Power for a Change
Scripture Introduction
Ha-Foke Ba
Corinth was a city where public boasting and self-promotion had become an art form.
Apart from this inscription, seven more have been found in Corinth. Five of them are in such small fragments that no one word survived completely. The date cannot be determined, and the conclusion of the editor of the corpus, that they are in Hebrew, is accepted. Near the Theatre was found a tablet bearing the seven-branched menorah upon a base flanked by a seven-branched menorah, a lulab, and an ethrog. Two fragments of Jewish inscriptions were also found in the eastern area of the Theatre.71 They yield some information. The first one is bilingual (Greek and Hebrew) with a Hebrew word miscab (tomb). The second contains two titles διδάσ[καλος] and ἀρχ[ισυνάγωγ]ος. After the last title the editors restored τῆ[ς συναγωγῆς Κορίνθου?]. The restoration is very insecure and the last word ought to be ruled out, since ‘given the size of Corinth in the Roman period, it is certain to have had more than the one synagogue which Κορίνθου might imply’. Moreover it would be very difficult to find a parallel for the use of a city’s name within that city in a text of this category.74
Corinth was a city where public boasting and self-promotion had become an art form.
In post-exilic times the ḥerem as a war measure against idolaters no longer found any application. Nevertheless it was employed as a means of ecclesiastical discipline to keep the community clear of undesirable, semi-heathenish elements; and when the new constitution was to be adopted for the new colony, those that would not participate in the assembly of the children of the captivity, had, according to the counsel of the princes and elders, all their substance devoted (A. V. “forfeited”), and were themselves separated from the community (Ezra 10:8)