The Lecture Hall of Titius Justus
Cartimandua's initiation was a strange affair. I felt more than a little jealous when I saw her wading naked into the water with Silas but I have to admit that nothing improper was done. These Christian initiations were very different to what went on in some of our Greek ones. As soon as she was back on the shore, Priscilla hurried forward and helped her dry herself and put on her chiton again. Athenodorus was there with his freedman and was the first to go forward and welcome her with a kiss.
The odd thing was that she came out of the water crying and carried on crying even when Paul laid his hands on her head. Just like a woman, I thought, with mounting irritation and as soon as possible on the way back to the weavers' hut I came close to her and hissed at her to be quiet and stop crying.She threw her arms about my neck and pressed her body close to mine, smiling and crying at the same time.
"I can't, my lord."
"Why not?" I snapped.
"Because I am happy. Now I am free!"
I looked at her very sharply, but she kept close to me as a slave girl should and even seemed a shade more attentive than before, if such a thing were possible. I certainly found nothing to complain of in Paul's last words to her. Just as we were leaving after the bread and wine he drew us both to one side.
"Daughter, your body does not belong to you alone. It belongs to this young man and likewise," he put his hand on my shoulder, "remember, Arxes, this girl has rights in your body. Do not deprive each other of what is due unless, for a short time, you wish to follow some religious duty."
"No, sir," I replied, though my mind was racing trying to work out what he meant by saying that Cartimandua had rights in my body. She was a slave: slaves don't have rights237.
"Guess what?" I boasted to my friends on the way to class the following day. "My girl is now a Christian."
Lucias opened his eyes wide. "You let her be initiated?" he laughed. "You let her believe in the resurrection of a crucified criminal?"
"The Christos is not a criminal!" I told him. "Those who killed him are the criminals."
"What do you think?" Lucias turned to Alexander. "You may be a Jew but it seems to me that even you have more sense than this Greek."
Alexander looked troubled. "I don't know, Lucias. The Christos Paul preaches fulfils all the prophecies of our Scriptures. To be honest, I think my whole family would accept Him except that the leaders of the synagogue have declared that any who do so will be thrown out."
"Is that serious?" Lucias wanted to know.
"Oh yes." Alexander nodded vigorously. "We would not be allowed to worship there any more, no other Jew would speak to us or do business with us, and if we should die we would not be permitted burial in the Jewish cemetery and the Jews would stone238 our coffins as we passed."
"And yet they allow Paul to preach in the synagogue." Lucias observed.
Alexander shook his head. "Not any more. There was almost a riot yesterday when Paul was speaking to some of the men and he went off, declaring that from now on he was going to preach only to the gentiles. That was like pouring oil on a fire! The elders of the synagogue met last night and declared that he is an outcast and will not be welcomed in the synagogue again."
"Sir! Sir!" Lucias raised his hand as soon as Athenodorus came into the room to begin the class. "Arxes let his slave girl become a Christian. She believes in the resurrection of the body."
The loud guffaws from the Blues died away at the look on Athenodorus' face.
"I congratulate him, Lord Lucias. I am myself a Christian. I was initiated into the mystery of the Christos a couple of nights back. Now, let us review what we have learned about the sense organs and seeing as you are so eager to speak up, Lord Lucias, you can tell us what you know about the hearing organ."
Athenodorus referred to Paul again when he lectured us on ethics.
"Paul, the man who has brought the news of the Christos to our city, is a true philosopher. I have heard him say that he has learned to be content no matter what his circumstances. This, as Socrates tells us, is true wisdom and the path to true happiness239. Those who, without self-discipline, live in luxury and ease, are like athletes who neglect to train their bodies. When the time comes for the competition - that is, when difficult times come - they fail and are put to shame."
"I still can't believe it," Lucias was speaking after the day's lessons were over. "Old Athenodorus becoming a Christian! What about science? What about philosophy?"
"What about hope?" I challenged him. "He said that hope was what he wanted and what the other gods and mysteries couldn't give him240 ."
"I heard," Lucius lowered his voice, "I heard that Christians pledge to be loyal to each other, then they bind with themselves with impious oaths and take part in Thyestian feasts241."
"Rubbish!" I scoffed. "It's only bread that represents the dead body of the Christos."
"I wonder if Paul knows about the decision of the synagogue elders?" Alexander interrupted. "Do you think we ought to go and tell him? It would be terrible if he just turned up on Sabbath and there was a riot or something."
I nodded. "I agree. Let's go."
We handed our tablets and stylii to our pedagogues and set off towards the Lecheae Road. Under the awning Priscilla and Aquila were hard at work, but there was no sign of Paul and his companions. Priscilla looked up as we approached, though her hands never stopped spinning, and laughed merrily at our enquiry.
"Sorry, Paul's not here. This morning a committee of long-faced rabbis came to tell him that he wasn't welcome in the synagogue any more, so he's gone to look for somewhere else where he can lecture. Silas and Timothy are off hunting as well. Do you want to wait?"
I glanced at Lucias and Alexander and by unspoken consent we all sat down on the ground. Lucias turned to our hostess.
"Lady, how did you and your husband come to be Christians?"
To our surprise Priscilla replied in Latin, though she stopped and laughed at our startled faces.
"I don't have the gift of languages, not like Paul does. I come from Rome, remember? Latin is my mother tongue. We two Romans may talk our language without discourtesy, for I think you all understand it."
Alexander and I hastened to assure her that we could speak Latin as well and then listened in silence to her story of how a pilgrim returning from the great feast of Passover at Jerusalem had brought back the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus, provoking great debate among the Jews of Rome. Priscilla and her husband had gathered every scrap of news they could, diligently searching the Jewish Scriptures to discover first whether this Jesus could be the Messiah and then whether He was the Messiah.
"We were not the first, small praise to us," Priscilla's soft voice rose above the noise of the passing traffic, "but neither were we the last. A man from Ostia, who had accepted the Christos in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, came to the synagogue and he persuaded us that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the One, and so at last my husband and I were baptised."
"And many Jews with us," Aquila added, leaning back from his loom and flexing his fingers. "And after them, the gentiles; for we could not keep this good news to ourselves. I told all my customers, Priscilla told all her lady friends and before long we had quite a large group meeting every week to worship the Christos."
Lucias frowned slightly. "Are you from Rome, sir? What is your gens242 ?"
Aquila grinned. "My accent again. No, actually I'm from Pontus243 . I'm the younger son of a merchant. My father sent me to Italy to look after the Roman branch of our business and I've managed to build it up. I've also got contracts with other merchants from from back home, so I'm tolerably well off."
"We were," Priscilla interrupted. "Goodness knows what's happening back there now."
Aquila frowned. "Yes, there's no denying that Caesar's decree has been a nuisence, but I've got a good foreman - he's from Pontus as well and knows that I'll free him one of these days - so I hope that the business is carrying on as usual."
"So why are you doing this?" Lucias gestured at the loom and Priscilla's spindle.
"Because we're Jews," Aquila answered. "Every young Jew has to learn a craft by which he can support himself if anything goes wrong244 . I chose sail-making because it fitted in with our merchant business, and because you can do it anywhere. If people don't want sails they want tents, if they don't want tents they want sails. I have no business to do here in Corinth, but rather than sit around idle I work at the loom."
Lucias seemed about to ask more questions but he was interrupted by the arrival of Paul and Silas.
"How did you get on?" Aquila asked when we had exchanged greetings.
"I've found a place," Paul sounded cheerful. "Or rather, Silas found it for me. It's the lecture hall of Titius Justus, quite big enough for our needs and not too expensive."
"Titius Justus?" I exclaimed. "But that's right next to the synagogue!"
"Yes." Paul's grin widened till it covered his face. "I didn't plan it that way, but it may yet prove significant. Not all those who attend the synagogue are opposed to our message. Titius Justus, for example, is a God-fearer245 and Crispus has been asking some interesting questions lately."
"Crispus?" Alexander sounded surprised. "Do you mean the synagoge ruler?"
Paul nodded. "Yes, but don't say anything to anyone yet. We don't want to embarrass the man."
"What will you do in the lecture hall, sir?" I asked Paul.
"I think I shall set myself up as a philosopher," Paul joked. "Much more convincing, don't you think, to give proper lectures in a proper hall rather than have people come and listen to a weaver?"
"Don't you listen to him," Priscilla smiled. "Even philosophers have to eat and unless you start charging for your lectures246 , you'll still need to earn your daily bread at your loom."
"He may," Silas broke in, "but not immediately. The Christians in Berea and Thessalonika sent a most generous gift, enough to pay the rent on the hall and some left over for food - if we're careful - for at least six months."
"Isn't God good?" Paul exclaimed. "Now I can really start to work as I should. My first lecture will be on Sabbath - and it will be interesting to see where Crispus goes."
"Hmmm," my father said when I mentioned the news during dinner, "Unfortunately I have some important business that day, otherwise I'd come and hear him."
"I want to hear Paul again," my mother spoke up. "If you are going, Arxes, I'll come with you."
"May I come too, lord?" Cartimandua asked me as we made ready for bed in my room.
"You have to," I told her. "You're a Christian."
I wonder if I would have been so ready to grant permission if I had known what Paul was going to say.
237 As if to prove the point, Plutarch, in his essay How to Distinguish a Flatterer from a Friend, tells the story of how "My teacher Ammonius once found out during an afternoon lecture that some of his pupils had eaten a variety of dishes at midday: he told his freedman to whip his slave and adduced as a reason his inability to eat without also drinking. And he simultaneously looked at us, so that the reprimand went home to those who deserved it." While I am glad that the pupils' greed was rebuked, it seems a trifle hard on Ammonius' slave! Return
238 In the tractate Berakoth the Babylonian Talmud discusses several people who were excommunicated for insulting the rabbis. When an unnamed scholar declared that those who opposed him were no better than proselytes, "they thereupon excommunicated him and he died in excommunication and the Beth Din stoned his coffin." In another case "Eleazar ben Hanoch raised doubts about washing the hands and when he died the Beth Din sent and had a large stone placed on his coffin, to teach you that if a man is excommunicated and dies in his excommunication, the Beth Din stone his coffin." Return
239 In his Memoirs of Socrates, Xenophon records the following statement made by the great philosopher to a rival who mocked his poverty. "It seems to me, Antiphon, that you identify happiness with luxury and extravagance; but I have always thought that to need nothing is divine and to need as little as possible is the nearest approach to the divine." (p. 96) Return
240 This is, perhaps, best seen in the numerous tombstone inscriptions that have come down to us. They reveal clearly that pagans had no hope of a personal existence after death and if death was not itself the end, then what followed was so dreary and colourless that annihilation was almost to be preferred. In his book Pagans and Christians Robin Lane Fox quotes some of these epitaphs. Gemellus the actor says, "I have spoken in many theatres, I have travelled far and wide, and now I have paid my debt and gone my way. All this is simply dust." Prinnas the gladiator says, "I did not exist, I knew nothing. I was born. I exist no more, I know nothing: this does not bother me." (p. 537)
It was the mystery religions that offered this hope: Plutarch, in his essay In Consolation to his Wife tells her, "Then there is that other idea you've come across, which is commonly accepted, that it is quite impossible for anything to harm or distress something which has been dissolved. But I know that both the doctrine we've inherited from our ancestors and the maxims of the Dionysian Mysteries (which those of us who are in the group are privy to) prevent you believing this idea. So, since the soul cannot be destroyed . . ." (p. 373) Return
241 Plutarch, in his Fall of the Roman Republic describes the start of the Catiline conspiracy. "They had as their leader Lucius Catiline, a bold and versatile character and one who was ready for anything. he was guilty of many serious crimes and had once been accused of taking the virginity of his own daughter and of killing his own brother. . . . This, then, was the man whom these scoundrels took as their leader and they gave pledges of faith to each other which included the sacrificing of a man and the tasting of his flesh." (p. 321) It would be all too easy for rumour to put an over-literal interpretation on the words "This is My body" and believe that the Christians were doing likewise. Return
242 Roman citizens were divided into gens or families, theoretically based on the families of the original inhabitants of the city. New comers allied themselves to one or another of the original gens, placing themselves under their protection and supporting them in their political ambitions. Athenian society was organised in a similar way, with all the freeborn citizens divided among tribes. Originally there were ten tribes but by the time of Paul this had been increased to twelve and later to thirteen. Return
243 The area of Asia Minor along the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea. Jews from Pontus were among those in Peter's audience on the day of Pentecost. Return
244 The Babylonian Talmud, tractate Kiddushin lays down, "'To teach him a craft.' Whence do we know it? Said Hezekiah, Scripture saith, 'See to a livelihood with the wife whom thou lovest.' If 'wife' is literal, this teaches that just as the father is bound to take a wife for him, so is he bound to teach him a craft for a livelihood; if it is a metaphor for Torah, then just as he is bound to teach him Torah, so is he bound to teach him a craft. Rabbi Judah said, He who does not teach him a craft teaches him brigandage." With a fine aversion to hard work, however, tractate Berakoth, observes, "A man should always teach his son a clean and not laborious trade. What, for example? Rabbi Hisda said, 'Needle-stitching'." A note interprets that phrase to refer to agriculture, but something like weaving or tailoring would, perhaps, fit more closely. Return
245 This term referred to men or women who were interested in the Jewish religion and observed many of its practices, but who could not bring themselves to become full proselytes. More men than women lingered at this stage, because of the requirement of circumcision. Christianity, which did not require circumcision or separation from gentile society, but held to the same moral laws, was immediately attractive to these people.
Another reason why many people hesitated to become proselytes was the fact that the Jewish attitude towards them was ambivalent, to say the least. Tractate Kiddushin of the Babylonian Talmud, which deals with marriage laws, declares: "Rabbi Abin ben Rabbi Addad said in Rab's name, Whoever takes a wife who is not fit for him, when the Holy One, blessed be He, causes His divine Presence to rest on Israel, He testifies concerning all the tribes that they are His people, but does not testify unto him, for it is said, 'The tribes of the Lord are a testimony unto Israel.' When are they 'a testimony unto Israel'? When the tribes are 'tribes of the Lord'. Rabbi Hama ben Rabbi Hanina said, When the Holy One, blessed be He, causes His divine Presence to rest, it is only upon families of pure birth in Israel, for it is said, 'At that time saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel' - not unto all Israel, but unto 'all the families of Israel' is said - 'and they shall be My people'. Rabbah son of Rabbi Huna said, This is the extra advantage which Israel possesses over proselytes, for in respect to Israel it is written, 'and I will be their God and they shall be my people,' whereas of proselytes it is written, 'for who is he that hath boldness to approach unto Me? saith the Lord. And ye shall be My people.'
"Rabbi Helbo said, Proselytes are as injurious to Israel as a scab, for it is said, 'And the stranger shall join himself with them and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.' Here it is written 'shall cleave' whilst elsewhere it is written: 'This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy and for a rising or for a scab.'" (This depends on a rather tenuous pun between the Hebrew for 'cleave' and for 'scab'.)
If it was possible, in any way, to take advantage of a proselyte, no Jew would hesitate. The same tractate records "Rabbi Judah the Indian was a proselyte who had no heirs. He fell sick and Mar Zutra went and paid him a sick visit. Seeing him on the point of death, he said to Rabbi Judah's slave, 'Remove my shoes and take them to my house.'" As, at the moment of Rabbi Judah's death, the slave was in the service of Mar Zutra, that worthy successfully claimed that the slave was his. Return
246 The philosophers, known as sophists, commonly charged fees for their lectures or for private tutoring. Xenophon, in his Memoirs of Socrates, remarks on the unusual fact that Socrates didn't and records his put-down of a rival philosopher. "In our society, Antiphon, the same rules with regard to what is creditable and what is not are thought to apply equally to the disposal of physical attractions and of wisdom. A man who sells his favours for a price to anyone who wants them is called a catamite; but if anyone forms a love attachment with someone whom he knows to be truly good, we regard him as perfectly respectable. In just the same way, those who sell wisdom at a price to anyone who wants it are called sophists; but if anyone, by imparting any edifying knowledge that he possesses, makes a friend of one whom he knows to be naturally gifted, we consider that he is behaving as a truly good citizen should behave." (p. 97) Return
