[The text discussed is Luke 9–10.]
Antipas, benefactor of the people;
To Luke, friend and scholar;
Greetings.
For once, dear Luke, some of the information you sent to me proved to be antiquated, but only with regard to one bit of advice: your advice to seek out those Christians gathering at the house of Antonius and his splendid wife, Mania [see Luke’s letter in letter collection 7]. By the time I received your letter, I had already attended a gathering of Christians at their house. Antonius himself sought me out and invited me. He had heard that I had attended the gathering at the house of Kalandion and also that I have a copy of your monograph. He suggested that I join them on the following Lord’s Day and bring the manuscript along with me. Since I had made no commitment to those in the house of Kalandion, I was free to do as he suggested. (Rufinus, on the other hand, felt a debt of honor to Kalandion and preferred to meet once again with those at Kalandion’s house.)
After an ample meal, Antonius suggested that I read an extract from your manuscript, which I was happy to do. The reading was then discussed among the gathering, although only a handful of us were active in the discussion, the others preferring simply to listen to our exchanges. There then followed a period of singing and prayer, although I quietly excused myself from that part of the evening and returned to Euphemos’s house, since it was clear that these Christians cherish their singular devotion to Jesus in a way that made me somewhat uncomfortable.
Let me tell you, Luke my friend, that this group of twenty-five or so people meeting in Antonius’s house is very different from that which gathers in the house of Kalandion. One thing struck me from the moment of being welcomed among them: The gatherers are very diverse with regard to their social statures, ethnic backgrounds, and civic positions. A similar kind of diversity of membership is sometimes evident in civic or trade associations, but not often to the same extent as I found in Antonius’s house. Moreover, at no point did those gathered seem particularly interested in regulating their behavior according to social codes. This was especially evident when the food was brought out from the kitchens. At that point, the gatherers simply assembled themselves in small groups throughout the house, without any special interest in arranging themselves according to social customs of honor. I have never seen members of associations act in that fashion.
Among those gathered in Antonius’s house, there were many poor artisans and urban day laborers. A few gatherers hold civic positions in the city and have sizable resources. Antonius himself is one of these, of course, currently holding the position of City Custodian of the Royal Treasuries of Pergamene Art, a collection kept in the Sanctuary of Athena, the oldest sanctuary in Pergamum. (Previously, he acted as the Protector of the city’s Fountain House and oversaw the thermal baths that lie along a stretch of Pergamum’s main road.) Mania herself is a capable municipal archontess [an elected official], formerly a priestess in the Sanctuary of Demeter, a cult dedicated to honoring all the known and unknown deities and extolling the virtues of civic and familial harmony. Some of those gathered have been Pergamenes from birth, such as Antonius and Mania, while others (mostly artisans) have moved here from other parts of Asia Minor, as well as from Italy, Macedonia, and Greece. A few Jews were also present. Some of them maintain a strict Jewish diet of kosher food, and for them special dietary provisions were made. I think one or two brought their own food.
One Jew deserves special mention—a Simon ben Joseph who hails from Galilee. I was introduced to him during the meal and was surprised to discover a most coincidental fact. This Simon used to be a tenant farmer who worked part of my own land northwest of Tiberias in Galilee. Having tested him on some details regarding my land tracts and household, I am convinced of the veracity of this fact. He is no longer in employment with my household because his lease agreement was canceled by my commercial manager several years ago; evidently, as a result of a serious crop failure one harvest season, Simon was unable to meet his required quota of production, and his tenancy was revoked. Simon explained that his subsequent efforts to work as a day laborer were not successful, and I can see why. His best years lie behind him, and he would no doubt be passed over in a manager’s search for effective manual laborers. He recounted how my manager did provide him with work sporadically after his tenancy was rescinded, but evidently this situation did not last long. My manager began to conscript younger men for occasional work not long after having annulled Simon’s contract as a tenant farmer, and Simon was rarely conscripted by other managers.
Never before have I encountered a former employee, so I found myself in an uncomfortable situation. The unfortunate man was forced to leave the members of his family to fend for themselves in Galilee. He fears that his daughters are now prostitutes or slaves and that his sons have scattered, perhaps to become beggars in the cities or bandits in the hills. He moved to Pergamum not to abandon them but to try to secure employment with the high hope of sending them some meager contributions. He had heard of the significant expansion that Pergamum has recently been undergoing and hoped that he could find regular work in some form of construction.
The Pergamene trade guilds are powerful, however, and make it extremely difficult for ordinary unskilled day laborers to be conscripted for work of any kind. This is especially true of the stonemasons’ guild, which has civic influence far beyond that of comparable guilds in other cities of the empire. So I was not surprised to discover that, contrary to his hopes, Simon was unable to find regular employment in Pergamum. He soon became a street beggar, and his condition worsened until he gave up all hope of living. He told me, however, that as he squatted hopeless, diseased, and destitute on the Pergamene streets, he was noticed by Antonius himself, who extended hospitality to him, bringing him into his own house and ensuring that he was restored to health. Simon has served in Antonius’s household for just over a year, ever since his recovery. Although he maintains a level of Jewish purity, Antonius and Mania have provided for his needs in that regard as well. To look at him now, you would never know of the harshness of his former condition, except for a certain shortness of breath that overcomes him at times. His spirits are high, and he has a laugh that is robust and infectious. He plans to return to Galilee soon, in the hopes of tracking down whatever remains of his family and bringing them to Pergamum with him, with Antonius’s blessing and assistance.
I must confess to having a sense of admiration for this Simon, which is strange because he is so obviously below my own station. Perhaps, since we both spent most of our lives in the eastern Mediterranean, I am simply confusing a sense of shared experiences with a sense of goodwill. But this is not really a satisfactory explanation, since our experiences of Galilee cannot be considered “shared,” being so vastly different. Despite his low status, there seems to be a kind of nobility in him—a nobility that I would not expect to see in the eyes of one upon whom the gods have not looked favorably. Perhaps Antonius has instilled this sense of nobility within him. But then I am forced to consider Antonius’s own actions in this matter. What nobleman stoops down in the street to pick up a diseased beggar and care for him? Such an action is completely impractical by any standard of common sense. Imagine the danger to Antonius and his household if Simon had been a practitioner of the evil eye. Although it became clear that he was not a manipulator of pernicious spirits, Antonius had no way of knowing that at the time. Moreover, Antonius must certainly have compromised his public honor in the flagrant act of extending hospitality to an expendable such as Simon had been. All my natural impulses are repelled by the thought of Antonius’s action, and my instincts label it an impractical, irresponsible, and ultimately dishonorable action. And yet there was Simon, standing before me in Antonius’s house, with honor in his eyes—a testament to Antonius’s unprecedented benevolence.
With regard to your narrative of Jesus’s life, my experiences with those who gathered at Antonius’s house impressed upon me how capable they were of interpreting your monograph after I had read them a portion of it. Whereas those who gathered at Kalandion’s house seemed to be interested only in the stories of Jesus’s miraculous power, those gathered in Antonius’s house focused not on the miraculous exclusively but also on the radical lifestyle Jesus endorsed. They seem to know what Jesus meant by taking up one’s despised cross daily, and they approved of the implication that the foolish person seeks worldly gain while losing one’s very self [9:23–27]. They understood and affirmed Jesus’s inversion of the definition of “greatness” [9:46–48]. I was especially impressed by their interest in Jesus’s story of the Samaritan who acted like a neighbor to one who lay half dead by the roadside [10:30–37]. Simon mentioned his own resemblance to the half-dead man in that parable and Antonius’s resemblance to the Samaritan, but the gatherers’ primary interest was not to laud members for past actions but to reinforce a concern to help others in the future. In particular, they used the occasion of reflecting on this parable as a time to take an inventory of the gatherers’ needs for the forthcoming week and to arrange for many of those needs to be met, largely through Antonius’s resources, but not exclusively so. Evidently, foodstuffs were provided earlier in the week for some of the artisans and their colleagues, even some who were not normal gatherers at Antonius’s house. Something similar is planned for others in the forthcoming week.
My friend, I have spoken at length about my encounter with this group of Christians, and I apologize if I have gone on too long. I have taken a curious interest in them. Many of them know of you, of course, since you have visited them on previous occasions when traveling through Pergamum. Those who know you speak highly of you and requested that I send you their greetings. Antonius and Mania look forward to your next visit.
Stachys speaks highly of you and those in the household of Calpurnius. The gift he offers you is sent with gratitude.
May you continue to prosper, and may the household of Calpurnius increase in honor.