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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
The triumph and the arena
Rome celebrated a great victory with a triumph, a parade of the general, his army and the spoils, with chained captives at the end who were killed or sold. Cities also staged shows in which condemned criminals fought or were thrown to beasts.
The parade ended in the city square, and the prisoners at the back of it did not leave alive. When a Roman general won a great war he was given a triumph, a grand procession through Rome. He rode in a chariot, his army marched behind, wagons carried the loot, and last of all came the chained captives, who were killed or sold at the end. Cities across the empire also put on shows in their theaters, where criminals and prisoners were made to fight or were thrown to wild animals to entertain the crowd. Both were familiar ways of putting the beaten and the condemned on display.
Bailey describes the triumph. The conqueror came near the head of the procession in his chariot. Behind him walked priests and leading men, then the army that had won and carts loaded with booty. At the very end came captives in chains, killed at the end of the route in a public sacrifice to the Roman gods. Wright describes the triumphal arches the procession passed through, the public show of glory and power, and the bedraggled prisoners at the back. He says the day usually ended with the prisoners killed or sold. In his commentary on Colossians he adds that the defeated king came last and was executed as the climax. So every crucifixion of a rebel king was a small Roman triumph. The senate decreed public thanksgivings before a triumph, and incense burned along the way as at sacrifices. These were "great celebrations for the victors and great humiliations for the defeated" (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Josephus watched the triumph of Vespasian and Titus, with the spoils of the temple carried through Rome. He writes that at the temple of Jupiter "it was the Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that the general of the enemy was slain." The arena was the other great spectacle. The official in charge of the games showed off the gladiators who would fight wild beasts. The last show of the day was normally kept for the most wretched criminal condemned to die. Keener writes that "Corinth's theater seated eighteen thousand." Older than the triumph was the conqueror's custom, behind Psalm 68:18, of taking tribute and plunder from the defeated. He handed most of the spoils to his soldiers. Heiser notes that conquerors paraded captives and demanded tribute, then shared out the booty.
An analogy: the victory parade at the end of a war, when the winning army marches through the capital past cheering crowds and the defeated enemy is put on show. Nobody watching mistakes which side the prisoners are on.
Because the triumph ended with its captives and the arena kept the condemned for last, the apostles displayed last of all like men sentenced to death, in 1 Corinthians 4:9, are pictured at the bottom of public shame. 2 Corinthians 2:14 pictures God leading his people in triumph, and Colossians 2:15 has the powers disarmed and put on display.
Not a civic celebration that ends when the march does. A modern victory parade honors the troops and sends everyone home. The triumph was also a religious rite, with incense and thanksgivings to the gods, and for the captives at the back it ended in death or slavery.
Which picture lies behind 1 Corinthians 4:9. Wright and Bailey read the triumph, with the apostles as the captives at the end of the procession; the ESV Study Bible thinks probably the triumph, or else gladiators condemned in the arena; Keener, his notes and the CSB Study Bible think the arena likelier, with the apostles as the last show of the day; the Zondervan dictionary joins the two, since the captives at the end of a triumph were condemned to fight beasts. On 1 Corinthians 15:32 the sources read agree that Paul's fight with beasts at Ephesus is figurative, since Roman citizens were exempt from that death and he survived.
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- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 1.4
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comment on 1 Corinthians 4:6-13
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Corinthians 4:9
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 4:9 and 15:32
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 4:9 and 15:32
- CSB Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 4:9 and 15:32
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on 2 Corinthians 2:15
- Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 7.5.4-6, trans. William Whiston
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Ephesians 4:7-8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Ephesians 4:8
- CSB Study Bible, note on Ephesians 4:8
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 33, A Beneficial Death, Taking Prisoners
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters, comment on Colossians 2:13-19
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry games
