GOOD NEWS STUDIES Consulting Editor: Robert J. Karris, O.F.M. Volume 6 St. Paul's Corinth Texts and Archaeology by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor Introduction by John H. Elliott Michael Glazier, Ine Wilmington, Delaware ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P., has been professor of New Testament at the famous Ecole Biblique since 1967. A specialist in Pauline Studies and the Dead Sea Scolls, he is author of Paul on Preaching; What is Religious Life?; I Corinthians, volume 10 of the NEW TESTAMENT MESSAGE series; and Becoming Human Together, The Pastoral Anthropology of St. Paul, volume 2 of the GOOD NEWS STUDIES. First published in 1983 by Michael Glazier, Inc. 1723 Delaware Avenue, Wilmington, Delaware 19806 ©1983 by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, O.P. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-080110 International Standard Book Number: Good News Studies: 0-89453-290-1 ST. PAUL'S CORINTH: 0-89453-303-7 (Michael Glazier, Inc.) Printed in the United States of America For Sean and Brigid Ronan in gratitude The Man from Delos This bronze head of a man, dated about 80 B.C., was found in the gymnasium on Delos, and is now on exhibit at the National Museum, Athens. The identity of the sitter is unknown, but he was certainly a troubled individual. The plaintive, uncertain mouth, and the unhappy eyes reveal a personality beset by doubts and anxieties. The slightly upward glance looks into a void, as if all the familiar certainties had suddenly been perceived as illusions. The modelling of the furrowed brow and slack cheeks conveys a deep sense of loss and emptiness. He faces the future without faith or hope. It was men such as this who heeded Paul. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by John H. Elliott xiii Foreword xiii PART 1: THE ANCIENT TEXTS Introduction 1 Pausanias 3 Description of Greece, 2:1.1-5.5 4 Description of Greece, 5:1.2 41 Description of Greece, 5:25.5 41 Description of Greece, 7:16.7-10 42 Antipater of Sidon 44 Greek Anthology, 9:151 44 Cicero 45 Tusculan Disputations, 3:53 45 On the Agrarian Law, 1:5; 2:51; 2:87 46 On the Republic, 2:7-9 48 Against Verres II, 4:97-98 50 Crinagoras 51 Greek Anthology, 9:284 51 vii viii Contents Strabo 51 Geography, 1:3.11 52 Geography, 8:6.20-23 ..53 Geography, 10:5.4 69 Geography, 17:3.25 70 Propertius 73 Elegies, 3:5.3-6 73 Elegies, 3:21.1-24 74 Vitruvius 75 On Architecture, 5:5.1,7-8 75 Philo 77 Legatio ad Gaium, 281-282 77 In Flaccum, 151-156 81 Petronius 82 Satiricon, 50 82 Pliny the Elder 83 Natural History, 4:9-11 84 Natural History, 34:1,6-8 86 Natural History, 34:48 88 Josephus 89 Jewish War, 5:201-205 90 Life, 68 91 Dio Chrysostom 92 Discourses, 6:1-6 92 Discourses, 8:5-10 93 Discourses, 31:103,121 95 Discourses, 37:8,36 97 Contents ix Plutarch 98 Quaestiones Conviviales, 5:3.1-3 99 Quaestiones Conviviales, 8:4.1,5 99 Quaestiones Conviviales, 6:10.1 101 Septem Sapientium Convivium, 2-3 102 Apothegmata Laconica 103 De Pythiae Oraculis, 2 103 De Vitando Aere Alieno, 7... 105 Amatorius, 21 105 De Herodoti Malignitate, 39 106 Life of Caesar, 47:8 · 107 Pliny the Younger 107 Letters, 3:6 108 Suetonius 109 Julius, 44. 110 Gaius, 21 110 Nero, 19 110 Claudius, 25 Ill Augustus, 70 112 Tiberius, 34 112 Appian 113 History, 8:136 113 Aelius Aristides 114 Orations, 46:20-31 115 Alciphron 119 Letters of Parasites, n. 24 (3:60) 119 Dio Cassius 121 Roman History, 21 121 Roman History, 43:50.3-5 123 x Contents Philostratus 124 Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 7:10 124 Athenaeus 125 Deipnosophistae, 13:573c-574c 125 PART 2: WHEN WAS PAUL IN CORINTH? Introduction 129 The Edict of Claudius 130 The Texts 130 The Text of Orosius 131 The Texts of Suetonius and Dio Cassius 134 The Date of Paul's Arrival in Corinth 139 The Proconsul Gallio 141 The Text of the Inscription 141 The Date of the Letter 142 The Purpose and Recipient(s) of the Letter 144 The Date of Gallio's Term of Office 146 The Career of Gallio 150 PART 3: ARCHAEOLOGY Introduction 153 House-churches and the Eucharist 153 Temple Banquets and the Body 161 The Work-place and the Apostolate 167 Recommendation 170 Contents xi Appendix: The Greek Text of the Gallio Inscription.. 174 Bibliography 178 Abbreviations 186 INDICES Classical Authors 187 Subjects 189 New Testament Texts 192 ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1 The Corinthia 6 Fig. 2 Isthmia c. A.D. 50 13 Fig. 3 The Harbour of Cenchreae c. A.D. 50 18 Fig. 4 The City of Corinth 20 Fig. 5 The Agora at Corinth C. A.D. 50 24 Fig. 6 The Roman Villa at Anaploga 154 Fig. 7 The House of the Vettii at Pompeii 157 Fig. 8 The Villa of Good Fortune at Olynthus 157 Fig. 9 The Asclepion at Corinth 163 Fig. 10 The Dining Rooms of the Asclepion 166 INTRODUCTION This book is a tin mine! "Gold mine," of course, is the modern idiom but, as the reader shall soon learn, "tin mine" is a more appropriate image for data regarding a city renown for its bronzeware and "noisy gongs"(1 Corinthians 13:1). Here is rich ore for a host of modern miners — a dazzling lode of literary and archeological information about one of the most celebrated cities of the ancient Mediterranean world and one of the most fascinating centers of the early Christian movement. This volume is also a publishing first. At long last we have a book containing all that vital information on Corinth, its history, society and culture, which is generally unavailable to the layperson or buried in unfamiliar ancient texts, archaeological reports, or obscure exegetical footnotes. As the Bibliography shows, there are many informative, secon­ dary studies of ancient Corinth. But until this text there has been no comprehensive collection of the primary source material available to the general reader in English transla­ tion. Now, however, we have evidence from twenty-one Greek and Latin authors arranged chronologically from the first century BC to the second century AD, the latest in pertinent archaeological data, and the fullest text to date of xiii xiv Introduction the Edict of Claudius together with a discussion of its bear­ ing on the chronology of Paul and early Christianity. Here it is, gentle reader, now in one handy package: "Everything you always wanted to know about Corinth but didn't know where to find." The relevance and significance of the material, however, cuts across academic disciplines and areas of interest. As we have come to expect of Fr. Murphy-O'Connor, he has once again provided us with diverse data for understanding "the big picture" — in this case Corinth in its historical, social and cultural totality. The data collected provide us with not only a physical but also a social and cultural map of Corinth, a map indispensable for charting the undulating course of the city's history, its role in the Mediterranean world, and its significance in the early Christian movement. So harken, all ye classicists, historians, scriptural exegetes, Bible readers, and tourists to Corinth! This vademecum will be as handy as your American Express card; don't leave home or your library without it. With Murphy-O'Connor we are in the hands of a veteran guide. Author of numerous studies on Paul's Corinthian correspondence, international expert on the history, com­ munity and literature of Qumran, United Nations guide to the archaeological sites in Israel, Fr. Murphy-O'Connor brings to this work the experience and expertise of one who comprehends the interrelation of theology and culture, material reality and spiritual vision, proclamation and praxis in both ancient and modern contexts. Although assembly of the pertinent ancient evidence is his main con­ cern, Murphy-O'Connor also shows in several instances how this data illuminates Paul's communication with the Corinthians and at points challenges dubious assumptions of the interpreters (e.g. sacred prostitution at Aphrodite's temple as the supposed backdrop for the sexual issues treated in 1 Corinthians 5-7). On the basis of a fresh exami­ nation of the Gallio inscription he is also able to show that Paul arrived in Corinth in the year 49 AD and was brought before Gallio, the Roman proconsul of Achaia, between July and October of the year 51 AD. Consequently greater Introduction xv certainty is gained concerning a key date in the Pauline chronology and, in turn, the chronology of the entire early Christian movement. At the same time the data collected here provide us with a broader basis for a systemic perspective on the "larger Corinthian picture." Here we have a wealth of detail on the physical site of Corinth, its size, layout and environs; its social history, economy, commercial and military impor­ tance; the social scene itself, its mixed population, chief institutions, social structures and stratification; and the relation of all this to the social drama at Corinth at the time of Paul, the monuments of beliefs, values, and cultural traditions, the conflict of cultures, and the clash of Christian and non-Christian ideologies. Christian life at Corinth, according to Paul's letters, was marked by tensions and skirmishes within and without the community. The data collected here help sketch out the map of the physical and cultural terrain over which these battles were waged.