398 CALLIA RULMU non-slave laborers and artisans would seek support in their kinship, guilds, or friendship liaisons as a “defence against poverty, hardship and the personal patronage of the wealthy”. Since the voluntary associations functioned as social supports for their members, it is hard to deny the heavy influence which patrons and benefactors had upon them. The guilds could have functioned, and as a matter of fact they did, as a means of displaying a patron’s influence and honor, thus as a political entity 26. It is exactly for this reason that the civic magistrates and governors appointed by the Emperor regarded the collegia with suspicion. It is widely accepted today that voluntary associations during the Roman period were vienred with suspicion and carefully scrutinized even “well beyond Rome’s gates” 27. Ascough is right when he depicts Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thess 4,12 “not as a means to change the fundamental constitution of the group ” but as a strong encouragement to gain “legal permission to exist as that they are not singled out in such way that they must disband ” 28. Although Harland’s remarks about the lack of evidence in Asia Minor on the application of laws on voluntary associations are correct (cf. Acts 19,23-41 and IEph 215, a second century edict regarding the bakers revolt) 29, the important body of evidence we have on how Greek and Roman officials perceived these voluntary a s s o c i a t i o n s , the insistence of the collegia t h e m s e l ve s in WINTER, “‘If a Man’”, 311; P. MARSHALL, Enmity in Corinth: Social 26 Conventions in Paul’s Relations with the Corinthians (WUNT l; Tubingen 1987) 157-164; SALLER, Patronage, 205; S.C. MOTT, “The Power of Giving and Receiving: Reciprocity in Hellenistic Benevolence”, Current Issues in biblical and Patristic Interpretation. Studies in Honor of Merril C. Tenney (ed. G.F. HAWTHORNE) (Grand Rapids, MI 1975) 60-72. COTTER, “The Collegia”, 79; ASCOUGH, Voluntary Associations, 397. 27 ASCOUGH, Voluntary Associations, 401. 28 P. A . H A R L A N D , A s s o c i a t i o n s , Synagogues, and Congregations. 29 Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Minneapolis, MN 2003), claims that “[i]ntervention of officials in associations’ life of the provinces was occasional, pertaining to the particularities of time and place and falling far short of comprehensive control (cf. Philo, Against Flaccus 4-5, concerning Egypt). When it comes to the province of Asia itself, we have absolutely no evidence of Roman officials dissolving such groups or applying laws regarding associations. Instead we have civic disturbances that illustrate well the sporadic nature of controlling intervention of Roman officials in con- nection with associations” (169).