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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2017
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul appeals to the principle of “equality” (ἰσότης) in order to encourage the Corinthians to contribute to the collection for the poor in Jerusalem. What is this “equality” of which Paul speaks and to which he exhorts his readers? Is it a principle of fairness, an equitable balance between the “haves” and the “have-nots” that might find expression in spirited generosity and charitable initiatives? Or is it “a regulative principle of mutual assistance,” which sets in motion a process of equalization between those who have surplus and those who have need? Or does Paul intend something more radical, more democratic? Is Paul asserting that all believers in Christ Jesus are “equal” and on this basis (ἐξ ἰσότητος) should engage in redistributive action, “so that there may be equality” (ὅπως γένηται ἰσότης)?
Dieter Georgi zum Gedächtnis. Translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated.
1 On the appeal to “equality” in Paul's collection for the poor, see esp. Georgi, Dieter, Remembering the Poor: The History of Paul's Collection for Jerusalem (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992) 80–91 Google Scholar; Vassiliadis, Petros, “The Collection Revisited,” Deltion Biblikon Meleton 11 (1992) 42–48 Google Scholar; Horrell, David, “Paul's Collection: Resources for a Materialist Theology,” Epworth Review 22 (1995) 74–83 Google Scholar; Friesen, Steven J., “Paul and Economics: The Jerusalem Collection as an Alternative to Patronage” in Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle (ed. Given, Mark D.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010) 27–54 Google Scholar; Ogereau, Julien, “The Jerusalem Collection as κοινωνία: Paul's Global Politics of Socio-Economic Equality and Solidarity,” NTS 58 (2012) 360–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 So, a number of interpreters and commentators: e.g., Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 87; NRSV: “a fair balance.”
3 Longenecker, Bruce W., Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty and the Greco-Roman World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010)Google Scholar.
4 Gustav Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” TDNT 3 (1963) 343–55, at 348.
5 G. W. Griffith, “Abounding in Generosity: A Study in Charis in 2 Corinthians 8–9” (PhD diss., University of Durham, 2005) 216; Andreas Lindemann, “Hilfe für die Armen: Die Jerusalem-Kollekte als ‘diakonisches Unternehmen,’” in idem, Glauben, Handeln, Verstehen: Studien zur Auslegung des Neuen Testaments II (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011) 270; Ogereau, “The Jerusalem Collection as κοινωνία,” 365–66.
6 As noted by Windisch, Hans, Der zweite Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1924; repr. 1970) 258 Google Scholar; Furnish, Victor Paul, II Corinthians (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984) 407 Google Scholar. The adjective ἴσος is more common in the LXX: e.g., Exod 30:34; Lev 7:10; 2 Macc 9:15. Elsewhere in the NT, ἰσότης is found only in Col 4:1, together with τὸ δίκαιον, in reference to the way in which masters should treat their slaves; cf. Lohse, Eduard, Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary on the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971) 162 Google Scholar.
7 For recognition that the background of Paul's use of ἰσότης is Hellenistic, see Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258; Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 345–48; Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 84–91; Betz, Hans Dieter, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9: A Commentary on Two Administrative Letters of the Apostle Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985) 67–68 Google Scholar; Vassiliadis, Petros, “Equality and Justice in Classical Antiquity and in Paul: The Social Implications of the Pauline Collection,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 36 (1992) 51–59 Google Scholar.
8 The foundational study is that of Hirzel, Rudolf, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rechtsidee bei den Griechen (Leipzig: Teubner, 1907) 228–320, 421–23Google Scholar. See further Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 343–55; Thraede, Klaus, “Gleichheit,” RAC 10 (1979) 122–64Google Scholar.
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10 This crucial insight is the point of the seminal essay by Jones, A. H. M., “The Athenian Democracy and Its Critics,” originally published in Cambridge Historical Journal 11 (1953) 1–26 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; repr. in idem, Athenian Democracy (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1958) 39–72, esp. 41–42. See further Raaflaub, Kurt A., “Perceptions of Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens,” in Aspects of Athenian Democracy (ed. Connor, W. R.; Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 1990) 33–90 Google Scholar; Ober, Josiah, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.
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13 Herodotus 3.80.6, in the speech of Otanes the Persian. See the discussion of the importance of this passage by Cartledge, Paul, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) 71–75 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 241–42, 276–80; Harvey, F. D., “Two Kinds of Equality,” Classica et Medievalia 26 (1965) 101–47Google Scholar, esp. 101, 104–10, 126–27; Cartledge, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice, 8–10.
15 E.g., Plato, Leges, 756E-757E; Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 21–22; idem, Nicocles, 14–16; Aristotle, Pol., 3.5.8, 1280a7–22; 5.1.6-8, 1301b27–1302a8; 6.1.10, 1318a3–8. See the discussion in Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 279–80; Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 107–20. See the comment of Armand Delatte, Essai sur la Politique Pythagoricienne (Liège: H. Vaillant Carmanne, 1922) 106: “Les éloges du système politique basé sur la proportion ou égalité géométrique sont inséparables des polémiques contre la démocratie.”
16 Philo, Her., 141–206. On the importance ascribed to ἰσότης by Philo, see Emile Bréhier, Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie (Paris: Picard, 1950) 86–90.
17 Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1–2 (Mor. 719B-C); Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9–11.
18 Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom. (Mor. 826A-827C).
19 Ps.-Archytas in Stobaeus, 4.1.137; Ps. Ecphantus in Stobaeus, 4.7.66; Diotogenes in Stobaeus, 4.7.62; Sthenidas in Stobaeus, 4.7.63. The dates assigned to these authors vary widely. Delatte, Louis (Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogène et Sthénidas [Liège: Faculté de philosophie et lettres, 1942] 160)Google Scholar maintains that Ps.-Ecphantus, Diotogenes, and Sthenidas belong to the 2nd cent. CE. Goodenough, E. R. (“The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship,” Yale Classical Studies 1 [1928] 55–102 Google Scholar) regards these authors as Hellenistic (2nd–1st cent. BCE). Burkert, Walter (“Zur geistesgeschichtlichen Einordnung einiger Pseudopythagorica,” in Pseudepigrapha I. Pseudopythagorica—Lettres de Platon [ed. von Fritz, K.; Vandoeuvres: Foundation Hardt, 1972] 23–55 Google Scholar) dates to c. 200 CE. Harvey (“Two Kinds of Equality,” 126 n. 89 and 132–33 n. 116) argues plausibly for a date in the 1st cent. CE for these authors, on the basis of numerous parallels with Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom.
20 Hopkins, Keith, “The Political Economy of the Roman Empire,” in The Dynamics of Ancient Empires (ed. Morris, Ian; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 178–204 Google Scholar; Jongman, Willem M., “A Golden Age: Death, Money Supply and Social Succession in the Roman Empire,” in Credito e moneta nel mundo romano (ed. LoCascio, E.; Bari: Edipuglia, 2003) 181–96Google Scholar; idem, “The Early Roman Empire: Consumption,” in The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (ed. Walter Scheidel; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 592–618; Scheidel, Walter and Friesen, Steven J., “The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire,” JRS 99 (2009) 61–91 Google Scholar.
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23 Frier, B. W., “More is Worse: Some Observations on the Population of the Roman Empire,” in Debating Roman Demography (ed. Scheidel, Walter; Leiden: Brill, 2001) 139–59Google Scholar; Scheidel, Walter, “Demographic and Economic Development in the Ancient Mediterranean World,” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 160 (2004) 743–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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25 Peter Bang, “Predation,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, 197–217, at 212.
26 See the calculations in Duncan-Jones, Richard, The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies (2nd ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 4 Google Scholar; Jongman, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Economy,” 247–50.
27 Scheidel and Friesen, “Distribution of Income,” 83.
28 Ibid., 84–85.
29 Scheidel, Walter, “Stratification, Deprivation and Quality of Life,” in Poverty in the Roman World (ed. Atkins, Margaret; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) 40–59 Google Scholar, at 40. See also Harris, William V., “Poverty and Destitution in the Roman Empire,” in Rome's Imperial Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 27–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 33.
30 Ephesus: Acts 19:23–41; Sardis: Apollonius, Ep. 56; Aspendus: Philostratus, Vit. Apol., 1.15; Smyrna: Philostratus, Vit. Soph., 1.25; Rhodes: Aelius Aristides, Or., 24; Tarsus: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 34; Nicaea: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 39; Prusa: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 46, 47, 48; Sparta: IG V.I.44 = SEG XI.486.9–10; SEG XI.501.7.
31 Zuiderhoeck, Arjan, “On the Political Sociology of the Imperial Greek City,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 48 (2008) 417–45Google Scholar, at 442. See also Salmeri, Giovanni, “Dio, Rome, and the Civic Life of Asia Minor,” in Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy (ed. Swain, Simon; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) 53–92 Google Scholar, esp. 73–86.
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34 Dio Chrysostom, Or., 34.23. On whether “linen-workers” was a generic term for the lower classes at Tarsus or an organized guild of laborers, see Ruggini, L. Cracco, “La vita associativa nelle città dell'Oriente Greco: tradizioni locali e influenze romane,” in Assimilation et résistance à la culture gréco-romaine dans le monde ancien (ed. Pippidi, D. M.; Paris and Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1976) 463–91Google Scholar; Jones, C.P., The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978) 80–81, 183–84 n. 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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39 Philo, Flacc., 36–38. Cf. Sly, Dorothy I., Philo's Alexandria (London: Routledge, 1996) 90 Google Scholar.
40 Philo, Her., 141–206. See the discussion of this text by Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 85–87, 138–40.
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42 Philo, Her., 143; the translation modifies Colson and Whitaker, Philo IV, 353, 355.
43 Philo, Her., 145.
44 Ibid., 152.
45 Ibid., 191. See the discussion of this passage in relation to 2 Cor 8:15 by Barclay, John M. G., “Manna and the Circulation of Grace: A Study of 2 Corinthians 8.1–15,” in The Word Leaps the Gap, (ed. Wagner, J. Ross; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) 409–26Google Scholar, esp. 418.
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48 Philo, Her., 161.
49 Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1 (Mor. 719B).
50 Ibid., 8.2.2 (Mor. 719C).
51 Ibid., 8.2.3 (Mor. 719D).
52 Plutarch's circle of friends included the consular L. Mestrius Florus, Q. Sosius Senecio, and C. Minicius Fundanus. According to the Suda, Plutarch received the ornamenta consularia from Trajan, and was made procurator of imperial estates in Achaia under Hadrian. Cf. Jones, C. P., Plutarch and Rome (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971) 29 Google Scholar; Lamberton, Robert, Plutarch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 12 Google Scholar.
53 Plutarch, An seni, 26 (Mor. 796E).
54 See Plato's entertaining account of the inversion of all relationships by democratic “equality” in Rep. 8, 562d–563d.
55 Plato, Leges, 6, 757b.
56 Plutarch's anxiety about his powerful Roman friends is palpable in an essay such as Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum (Mor. 776A–779C).
57 Plutarch, Praec. ger. rei publ., 17 (Mor. 813E).
58 Plutarch, Sol., 13.
59 Ibid., 14.
60 Ibid., 14.
61 Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 277–80; Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 104–20.
62 Plutarch, Sol., 14.
63 Plutarch, Frat. Amor., 12 (Mor. 484B).
64 Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 20–22.
65 Fowler, H. N., Plutarch's Moralia X (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969) 303 Google Scholar: “Few scholars now believe that the author is Plutarch, though who the writer was is not known.”
66 Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom., 3 (Mor. 827A).
67 Ibid., 4 (Mor. 827B); the translation is that of Fowler, Plutarch's Moralia X, 309, 311.
68 Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom., 4 (Mor. 827C).
69 Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9, quoting Euripides, Phoen., 536–37.
70 Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9, citing Euripides, Phoen., 538–40.
71 Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.10.
72 Ibid., 17.11.
73 See the arguments for a 1st cent. CE date for these authors in Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 126 n. 89, 132–33 n. 116.
74 Goodenough, “The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship,” 52–102; Delatte, Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogéne et Sthenidas, 241–52.
75
Ps.-Ecphantus, frag., 4 in Stobaeus 4.7.66. Greek text in Delatte, Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogéne et Sthenidas, 35–37. The translation modifies that of
Thesleff, Holger, The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period (Åbo: Åbo Akademie, 1965) 83
Google Scholar, 18–84, 8. See also Sthenidas in Stobaeus 4.7.63: the ideal king, like God, is a natural lawgiver, dispensing justice equally to all (νομοθέτας πέφυκε π
σιν ἐπίσας).
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77 E.g., Herodotus, 7.150; Lysias, 25.3.
78 Aristotle, Pol., 5.5.9, 1306a25.
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85 Ibid., 1.15.
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87 Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 43 n. 15, 68.
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96 Cf. Friesen, “Poverty in Pauline Studies,” 349.
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98 Ibid., 258.
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104 E.g., Furnish, II Corinthians, 407–408; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 37, 68.
105 Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 87. Emphasis in original.
106 Ibid., 87.
107 Lietzmann, An die Korinther I/II, 137.
108 Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258 n.1.
109 Furnish, II Corinthians, 399, 407; similarly, Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 37, 67.
110 Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 88. Emphasis in original.
111 Ibid., 85; similarly, Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 67–68.
112 Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 88.
113 Ibid., 88.
114 Ibid., 88–89.
115 Ibid., 89.
116 Ibid., 89.
117 E.g., Furnish, II Corinthians, 407
118 Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 226–27.
119 Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 84–85.
120 Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258; Furnish, II Corinthians, 408; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 68 n. 237.
121 Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 260.
122 Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 68.
123 Furnish, II Corinthians, 419.
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126 Similarly, Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 227; Horrell, Solidarity and Difference, 240; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 411–13, 419.
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129 Philo, Her., 191.
130 Similarly, Horrell, Solidarity and Difference, 239–40; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 411–13, 419.
131 Some commentators infer an endorsement of the principle of proportionality from Paul's sententious observation in 2 Cor 8:12 that a gift is “acceptable according to what one has, not what one does not have” (καθὸ ἐὰν ἔχῃ εὐπρόσδεκτος, οὐ καθὸ οὐκ ἔχει): so, Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 257; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 66. But this realistic acknowledgement of limitations is remote from the philosophers’ theory of proportional equality.
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133 Malherbe, Abraham J., Social Aspects of Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983) 29–59 Google Scholar; Hock, Ronald F., “Paul and Greco-Roman Education,” in Paul in the Greco-Roman World (ed. Sampley, J. Paul; Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003) 198–227 Google Scholar.
134 Rancière, Jacques, Hatred of Democracy (trans. Corcoran, Steve; London: Verso, 2014) 48 Google Scholar; idem, Dis-agreement: Politics and Philosophy (trans. Julie Rose; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999) 1–19.
135 Ober, Josiah, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989) 261–66Google Scholar.
136 On Jesus's “poverty” in 2 Cor 8:9, see Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 252–53; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 62; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 420–21.
137 It is widely recognized the Phil 2:6–11 is a pre-Pauline hymn: Lohmeyer, Ernst, Kyrios Jesus: Eine Untersuchung zu Phil. 2.5–11 (Heidelberg: Winter, 1961)Google Scholar; Günther Bornkamm, “On Understanding the Christ Hymn: Phil. 2:6–11,” in idem, Early Christian Experience (trans. Paul Hammer; New York: Harper & Row, 1969) 112–22. Likewise, Gal 3:28, with its egalitarian vision of the new identity “in Christ,” has been shown to be a pre-Pauline baptismal formula: see Betz, Hans Dieter, Galatians: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979) 181–85Google Scholar. Thus, Paul develops his argument for equality between Christ believers upon the basis of a deposit of pre-Pauline tradition that was markedly egalitarian.
138 Hansen, M. H., “Democracy, Athenian,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed. Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony; 4th ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) 435 Google Scholar.
139 Demosthenes, Or., 21.112, with the comments of Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 346 n. 19; Vassiliadis, “Equality and Justice in Classical Antiquity and in Paul,” 54. See also Lysias, 12.35.
140 Aristotle, Pol., 2.4.7, 1266b–1267a; 2.9.8, 1274b9–10.
141 Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 259; Furnish, II Corinthians, 407–8, 419–20. The account of the sharing of possessions among the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem in Acts 2:44–45 and 4:36–37 does not qualify as a “precedent” to Paul, contra Hengel, Martin, Property and Riches in the Early Church (London: SCM Press, 1974) 31–34 Google Scholar, since Acts dates to the 2nd cent.: see Pervo, Richard I., Acts: A Commentary on the Book of Acts (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009) 88–91 Google Scholar.
142 Xenophon, Cyr., 8.6.23.
143 Plutarch, Lyc., 24.
144 Philo, Her., 143.
145 Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1–2 (Mor. 719B).
146 Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.11.
147 See esp. Kittredge, Cynthia, “Rethinking Authorship in the Letters of Paul: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza's Model of Pauline Theology,” in Walk in the Ways of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (ed. Matthews, Shelly, Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs, and Johnson-DeBaufre, Melanie; Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003) 318–33Google Scholar.
148 See esp. Miller, Anna C., Corinthian Democracy: Democratic Discourse in 1 Corinthians (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015)Google Scholar, who emphasizes the importance of the democratic discourse of the ekklēsia in the Greek cities of the Roman East as an inspiration for early Christian assemblies and for Paul. Miller's findings converge with the thesis argued here. Note esp. Miller's discussion of the place of Jocasta and Euripides's Phoenician Women in the progymnasmata prescribed for school children in the 1st cent. CE.
