''When You Were Gentiles'': Specters of Ethnicity in Roman Corinth and Paul's Corinthian Correspondence
''When You Were Gentiles'': Specters of Ethnicity in Roman Corinth and Paul's Corinthian Correspondence
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| ISBN-13: | 9780300209594 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Yale University Press |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 6 MB |
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"When You Were Gentiles"
Specters of Ethnicity in Roman Corinth and Paul's Corinthian Correspondence
By Cavan W. Concannon
Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 2014 Yale UniversityAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-300-20959-4
CHAPTER 1
Becoming All Things
Paul and the Rhetoric of Ethnic Malleability
In this way, I think that the political man is by necessity of many figures and many forms.
—Philo, On Joseph 34
Because he is not anything in himself, man can only be if he acts as if he were different from what he is (or what he is not).
—Giorgio Agamben, The Time That Remains
FIGURING THE POLITICAL MAN
Writing as one who had done his fair share of "politicking" in the sometimes violent ethnic politics of the first century, Philo suggests that the political life was one that necessitated a polymorphic self, an ability to be many things for the sake of safeguarding one's political community. Likening the politician to a steersman and a physician (On Joseph 33), Philo sees the good politician as both a leader and a polymorphous mirror image of the political system (politeia) itself: "for a political system is many-colored and multiform" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [On Joseph 32]). Though directed by a stable internal self, by which he guides the ship of state and cures the sick, the politician must also appear polymorphous, acting in that impossible space that Agamben conjures between what one is and what one is not.
Speaking to the assembly ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in Corinth, Paul similarly presents himself as an ethnically polymorphous politician. Having "enslaved himself for all" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [1 Cor 9:19]), Paul trains his body so that he can "become all things to all people" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [9:22]). Paul has trained his body like an athlete and punished it (9:24–27), so that he might develop a self that can become as a Judean, as one outside the law, as a Gentile under the curse of the law (as in Gal 3:23; 4:5, 21; 5:18), and as the weak (9:20–22) Paul has trained himself to cross boundaries, to "become all things to all people" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [9:22]), and he expects praise from his Corinthian audience for what he has accomplished. As we will see, Paul's polymorphous body is put to use in the politics of the Corinthian assembly.
In this sense Paul was like the orator Favorinus, who deployed his own ethnically malleable self before an audience of Corinthians. Facing a dispute with the Corinthians over the destruction of his statue, Favorinus presents himself as an ethnic mimic, who, though a Roman equestrian from Gaul, not only seems but actually is Greek. Favorinus's ethnically polymorphous body is made to parallel the Corinthians themselves, who are cast as Romans that have "hellenized." Favorinus's self-construction emphasizes education (paideia) and ethnic mimicry as attributes that should be praised by his Corinthian audience and acts as a defense of Favorinus himself as an arbiter of "true" Hellenism. Favorinus sets this self-construction against his Corinthian audience, suggesting that they only seem to be Greek and are really uncultured Roman rubes, unable to properly appreciate and understand Greek culture and education.
In comparing Paul's and Favorinus's bodies, I do so alongside Elizabeth Castelli's notion of "body power." Castelli, following Foucault, has argued that the human body often functions "not simply as a (social or religious) symbol but rather as the site upon which competing discourses are played out. Furthermore, the body itself is seen, not as a blank slate upon which social meanings are inscribed, but as a changing and transitory articulator of multiple (sometimes conflicting and contradictory) identities, discourses, and meanings." By looking in particular at these ethnically polymorphous bodies, we can see how various modes of discourse regarding change, adaptation, and negotiation of the self and the body could be used by those speaking to or about Corinthians. In their bodily constructions, Paul sought to influence Corinthian audiences and defend his authority by prominently displaying his body as able to negotiate multiple ethnic and cultural identities, whereas Favorinus presents his body as a model of Greekness through training and education. When we place these two bodily self-constructions alongside each other, Paul emerges as one among many in Corinth concerned with negotiating identity between and among multiple ethnicities. In the next chapter we will see how some of the Corinthian elite also found ways to negotiate their identities between and among ethnicities. Through this comparison, we can see Paul as he was to his Corinthian audiences: one among many in Corinth who made use of his body as a site of debate over ethnicity and identity.
ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE
In his testy correspondence with an audience of Corinthians, Paul lifts up his ethnically malleable body as an object deserving of praise:
For being free from all things, I enslaved myself to all, so that I might win more. And I became as a Judean to the Judeans, so that I might gain Judeans; as a Gentile under the curse of the Law to those under the Law (not being myself under the Law), so that I might gain those under the Law; as one outside the Law to those outside the Law (not being outside the Law of God, but in the Law of Christ), so that I might win those outside the Law. I have become weak to the weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all means I might save some. I do all this because of the gospel, so that I might become a partner in it. (1 Cor 9:19–23)
The malleable body that Paul presents to the Corinthians in this passage has offered a number of puzzling ambiguities that scholars have tried to unravel. I cannot resolve all of them here, nor does it seem to me that resolution is the most important task of the biblical scholar, but I will dwell briefly on several of the places in this passage that I take to be important for thinking about perceptions of Paul's ethnic identity among the Corinthians.
First, what does it mean for Paul to claim that he has "become as a Judean/ Ioudaios"? This claim has confused many interpreters, since it seems fairly clear that Paul was a Ioudaios. Some have suggested that Paul can become a Ioudaios because he has already ceased to be one. Having "converted" from Judaism, Paul is now a Christian, a status that has erased his former life in Judaism. This allows him to act as ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) a Ioudaios without actually being one. Though this has perhaps been the dominant way in which this claim has been interpreted in Christian theology, I do not think that Paul has converted to anything like a Christianity as we know it; rather, I would say that Paul has located his calling as an apostle to the Gentiles within the purposes of the God of Israel. It is clear that Paul still thinks of himself as an Israelite (2 Cor 12:2; Rom 11:1) and that he regards the Judeans as his own people (Rom 9:3). Paul does not convert to "Christianity" but remains a Ioudaios who sees himself as one prophetically called to the Gentiles.
A better way of framing this question would be to think outside categories of religious conversion for how ethnicity itself is often malleable and flexible. That Paul has "become as" a Ioudaios suggests that he has developed a flexibility with regard to his own ethnic identity. Paul never says that he has given up his identity as a Ioudaios, but that he has reconfigured that identity in light of his voluntary enslavement to the law of Christ. Later in the Corinthian correspondence Paul will refer to himself in a layered fashion as a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a descendant (seed) of Abraham (2 Cor 12:2), showing that he can inflect his ethnic identity through recourse to various other sub-identities or genealogical markers. As a Ioudaios to the Ioudaioi, Paul is signaling that he has a flexible sense of his own identity that he deploys in different contexts.
Careful readers will also note that I have offered an unusual rendering of Paul's claim to have become as those "under the law" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). The identity of those represented by this phrase has been contested by scholars. Most think that those under the law are also Ioudaioi but viewed from a different perspective. In contrast to this position, I think it is more likely that Paul is here referring to Gentiles who had tried to follow the demands of the Mosaic law. In Jewish texts of the period, being [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is not generally used to describe the relationship between Ioudaioi and the law. If the phrase is not one that would apply to Ioudaioi, it may fit better as a description of a particular kind of Gentile: those who have sought to keep the law but have failed because of the limitations of their passions and lack of self-mastery as Gentiles. Paul has encountered Gentiles who have put themselves under the authority of the law in other contexts, notably the situation that gave rise to the writing of Galatians. There Paul asks his Gentile audience whether they really want to place themselves under the law ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]; [4:21]). The upshot of the question is that for Gentiles who allow themselves to be circumcised, placing themselves under the law like the Ioudaioi, Christ will be of no benefit to them (5:2). Those who place themselves under the law are required to obey it completely, cutting themselves off from Christ, who is the only path by which Gentiles can be grafted onto Israel (5:3–4). In the context of 1 Cor 9:19–23, Paul is envisioning Gentiles who, like some of those in Galatia, sought to place themselves under the law as a means of entering into Israel. Having failed, by virtue of the fact that they are Gentiles, they are now under the law's curse.
A final ambiguity that I want to dwell on is that of those who are "outside" the law, as I have rendered the term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Those who are [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] pose a similarly difficult problem to those [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. Is this a question of geography or morality? Are those who are [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] outside of the law or are they immoral? I am inclined to read this as a question of geography: Gentiles who remain idolators and have not attempted to place themselves under the authority of the law of Israel's God. This reading has a twofold benefit. On the one hand, when it is taken in combination with the preceding two categories (Ioudaioi and those [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), the three categories cover the three types of people with whom Paul has associated. From his letters we know that he has worked with Ioudaioi, Gentiles seeking to place themselves under the authority of the Mosaic law (Galatians and Romans), and Gentiles not connected with the law. Thus, this tripartite division of humanity corresponds to the scope of the Pauline mission as Paul has described it.
On the other hand, this reading also makes it easier to imagine how Paul might have "become as" these persons. Were Paul referring to "immoral" people, it would be difficult to imagine how exactly Paul "became as" them. Did he adopt immoral practices? Partake in idolatrous rites? It is more likely that this term stands in for those outside the law, namely Gentiles. What exactly it means for Paul to "become as" a Gentile outside the law is an open question that I will not try to resolve here. We can imagine that Paul's audience in Corinth, themselves former Gentiles (1 Cor 12:2), would have their own experiences to draw on when interpreting Paul's claim. What we can see in this passage is a kind of symbolic universalism, wherein the whole spectrum of humanity, as Paul has experienced it through his preaching, is included among those who can be addressed by Paul's ethnically malleable body.
This enigmatic passage has often been treated by scholars as a window onto Paul's "missionary strategy," a phrase that perhaps fits better in the context of modern missionary society meetings than in the ad hoc and often haphazard conditions that attended Paul's journeys in the eastern Mediterranean. More to the point, interpretations of this passage often take for granted that here we get a window onto Paul's psychology or the intentions behind his clearly thought-out "strategy." This is what Paul really thought he was doing when he traveled the world converting Gentiles to Christianity. Rather than speculate on whether this passage gives us such privileged access to the inner workings of Paul's missionary strategy, what I want to focus on here is the work such a self-presentation does for Paul. How does presenting himself as the possessor of an ethnically malleable self work in Paul's argument before a Corinthian audience?
Placing Paul's Malleable Body
Paul's self-presentation as one who can be all things to all people (9:19–27) comes within the larger argument of 1 Cor 8:1–11:1, which deals with the question of food sacrificed to idols. Paul's argument is focused on ending what seems to have become a common practice in the Corinthian community of consuming food that was in some way related to traditional cultic practice (10:5–13, 22). Paul considers this behavior idolatry and deploys a number of arguments to persuade the Corinthians to change their behavior. Though we will explore the arguments of 1 Cor 10:1–13 in chapter 4, here I will focus on the interrelated issues addressed in 1 Corinthians 8 and 9, in which Paul parallels an argument about the conscience of a "weak" sibling with his own personal example of renunciation and adaptation in the service of bringing others to the gospel. By looking at 9:19–27 in this larger context, we can see how Paul presents his ethnically malleable self to his Corinthian audience as an example worthy of praise and obedience.
Paul's first line of attack on Corinthian "idolatry" involves the creation of a hypothetical "weak" sibling ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), whose conscience would be scandalized by seeing another sibling eating food sacrificed to the gods. It is for the sake of this sibling that the Corinthians ought to renounce their authority to eat food in such a way (8:1–13). From Paul's perspective, the Corinthians should abstain from practices that Paul has deemed idolatrous to protect the conscience of such a weak sibling. In chapter 9 Paul offers himself as an example of a form of renunciation parallel to that of the Corinthians: he has renounced his own apostolic rights in the service of the gospel (9:1–18), and he pursues a pedagogical strategy (becoming "all things to all people") that seeks to "please" and not give offense (9:19–27)
The argument of the chapter turns on the surprising twist of the audience's expectations. Paul builds up the authority that ought to accrue to a free apostle (food and drink, having a sister as a wife, and getting paid for one's work [9:4–6]), and then he abruptly renounces them, or at least claims that he has not made use of them (9:15). The ultimate purpose of Paul's renunciation has been to deliver the gospel free of charge ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.] [9:18]). To present the gospel free of charge is Paul's wage ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII.]), which he will receive because he has chosen not to make full use of his authority (9:18). Though he begins by arguing that he deserves a wage from the Corinthians, Paul quickly renounces his "rights" to a wage.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from "When You Were Gentiles" by Cavan W. Concannon. Copyright © 2014 Yale University. Excerpted by permission of Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Contents
List of Illustrations, ix,Preface, xi,
List of Abbreviations, xvii,
Introduction: Of Ghosts and Specters: The Reception of Paul's Rhetoric of Ethnicity in Corinth, 1,
PART 1 CORINTH AND CORINTHIANS BETWEEN GREECE AND ROME, 23,
1 Becoming All Things: Paul and the Rhetoric of Ethnic Malleability, 27,
2 Marketplaces, Merchant Ships, and Festivals: Negotiating Identities in Corinth, 47,
3 Speech, Flattery, and the Negotiation of Identity for "Some" Corinthians, 75,
PART 2 CORINTH AND CORINTHIANS BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT, 91,
4 Walking in the Wilderness: Israelite Ancestors in the Corinthian Correspondence, 97,
5 "In the City of Peirene": Claiming, Erasing, and Challenging the Past in Corinth, 117,
6 Usable Pasts in the Corinthian Wilderness: Spirits, Specters, and Negotiations of Identity at the Crossroads, 142,
Conclusion: Haunted Futures, 171,
Notes, 177,
Bibliography, 275,
Index, 297,