Trades and trade guilds

In the ancient economy people of one trade did not compete as they do now. They lived together in one part of town and formed guilds, called collegia, which set standards and united to defend their economic interests. Each guild had a patron deity, and its banquets included sacrificial food. That kept practicing Jews out and made them glad to find other Jews in their trade. In Ephesus the silversmiths' shops apparently lined the street from the theater to the harbor, and commerce and religion were closely intertwined. Artisans like Demetrius made their living from cult objects. Thyatira was known for its dyers' guilds, and inscriptions show Thyatiran agents selling purple dye in Macedonia. Its records name more guilds than any other Asian city's, and Beale writes, "The city had a guild for almost every trade." The guilds' common meals, normally monthly, honored their patron gods. A believer who refused them was cut off socially and economically (Keener). The word for tentmaker was used of leatherworkers in general, perhaps working the goat-hair cloth of Cilicia. Leatherworking tools were easy to carry from city to city. Wright suggests tentmaking was the family business in which Saul was apprenticed. Artisans were proud of their work and ranked above peasants. The elite despised manual labor and most Gentile sages avoided it, while some Jewish teachers had a trade, often learned from their fathers. Wright traces the riot at Ephesus through the same links: "A theological proclamation had produced economic challenges, which were then interpreted as civic insults."

Guild life explains why Paul lodges and works with fellow Jews of the same trade in Acts 18:3, and why craftsmen whose living depends on a cult band together against him in Acts 19:24-27. When Paul reminds a church that he worked night and day, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, he sets himself apart from teachers who lived off fees or patrons.