Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net>]

on 8/12/02 12:42 PM, kpdonfried at kpdonfried AT amherst.edu wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> In Acts 18:8 Crispus is referred to as “archisunagogos” and in v. 17
> Sosthenes is similarly described.  Was there only one “archisunagogos”
> at a time or were Crispus and Sosthenes part of a group leadership of
> the synagogue in Corinth?  Both positions are asserted without
> compelling evidence.  Speaking against Bruce, Barrett, etc. that there
> could simultaneously be more than one “archisunagogos”, Luedemann has
> written (PAUL, APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES, 185n.52) that “Jewish
> prescriptions, however, preclude this possibility.  See Bill., 4:145ff.
> The plural in Acts 13:15 is not a counter argument and, further, is not
> the only example of Luke’s ignorance of Jewish prescriptions.”
> 
> Do any of you have data that would allow us to decide this issue with
> some degree of probability?

Karl,
I believe the reference in Acts you note is the only literary reference
raising this point, until later Christian and pagan sources may at points
indicate plurality, but it is not clear. Based on epigraphic data, at
Apamea, Ilasios (an archisynagogue in Antioch) honored three
archisynagogues; a building was restored in Acmonia together by two
archisynagogues and an archon. The evidence from literature and epigraphs
provides the basis for broad generalities about this office, which may have
varied from place to place and time to time, and is mostly attested in
Graeco-Roman contexts under this label. The epigraphs noted above are
referred to in B. Lifshitz, Donateurs et fondateurs dans les synagogues
juives, nos. 38 and 33. A good discussion of the evidence is available in
Lee Levine, The Ancient Synagogue, pp. 390-402.

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
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