Book review

Richard S. Ascough, Paul's Macedonian Associations: The Social Context of Philippians and 1 Thessalonians. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003. Pp. xiv + 261. Paper, Euro 49.00. ISBN 3-16-148074-0.

Book review originally published in Toronto Journal of Theology (2006): 205-207.

In Paul's Macedonian Associations (a revised dissertation supervised by John S. Kloppenborg at the Toronto School of Theology), Ascough argues that the early Christian communities at Thessalonica and Philippi can be better understood in comparison with the analogy of Greco-Roman associations. Along the way, Ascough successfully removes obstacles to the comparative enterprise which have been set up within previous scholarship. Unlike other New Testament scholars who superficially refer to associations without exploring the primary evidence for themselves, Ascough provides a geographically-focused study which delves into inscriptional evidence for groups and begins to draw out the relevance of this material for Christian congregations in the same region.

After an introductory chapter, the following three chapters are concerned primarily with the evidence for associations specifically. In chapter two, Ascough considers the various types of associations, holding to a function-driven typology (religious, professional) but rightly rejecting the notion of associations formed solely for burial in the first century. One of the highlights of the chapter comes with the discussion of methods of foundation, particularly foundations "by divine sanction" (e.g. visions or dreams), where he deals with the Thessalonian instance of a cult of Sarapis (IG X.2 255; pp. 34-42). The brief section on associations' "legal status" at the end of the chapter is somewhat dependent on a questionable view which stresses governmental control of associations, however.

In chapter three, Ascough goes on to various internal issues concerning association membership, including social location, hierarchy, benefaction, and regulations. He convincingly argues that the associations in Macedonia reflect a variety of social levels drawn from the non-elite strata of society, and that the common contrast between Pauline communities as heterogeneous and the associations as homogeneous is oversimplified. Particularly useful here is his outline of evidence for the participation of women in association-life (pp. 54-59; cf. pp. 134-38).

Chapter four focuses on the more traditional question of community organization and leadership, but also explores some interesting issues concerning translocal connections among associations. Ascough successfully refutes the much-repeated and supposed contrast between "universal" or translocal early Christian churches and the merely local "pagan" associations. Ascough concludes that "Christian congregations and voluntary associations were both locally based groups with limited translocal connections" (p. 108).

The final two chapters, which make up about half of the work, focus on the Christian congregations at Philippi and Thessalonica respectively. In each chapter, Ascough begins by assessing the social location of the Christians before going on to the ways in which a comparison with associations provides a new vantage point on various aspects of the Pauline correspondence and life within the congregations (assessing issues such as leadership, internal relationships, and interactions with outsiders). Ascough aptly shows that "the Macedonian Christian communities share the same discursive field as the voluntary associations" (p. 190).

In reference to Philippians, Ascough argues (based on socio-rhetorical and prosopographical analysis) that the Christians at this locale were drawn primarily from the lower strata, from merchants and artisans. Ascough then goes on to look at the various ways in which associations shed light on the situation at Philippi. At times, claims of links between Paul's letters and associations are strained somewhat, as when Ascough states that in using politeuma (in Phil 3:18-21) Paul consciously makes "references to the voluntary associations" (p. 149). Yet, on the whole, the comparisons are illuminating and provide a new vantage point on old questions, as when Ascough places inter-group rivalry in the Philippian congregation (Phil 1:15-18 and 3:18-21) within the broader context of rivalries and the pursuit of honour in associations (pp. 144-47). The correspondences between Paul's letters and evidence for associations, Ascough suggests, point to the cultic association (more so than the guild) as the principal analogy for the Philippian congregation (p. 161), while the occupational guild corresponds well in comparison with the Thessalonian congregation.

In his final chapter, Ascough goes on to suggest (based on 1 Thess) that the Christian congregation at Thessalonica may best be understood as an all-male guild of hand-workers that converted almost en masse (switching their patron deity) to belief in the God preached by Paul. Ascough emphasizes the language of work and toil in 1 Thessalonians and points to the more obvious sections where Paul refers to working with his hands while he preached to them (2:9; cf. 4:11). Although it is difficult to argue from rhetoric and paranesis about the gender of the recipients, Ascough points to the consistently male-oriented language and interprets the admonition to control one's "vessel" (skeuos; in 4:4-6) as a reference to "genitalia" (not a "wife"). Ascough also explores the good possibility that Paul's exhortation to admonish the ataktous of 5:14 refers not to those who act disorderly in refusing to work (as in 2 Thess), but to those who are disorderly during meetings or worship. He briefly adduces examples of the concern for order and internal control within associations, including the Iobacchoi at Athens and the mysteries held at Andania. The study then ends with an appendix on the (lack of) evidence for Jewish communities in Macedonia and the accompanying problems with using Acts as a source for the Christian congregations there. A conclusion explicitly drawing attention to broader implications of the study would have been useful.

Overall, Ascough's work provides important insights into associations and into Pauline congregations using region-specific epigraphic evidence. A common methodology in the use of epigraphic and archeological materials by New Testament scholars is to focus on exegetical issues in a particular passage or Christian writing; the scholar then turns from time to time to any helpful archeological evidence from across the Mediterranean that may be forthcoming from the "background." One of the difficulties with this approach is that Christian literary evidence determines the selection and interpretation of non-literary materials, and these materials are taken out of context with little concern for understanding non-Christian phenomena in their own right and without proper attention to regional variations. In some ways, the final two chapters of Ascough's book do view Greco-Roman materials through the specific lenses of Paul's letters, with a focus on somewhat traditional "exegetical issues" (p. 190). Yet in other respects Ascough clearly moves beyond the tendency to oversimplify the Greco-Roman world in his attempts to understand phenomena such as associations in their own right and with clear attention to regional factors (as in his first four chapters and in sections of the final two). Moreover, the book heads New Testament scholars in the right direction in how to approach the incorporation of epigraphic materials in the study of early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world.

Philip A. Harland