Corpus-Paul

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "Loren Rosson" <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 3:46 PM
Subject: [corpus-paul] Re: Size of Pauline churches


> Andrew Goddard wrote:
>
> > > I've been asked about the size of Pauline
> > > congregations eg at Corinth
>
> Jeffrey Gibson responded:
>
> > I don't have the citation handy to confirm this (it
> > is, I believe in his work on
> > Corinth and in his _Paul: A critical Life_), but my
> > memory is that Murphy-O'Connor
> > estimates a congregation of no larger than 50
> > members...I await correction.
>
> In the latter work, I believe Murphy-O'Connor insisted
> on there being no less than 40 members. I don't recall
> a no-more-than-50 figure. But neither do I have the
> book at hand. So I too await correction, but will look
> up the figures tonight.

I too  remember the size of the house churches estimated at under 50 to
conform to the number of people a Roman household could accomodate.  Its
just one of those pieces of data you don't remember reference to.

Jack