04_Peters_copiaaa_67-84 28/04/15 12:15 Pagina 68 68 JANELLE PETERS with the civic apparatus and the Corinthians’ anxiety over social status 5. Civic bodies handed out both vegetal and gold crowns for taking part in the enrollment of male citizens at both the supervisory and subordinate level 6. That Paul distinguishes between the perish- able crown of the civic athlete and the imperishable crown of the Christian athlete indicates that he is attempting to draw a distinc- tion between the current world order and the heavenly politeuma 7. If there is indeed a connection between Paul’s renunciation of rights and his advocacy of abstaining from idol meat, this implies that Paul’s athletic metaphors, which fall between these two ideas in 1 Corinthians, play a role in orienting the Corinthians within the political state. The Corinthians are to renounce their worldly privileges and displays of status and sophistry. In exchange, they will contend for an exclusive and imperishable crown, the kind that might be awarded to ephebes or to wealthy patrons such as Junia Theodora by cities 8. They are not to think of themselves as better than even the upper echelons of Corinthian society (4,8) 9. As Paul demonstrates by his own example, they are to direct their attention to the perfection of their own bodies (9,24-27). Their re- ceipt of a crown upon demonstrating enkrateia follows the same mythological and philosophical motif of the self-crowning athlete 10. 5 The Corinthians had anxiety over social-status symbols such as baptism, civic position, and dinner parties. Such social striving was common among the elite families of Roman Greece. See M. WOLOCH, “Four Leading Families in Roman Athens AD 96-161”, Historia 18 (1969) 509. 6 Schlatter and Juncker argued that Paul’s use of the athletic image came out of Hellenistic Judaism and Greek-speaking synagogue, where the athletic motif had already been evinced by Philo and 4 Maccabees. See A. SCHLATTER, Die Theologie des NT (Stuttgart 1910) II, 255; A. JUNCKER, Die Ethik des Apostels Paulus (Halle 1904-1919) 127. 7 For a history of scholarship and a discussion of the golden crown in an- tiquity, see G.M. STEVENSON, “Conceptual Background to the Golden Crown Imagery in the Apocalypse of John (4,4.10; 14,14)”, JBL 114 (1995) 257-258. 8 For examples of crowns given to ephebes and benefactors, see J.R. HAR- RISON, “Paul and the Gymnasiarchs: Two Approaches to Pastoral Formation in Antiquity”, Paul: Jew, Greek, and Roman (ed. S.E. PORTER) (Leiden 2008) 158. 9 D.B. MARTIN, The Corinthian Body (New Haven, CT 1995) 68. 10 The “self-crowning athlete” (autostephanoumenos) takes numerous forms, including the Diadumenos who ties a fillet around his head. See N. SPIVEY, Greek Sculpture (Cambridge 2013) 105.