¹ On the appeal to “equality” in Paul's collection for the poor, see esp. Georgi, Dieter, Remembering the Poor: The History of Paul's Collection for Jerusalem (Nashville: Abingdon, 1992) 80–91 Google Scholar; Vassiliadis, Petros, “The Collection Revisited,” Deltion Biblikon Meleton 11 (1992) 42–48 Google Scholar; Horrell, David, “Paul's Collection: Resources for a Materialist Theology,” Epworth Review 22 (1995) 74–83 Google Scholar; Friesen, Steven J., “Paul and Economics: The Jerusalem Collection as an Alternative to Patronage” in Paul Unbound: Other Perspectives on the Apostle (ed. Given, Mark D.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2010) 27–54 Google Scholar; Ogereau, Julien, “The Jerusalem Collection as κοινωνία: Paul's Global Politics of Socio-Economic Equality and Solidarity,” NTS 58 (2012) 360–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

² So, a number of interpreters and commentators: e.g., Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 87; NRSV: “a fair balance.”

³ Longenecker, Bruce W., Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty and the Greco-Roman World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010)Google Scholar.

⁴ Gustav Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” TDNT 3 (1963) 343–55, at 348.

⁵ G. W. Griffith, “Abounding in Generosity: A Study in Charis in 2 Corinthians 8–9” (PhD diss., University of Durham, 2005) 216; Andreas Lindemann, “Hilfe für die Armen: Die Jerusalem-Kollekte als ‘diakonisches Unternehmen,’” in idem, Glauben, Handeln, Verstehen: Studien zur Auslegung des Neuen Testaments II (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011) 270; Ogereau, “The Jerusalem Collection as κοινωνία,” 365–66.

⁶ As noted by Windisch, Hans, Der zweite Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1924; repr. 1970) 258 Google Scholar; Furnish, Victor Paul, II Corinthians (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984) 407 Google Scholar. The adjective ἴσος is more common in the LXX: e.g., Exod 30:34; Lev 7:10; 2 Macc 9:15. Elsewhere in the NT, ἰσότης is found only in Col 4:1, together with τὸ δίκαιον, in reference to the way in which masters should treat their slaves; cf. Lohse, Eduard, Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary on the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971) 162 Google Scholar.

⁷ For recognition that the background of Paul's use of ἰσότης is Hellenistic, see Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258; Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 345–48; Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 84–91; Betz, Hans Dieter, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9: A Commentary on Two Administrative Letters of the Apostle Paul (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985) 67–68 Google Scholar; Vassiliadis, Petros, “Equality and Justice in Classical Antiquity and in Paul: The Social Implications of the Pauline Collection,” St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 36 (1992) 51–59 Google Scholar.

⁸ The foundational study is that of Hirzel, Rudolf, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rechtsidee bei den Griechen (Leipzig: Teubner, 1907) 228–320, 421–23Google Scholar. See further Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 343–55; Thraede, Klaus, “Gleichheit,” RAC 10 (1979) 122–64Google Scholar.

⁹ Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 239–68; Vlastos, Gregory, “ Isonomia ,” American Journal of Philology 74 (1953) 337–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Isonomia politikē,” in Isonomia: Studien zur Gleichheitsvorstellung im griechischen Denken (ed. J. Mau and E. G. Schmidt; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1964) 1–35; Cartledge, Paul A., “Comparatively Equal,” in Demokratia: A Conversation on Democracies, Ancient and Modern (ed. Ober, J. and Hedrick, C.; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996) 175–85Google Scholar; Kurt A. Raaflaub, “Equalities and Inequalities in Athenian Democracy,” in Demokratia, 139–74; idem, “Perfecting the ‘Political Creature’: Equality and ‘the Political’ in the Evolution of Greek Democracy,” in The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (ed. Johann P. Arnason; Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) 323–50.

¹⁰ This crucial insight is the point of the seminal essay by Jones, A. H. M., “The Athenian Democracy and Its Critics,” originally published in Cambridge Historical Journal 11 (1953) 1–26 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; repr. in idem, Athenian Democracy (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1958) 39–72, esp. 41–42. See further Raaflaub, Kurt A., “Perceptions of Democracy in Fifth-Century Athens,” in Aspects of Athenian Democracy (ed. Connor, W. R.; Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 1990) 33–90 Google Scholar; Ober, Josiah, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

¹¹ Jones, Athenian Democracy, 41; Ober, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens, 32–33.

¹² See the attempt to extract democratic ideas from the writings of the elite by Havelock, Eric A., The Liberal Temper in Greek Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957)Google Scholar; Farrar, Cynthia, The Origins of Democratic Thinking: The Invention of Politics in Classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ober, Josiah explores the arguments that Athenians would have made for democratic equality on the basis of public rhetoric in The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient Greek Democracy and Political Theory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996) 86–106 Google Scholar, 161–87.

¹³ Herodotus 3.80.6, in the speech of Otanes the Persian. See the discussion of the importance of this passage by Cartledge, Paul, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) 71–75 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁴ Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 241–42, 276–80; Harvey, F. D., “Two Kinds of Equality,” Classica et Medievalia 26 (1965) 101–47Google Scholar, esp. 101, 104–10, 126–27; Cartledge, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice, 8–10.

¹⁵ E.g., Plato, Leges, 756E-757E; Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 21–22; idem, Nicocles, 14–16; Aristotle, Pol., 3.5.8, 1280a7–22; 5.1.6-8, 1301b27–1302a8; 6.1.10, 1318a3–8. See the discussion in Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 279–80; Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 107–20. See the comment of Armand Delatte, Essai sur la Politique Pythagoricienne (Liège: H. Vaillant Carmanne, 1922) 106: “Les éloges du système politique basé sur la proportion ou égalité géométrique sont inséparables des polémiques contre la démocratie.”

¹⁶ Philo, Her., 141–206. On the importance ascribed to ἰσότης by Philo, see Emile Bréhier, Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie (Paris: Picard, 1950) 86–90.

¹⁷ Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1–2 (Mor. 719B-C); Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9–11.

¹⁸ Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom. (Mor. 826A-827C).

¹⁹ Ps.-Archytas in Stobaeus, 4.1.137; Ps. Ecphantus in Stobaeus, 4.7.66; Diotogenes in Stobaeus, 4.7.62; Sthenidas in Stobaeus, 4.7.63. The dates assigned to these authors vary widely. Delatte, Louis (Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogène et Sthénidas [Liège: Faculté de philosophie et lettres, 1942] 160)Google Scholar maintains that Ps.-Ecphantus, Diotogenes, and Sthenidas belong to the 2nd cent. CE. Goodenough, E. R. (“The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship,” Yale Classical Studies 1 [1928] 55–102 Google Scholar) regards these authors as Hellenistic (2nd–1st cent. BCE). Burkert, Walter (“Zur geistesgeschichtlichen Einordnung einiger Pseudopythagorica,” in Pseudepigrapha I. Pseudopythagorica—Lettres de Platon [ed. von Fritz, K.; Vandoeuvres: Foundation Hardt, 1972] 23–55 Google Scholar) dates to c. 200 CE. Harvey (“Two Kinds of Equality,” 126 n. 89 and 132–33 n. 116) argues plausibly for a date in the 1st cent. CE for these authors, on the basis of numerous parallels with Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom.

²⁰ Hopkins, Keith, “The Political Economy of the Roman Empire,” in The Dynamics of Ancient Empires (ed. Morris, Ian; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 178–204 Google Scholar; Jongman, Willem M., “A Golden Age: Death, Money Supply and Social Succession in the Roman Empire,” in Credito e moneta nel mundo romano (ed. LoCascio, E.; Bari: Edipuglia, 2003) 181–96Google Scholar; idem, “The Early Roman Empire: Consumption,” in The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World (ed. Walter Scheidel; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) 592–618; Scheidel, Walter and Friesen, Steven J., “The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire,” JRS 99 (2009) 61–91 Google Scholar.

²¹ Hopkins, Keith, “Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400),” JRS 70 (1980) 105–6, 109, 117–20Google Scholar; Jongman, Willem, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Economy: Population, Rents and Entitlement,” in Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies (ed. Bang, P. F.; Bari: Edipuglia, 2006) 237–54Google Scholar, esp. 239–46; Bang, P. F., The Roman Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trades and Markets in a Tributary Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) 86–91 Google Scholar; Scheidel, Walter, “Approaching the Roman Economy,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy (ed. Scheidel, Walter; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) 1–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²³ Frier, B. W., “More is Worse: Some Observations on the Population of the Roman Empire,” in Debating Roman Demography (ed. Scheidel, Walter; Leiden: Brill, 2001) 139–59Google Scholar; Scheidel, Walter, “Demographic and Economic Development in the Ancient Mediterranean World,” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 160 (2004) 743–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁵ Peter Bang, “Predation,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, 197–217, at 212.

²⁶ See the calculations in Duncan-Jones, Richard, The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies (2^nd ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) 4 Google Scholar; Jongman, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Economy,” 247–50.

²⁷ Scheidel and Friesen, “Distribution of Income,” 83.

²⁸ Ibid., 84–85.

²⁹ Scheidel, Walter, “Stratification, Deprivation and Quality of Life,” in Poverty in the Roman World (ed. Atkins, Margaret; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) 40–59 Google Scholar, at 40. See also Harris, William V., “Poverty and Destitution in the Roman Empire,” in Rome's Imperial Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 27–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 33.

³⁰ Ephesus: Acts 19:23–41; Sardis: Apollonius, Ep. 56; Aspendus: Philostratus, Vit. Apol., 1.15; Smyrna: Philostratus, Vit. Soph., 1.25; Rhodes: Aelius Aristides, Or., 24; Tarsus: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 34; Nicaea: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 39; Prusa: Dio Chrysostom, Or., 46, 47, 48; Sparta: IG V.I.44 = SEG XI.486.9–10; SEG XI.501.7.

³¹ Zuiderhoeck, Arjan, “On the Political Sociology of the Imperial Greek City,” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 48 (2008) 417–45Google Scholar, at 442. See also Salmeri, Giovanni, “Dio, Rome, and the Civic Life of Asia Minor,” in Dio Chrysostom: Politics, Letters, and Philosophy (ed. Swain, Simon; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) 53–92 Google Scholar, esp. 73–86.

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³³ E.g., Dio Chrysostom, Or., 34; 43; 50; Aelius Aristides, Or., 24.

³⁴ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 34.23. On whether “linen-workers” was a generic term for the lower classes at Tarsus or an organized guild of laborers, see Ruggini, L. Cracco, “La vita associativa nelle città dell'Oriente Greco: tradizioni locali e influenze romane,” in Assimilation et résistance à la culture gréco-romaine dans le monde ancien (ed. Pippidi, D. M.; Paris and Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1976) 463–91Google Scholar; Jones, C.P., The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978) 80–81, 183–84 n. 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁵ Kasher, Aryeh, The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: The Struggle for Equal Rights (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1985)Google Scholar.

³⁶ Kasher, The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, 280–82, 356–57; ben Zeev, Miriam Pucci, Jewish Rights in the Roman World (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998) 300, 460–67Google Scholar; Gruen, Erich S., Diaspora Jews amidst Greeks and Romans (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002) 71, 74–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁷ Philo, Legat., 350; cf. Kasher, The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, 243–44; Schäfer, Peter, Judeophobia: Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998) 140, 144Google Scholar.

³⁸ PLond. 1912 in Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (ed. Victor A. Tcherikover and Alexander Fuks; vol. 2; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960) 41, 43, n. 153, Col. V, lines 94–95. Cf. Schäfer, Judeophobia, 148–49.

³⁹ Philo, Flacc., 36–38. Cf. Sly, Dorothy I., Philo's Alexandria (London: Routledge, 1996) 90 Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Philo, Her., 141–206. See the discussion of this text by Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 85–87, 138–40.

⁴¹ Philo, Her., 142–43; text and translation in Colson, F. H. and Whitaker, G. H., Philo IV (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968) 353 Google Scholar.

⁴² Philo, Her., 143; the translation modifies Colson and Whitaker, Philo IV, 353, 355.

⁴³ Philo, Her., 145.

⁴⁴ Ibid., 152.

⁴⁵ Ibid., 191. See the discussion of this passage in relation to 2 Cor 8:15 by Barclay, John M. G., “Manna and the Circulation of Grace: A Study of 2 Corinthians 8.1–15,” in The Word Leaps the Gap, (ed. Wagner, J. Ross; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) 409–26Google Scholar, esp. 418.

⁴⁶ Philo, Her., 145.

⁴⁷ Kasher, The Jews in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, 316–18; Barrett, Andrew, Caligula: The Corruption of Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990) 140–91Google Scholar; Schäfer, Judeophobia, 136–44.

⁴⁸ Philo, Her., 161.

⁴⁹ Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1 (Mor. 719B).

⁵⁰ Ibid., 8.2.2 (Mor. 719C).

⁵¹ Ibid., 8.2.3 (Mor. 719D).

⁵² Plutarch's circle of friends included the consular L. Mestrius Florus, Q. Sosius Senecio, and C. Minicius Fundanus. According to the Suda, Plutarch received the ornamenta consularia from Trajan, and was made procurator of imperial estates in Achaia under Hadrian. Cf. Jones, C. P., Plutarch and Rome (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971) 29 Google Scholar; Lamberton, Robert, Plutarch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 12 Google Scholar.

⁵³ Plutarch, An seni, 26 (Mor. 796E).

⁵⁴ See Plato's entertaining account of the inversion of all relationships by democratic “equality” in Rep. 8, 562d–563d.

⁵⁵ Plato, Leges, 6, 757b.

⁵⁶ Plutarch's anxiety about his powerful Roman friends is palpable in an essay such as Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum (Mor. 776A–779C).

⁵⁷ Plutarch, Praec. ger. rei publ., 17 (Mor. 813E).

⁵⁸ Plutarch, Sol., 13.

⁵⁹ Ibid., 14.

⁶⁰ Ibid., 14.

⁶¹ Hirzel, Themis, Dike und Verwandtes, 277–80; Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 104–20.

⁶² Plutarch, Sol., 14.

⁶³ Plutarch, Frat. Amor., 12 (Mor. 484B).

⁶⁴ Isocrates, Areopagiticus, 20–22.

⁶⁵ Fowler, H. N., Plutarch's Moralia X (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969) 303 Google Scholar: “Few scholars now believe that the author is Plutarch, though who the writer was is not known.”

⁶⁶ Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom., 3 (Mor. 827A).

⁶⁷ Ibid., 4 (Mor. 827B); the translation is that of Fowler, Plutarch's Moralia X, 309, 311.

⁶⁸ Ps.-Plutarch, Un. rep. dom., 4 (Mor. 827C).

⁶⁹ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9, quoting Euripides, Phoen., 536–37.

⁷⁰ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.9, citing Euripides, Phoen., 538–40.

⁷¹ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.10.

⁷² Ibid., 17.11.

⁷³ See the arguments for a 1st cent. CE date for these authors in Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 126 n. 89, 132–33 n. 116.

⁷⁴ Goodenough, “The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship,” 52–102; Delatte, Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogéne et Sthenidas, 241–52.

⁷⁵ Ps.-Ecphantus, frag., 4 in Stobaeus 4.7.66. Greek text in Delatte, Les Traités de la Royauté d'Ecphante, Diotogéne et Sthenidas, 35–37. The translation modifies that of Thesleff, Holger, The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period (Åbo: Åbo Akademie, 1965) 83 Google Scholar, 18–84, 8. See also Sthenidas in Stobaeus 4.7.63: the ideal king, like God, is a natural lawgiver, dispensing justice equally to all (νομοθέτας πέφυκε π σιν ἐπίσας).

⁷⁶ Cf. Blumenfeld, Bruno, The Political Paul: Justice, Democracy and Kingship in a Hellenistic Framework (London: T & T Clark, 2003) 191–92Google Scholar, 228–30.

⁷⁷ E.g., Herodotus, 7.150; Lysias, 25.3.

⁷⁸ Aristotle, Pol., 5.5.9, 1306a25.

⁷⁹ Ps.-Archytas, frag., 4 in Stobaeus 4.1.137. The most thorough discussion is that of Armand Delatte, Essai sur la Politique Pythagoricienne (Liège: H. Vaillant-Carmanne, 1922) 71–124; see further, Blumenfeld, The Political Paul, 124–39. The date and authorship of the fragments are in dispute. Goodenough (“The Political Philosophy of Hellenistic Kingship,” 55–102) considers the treatise a work of the 2^nd–1^st cents. BCE by an anonymous author. Sinclair, T. A. (A History of Greek Political Thought [London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951] 293, 301)Google Scholar regards the Ps.-Archytas fragments as imperial productions. Thesleff (The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Perod, 35) attributes the work to an anonymous writer of the late Hellenistic period. Harvey (“Two Kinds of Equality,” 126 n. 89, 133 n. 116) suggests a date in the 1^st cent. CE, on the basis of parallels with Plutarch and Dio Chrysostom; followed by Balch, David, “Neopythagorean Moralists and New Testament Household Codes,” ANRW II.26.1 (1992) 380–411, at 388Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ Stobaeus, 4.1.137 = Thesleff, The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period, 33.30–34.14.

⁸¹ Harvey, “Two Kinds of Equality,” 125; Blumenfeld, The Political Paul, 129–30.

⁸² Zuiderhoek, Arjan, “The Concentration of Wealth and Power,” in The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, Elites and Benefactors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) 53–70 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸³ Zuiderhoek, The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire, 68.

⁸⁴ Philostratus, Vit. Apol., 1.15.

⁸⁵ Ibid., 1.15.

⁸⁶ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 46.2, 12–13, 16; see the discussion of this incident in Jones, The Roman World of Dio Chrysostom, 19–25. See also Or., 47.19 and 48.9 for instances of anger at the bouleutic elite for monopolizing public funds; see Salmeri, “Dio, Rome, and the Civic Life of Asia Minor,” 73.

⁸⁷ Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 43 n. 15, 68.

⁸⁸ On σαρκικοί as “material things” in Rom 15:27, without the negative connotation attached to the term elsewhere in Paul, see Jewett, Robert, Romans: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007) 931 Google Scholar. See the discussion of the relationship between 2 Cor 8:14 and Rom 15:26–27 in Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 259–60; Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 62–67; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 68–69; Downs, David J., The Offering of the Gentiles: Paul's Collection for Jerusalem in its Chronological, Cultural, and Cultic Contexts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008) 131–34Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Weiss, Johannes, Der erste Korintherbrief (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910) 382 Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 77, observing that ἁδρότης is a terminus technicus.

⁹¹ Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief, 36–37; Theissen, Gerd, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983) 70–73 Google Scholar. On the poverty of the majority of the Corinthian Christians, see Friesen, Steven J., “Prospects for a Demography of the Pauline Mission: Corinth among the Churches,” in Urban Religion in Roman Corinth (ed. Schowalter, Daniel N. and Friesen, Steven J.; Harvard Theological Studies 53; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005) 351–70Google Scholar, esp. 367.

⁹² Theissen, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity, 73–75; Meeks, Wayne A., The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983) 57 Google Scholar. On the social status of ἀρχισυνάγωγοι, see Rajak, Tessa and Noy, David, “Archisynagogoi: Office, Title and Social Status in the Greco-Jewish Synagogue,” JRS 83 (1993) 75–93 Google Scholar.

⁹³ Theissen, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity, 55, 89; Meeks, The First Urban Christians, 57, 221 n. 7; Lampe, Peter, “Paul, Patrons and Clients,” in Paul in the Greco-Roman World (ed. Sampley, J. Paul; Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003) 496 Google Scholar, observing that Gaius of Corinth is the only person in early Christianity of whom it is said that he hosted all the believers of a given city in his house as a central meeting place; Friesen, Steven J., “Poverty in Pauline Studies: Beyond the So-called New Consensus,” JSNT 26 (2004) 323–61Google Scholar, at 356, acknowledging that Gaius must have had “a larger house than others, which makes him perhaps the wealthiest person we know of from Paul's assemblies.”

⁹⁴ Welborn, L. L., “Inequality in Roman Corinth: Evidence from Diverse Sources Evaluated by a Neo-Ricardian Model,” in The First Urban Churches 2: Roman Corinth (ed. Harrison, James R. and Welborn, L. L.; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2016) 189–243 Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ Meeks, The First Urban Christians, 68: “the phrase οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες is to be taken absolutely, ‘the have-nots,’ that is the poor.”

⁹⁶ Cf. Friesen, “Poverty in Pauline Studies,” 349.

⁹⁷ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 257.

⁹⁸ Ibid., 258.

⁹⁹ Furnish, Victor Paul, II Corinthians (Garden City: Doubleday, 1984) 408 Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Lietzmann, Hans, An die Korinther I/II (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1949) 137 Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ E.g., the NRSV; Barrett, C. K., The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Haper & Row, 1973) 226 Google Scholar.

¹⁰² Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 257.

¹⁰³ Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 87–88.

¹⁰⁴ E.g., Furnish, II Corinthians, 407–408; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 37, 68.

¹⁰⁵ Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 87. Emphasis in original.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 87.

¹⁰⁷ Lietzmann, An die Korinther I/II, 137.

¹⁰⁸ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258 n.1.

¹⁰⁹ Furnish, II Corinthians, 399, 407; similarly, Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 37, 67.

¹¹⁰ Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 88. Emphasis in original.

¹¹¹ Ibid., 85; similarly, Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 67–68.

¹¹² Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 88.

¹¹³ Ibid., 88.

¹¹⁴ Ibid., 88–89.

¹¹⁵ Ibid., 89.

¹¹⁶ Ibid., 89.

¹¹⁷ E.g., Furnish, II Corinthians, 407

¹¹⁸ Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 226–27.

¹¹⁹ Georgi, Remembering the Poor, 84–85.

¹²⁰ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258; Furnish, II Corinthians, 408; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 68 n. 237.

¹²¹ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 260.

¹²² Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 68.

¹²³ Furnish, II Corinthians, 419.

¹²⁴ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 258–59; Horrell, David G., Solidarity and Difference: A Contemporary Reading of Paul's Ethics (London: T & T Clark, 2005) 239–40Google Scholar.

¹²⁵ E.g., Furnish, II Corinthians, 420; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 69.

¹²⁶ Similarly, Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 227; Horrell, Solidarity and Difference, 240; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 411–13, 419.

¹²⁷ Brooke, Alan E. and McLean, Norman, The Old Testament in Greek, Vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1906) 208 Google Scholar; Wevers, John W., Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis editum II.1: Exodus (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991) 55 Google Scholar.

¹²⁸ Cf. Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 259.

¹²⁹ Philo, Her., 191.

¹³⁰ Similarly, Horrell, Solidarity and Difference, 239–40; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 411–13, 419.

¹³¹ Some commentators infer an endorsement of the principle of proportionality from Paul's sententious observation in 2 Cor 8:12 that a gift is “acceptable according to what one has, not what one does not have” (καθὸ ἐὰν ἔχῃ εὐπρόσδεκτος, οὐ καθὸ οὐκ ἔχει): so, Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 257; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 66. But this realistic acknowledgement of limitations is remote from the philosophers’ theory of proportional equality.

¹³² Trebilco, Paul, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007)Google Scholar; Harrison, James R. and Welborn, L. L., The First Urban Churches 3: Ephesus (Atlanta: SBL Press, forthcoming 2017)Google Scholar.

¹³³ Malherbe, Abraham J., Social Aspects of Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983) 29–59 Google Scholar; Hock, Ronald F., “Paul and Greco-Roman Education,” in Paul in the Greco-Roman World (ed. Sampley, J. Paul; Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2003) 198–227 Google Scholar.

¹³⁴ Rancière, Jacques, Hatred of Democracy (trans. Corcoran, Steve; London: Verso, 2014) 48 Google Scholar; idem, Dis-agreement: Politics and Philosophy (trans. Julie Rose; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999) 1–19.

¹³⁵ Ober, Josiah, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989) 261–66Google Scholar.

¹³⁶ On Jesus's “poverty” in 2 Cor 8:9, see Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 252–53; Betz, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, 62; Barclay, “Manna and the Circulation of Grace,” 420–21.

¹³⁷ It is widely recognized the Phil 2:6–11 is a pre-Pauline hymn: Lohmeyer, Ernst, Kyrios Jesus: Eine Untersuchung zu Phil. 2.5–11 (Heidelberg: Winter, 1961)Google Scholar; Günther Bornkamm, “On Understanding the Christ Hymn: Phil. 2:6–11,” in idem, Early Christian Experience (trans. Paul Hammer; New York: Harper & Row, 1969) 112–22. Likewise, Gal 3:28, with its egalitarian vision of the new identity “in Christ,” has been shown to be a pre-Pauline baptismal formula: see Betz, Hans Dieter, Galatians: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979) 181–85Google Scholar. Thus, Paul develops his argument for equality between Christ believers upon the basis of a deposit of pre-Pauline tradition that was markedly egalitarian.

¹³⁸ Hansen, M. H., “Democracy, Athenian,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (ed. Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony; 4^th ed.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) 435 Google Scholar.

¹³⁹ Demosthenes, Or., 21.112, with the comments of Stählin, “ἴσος, ἰσότης, κτλ.,” 346 n. 19; Vassiliadis, “Equality and Justice in Classical Antiquity and in Paul,” 54. See also Lysias, 12.35.

¹⁴⁰ Aristotle, Pol., 2.4.7, 1266b–1267a; 2.9.8, 1274b9–10.

¹⁴¹ Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, 259; Furnish, II Corinthians, 407–8, 419–20. The account of the sharing of possessions among the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem in Acts 2:44–45 and 4:36–37 does not qualify as a “precedent” to Paul, contra Hengel, Martin, Property and Riches in the Early Church (London: SCM Press, 1974) 31–34 Google Scholar, since Acts dates to the 2nd cent.: see Pervo, Richard I., Acts: A Commentary on the Book of Acts (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009) 88–91 Google Scholar.

¹⁴² Xenophon, Cyr., 8.6.23.

¹⁴³ Plutarch, Lyc., 24.

¹⁴⁴ Philo, Her., 143.

¹⁴⁵ Plutarch, Quaest. conv., 8.2.1–2 (Mor. 719B).

¹⁴⁶ Dio Chrysostom, Or., 17.11.

¹⁴⁷ See esp. Kittredge, Cynthia, “Rethinking Authorship in the Letters of Paul: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza's Model of Pauline Theology,” in Walk in the Ways of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (ed. Matthews, Shelly, Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs, and Johnson-DeBaufre, Melanie; Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2003) 318–33Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁸ See esp. Miller, Anna C., Corinthian Democracy: Democratic Discourse in 1 Corinthians (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015)Google Scholar, who emphasizes the importance of the democratic discourse of the ekklēsia in the Greek cities of the Roman East as an inspiration for early Christian assemblies and for Paul. Miller's findings converge with the thesis argued here. Note esp. Miller's discussion of the place of Jocasta and Euripides's Phoenician Women in the progymnasmata prescribed for school children in the 1st cent. CE.