Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 40:1 (NA 1989)
Article: Secular And Christian Responses To Corinthian Famines
Author: Bruce W. Winter

TynBul 40:1 (1989) p. 86

Secular And Christian Responses To Corinthian Famines

Bruce W. Winter

There is a unique set of first century AD inscriptions from Corinth erected to one of its leading citizens, Tiberius Claudius Dinippus.1 They record the high public offices which he held in that city during the formative period of the Christian church there.2 From the extant epigraphic evidence no other first century benefactor in Corinth could have laid claim to the honour bestowed upon Dinippus, for not only the Council but at least ten of the twelve Tribes comprising the administrative divisions of that city, erected similar inscriptions in honour of him.3 What gave rise in that city to this unique, spontaneous display of public honour for this Corinthian benefactor?

The clue may well lie in the fact that Dinippus was three times curator of the grain supply, curator annonae.4 The traditional ascending order of importance of honorary public

TynBul 40:1 (1989) p. 87

offices would normally have placed the Corinthian magistrates below the president of the Games.5 In the inscriptions to Dinippus however curator annonae was placed next to the most prestigous office viz. the President of the Games. In the minds of the Council and the Corinthian Tribes which constituted the administrative districts of Corinth, the alleviation of the city’s needs on three occasions was a matter of enormous importance. Although during the first and second century AD others in Corinth accepted the office of curator annonae, no other person is known to have held it more than once.6 When it was held by Boulargos of Samos three times in the mid-third century BC it indicated a chronic dearth of food.7 As this crucial office was only filled in times of famine, it indicates a series of intermittent grain shortages in Corinth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate (I) famines in the East, especially Corinth, in the early years of the Christian church during the Principates of Claudius and Nero and the reasons for them; (II) the social dislocation caused by famine or fear of famine, and the Christians’ reaction with its possible nexus with ‘the present ἀνάγκη’ of 1 Corinthians 7:26; (III) the Corinthians’ official response to this ...