Raymond L. Cox
[Raymond L. Cox, a frequent contributor to BIBLE AND SPADE, is pastor of the Salem, Oregon Foursquare Church. He has traveled extensively in Bible lands and has written over 1650 articles on biblical and archaeological subjects. In addition, he is the author of four books.]
An inscription somewhat to the east of the stage building of the theater in Corinth makes Romans 16:23 a living reality to the few visitors who search it out. Most Bible scholars express confidence that the Erastus honored by this commemoration in stone is the very man who saluted the first-century Christians at Rome at the end of Paul’s epistle.
How did this pioneer Christian missionary to Corinth get acquainted with the “chamberlain (RSV — treasurer) of the city”? Was Erastus perhaps present at the synagogue services on those first sabbaths when the apostle “reasoned” there, and “persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” concerning the claims of Jesus Christ? (Acts 18:4).
Or did the chamberlain’s contact with Paul commence shortly after the Jewish opposition and blasphemy? The outrage so disgusted Paul that he “shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6).
A Jew named Titius Justus, living next door to Corinth’s synagogue, opened his house to Paul as headquarters. Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, embraced the new faith. Gentiles flocked thither, “and many of the Corinthians hearing believed” (Acts 18:8). Perhaps Erastus was one of them.
But would a high civic official of a Gentile city frequent meetings hosted by Jews — even Christian Jews? Some think not, and assign Erastus’ exposure to the gospel to a dramatic confrontation at Corinth’s “bema” or judgment seat. Perhaps the treasurer was a
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witness to the collapse of the strategy of the unbelieving Jews. Paul’s enemies initiated proceedings against the Apostle (Acts 18:12). They dragged him to the “bema” where the proconsul Gallio represented Rome, as Pilate had represented the empire at the trial of Jesus. Gallio was the brother of the famed philosopher, Seneca. The Jews’ accusation was that, “This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law” (Acts 18:13).
Gallio’s reaction justifies Seneca’s high opinion of him: “No mortal is so pleasant to any one person as Gallio is to everybody” (Natural Questions, iv. a; Preface 11). He gestured the apostle to silence when Paul was about to voice his defense. The proconsul, called the “deputy” in the Authorized Version, threw the Jews’ case out of court. “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters” (Acts 18:15). He ordered Paul’s enemies away from the judgment seat.
Did the ruckus attract Erastus from a nearby office? Did he witness the proceedings and hear the proconsul’s verdict? Did he stand and watch as subsequently some ruffian Greeks beat up Sosthenes, the newly installed ruler of the synagogue? This same Sosthenes was eventually converted, for we find his name mentioned along with Paul’s in the salutation of the first epistle to the Corinthians. Paul calls him a “brother” there (1 Corinthians 1:1).
We can only speculate how Erastus encountered Paul and the gospel, though we can be sure Jesus included the treasurer when he encouraged the apostie, “I have much people in this city” (Acts 18:10) in a vision and commanded him to continue evangelizing in Corinth.
At any rate, the New Testament is not alone in preserving the record of this official’s public service. An inscription carved in stone which once held letters of bronze perpetuates his memory at Corinth to this day.
I had been to the ruins twice without even knowing of this inscription’s existence. Then I happened to read about it in Nagel’s Encyclopedia Guide to Greece. Guides do not take many parties down to the ancient theater which sprawls to the west of the Museum and main excavations. Most visitors do not even hear of the existence of this theater, which dates back to the fourth century before Christ and seated eighteen thousand on stone benches. The guidebook merely reproduced the Latin inscription and identified Erastus with “the person mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans” and noted that it was located “east of the stage building.”
I clambered down the sides of the bowl-like theater. No
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Overview of the ruins of ancient Corinth with the temple of Apollo visible to the left.
reconstruction is evident here, as there is at Epidaurus also in Greece, at Delphi, or at Caesarea in Israel, all three of which are used for modern dramatic productions now. The Corinth theater looks beyond restoration, though its form is clearly evident. I searched all over the area east of the stage, and I found one or two inscriptions, but they were not what I was looking for. Frustration gripped me as I rambled through ruins in the vain quest. Yet the setting made the descent seem worthwhile. Corinth’s agora or market place rises behind the theater on a hill, dominated by one landmark Paul surely saw, the temple of Apollo. The Corinth acropolis, called Acro-Corinth, rises still further to the south. But where was the Erastus inscription?
Back to the museum I hied for better directions than the guidebook offered. “It’s there, you can’t miss it,” a Greek informed. But I had! Finally the man mentioned that my goal was in the floor. I had not been looking there, but rather on the walls and pedestals.
Soon I stared at the words ERASTUS PRO AEDILITATE/S.P. STRAVIT. The bronze had long ago been fished out of the letters by looters, but the inscription still reads clearly: “Erastus, in return for his aedileship, laid the pavement at his own expense.”
But is it the same Erastus Paul mentions?
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The time is right. Archaeological evidence indicates this pavement existed in the middle of the first century A.D. “Chamberlain” is how the A.V. translators rendered the Greek word oikonomos which apparently was used in the New Testament as the equivalent of the Latin aedilis, “the commissioner of public buildings and streets.”
Erastus laid a pavement for the theater at his own expense in return for his public office. The whole structure now lies in ruins. But Erastus received from an itinerant Jewish tentmaker not only fame which endures to this day from the mention of his name in Romans, which the apostle Paul penned from Corinth, but also eternal life which has outlasted his expensive monument! And that benefit didn’t cost him a penny!
Roman aediles in provincial cities like Corinth were men of wealth and influence who were expressly appointed to execute impressive public works at their own expense. But Paul would write to the Corinthians that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Could he possibly have had Erastus’ pavement in mind when he voiced such sentiments? We surely can contrast the pavement’s present plight with Erastus’ invisible spiritual assets which he enjoys to this day in the presence of the Lord in heaven!
The Erastus inscription in the foreground and the Acrocorinth in the background.
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A closeup of the Erastus inscription.
So when Paul wrote the Romans from Corinth he communicated Erastus’ greeting to believers in the empire’s capital: “Erastus the treasurer of the city salutes you” (Romans 16:23). And possibly Erastus furnished one reason why the apostle would write the Corinthians in the terms he used in 1 Corinthians 1:26. Paul did not proclaim, “Not any wise men, not any mighty, not any noble, are called.” Erastus would leap to his readers’ minds at once as a contradicting exception. Instead the apostle announced, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” There is a world of difference between “not any” and “not many.” The former would have excluded Erastus from the possibility of divine calling. The latter excludes no one. It simply stated a fact. The city fathers of Corinth did not follow their colleague Erastus into the church. But that didn’t discourage Erastus from continuing in his new found faith! In fact, he became one of Paul’s co-laborers, traveling to Macedonia to minister in the name of Christ (Acts 19:22).
Since Paul’s epistles have burst the bounds of their original addresses and extend to instruct, encourage, inform, and benefit us, is it not possible that Erastus’ salute to the Romans reaches us too? What a day that will be when the church visible joins the church invisible in the world to come and we can return the salute!
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