Corpus-Paul

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "kpdonfried" <kpdonfried AT amherst.edu>
To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2002 12:42 PM
Subject: [corpus-paul] ARCHISUNAGOGOS IN ACTS 18:8 AND 17


> 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?

The Rosh beyt haKnesset (Head of the House of Assembly) or Rosh Knesset
(Head of the Assembly) was the person who made sure a speaker or teacher of
the day was "up to snuff."  It was translated as EIS TWN ARXISUNAGWGWN (ONE
OF the heads of the synagogue) at Mark 5:22 suggesting there were more than
one.  The 1st century Theodotus Inscription found in Jerusalem inn 1913 is
contemporary to the Markan usage and says:

"Theodotus, son of Vettanos, a priest and an archisynagogos, son of an
archisynagogos grandson of an archisynagogos, built the synagogue for the
reading of Torah and for teaching the commandments; furthermore, the hostel,
and the rooms, and the water installation for lodging needy strangers. Its
foundation stone was laid by his ancestors, the elders, and Simonides"  This
suggests that Father and son may have been contemporary archisynagogoi.

A 3 CE inscription from Alexandria states:
. Hathyr 18, in the . . . of those from the . . . archisynagogos (or -oi) .
. . archiprostates . . . Since Brasidas son of Herakleides . . . 33rd year
of Caesar . . . in all . . . and soundly, . . . the expense . . . days . . .
repair . . . by word in . . . crown . . . with two . . .

and could have been plural in context (the ending is a lacuna).

There is a treatment at:

http://www.ccel.org/e/edersheim/lifetimes/htm/III.x.htm

...and my opinion is that there was a dual meaning.  The Chief of the elders
(zeqenim) of a synagogue was sort of a "capital letters" archisynagogos
(rosh ha Knesset) but the corpus of elders who were responsible for seeing
that speakers were going to discuss those things that were decent in a
synagogue were "small case archisynagogoi."


Jack





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