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How to Understand What Passes All Understanding: Using the Documentary Papyri to Understand εἰρήνη in Paul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

Michael Dormandy Open the ORCID record for Michael Dormandy [Opens in a new window]
Michael Dormandy*
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Ripon College, Cuddesdon, OxfordOX44 9EX, UK. Email: michael.dormandy@rcc.ac.uk
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Abstract

In popular culture, the Pauline texts referring to ‘peace’ are illustrated by serene and tranquil scenes. I shall argue that to Paul's first readers, ‘peace’ evoked rather different images – military victories, arrests of criminals and the unloading of corn. I argue this because of how εἰρήνη is normally used in documentary papyri, that is personal letters, administrative documents and other non-literary written material. I explain my method and then present the papyrological evidence, including references to the various ‘peace-officials’. I argue that εἰρήνη meant something like ‘good order’. I use this insight to interpret Rom 5.1 and Phil 4.7.

Keywords

peaceRomansPhilippiansPauldocumentary papyri
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 220 - 240
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

My thanks to Christina Kreinecker and Peter Arzt-Grabner for kind and thorough support on this work, to the UK AHRC for funding a visit to the University of Salzburg and to the Divinity Faculty and Christ's College, Cambridge, for funding relevant conference travel. My thanks to the late John Dormandy for generous support, including thoughtful comments on this paper. Having stared for weeks at the Greek word “Irene”, I dedicate this paper with love to Irene Nordskog. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are my own and aim to be literal rather than elegant. All transcriptions of papyri have been checked against the Berichtigungsliste (Berichtigungsliste der Griechischen Papyrusurkunden aus Ägypten, a regularly updated series of Brill volumes, collating reports of corrections to papyri editions).

References

1 Judge, E. A., ‘Rank and Status in the World of the Caesars and of St Paul’, Social Distinctives of the Christians in the First Century: Pivotal Essays by E. A. Judge (ed. Scholer, D. M.; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008) 137–56, Kindle edition (2012)Google Scholar.

2 Deissmann, A., Light from the Ancient Near East: The New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World (trans. Strachan, Lionel R. M.; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1927)Google Scholar.

3 Moulton, J. H. and Milligan, G., The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930)Google Scholar.

4 New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity (ed. G. H. R. Horsley and S. Llewellyn; North Ryde: Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, 1981–).

5 Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary, 185–6.

6 Arzt-Grabner, P., Philemon (PKNT 1; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003) 171Google Scholar.

7 C. Kreinecker with G. Schwab, 2. Thessaloniker (PKNT 3; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010) 105–6. Author's footnotes omitted.

8 Wengst, K., Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ (London: SCM, 1986)Google Scholar.

9 ThWNT 1 ii.398–416, at 410–11.

10 ThWNT 1 ii.405.

11 References to MT.

12 Swartley, W. M., Covenant of Peace: The Missing Peace in New Testament Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)Google Scholar.

13 K. Haacker, ‘Der Römerbrief als Friedensmemorandum (Otto Michael zum 85. Geburtstag)’, NTS 36 (1990) 25–41, doi: 10.1017/S0028688500010845; E. Brandenburger, Frieden im Neuen Testament: Grundlinien urchristlichen Friedenverständis (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1973). It is surely not coincidental that reconciliation features so prominently in the German scholarship, since the division and reunification of Germany have significantly affected post-war German culture. Haacker's article was originally a lecture delivered in East Germany in 1988, published in NTS in 1990, an apt context in which to work on reconciliation.

14 M. Desjardins, Peace, Violence and the New Testament (BibSem 46; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1997) 13.

15 J. Grassi, Peace on Earth: Roots and Practices from Luke's Gospel (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004).

16 P. G. R. de Villiers, ‘Peace in Luke and Acts: A Perspective on Biblical Spirituality’, Acta Patristica et Byzantina 19.1 (2008) 110–34. doi: 10.1080/10226486.2008.11745790.

17 J. M. Bassler, ‘Peace in All Ways: Theology in the Thessalonian Letters. A Response to R. Jewett, E. Krentz, and E. Richard’, Pauline Theology, vol. i: Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians, Philemon (ed. J. M. Bassler; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991) 71–85.

18 Available at www.papyri.info.

19 Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 50–6.

20 P.Oxy. lxii.4335.1; BGU iii.919.6; BGU xiii.2243.4; P.Berl.Leigh. i.14.12; SB v.8010.9–10; SB xii.11168.2.

21 For this argument, see Arzt-Grabner, Philemon, 45–6.

22 For detailed discussion, see T. M. Teeter, ‘Letters of Recommendation or Letters of Peace’, Akten des 21. internationalen Papyrologenkongresses Berlin, 13.–19.8.1995 (ed. B. Kramer, W. Luppe, H. Maehler and G. Poethke; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1997) 954–60. For a discussion of the Christian letters that do and do not contain the word εἰρήνη, see S. R. Llewellyn, ‘Christian Letters of Recommendation’, NewDocs 8 (ed. S. R. Llewellyn; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/North Ryde: Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, 1998) 169–72.

23 See A. Nelson, ‘Petition to the Peacekeepers’, Papyri Greek and Egyptian, Edited by Various Hands in Honour of Eric Gardner Turner, on Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday (London: Egypt Exploration Society 1981) 173.

24 N. Lewis, The Compulsory Public Services of Roman Egypt (Papyrologica Florentina 28; Florence: Edizioni Gonelli, 19972) 23. The date is Lewis’; HGV dates to 113–20 ce.

25 For a detailed discussion of this type of document, see C. M. Kreinecker, ‘“We ask you to send …” A Remark on Summonses and Petitions for Summonses’, Actes du 26e Congrès international de papyrologie, Genève, 16–21 août 2010 : Recherches et Rencontres. Publications de la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Genève 30 (ed. P. Schubert; Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2012) 407–15.

26 Transcription and translation omit the additions by the second hand.

27 John Bauschatz, Law and Enforcement in Ptolemaic Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 156.

28 P. J. Parsons, ‘3057: Letter of Ammonius’, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. xlii (ed. P. J. Parsons; London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1974) 143–6, at 146.

29 P. J. Parsons, ‘The Earliest Christian Letter’, Miscellanea Papyrologica (ed. R. Pintaudi; Florence: Gonelli, 1980) 289; I. Ramelli, ‘Una delle più antiche lettere cristiane extracanoniche?’, Aegyptus 80 (2000) 169–85; O. Montevecchi, ‘ΤΗΝ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗΝ ΚΕΧΙΑΣΜΕΝΗΝ’, Aegyptus 80 (2000) 187–94.

30 G. R. Stanton, ‘The Proposed Earliest Christian Letter on Papyrus and the Origin of the Term Philallelia’, ZPE 54 (1984) 49–63; S. K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (LEC; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986) 98; S. R. Llewellyn, ‘Ammonios to Apollonios (P.Oxy. xlii 3057): The Earliest Christian Letter on Papyrus?’, (NewDocs 6; ed. S. R. Llewellyn with R. A. Kearsley; North Ryde: Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, 1992) 168–77.

31 Judge, ‘Rank’; L. H. Blumell, ‘Is P.Oxy. xlii 3057 the Earliest Christian Letter?’, Early Christian Manuscripts: Examples of Applied Method and Approach (ed. T. J. Kraus and T. Nicklas; TENTS 5; Leiden: Brill, 2010) 97–113.

32 Stanton, ‘Earliest’, 54–63.

33 Judge, ‘Rank’. For a detailed analysis of the relationship between Paul and Greco-Roman gift-giving, see influentially J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 2015).

34 Blumell, ‘Earliest’.

35 Llewellyn, ‘Ammonios’, 172–3.

36 M. Rostovtzeff, ‘Pax Augusta Claudiana’, JEA 12 (1926) 24–9.

37 V. A. Tcherikover and Alexander Fuks, Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (3 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1957–64) 45–6, at 46.

38 The dots at the start and end of this quote are ellipses, not indicating three uncertain letters.

39 Dots are an ellipsis.

40 Dots are an ellipsis.

41 U. Hagedorn, D. Hagedorn, L. C. Youtie and H. C. Youtie, Das Archiv des Petaus (P.Petaus) (Papyrologica Coloniensia 4; Cologne: Westdeutscher, 1969) 220.

42 Dots are an ellipsis.

43 Wengst, Pax, 11–19.

44 For this reconstruction, see F. Bilabel, Griechische Papyri (Urkunden, Briefe, Schreibtafeln, Ostraka etc.) mit 2 Tafeln (Veröffentlichungen aus dem badischen Papyrus-Sammlungen 4; Heidelberg: self-published by the author, 1924) 189–91.

45 For full description, see P. J. Parsons, ‘The Wells of Hibis’, JEA 57 (1971) 165–80.

46 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 173.

47 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 180.

48 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 179.

49 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 179 n. 12.

50 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 179.

51 Parsons, ‘Wells’, 180.

52 M. Blume, ‘À propos de P.Oxy. i 41: des acclamations en l'honneur d'un Prytane, confrontées aux témoignages épigraphiques du reste de l'Empire’, Egitto e storia antica dall'Ellenismo all'età Araba: bilancio di un confronto. Atti del colloquio internazionale Bologna 31.8–2.9.1987 (ed. L. Criscuolo and G. Geraci; Bologna: Clueb, 1989) 271–90, at 274 n. 19.

53 E. P. Wegener, ‘Four papyri of the Bodleian Library’, Mnemosyne 3 (1936) 232–40, at 237, 238.

54 This is a standard use of the dative case; what is unusual is that the noun in question is an abstract concept rather than a person. See H. W. Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges (New York: American Book Company, 1920) §1459. When the dative in question is an abstract concept, as here, it can ‘work’ well to translate it as an expressing purpose.

55 UPZ i.20; P.Lond. vi.1912; P.Oxy. xlii.3022; SB xxiv.15915; PSI ix.1036 (and copies); P.Bad. iv.89; P.Stras. i.5; P.Oxy. i.41; P.Cair.Goodsp. 15.

56 UPZ i.20; P.Lond. vi.1912; P.Oxy. xlii.3022; SB xxiv.15915; PSI ix.1036 (and copies); P.Stras. i.5; P.Cair.Goodsp. 15.

57 BGU iv.1192; P.Petaus 53.

58 P.Oxy. XLII 3057.

59 SB v.7667. Possibly also SB xiv.11938.

60 Bassler, ‘Peace’; Swartley, Peace.

61 Haacker, ‘Römerbrief’; Brandenburger, Frieden.

62 W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 19025) 120; S. E. Porter, ‘The Argument of Romans 5: Can a Rhetorical Question Mark a Difference?’, JBL 110 (1991) 655–77; G. D. Fee, God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994) 495 n. 66; D. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996) 295 n. 17; R. Jewett, Romans: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007) 344; R. N. Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016) 553–5.

63 Hans Lietzmann, An die Römer (HNT 3/1; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 19192) 55; C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (BNTC; London: Adam and Charles Black, 1957) 102; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London: UBS, 1971) 511; C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans (2 vols.; ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1975) 257; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans (2 vols.; WBC 38; Dallas: Word, 1988) 245. For the frequent exchanging of ο and ω in the papyri, see F. T. Gignac, A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (2 vols.; Testi e documenti per lo studio dell'antichita’; Milan: Istituto Editoriale Cisalpino – La Goliardica, 1975) 275–7. My thanks to Dirk Jongkind and Patrick James for informative discussion of this issue.

64 See nn. 62 and 63 for details of the works I consulted.

65 For one original letter, see M. R. Vincent, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians and Philemon (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1897) xxxi; P. O'Brien, The Epistle to the Philippians (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991) 10–18; U. B. Müller, Der Brief des Paulus an die Philipper (THKNT 11/1; Leipzig: Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 1993) 4–14; G. D. Fee, Paul's Letter to the Philippians (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 1; M. Bockmuehl, The Epistle to the Philippians (BNTC; London: A & C Black, 1997) 22–5; G. F. Hawthorne, Philippians (rev. R. P. Martin; WBC 43; Waco: Nelson, 2004) xxx–xxxiv; B. Witherington III, Paul's Letter to the Philippians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011) 15–18. For arguments for various versions of a redactional hypothesis, see J. Gnilka, Der Philipperbrief (HThKNT; Freiburg: Herder, 1968) 6–10; W. Schenk, Die Philipperbriefe des Paulus (Stuttgart: Kolhammer, 1984) 334–6; J. Reumann, Philippians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 33B; New Haven: Yale University, 2008) 3–13.

66 The traditional location is Rome; for which see Vincent, Philippians, xxii; Fee, Philippians, 1; Bockmuehl, Philippians, 25–32; O'Brien, Philippians, 10–26 (cautiously); Witherington, Philippians, 9–11. For Ephesus, see Reumann, Philippians, 3; Hawthorne, Philippians, xxxix–l (cautiously); Gnilka, Philipperbrief, 18–24; Müller, Philipper, 18–24.

67 Witherington, Philippians, 249; Reumann, Philippians, 636–7; S. E. Fowl, Philippians (Two Horizons New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005) 184.

68 J.-F. Collange, L’épître de Saint Paul aux Philippiens (CNT xa ; Neuchâtel: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1973) 126–7.

69 Vincent, Philippians, 135.

70 P. A. Holloway, Philippians: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017) 183; Fee, Philippians, 402; Swartley, Peace, 419.

71 Witherington, Philippians, 248.

72 This broad approach is followed, without reference to the papyri, by Gnilka (Philipperbrief, 171), Müller (Philipper, 196) and ThWNT ii.412.

73 N. T. Wright, ‘Mind, Spirit, Soul and Body: All for One and One for All – Reflections on Paul's Anthropology in his Complex Context’, Pauline Perspectives: Essays on Paul 1978–2013 (London: SPCK, 2013) 455–73.

74 See n. 72 for those who argue for an objective reading in Philippians without reference to them.