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behavior was not typical of the well�to�do who found themselves short of money and faced real or imagined needs. From Plutarch, for example, we learn that such people tended to borrow the needed money rather than to go to 44 work. Lucian could point to others who entered households of the wealthy to become resident philosophers, rhetoricians, or educators.45 Neither Plutarch nor Lucian approved of these alternatives. Indeed, Plutarch held up as an example to those in financial straits the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes, who, when a student, supported himself by grinding corn in a mill;46 consequently, instead of borrowing, Plutarch recommended teaching letters, escorting boys to and from school, being a doorkeeper, or 47 working as a sailor. Epictetus also advised his students, most of whom were persons of substance and status, that if circumstances required it, they should work; his recommendations were similar: drawing water, escorting boys to and from school, and being a doorkeeper.48 Lucian, moreover, provides us with examples of socially prominent persons who took such advice: Agathocles of Samos, on following his friend Deinias into exile on Gyara, worked as a purple�fisher to support himself and Deinias, whereas Demetrius of Sunium, when his friend Antiphilus was imprisoned in Alexandria, supported himself and his friend by working as a porter on the docks.49 Two more familiar examples are Musonius Rufus and Dio Chrysostom. Both belonged to the upper classes—Dio to the provincial aristocracy of 50 Prusa in Bithynia and Musonius to the Roman equestrian order. Both were exiled—Musonius by Nero and Dio by Domitian—and both supported themselves during their exiles by working with their hands. Dio worked at all sorts of menial jobs, such as planting, digging, and drawing water;51 Musonius 52 worked on a farm. The case of Dio is especially significant, for his exile meant years of wandering from city to city and from province to province, during the course of which he adopted the role of Cynic missionary; his combining missionary 53 activity and self�support is thus a close parallel to the case of Paul. And so our picture of Paul, of one from the socially privileged classes who when faced with finding support turned to a trade, is historically credible. His behavior ^See Plutarch, De vit. aere al., passim. See Lucian, Mere. cond. 1�6. 46 See Plutarch, De vit. aere al. 830C�D. Note here that Plutarch's juxtaposition ofikevdepos ("free") and δουλικά ("slavish"), which are used in a socio�economic sense, is a close parallel to 1 Cor 9:19. 47 See Plutarch, De vit. aere al. 830A�B. 48 See Epictetus, Diss. 3.26.7. 49 See Lucian, Tox. 17�18 and 31. 50 For Dio, see Brunt, "Social Thought of Dio Chrysostom," 10�14; for Musonius, see C. Lutz, "Musonius Rufus: The Roman Socrates," Yale Classical Studies 10 (1947) 14. 51 See Philostratus, V. Soph. 488, and H. von Arnim, Leben und Werke des Dio von Prusa (Berlin: Weidmannsche, 1898) 246�48. 52 See Musonius, frag. 11 (pp. 57�63 Hense). 53 For Dio's developing self�understanding as a missionary, see Dio, Orat. 13.10�13. 45
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was not typical, but it was advocated by moralists and chosen by at least several individuals. CONCLUSION In summary, then, we can say that Deissmann was right in sensing the importance of Paul's working at a trade for ascertaining his social class. But he was wrong in considering only the fact of Paul's having plied the trade of tentmaking; the language that he used to refer to his trade provides a better indicator of his social class. For when Paul's use of status terms is taken into consideration, it becomes clear that the attitude toward work expressed in those terms corresponds more closely to that of the upper classes than to that of the lower. Therefore, Ramsay's view of Paul's aristocratic origin is confirmed—indeed, strengthened—because Paul's tentmaking is no longer problematic for that view. By working at a slavish and demeaning trade Paul sensed a considerable loss of status, a loss that makes sense only if he were from a relatively high social class.