A Tale of Two Churches

Distinctive Social and Economic Dynamics at Thessalonica and Corinth

UnChan Jung

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9783110742589
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Though a majority of commentators have admitted or naturally assumed that there were many divergences amongst the Pauline churches, many tend to concentrate on similarities more than dissimilarities (contra John M. G. Barclay; Craig de Vos). Especially, the previous scholarly treatments of divergences in the Pauline churches have shed little light on certain areas of study, in particular the early Christians' socio-economic status.

The thesis, therefore, underlines the conspicuous differences between the Thessalonian and Corinthian congregations concerning their socio-economic compositions, social relationships, and further social identities, while extrapolating certain circles of causality between them through socio-economic and social-scientific criticism.

This study concludes Paul's teachings of grace, community, and ethics were manifested and modified in different communities in different ways because of these different socio-economic contexts.

1 Introduction and Methodology

1.1. Introduction

1.1.1 Main Issues

The book title, “A Tale of Two Churches: Distinctive Social and Economic Dynamics in Thessalonica and Corinth,” borrows from the title of Charles Dickens’ renowned novel, A Tale of Two Cities.¹ Dickens begins the book with interesting illustrations of two quite similar but different cities, London and Paris, and continues implicitly to contrast their differences as the backdrops of its main story. This study will also compare and contrast the Thessalonian and Corinthian congregations – two similar yet strikingly different ones – with regard to their members’ social status, relationships, and identity.

Although Paul founded these two churches in metropolises in the Mediterranean area in a similar period and delivered constant messages to them, the two communities attracted different kinds of people and developed distinctive features and atmospheres. In Thessalonica, Paul converted many casual labourers who showed solidarity within their church but experienced affliction from conflict with non-believers. On the other hand, the Corinthian congregation was more diverse and included those experiencing economic mobility, the well-born, and the poor. Its members generally found social harmony with their larger society but did not enjoy strong ingroup cohesion.

This book underlines the conspicuous differences between the two Pauline congregations concerning their socio-economic compositions, social relationships, and further social identities, while extrapolating certain circles of causality between them through socio-economic and social-scientific criticism. In other words, this research has three chief aims: (1) highlighting the dissimilarities between the Thessalonians and the Corinthians by contrasting their socio-economic statuses, intergroup and intragroup relationships, and social identities; (2) tracing certain patterns of historical causation between the four criteria; and (3) developing a socio-economic and social psychological approach to the Pauline letters which can help to achieve the two former goals.

Though the attempt of contrasting the Pauline communities and letters itself is not novel, this study is distinctive from previous research in many senses. Though a majority of commentators have admitted or naturally assumed that there were many divergences amongst the Pauline churches, many tend to concentrate on similarities more than dissimilarities. Only a few scholars, such as John M. G. Barclay and Craig S. de Vos, turned their attention more to the manifest divergences between the Pauline Communities or in the same community in different periods. Barclay, in his seminal study of the Thessalonian and Corinthian congregations, deals with the eschatological implications of different social relationships with non-believers.² He argues that, while the Thessalonians’ imminent eschatology was reinforced by harassment from outsiders, the Corinthians’ non-eschatological perspective was influenced by their social harmony with non-believers and vice versa. He concludes that “all Paul’s churches were of the same stamp” is a wrong supposition.³ Following Barclay’s emphasis on the distinctiveness of each of the Pauline congregations, de Vos attempts to contrast the three communities in Thessalonica, Corinth, and Philippi with regard to their conflicts with non-believers.⁴ He focuses on explicating causes for different severities of conflicts with outgroups in those regions by developing the “Culture of Conflict” theory, which deals with which regions had high or low conflict cultures. He insists that cultural and regional factors determined how frequently the believers were exposed to conflicts with non-believers. But his explanations have limitations in several senses. Firstly, he focuses predominantly on conflict with outsiders. But there were some other notable differences between the Pauline churches, such as different intragroup relationships and socio-economic compositions, that should be given further attention. Secondly, while his emphasis on local factors is reasonable, his explications of them are to a certain degree oversimplified and need further elaboration. For instance, he simply considers the religious and political mentality of ancient Thessalonians as Greek, which he defines as having little tolerance towards minor groups; Thessalonica, however, was hugely Romanised and loyal to Rome, as he would admit, and adopted many foreign gods by accepting many foreigners.⁵ Whether ancient Greeks were intolerant towards vocal minorities is also debatable. Most importantly, internal and other factors in the Thessalonian and Corinthian churches, such as their socio-economic compositions and internal relationships, are undervalued in de Vos’ study. It seems that their members’ conflicts with outsiders were influenced far more by the internal factors than by local or cultural factors, as this book will argue in the following chapters. Therefore, even though the contributions of these studies should not be underestimated, there are still untouched and unilluminated areas of research regarding the social relationships and memberships of the Thessalonian and Corinthian congregations and their differences.

First, the previous scholarly treatments of divergences in the Pauline churches have shed little light on certain areas of study, in particular the early Christians’ socio-economic status. There is a long history of debates on the early believers’ status.⁶ While some scholars have argued that the Pauline Christians were mostly poor, others claim that their socio-economic levels varied from the elite to the impoverished. The former position is generally called the Old Consensus (e. g. Gustav Adolf Deissmann and Justin J. Meggitt), while the latter one the New Consensus (e. g. Gerd Theissen and Wayne A. Meeks). Although many scholars over the last century have developed the discussion in methodology, terminology, and socio-economic exegeses of particular biblical passages like 1 Thess 4:9 – 12 and 1 Cor 1:26, they have not reached a general consensus on early believers’ socio-economic levels. One of the major problems in this debate is that the majority of the Pauline scholars deem the issue as a dichotomous question: choosing either the New or Old Consensus for all the Pauline congregations. Another problem is that the Corinthian congregation has been viewed as the archetypal church which reflects the socio-economic composition of all the Pauline or the later congregations.⁷ However, there is another possibility that the early Christian congregations were, in fact, distinctive from each other in their socio-economic compositions. For example, the Thessalonian community may correspond with the Old Consensus, while the Corinthian one with the New Consensus. John S. Kloppenborg recently argued in light of diversity of associations that “it is an error, however, to suppose that all Christ assemblies in Paul’s day exhibited a single and consistent demographic complexion and the same degree of connectivity to a town”.⁸ Although he provides some points of biblical evidence for this argument, it is neither specific nor strong and thus does not lead well to his conclusion. For instance, though claiming that the Thessalonian congregation seems homogeneous as a group of “male”⁹ handworkers, he does not take into account how diverse handworkers were in antiquity. If one considers that manual labourers varied from chief artisans to unskilled daily workers,¹⁰ the fact that the Thessalonians were (male) handworkers itself does not warrant that their church was homogeneous. Furthermore, Kloppenborg depends predominantly on implicit evidence (e. g. prosopography of the Corinthian individuals¹¹) to reveal the Corinthians’ social and economic diversity. The implicit evidence is neither strong nor uncontentious. Besides, it seems that his idea of variety of the Corinthians’ gender and legal status is not clearly distinctive from general ideas of other Pauline congregations. Nonetheless, his suggestion of variation within early Christian congregation needs to be taken seriously. This book will try to explore this possibility by examining the different social makeups of the two Pauline communities with various evidence respectively in Chapters 2 and 4 and by dir...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction and Methodology
• 2 Paul’s Letter to Free(d) Casual Workers: Profiling the Thessalonians in Light of the Roman Economy
• 3 Dynamic Socio-Economic Phenomena in Thessalonica: Status, Relationships, and Identity
• 4 Paul’s Letter to a Diverse Community in Corinth: Profiling the Corinthians in Light of Roman Culture
• 5 Dynamic Socio-Economic Phenomena in Corinth: Status, Relationships, and Identity
• 6 Conclusion
• Abbreviations
• Person Index