in observance of the law. [...] 26 Then Paul
took the men, and the next day he purified himself with them and went
into the temple, to give notice when the days of purification would be
fulfilled and the offering presented for every one of them.

He paid the expenses for four men to complete their Nazirite vows
(shave their heads to present their hair, and to make the appropriate
sacrifices). Off the top of my head (no pun intended) I do not think
the requisite sacrifices were excessively costly, but this probably
also means defraying the cost of their food and lodging for 7 days (?)
while they purified themselves. Would anyone else have a more precise
idea? We may well be talking about 30 denarii after all! <g>

That does not mean, of course, that he did not collect more. We have
many modern examples of "charities" with 60-90% overhead costs. Where
does the money go? If one wonders why even charities would be looked
upon negatively by the Roman authorities (and they were, according to
evidence presented in _Voluntary Associations in Antiquity_, ed. John
Kloppenborg), remember that even in modern times groups like the IRA,
the PLO and some Iranian religio/political parties have at times
sponsored "charities" that were thinly disguised fund raising organs
for subversive or terrorist activities. As far as the authorities were
concerned, the money *could* be going toward these kinds of activities
(rather than skimmed off as graft, as mainly occurs today).

Regards,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA