1 Theissen, Gerd, ‘Soziale Schichtung in der Korinthische Gemeinde: Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie des hellenistischen Urchristentums’, ZNW 65 (1974) 232-72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982) 81-2Google Scholar; also picked up by Meeks, Wayne, First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven: Yale University, 1983) 59Google Scholar; thereafter, see summaries of the consensus in Meggitt, Justin J., Paul and Poverty (Studies of the New Testament and its World; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998) 137Google Scholar; Garland, David E., 1 Corinthians (BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003) 11Google Scholar; Thiselton, Anthony C., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000) 9Google Scholar; and Welborn, L. L., End to Enmity: Paul and the ‘Wrongdoer’ of 2 Corinthians (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011) 267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Against Friesen's hypothesis that Erastus was not a Christian (‘The Wrong Erastus: Ideology, Archaeology, and Exegesis’, Corinth in Context: Comparative Studies on Religion and Society [ed. Friesen, Steven J., Schowalter, Daniel N., and Walters, James C.; Leiden: Brill, 2010] 249-55CrossRefGoogle Scholar), I find the traditional argument, which has now been ably defended by Goodrich, John (‘Erastus of Corinth [Romans 16.23]: Responding to Recent Proposals on his Rank, Status, and Faith’, NTS 57 [2011] 589–90)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, to be far more convincing.

3 A consensus position that, since the late 1970s and early '80s (Theissen, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity; Malherbe, Abraham, Social Aspects of Early Christianity [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983]Google Scholar; Meeks, The First Urban Christians), has stood the test of time. Recent studies have continued to affirm earlier conclusions, if with some qualification—e.g., Horrell, David, The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Studies of the New Testament and its World; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1996) 94-5Google Scholar; and Dunn, James D. G., Beginning from Jerusalem: Christianity in the Making (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009) 2.814-16Google Scholar. Justin Meggitt (Paul and Poverty) is among the few dissenters, maintaining that the socio-economic gap in the church was not wide enough to allow for significant stratification. Though, against Meggitt's point, see Oakes, Peter, Reading Romans in Pompeii: Paul's Letter at Ground Level (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009) esp. 61.Google Scholar

4 Addressing the date: Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 236-45; Welborn, End to Enmity, 230-82; addressing the term οἰκόνομος: Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 245-9; Welborn, End to Enmity, 261-6; Goodrich, ‘Erastus of Corinth (Romans 16.23)’, 583-93; Paul as an Administrator of God in 1 Corinthians (SNTSMS 152; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2012) 27-102CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weiss, Alexander, ‘Keine Quästoren in Korinth: zu Goodrichs (und Theissens) These über das Amt des Erastos (Röm 16.23)’, NTS 56 (2010) 576-81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Clarke, Andrew D., ‘Another Corinthian Erastus Inscription’, TynBul 42 (1991) 148-50Google Scholar; Meggitt, Justin J., ‘The Social Status of Erastus (Rom. 16:23)’, NovT 38 (1996) 218-23Google Scholar; reprinted in Paul and Poverty, 135-41.

6 Cf. Clarke (‘Another Corinthian Erastus Inscription’, 150), saying that the name was ‘relatively uncommon’, and Meggitt (Paul and Poverty, 140), saying that it was ‘relatively common’. Likewise, compare; Cranfield, C. E. B., The Epistle to the Romans: Volume 2: 9-16 (ICC; London: Continuum, 2000)Google Scholar 807: ‘the name was common enough’; and Hemer, Colin and Gempf, Conrad H., The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History (Tübingen: Eisenbrauns, 1989)Google Scholar 235: the name was ‘less common than is sometimes suggested’; Bock, Darrell, Acts (ECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007)Google Scholar 606: ‘[t]he name is common’; and Furnish, V. P., ‘Corinth in Paul's Time: What Can Archaeology Tell Us?’, BAR 15 (1988)Google Scholar 20: ‘the name itself is not common’. See also Witherington, Ben III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998)Google Scholar 590; Winter, Bruce, Seek the Welfare of the City (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994) 191-2Google Scholar; and Richard Fellows, ‘Erastus (Rom 16:23) was Erastus (Acts 19:22)’, http://paulandco-workers.blogspot.ca/2010/06/erastus-rom-1623-was-erastus-acts-1922.html, posted on 25 June 2010.

7 One of Meggitt's 23 ‘epigraphical’ attestations is actually a papyrus (P. Heid. Bi. 7 [IIa]). Some of his citations do not include Erastus: (1) CIL VI 1300 (no Erastus); (2) CIL VI 7513 (reads Aerastus); (3) CIL XIV 4562, 4 (reads Aerastus); (4) CIG 1249 (no Erastus); (5) IG IV 1488 (no Erastus); (6) CIL VI 24452 (reads Eratus); (7) P. Heid. Bi. 7 (IIa) (reads Ἔρατος). Two further references are doubtful: (1) CIL V 7232 (possibly Eperastus); (2) AEph (1984): 625 (reads Ti[beri] Cl[audi] E[]). Three references involve typos: (1) not AM 95 (1970): 220, nos. 149-50, but AM 85, etc.; (2) not CIL VI 1914, but Not. Sc. (1914): 379, no. 16; (3) not CIL VI 1934, but Not. Sc. (1934): 219, no. 28. In one case, a single inscription repeated in two separate corpora (SEG 25:194 = IG II² 2323,221) is, wrongly, counted twice. In several cases, multiple references identify the same individual (see below).

8 Greek literature: Thesaurus Linguae Graecae; Latin literature: Library of Latin texts (Brepols), not to be confused with ‘The Latin Library’; papyri: Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, http://papyri.info/search; Papyrus Archives in Graeco-Roman Egypt, http://www.trismegistos.org/arch/index.php; Greek literature and epigraphy: Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, http://clas-lgpn2.classics.ox.ac.uk/; Traill, John S., Persons of Ancient Athens. Vol. 7, Eraginos to Eon (Toronto: Athenians, 1998)Google Scholar; Osborne, M. J. and Byrne, S. G., Lexicon of Greek Personal Names. Vol. 2, Attica (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994)Google Scholar; Greek epigraphy: Packhard Humanities Institute, http://epigraphy.packhum.org/inscriptions/; Latin epigraphy: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, http://cil.bbaw.de/dateien/datenbank.php; Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss / Slaby, http://oracle-vm.ku-eichstaett.de:8888/epigr/epigraphik_en; and Electronic Archive of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (EAGLE), http://www.eagle-eagle.it/, including Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg (EDH), http://www.uniheidelberg.de/institute/sonst/adw/edh/index.html.en; and Epigraphic Database Roma (EDR), http://www.edr-edr.it/edr_programmi/res_complex_comune.php?lang=eng&ver=simp.

9 Apart from the brief greeting in Rom 16.23, an ‘Erastus’ is also mentioned in two others texts in the NT (Acts 19.22; 2 Tim 4.20), in which most, rightly, assume that we have the same person. Goodrich (‘Erastus of Corinth [Romans 16.23]’, 591 n. 38) lists a host of scholars who agree. For patristic commentary on this individual, see below. The abbreviations used follow the SBL Handbook of Style, supplemented by Horsley, G. H. R. and Lee, J. A. L., ‘A Preliminary Checklist of Abbreviations of Greek Epigraphic Volumes’, Epigraphica 56 (1994) 129-69Google Scholar. For abbreviations not found in these places; AEph = Archaiologike Ephemeris; AM = Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts; Bean–Mitford = George Ewart Bean and Terence Bruce Mitford, Journeys in Rough Cilicia 1964–1968 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Denkschriften [DAW] 102; Ergänzungsbände zu den Tituli Asiae Minoris 3; Vienna: Bohlaus Nachfolger, 1970); Bull. Comm. Arch. Rom. = Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma; Comm. Rom. = Commentarius in epistulam ad Romanos; Ephesos = Donald F. McCabe, Ephesos Inscriptions, Texts and List (The Princeton Project on the Inscriptions of Anatolia, the Institute for Advanced Study; Princeton: Princeton University, 1991); Malay = Hasan Malay, Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the Manisa Museum (Denkschriften; Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 237; Vianna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1994); Not. Sc. = Notizie degli scavi di antichità; PA = J. Kirchner, Prosopographica Attica, vols. 1 & 2 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1901, 1903); PAA = John S. Traill, Persons of Ancient Athens. Vol. 7, ERAGINOS TO EON- (Toronto: Athenians, 1998); Tralles = Donald F. McCabe, Tralles Inscriptions: Texts and List (The Princeton Project on the Inscriptions of Anatolia; The Institute for Advanced Study; Princeton, 1991).

10 Dates correspond with the date of the ‘Erastus’ mentioned, not necessarily the date of the inscription itself. Less certain dates are signaled with a preceding question mark. Some references cannot be dated. In addition to the print corpora themselves and the sources named in n. 8, the following sources have assisted me in making judgments, in some cases leading to a revision of the traditional dating: L'Année épigraphique, Année 1975 (1978) 38-112; Bang, M., ‘Caesaris Servus’, Hermes 54 (1919) 174-86Google Scholar, esp. 176 n. 2; Boulvert, Gérard, Domestique et fonctionnaire sous le Haut-Empire romain: La condition de l'affranchi et de l'esclave du prince (Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon; Franche-Comté: Presses University, 1974) 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hitchman, Richard and Marchand, Fabienne, ‘Two Ephebic Inscriptions: IG II² 1973A and 1973B’, ZPE 148 (2004) 165-76Google Scholar; Kirbihler, François, ‘P. Vedius Rufus, père de P. Vedius Pollio’, ZPE 160 (2007) 261-71Google Scholar; Millar, Fergus, The Emperor in the Roman World, 31 BC–AD 337 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1977; London: Duckworth, 1992) 360Google Scholar; Weaver, P. R. C., ‘The Status Nomenclature of the Imperial Slaves’, CQ NS 14 (1964) 134-9, esp. 135CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Daicoviciu, C. and Protase, D., ‘Un Nouveau Diplôme Militaire de Dacia Porolissensis’, JRS 51 (1961) 63-70, esp. 70Google Scholar; Roxan, M. and Eck, W., ‘A Military Diploma of AD 85 for the Rome Cohorts’, ZPE 96 (1993) 67-74Google Scholar; Chaniotis, A. et al. , eds., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Amsterdam: Gieben, 2005) 15.1575Google Scholar; Eck, Werner and Pangerl, Andreas, ‘Titus Flavius Norbanus, praefectus praetorio Domitians, als Statthalter Rätiens in einemneuen Militärdiplom’, ZPE 163 (2007) 239-51, esp. 243-6Google Scholar; Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 236-45.

11 Though, Plato Ep. 6 is usually regarded as being spurious (LCL, 454-5).

12 IG II² 1973 was once dated to the first century AD as well, but it has now been more accurately dated to the middle of the second. For the new dating, see Hitchman, Richard and Marchand, Fabienne, ‘Two Ephebic Inscriptions: IG II² 1973A and 1973B’, ZPE 148 (2004) 165-76.Google Scholar

13 He too was probably a man of high status, for his son (Δημοκράτης Ἐράστου Βησαιɛύς) is named in the same inscription as an ephebe.

14 Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 236-45.

15 Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 239.

16 On the gymnasium as a school for the ‘budding elite’, with hereditary requirements, and so forth, see, e.g.: Townsend, J. T., ‘Ancient Education in the Time of the Early Roman Empire’, The Catacombs and the Colosseum (ed. Benko, S. and O'Rourke, J. J.; Valley Forge: Judson, 1971) 150Google Scholar; Whitehorne, J., ‘The Ephebate and the Gymnasial Class in Roman Egypt’, Status Declarations in Roman Egypt, vol. 19 (New Haven: The American Society, 1982) 28–30Google Scholar; Kerkeslager, A., ‘Maintaining Jewish Identity in the Greek Gymnasium: A Jewish “Load” in CPJ 3.519’, JSJ 28 (1997) 29Google Scholar; Cribiore, Raffaella, Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2001) 35-6Google Scholar; for a lengthier overview, see the older work by Marrou, Henri, A History of Education in Antiquity (New York: The New American Library, 1956) 103-14Google Scholar; and for a recent overview, Dutch, Robert, The Educated Elite in 1 Corinthians: Education and Community Conflict in Graeco-Roman Context (JSNTSup 271; London: T&T Clark International, 2005) 118-28Google Scholar. Moreover, there would not have been enough posts at Athens to provide berth for every ephebate graduate. At approximately one hundred students per entering class (see the inscriptional evidence in Marrou, Henri, A History of Education in Antiquity [New York: The New American Library, 1956] 384)Google Scholar, even adjusting for mortality, the aggregate number of ephebes and alumni in the city would come to several thousand—obviously far more graduates than there were municipal offices.

17 See, for example, PAA 7:400525 (Ἐράτων advances from ephebe to bouleutes of Athens); 402085 (Ἑρμαῖος Φρɛάρριος advances from ephebe to bouletes of Athens); 401575 (Ἐρέννιος is attested as an ephebe, ephebic archon, gymnasiarch, systremmatarche, and agonothetes of Asklepeia); see also 401480; 422940.

18 The prospect that one of these Erasti might have been the same man as the Corinthian aedile of IKorinthKent 232 would be made possible by any of the following scenarios: (1) the least likely, in the city of Corinth the οἰκονόμος was not a member of the city's decurial board, for membership on the decurial board usually required Roman citizenship, a status which, judging from their names, the men of IG II² 1945 and 1990 did not possess; (2) one of the Athenian men was granted Roman citizenship at a time subsequent to these inscriptions but prior to filling the office of aedile; or (3) one of the two ephebes was distinct from either of the officers of IG II² 1945 or 1990 and in fact possessed Roman citizenship (citizen status cannot be identified for either ephebe on the basis of the extant information), as many Athenian ephebes did (e.g. Publius Aelius Διονύσιος of tribe Aiantis, in Byrne, Sean G., Roman Citizens of Athens [Studia Hellenistica 40; Leuven: Peeters, 2003] 8Google Scholar; Claudius Ἀκυλῖνος of Besa and Claudius Λέων of Besa, in Byrne, Roman Citizens of Athens, 149; passim in Byrne; also PAA 7:401440; 401445; passim).

19 Clarke (‘Another Corinthian Erastus Inscription’, 150), calls it ‘relatively uncommon’, and Meggitt (Paul and Poverty, 140) ‘relatively common’. See also n. 6.

20 The data in the online-LGPN is provisional and is used here only for purposes of demonstration.

21 The name comes from the Greek adjective ἐραστός, meaning ‘beloved’. The Latin ‘Erastus’ is a transliteration.

22 See Mounce, William D., Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993) 17.Google Scholar

23 See Trenchard, Warren C., Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, rev. ed. 1998) 126-36.Google Scholar

24 So says McLean, Bradley Hudson (An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great Down to the Reign of Constantine [323 B.C.–A.D. 337] [Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2002] 128)Google Scholar of the name Ἔραστος; though the OCD (1023) counters that ‘justification for believing in a category of distinctively “slave” names has been undermined by the epigraphical evidence of manumission documents’.

25 Lampe, Peter, Christians at Rome during the First Two Centuries (London: Continuum, 2006) 171.Google Scholar

26 Lampe, Christians at Rome, 171-2.

27 On the equivalency, see Mason, H. J., Greek Terms for Roman Institutions: A Lexicon and Analysis (Toronto: Hakkert, 1974) 91.Google Scholar

28 Though rare, colonial tribunes can also be found in other colonies of the imperial period, as in the nearby colonies of Volsinii in central Italy (CIL I² 2515) and Placentia in Cisalpine Gaul (see Calbi, A., ‘“Decurio a populo”: Proposta per un' inscrizione piacentina’, Epigraphica 43 [1981] 253)Google Scholar; see also Bispham, Edward, From Asculum to Actium: The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus (Oxford: Oxford University, 2007) 492, 494-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29 Goodrich, Paul as an Administrator of God in 1 Corinthians, 50 (emphasis added); p. 75 on private οἰκονόμοι. To Goodrich's evidence we might add also Bean Mitford (1964–68), 105,91, in which the οἰκονόμος τῆς πόλɛως is indicated as owning a house and slaves.

30 See nn. 16-17.

31 See n. 18.

32 Friesen, ‘The Wrong Erastus’, 245-9.