Paul’s “Ekklēsia Ethics” (1 Cor 7:17–24) for his Sacred (1 Cor 3:16), Non-Misogynistic (1 Cor 14:33b-36) Corinthian Christos-followers (PNW SBL Conference 2023; Power and Authority working group) (original) (raw)

In this presentation, I will focus upon three examples of internal dynamics of power and authority among Christ-follower associations in the Roman empire, with particular emphasis upon the Christ-followers in Corinth. My investigative process will follow the order of the key words in the title of this essay (ekklēsiai, non-misogynistic, manumission). First, I will explore, in some fresh ways, the socio-religious power dynamics between Pauline-loyal and Jerusalem-loyal Christ-followers. A brief foray into the “denominational” group designations of the differentiated Christ-follower associations in Rome (hoi hagioi/“the holy ones,” Rom 1:7; ekklēsia/“assembly,” Rom 16:3-5a) illuminates potential parallels among the differentiated Christ-follower associations in Corinth, and vice versa. At least two sub-group identities are evident in Corinth: (1) hoi hagioi of Cephas, and (2) Paul’s ekklēsia of God (1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1). Second, I will interrogate existing assumptions of patriarchal power dynamics between males and females within Pauline ekklēsiai (esp. 1 Cor 14:33b-35: “women/wives must remain silent”). I will offer a new non-misogynistic interpretive paradigm for the meeting protocols of Paul’s ekklēsia associations that builds out from my above paradigm of “denominational” power dynamics not least among Cephas-loyal hoi hagioi and the Pauline-loyal ekklēsia. Third, I will revisit the power dynamics of social stratification among Christ-follower slaves and their masters through the lens not least of both Greek (Delphic) and Jewish (Bosporan) manumission ethics. Greeks and Jews mandated continued paramonē (“remain with”) commitments to the freedpersons’s former owner (Greek) or to their former ethno-religious collective (Jewish synagogue). Paul, in analogous continuity, appears to allude to a paramonē clause, which scholarship to this point has not yet acknowledged (μενέτω παρὰ θεῷ; 1 Cor 7:24b). One could thus loosely paraphrase Paul’s ekklēsia ethics (“my rule/nomos among the ekklēsiai”; 7:17) for his metaphorically manumitted douloi (“slaves”) of God as follows: “You are to remain obligated to God (not your former master, sin) in your ethnic (7:18) and social (7:21) station of life for as long as God, your new master, lives (7:24b).” Paul’s love-based “rule/association nomos” (7:17) has application not only when dealing with social stratification (slaves/masters) but also with (competing) “denominational” allegiances (hoi hagioi versus ekklēsiai) and with (competing) male/female roles within the public and private life of Paul’s ekklēsia communities