Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:1 (NA 2001)
Article: Corinth In The First Century AD: The Search For Another Class
Author: Dirk Jongkind

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TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 139

Corinth In The First Century AD:
The Search For Another Class

Dirk Jongkind

Summary

A consideration of living spaces in ancient Corinth suggests that it is not possible to characterise its society as one made up merely of a very small number of élite alongside vast numbers of non-élite who were extremely poor. The variety of housing suggests the existence of another class.

Introduction

The city of Corinth had a glorious Hellenic past before its destruction by the Romans in 146 bc. Yet when it was refounded in 44 bc, it was not rebuilt as a Greek city, but as a Roman colony. Due to its economically strategic position near the Isthmus, the city prospered under Roman emperors. The apostle Paul wrote letters to the church of this city. According to some scholars (Theissen, Judge, Meeks), class-distinctions and social tensions within the church played a major role in the background against which Paul wrote. Though it is admitted that the Corinthians, like others, had ‘the poor always with them’, it is also argued from primary evidence that a portion of the Corinthian church belonged to the upper class.

This view has recently received heavy criticism from Justin Meggitt, who in his comprehensive and lucid study Paul, Poverty, and Survival divides Roman society into essentially two groups: the élite and non-élite. The latter led a life just above starvation level: ‘In their experience of housing, as well as in their access to food and clothing, the Greco-Roman non-élite suffered a subsistence or near subsistence life.’1 According to Meggitt, this non-élite group

TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 140

comprised more than 99% of the Graeco-Roman society.2 It is proposed to examine to what extent Meggitt’s dichotomous classification of Roman society is justified when we look at the archaeological evidence of domestic space.3 Because the Corinthian correspondence is central both to those who defend and to those who reject the presence of the non-poor in the church, it is important to take a closer look at the setting by scanning the remaining archaeological evidence in Corinth.4

The Roman character of Corinth gives ample opportunity to compare it with other Roman cities such as Pompeii. That city provides a rich source for archaeological parallels to first-century Corinth because not only is it Roman, as Corinth essentially was, but it is more or less completely preserved. The actual buildings in Corinth are badly preserved: subse...

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