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The Election of Officers in the Corinthian Christ-Group*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2013

Richard Last
Richard Last*
Affiliation:
Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, 170 St George Street, floor 3, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2M8, Canada. email: richard.last@mail.utoronto.ca
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Abstract

Paul's language in 1 Cor 11.19 suggests that the Corinthians elected rotating officers to serve as administrative leaders with control over food distribution at the Lord's Supper. Interpreters overlook this verse's technical terminology despite the fact that doing so results in unusual and confusing translations. In addition to making sense out of the otherwise obscure sentence of v. 19, the existence of a ‘flat hierarchy’ of temporary and rotating officers in the Corinthian group helps to explain several aspects involved in the Corinthians' banquet problems.

Keywords

CorinthianselectionshierarchyLord's Supper
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 365 - 381
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr J. S. Kloppenborg, Dr J. W. Marshall, and Dr T. L. Donaldson for their comments on a version of this paper that was presented at the 2012 meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. I also wish to thank warmly Dr J. M. G. Barclay for his helpful suggestions and his critical engagement with several key parts of this study's argument. Thanks are due, as well, to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its generous support.

References

1 Some interpreters have briefly considered the possibility of officers in 1 Cor 12.27-28. See McLean, B. H., ‘The Agrippinilla Inscription: Religious Associations and Early Church Formation’, Origins and Method: Towards a New Understanding of Judaism and Christianity. Essays in Honour of John C. Hurd (ed. McLean, B. H.; Sheffield: JSOT, 1993) 239-70Google Scholar at 259; and McRae, R. M., ‘Eating with Honor: The Corinthian Lord's Supper in Light of Voluntary Association Meal Practices’, JBL 130 (2011) 165-81Google Scholar, esp. 172–3, 181.

2 Hatch found many parallels between early Christian and Greco-Roman forms of organization, but nonetheless argued that there was relatively little structure in Pauline Christ-groups: ‘The distinctions which St. Paul makes between Christians are based not upon office, but upon varieties of spiritual power… Now while this sense of the diffusion of spiritual gifts was so vivid, it was impossible that there should be the same sense of distinction between officers and non-officers which afterwards came to exist. Organization was a less important fact that it afterwards became’; see Hatch, E., The Organization of the Early Christian Churches: Eight Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford in the Year 1880 on the Foundation of the Late John Bampton (London: Rivingtons, 1881) 119-20Google Scholar. For similar conclusions in comparisons with synagogues and association see Weiss, J., Der erste Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910) xxiv-xxvi, 386Google Scholar. In addition to these explicit contrasts, scholars have routinely characterized the Corinthians as entirely egalitarian thanks to the presence and equalizing effect of the spirit. R. Sohm was the first to describe the structure of the early churches as ‘charismatische Organisation’—a designation inspired by 1 Cor 12.4. See Kirchenrecht (2 vols.; Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1892–1923) 1.26. See also Sohm, ‘Wesen und Ursprung des Katholizismus’ Abhandlungen der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der königlich sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 27 (1909) 333-90Google Scholar, esp. 384. A. von Harnack argued that the first-century Corinthian church, unlike the Macedonian churches, had ‘no organization whatsoever…for a decade, or even longer. The brethren submitted to a control of “the Spirit”’, in The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (2 vols.; New York: Putnam's Sons, 1904–5)Google Scholar 2.51 n. 1. In 1969 Conzelmann, H. stated that ‘[t]here is no organization of the whole church, but only minimal beginnings of organization in the individual communities… There is no hierarchy of ministries, no priestly state…no separation of clergy and laity, no firm regulating of the cult, but only the occasional instruction when the “management” threatens to get out of control,’ in An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament (New York: Harper & Row, 2nd ed. 1969) 267-8Google Scholar, cf. 303. von Campenhausen, H. argued that ‘[i]t is love which is the true organising and unifying force within the Church, and which creates in her a paradoxical form of order diametrically opposed to all natural systems of organization’, in Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries (London: A. & C. Black, 1969) 46Google Scholar. Schweizer, E. posited, ‘[there existed] no fundamental organization of superior or subordinate ranks, because the gift of the Spirit is adapted to every Church member…the enumerations of the different kinds of gifts are quite unsystematic, with no sort of hierarchical character’, in Church Order in the New Testament (London: SCM, 1961) 99-100Google Scholar.

3 I refer here to Theissen's five articles published between 1974 and 1975 and now collected in The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1982)Google Scholar.

4 Theissen, Social Setting, 155.

5 Meeks observes, ‘Acts and the Pauline letters make no mention of formal offices in the early Pauline congregations. This fact is striking when we compare these groups with the typical Greek or Roman private association’, in The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven: Yale University, 1983) 134Google Scholar. Holmberg, like R. Bultmann and others before him, is open to the existence of offices in Pauline churches. Like others, though, he downplays the significance of officers: ‘[t]he general impression we get when reading Paul's letters is that the local offices were rather unimportant’. For Holmberg, this was apparently especially true in Corinth, since Paul is here able to intervene regularly to establish disciplinary guidelines. See Paul and Power: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980) 113-17Google Scholar, cf. 205. In 1995, Schmeller, T. (Hierarchie und Egalität: eine sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchung paulinischer Gemeinden und griechisch-römischer Vereine [Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1995])Google Scholar set out to compare the Corinthians with voluntary associations in order to answer the question: ‘Gibt es nur hier (auf der christlichen Seite) Egalität und nur dort (auf der nichtchristlichen Seite) Hierarchie?’ (9-10). He finds that both the associations and Corinthians have a bit of both egalitarianism and hierarchy. Regarding hierarchy in the Christ-group, he contends that it existed in the form of patrons, but a leadership structure between patrons and general membership was absent. He ultimately concludes that ‘Alles in allem war die Struktur paulinischer Gemeinden vage’ (77) and draws a popular conclusion: ‘Es existierte in den Paulusgemeinden zwischen Patronen und einfachen Mitgliedern keine klar definierte Schicht von Amtsträgern…die den Gegebenheiten in Vereinen auch nur in etwa entsprach’ (78). For Schmeller, this lack of local structure is due to Paul's dominant role as the founder, the first preacher of the gospel to the Corinthians, and a central contributor to disciplinary matters (77). For other recent comparative works on the Corinthians and associations that provide valuable insights but continue to reject the idea that officers existed in the Christ-group, see Witherington, B. III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1995) 243-7Google Scholar, 453-8; Chester, S. J., Conversion at Corinth: Perspectives on Conversion in Paul's Theology and the Corinthian Church (New York: T&T Clark, 2003) 227-66Google Scholar, esp. 240; and Ebel, E., Die Attraktivität früher christlicher Gemeinden: die Gemeinde von Korinth im Spiegel griechisch-römischer Vereine (WUNT 2/178; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004)Google Scholar.

6 Meeks argues that an association would ‘reward its patron with encomiastic inscriptions, honorary titles, [and] wreaths’ but ‘the Christian congregation was quite different, and the patrons [of early churches] may have had reason to feel somewhat slighted. Paul even admonishes the Corinthians to show a little more respect for such people such as Stephanas’ (First Urban, 78). Other social-historical studies share this sentiment. For example, see Countryman, W. L., ‘Patrons and Officers in Club and Church’, SBL 1977 Seminar Papers (ed. Achtemeier, Paul J.; SBLASP 11; Missoula, MT: Scholars, 1977) 135-43Google Scholar; Schmeller, Hierarchie und Egalität, 73-4; and Thiselton, A., who notes that in the Corinthian church ‘often loyal hard work is simply taken for granted rather than publicly and consciously recognized’, in The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000) 1342Google Scholar.

7 A flat hierarchy refers to an organizational structure where most leadership positions are, in theory, open to all members and rotated on a regular basis. This style of order did not preclude the influence of wealth or the presence of fixed patrons but it led to more democratic practices than traditional depictions of hierarchy in the Corinthian group. For more, see Kloppenborg, J. S., ed., with Ascough, R. S., Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Thrace (vol. 1 of Greco-Roman Associations: Texts, Translations, and Commentary; Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2011) 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 For example, ‘heresies’ in kjv; ‘factions’ in nrsv, rsv, esv and nasb95; and ‘differences’ in niv.

9 See Weiss, Der erste, 279-80Google Scholar; Barrett, C. K., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (London: A. & C. Black, 2nd ed. 1971) 261Google Scholar; Conzelmann, H., 1 Corinthians (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 194Google Scholar; Fee, G., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) 538Google Scholar; Thiselton, First Epistle, 859; Schrage, W., Der erste Brief an die Korinther (4 vols.; EKKNT 7; Neukirchen–Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1991–2001) 3.21-22Google Scholar; Héring, J., The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (London: Epworth, 1962) 113Google Scholar; Horsley, R., 1 Corinthians (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998) 158-9Google Scholar; Fitzmyer, J. A., First Corinthians (AYB 32; New Haven and London: Yale University, 2008) 433Google Scholar.

10 Meeks, First Urban, 67; Theissen, Social Setting, 168; Smith, D. E., From Symposium to Eucharist: The Banquet in the Early Christian World (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003) 197Google Scholar; Chester, Conversion, 218; Bailey, K. E., Paul through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians (Madison: InterVarsity, 2011) 318Google Scholar; Horrell, D. G., The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996) 150-1Google Scholar; Mitchell, M. M., Paul and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation: An Exegetical Investigation of the Language and Composition of 1 Corinthians (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992) 80Google Scholar; Lampe, P., ‘Das Korinthische Herrenmahl im Schnittpunkt hellenistisch-römischer Mahlpraxis und paulinischer Theologia Crucis (1 Kor 11.17-34)’, ZNW 82 (1991) 183-213CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 211 n. 78. The only exception of which I am aware is Campbell, R. A., ‘Does Paul Acquiesce in Divisions at the Lord's Supper?’, NovT 33 (1991) 61-70Google Scholar. Campbell's translation is ‘choices’. It is odd that he does not consider ‘elections’ since he admits that his ‘choices’ rendering makes for an ‘unusual use of αἱρέσεις’. See ‘Acquiesce’, 66.

11 Campbell, ‘Acquiesce’, 70.

12 See Jeremias, J., Unknown Sayings of Jesus (London: SCM, 2nd ed. 1964) 76-7Google Scholar; Weiss, Der erste, 279-80; Paulsen, H., ‘Schisma und Häresie. Untersuchungen zu 1 Kor 11.18, 19’, ZTK 79 (1982) 180-211Google Scholar; Witherington III, Conflict and Community, 248; Thiselton, First Epistle, 858-9; Fee, First Epistle, 537-9; Barrett, First Epistle, 261-2.

13 See Davies, W. D. and Allison, D. C., Matthew 8–18 (ICC; vol. 2 of The Gospel According to Matthew; London and New York: T&T Clark, 1991) 217-24Google Scholar.

14 For an excellent analysis of this text see Sim, D. C., Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Gospel of Matthew (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1996) 160-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 In Justin, the Jesus saying appears in a conversation where Trypho observes that many Christians believed that they could eat idol meat and still be true Christians. Moreover, Trypho continues, they are regarded by others as being real Christians despite their lax dietary code (Dial. 35.1). Justin proceeds to explain that true Christians, when they witness heretics eating idol meat, actually have their faith strengthened. This is because Jesus predicted that false believers would appear. Witnessing a Jesus prediction come true, Justin continues, even if it is disturbing, is actually a good thing for true Christians. He lists some of Jesus' predictions that have come true as follows: ‘Indeed, he [Jesus] foretold, “Many shall come in my name, clothed outwardly in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”. And “There shall be schisms and heresies” (Ἔσονται σχίσματα καὶ αἱρέσεις). And “Beware of false prophets who come to you in clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves”. And “There shall arise many false Christs and false apostles, and they shall deceive many of the faithful”’ (Dial. 35.3). Translation from Falls, T. B., St. Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho (vol. 3 of Selections from the Fathers of the Church; Washington: Catholic University of America, 2003) 54Google Scholar (my italics). cf. Syriac Didascalia 6.5.2; and Clement Hom. 16.21.4.

16 Lietzmann, H. argued that ‘v.19 ist entweder resigniert oder ironisch gemeint’, in An die Korinther I/II (HNT 9; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 5th ed. 1969) 56Google Scholar. Lietzmann's theory, that Paul did not mean what he said in 11.19 literally, is offered prematurely. While I agree with Lietzmann that Paul could not have possibly endorsed factions, his theory will only be a viable option after all attempts at reading 11.19 plainly have failed. Even then his historically untestable suggestion will not be preferred: why did Paul treat with irony an issue (communal factions) addressed straight-forwardly in all other small group settings across the Mediterranean? Thiselton, alternatively, suggests that Paul quotes a Corinthian saying rather than create it himself. This would involve accepting that the saying existed about a century before Justin first attests to it and that there is a genealogical relationship between Justin's and Paul's text, which is impossible to prove. See Thiselton, First Epistle, 858-9.

17 Fee, First Epistle, 538.

18 See Dunn, J. D. G., 1 Corinthians (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995) 27Google Scholar; cf. Chester, Conversion, 218.

19 Roberts, C., Skeat, T. C., and Nock, A. D., ‘The Gild of Zeus Hypsistos’, HTR 29 (1936) 39-88CrossRefGoogle Scholar. AGRW refers to Ascough, R. S., Harland, P. A., and Kloppenborg, J. S., eds., Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (Waco, TX.: Baylor University, 2012)Google Scholar.

20 The Greek reads: ὑπακούσειν δὲ πάντας τοῦ τε ἡγουνου ὶ [οῦ] τούτου ὑπηρέτου ἔν τε τοῖς νήκουσι τῶι κοινῶι.

21 See Monson, A., ‘The Ethics and Economics of Ptolemaic Religious Associations’, Ancient Society 36 (2006) 221-36CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For another association bylaw that explicitly distinguishes between offense against officers and offenses against regular members, see P. LilleDem. 29; Qus; 223 BCE.

22 It was very common for officers to enjoy control over cult banquet proceedings and receive more food than regular members. See, for example, SEG 31.122 = GRA I 50, Attica, early II CE; P.Lond VII 2193.8, 11-12 = AGRW 295, Philadelphia, Egypt, 69–58 BCE; P.Mich VIII 511, unknown location in Egypt, early III CE; IG II2 1368 = GRA I 51, Athens, 165/4 CE.

23 For example, IG II2 1368 = GRA I 51, Athens, 164/5 CE; IG IX/12 670 = GRA I 61, Physkos, mid II CE.

24 Verboven, K., ‘The Associative Order, Status and Ethos of Roman Businessmen in Late Republic and Early Empire’, Athenaeum 95 (2007) 861-93Google Scholar, esp. 885.

25 Factions formed around, against, and as a result of officers not only at banquets. Disgruntled members sometimes tried to prevent voted honours (e.g. olive wreaths, honorific inscriptions) from being rewarded to magistrates. This explains the necessity some associations felt for assuring officers that their voted honours would be announced in front of their peers even if their enemies plotted against them. AM 66 228 no.4.18-20 = GRA I 39, Athens, 138/7 BCE; IG II2 1273AB.22-23 = GRA I 18, Piraeus, Attica, 265/4 BCE; IG II2 1292.16-17= GRA I 26, Attica, 215/4 BCE; IG II2 1297.17-18 = GRA I 24, Athens, 236/5 BCE. See also Kloppenborg, J. S., ‘Greco-Roman Thiasoi, the Ekklēsia at Corinth, and Conflict Management’, Redescribing Paul and the Corinthians (ed. Cameron, R. and Miller, M. P.; SBL Early Christianity and its Literature 5; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011) 187-218Google Scholar, esp. 209-13. We also have fines for disgruntled members who snub officers by means of intentional absenteeism when magistrates were awarded gifts of honour or displayed status in other ways. IG II2 1339.7-8 = GRA I 46, Athens, 57/6 BCE; IG II2 1368.96-99 = GRA I 51, Athens, 164/5 CE; IG IX/12 670.13-15 = GRA I 61, Physkos, Central Greece, mid II CE. See also Kloppenborg, J. S., ‘Membership Practices in Pauline Christ Groups’, Early Christianity 4 (2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar forthcoming; and Verboven, ‘The Associative Order’, 885.

26 This conclusion is drawn by several scholars. See, for example, Smith, D. E. and Taussig, H. E., Many Tables: The Eucharist in the New Testament and Liturgy Today (Philadelphia: Trinity, 1990) 32Google Scholar; Mitchell, Paul, 72; Chester, Conversion, 245-5; Smith, Symposium, 198.

27 Commentators regularly observe that the γάρ in v. 19 expresses continuity of thought from the previous verse (e.g. Barrett, First Epistle, 261; Thiselton, First Epistle, 858; Schrage, Der erste Brief, 3.21). Fee remarks that γὰρ καί gives a reason for why Paul trusts his informant's report of σχίσματα (First Epistle, 538 n. 33; cf. n. 32). Here, on my reading, Paul argues that reports of factions at the common meal are believable in part because he does not regard the current leadership's competency highly. Order at association meetings was largely the responsibility of officials, as has been seen. One might object that elections will cause greater disorder and therefore Paul would not have recommended them. However, in a community where leaders are elected, problems are often solved at the conclusion of bad leaders' terms. For example, an association from Delos stipulates that its archithiasitēs will be prosecuted (if applicable) for misdeeds only upon conclusion of his office (IDelos 1520.88-9 = AGRW 224, Delos, Asia Minor, 153/2 CE). There are several examples of associations withholding honours for officials until the end of their terms, at which point they are scrutinized for the honesty with which they handled communal funds (SEG 2.9.5-6= GRA I 21, Salamis, Attica, 243/2 BCE; SEG 2.10.6-7, Salamis, Attica, 248/7 BCE; IG II2 1282.4-14, Athens, 262/1 BCE) and for overall performance of duties (SEG 44.60.3-7, Salamis, Attica, 248/7 BCE; IG II2 1284.21-8 = GRA I 22, 241/0 BCE; IG II2 1329.3-19 = GRA I 37, Piraeus, Attica, 175/4 BCE; IByzantion 31 = GRA I 90, Rhegion, Thrace, 85–96 CE). When officers steal money, create policies leading to disorder, or allow misbehavior to ensue, associations solve the problem by punishing them at the end of their term. The subsequent (elected or appointed) magistrates must perform their duties more successfully if they wish to receive honorific rewards upon completion of their terms.

28 See section 6 for data indicating the Corinthians were already in the practice of electing their officers. The evidence for Corinthian elections (section 4) does not suggest that Paul initiated this mechanism of ordination within the group but, rather, that Paul referenced a procedure already part of the group's structure. Greeks had been holding private and public elections for hundreds of years before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

29 This conclusion counters that of Schweizer (Church Order, 187): ‘This ministry [of the Lord's Supper] never appears as a special gift of grace, nor as an office. In 1 Cor 11.17ff. Paul cannot appeal to anyone who is responsible for the proper conduct of the Lord's Supper.’

30 English translations of GRA I inscriptions are from Kloppenborg and Ascough, Attica. Emphasis on the middle and passive meaning of αἱρέω as ‘elect’ is my own.

31 See also IG II2 1258.12-13 where three men are elected (ἑλέσθαι) to assist a certain Polyxenos in a legal matter.

32 For example, see Arnaoutoglou, I. N., Thusias Heneka Kai Sunousias: Private Religious Associations in Hellenistic Athens (Yearbook of the Research Centre for the History of Greek Law 37/4; Athens: Academy of Athens, 2003) 104Google Scholar; and Jones, A. H. M., ‘The Election of the Metropolitan Magistrates in Egypt’, JEA 24 (1938) 65-72Google Scholar at 71.

33 H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (revised edition; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940) 41.

34 ‘[W]hereas under a democracy an election is held and every man acquiesces more readily in the result because he feels that those to whom he owes his defeat are not his equals’ (Loeb translation [C. Forster Smith]). The accompanying LCL note clarifies how Thucydides could speak of democratic election candidates as ‘unequal’: ‘in an oligarchy all are of the same class, and the promotion of one is a slight upon the rest; but in a democracy the defeated candidate may claim that the electors were ignorant or prejudiced, that he was not beaten on his merits, and so pass the matter over’ (352).

35 For example, Ps.-Aristotle, Ath. Pol. 26.14 (ἀρχόντων αἵρεσιν); 31.9-10, 44.4 (αἵρεσιν/ἀρχαιρεσίας τῶν στρατηγῶν).

36 ‘For there was an election of archons according to birth and wealth, from which the ones of the Areopagus were appointed’.

37 Associations: IRhamnous II 59 = GRA I 27 (Rhamnous, Attica, after 216/15 BCE). Literary works: Ps.-Aristotle Ath. Pol. 54.5; 61. 4, 5, 7; Demosthenes Against Meidias 15; and Demosthenes Against Boeotus II, 34.

38 2 Cor 8.19; Acts 14.23; Did. 15.1; Ign. Phld. 10. The reference to ἐπίσκοποι καὶ διάκονοι in Phil 1.1 also indirectly implies elections or appointments to temporary positions. Notably, these titles were not, as far as Paul's description indicates, διὰ βίου (‘for life’), the standard designation for permanent offices in associations. Rather, they rotated anywhere from every five years to every month (we cannot be more precise). For διὰ βίου offices, see IG II2 1326.36 = GRA I 36 (ἱερεωσύνην…διὰ βίου); IG II2 1328 = GRA I 34 (διὰ βίου ζάκορον τεῖ θεῶι); IG II2 1368.7 = GRA I 51 (see Kloppenborg and Ascough, Attica, 254); IG II2 2361.10, 68 = GRA I 52 (ἱερεὺς διὰ βίου); Jaccottet no. 7. 5-6 = GRA I 60 (διὰ βίου ἱερέα). For more references to elections in early Christian literature, see Hatch, E., ‘Ordination’, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities: Comprising the History, Institutions, and Antiquities of the Christian Church from the Time of the Apostles to the Age of Charlemagne (ed. Smith, W. and Cheetham, S.; 2 vols.; London: J. Murray, 1908) 2.1501-20Google Scholar, esp. 1501.

39 οὐκ ἐχειροτονεῖτε δ'ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν δέκα ταξιάρχους καὶ στρατηγοὺς καὶ φυλάρχους καὶ ἱππάρχους δύο;

40 IG II2 1278.6 = GRA I 17 (Attica, 272/1 BCE); IG II2 1277.5 = GRA I 15 (Athens, 278/7 BCE); SEG 2.10.4 (Salamis, Attica, mid III BCE); Acts 6.4; Eusebius Hist. eccl. 2.1; cf. Ps.-Aristotle Ath. Pol. 3.37.

41 IG II2 1263.39 = GRA I 11 (Piraeus, Attica, 300/299 BCE); IG II2 1273A.13= GRA I 18 (Piraeus, Attica, 265/4 BCE); SEG 2.9.5 = GRA I 29 (Piraeus, Attica, 211/0 BCE).

42 For usage of the term in the context of association elections, see IG II2 1261A.4 = GRA I 9 (Piraeus, Attica, 302/1 BCE); IG II2 1297.12 = GRA I 24 (Athens, 236/5 BCE); IG II2 1298.14 = GRA I 20 (Athens, 248/7 BCE). This is a very common verb appearing in a range of contexts. Paul uses it (γένωνται) in 11.19 to describe the transformation from regular member to officer, acknowledging that it is through elections (αἱρέσεις) that this process happens in the Christ-group.

43 For example, see IG II2 1291= GRA I 19 (Piraeus? Attica, mid III BCE); and IG II2 1298 = GRA I 20 (Athens, Attica, 248/7 BCE).

44 Interpreters almost unanimously read this term to have an eschatological meaning. See, for example, Munck, J., ‘The Church without Factions: Studies in 1 Corinthians’, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (London: SCM, 1959) 135-67Google Scholar; Schrage, Der erste Brief, 3.21-2; Lang, F., Die Briefe an die Korinther (NTD 7; Göttingen and Zürich: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994) 148CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thiselton, First Epistle, 858-9; Barrett, First Epistle, 261-2; Héring, First Epistle, 113; Witherington III, Conflict and Community, 248.

45 Adeleye, G., ‘The Purpose of the Dokimasia’, GRBS 24 (1983) 295-306Google Scholar, esp. 295.

46 MacDowell, D. M., The Law in Classical Athens (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1978) 168Google Scholar. The thorough nature of the δοκιμασία is treated in a forthcoming paper by J. S. Kloppenborg entitled, ‘The Moralizing of Discourse in Graeco-Roman Associations’.

47 Gabriel, ‘Purpose’, 305.

48 Lysias For Mantitheus 15.6; Plato Laws 759d; Ps.-Aristotle Ath. Pol. 45.3. Acts records an election process that includes all the components of a standard election: the seven were elected by the general assembly and then ‘appointed’, and therefore approved, by the apostles thereafter (Acts 6.3-5).

49 ‘Other Egyptian dignitaries feasted with them’ (Loeb translation [trans. F. H. Colson]).

50 This is from the forthcoming paper, ‘Moralizing of Discourse’.

51 ἐὰν δὲ ἰοβάκχου ἀδελφὸς ἰσέρχηται ψήφῳ δοκιμασθείς, διδότω δηνάριον ν΄.

52 Joshel, S. R., Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992) 114-5Google Scholar, 118.

53 Royden, H. L., The Magistrates of the Roman Professional Collegia in Italy: From the First to the Third Century A.D. (Bibliotheca di studi antichi 61; Pisa: Giardini, 1988)Google Scholar. Many of Royden's sources are from Ostia, Rome. J. Liu recently called Royden's percentages into question: ‘[i]t is often emphasized that freedmen were more likely to advertise their affiliation than others. However, a large fraction of the persons mentioned in our inscriptions never specified their legal status. In fact, identifying members of freedmen status proves to be no easy task.’ Later Liu arrives at an adapted version of Royden's theory: ‘[t]he membership composition of the collegia centonariorum varied in different regions. As far as we can tell from the evidence, the percentage of freedmen members was perhaps higher in Rome, Lugdunum, and perhaps Sassina than in cities elsewhere, especially those in the frontier provinces, such as Pannonia and Noricum’, Collegia Centonariorum: The Guilds of Textile Dealers in the Roman West (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition 34; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009)Google Scholar 172 and 208 respectively.

54 See, for example, Thucydides (War 1.17), who speaks of ‘being held back from achieving something notable’ (κατείχετο…φανερὸν…κατεργάζεσθαι); and Philostratus (Vit. Apoll. 2.20) who comments on persons with social capital, or ‘persons of distinction’ (τοὺς φανερωτέρους).

55 The word carries similar implications in Matt 12.16; Mark 3.12, and 6.14.

56 Hatch (‘Ordination’, 1501-20) has assembled a vast amount of data showing consistency between civic modes of ordination and those found within the early Christian literature. His article is predictably light on Christian data from the first-century and unfortunately neglects the usage of αἱρέσις/αἱρέομαι in public ordinations, but its proposal that Christians ordained leaders in the same way as did Greeks and Romans is very effectively supported with much data.

57 For officers assuming roles of authority at cultic banquets, see section 3.

58 Theissen, Social Status, 155 (my italics).

59 Thiselton, First Epistle, 858.

60 Fee, First Epistle, 539.

61 O'Connor, J. Murphy, St Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1983) 159Google Scholar. While Murphy-O'Connor's thesis remains influential, Horrell, D. provides a convincing alternative in ‘Domestic Space and Christian Meetings at Corinth: Imagining New Contexts and the Buildings East of the Theatre’, NTS 50 (2004) 349-69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 See Verboven, ‘The Associative Order’, 861-93.

63 Clarke, A. D., Secular and Christian Leadership in Corinth: A Socio-Historical and Exegetical Study of 1 Corinthians 1–6 (Leiden: Brill, 1993) 74-88Google Scholar.

64 Martin, D., The Corinthian Body (New Haven: Yale University, 1995)Google Scholar.

65 Theissen, Social Setting, 121–43.

66 For the democratic nature of public offices in Athens see Adeleye, ‘Purpose’, 295. For the structure of leadership in Greek associations see Arnaoutoglou, Thusias, 89-118.