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‘Peace and Security’ (1 Thessalonians 5.3): Is It Really a Roman Slogan?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2013

Joel R. White
Joel R. White*
Affiliation:
Freie Theologische Hochschule, Rathenaustrasse 5-7, D-35394 Giessen, Germany. email: [email protected]
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Abstract

According to a growing number of scholars, when Paul makes use of the phrase ‘peace and security’ in 1 Thess 5.3, he is alluding to a well-known slogan in Roman propaganda that summed up the benefits of the Pax Romana. While there can be no doubt that ‘peace’ played an important role in Rome's imperial ideology, it is less clear that this was the case for ‘security’, and a review of the evidence presented by the proponents of this view calls into question their conclusion that ‘peace and security’ had the character of a slogan.

Keywords

PaulRomesloganpeacesecurityThessalonians
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , July 2013 , pp. 382 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 Cf. J. A. D. Weima, ‘Peace and Security’ (1 Thess 5.3): Prophetic Warning or Political Propoganda?, NTS 58 (2012) 331-59, esp. 332, where he posits that the phrase ‘stems from…a popular theme or slogan of the imperial Roman propaganda machine’. Weima offers by far the most detailed analysis of the literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence for the thesis to date. Yet despite its thoroughness, Weima's argument ultimately falls prey to one shortcoming common to most, if not all, other similar studies: the failure to define the term ‘slogan’. His and others' arguments imply that they understand it to denote a widely recognizable political catchphrase, the provenance and general thrust of which would have been immediately apparent to its hearers, i.e. something along the lines of ‘hope and change’ in recent American political rhetoric. My purpose in this article is to question whether the evidence substantiates such a claim by proponents of the thesis. To the extent that they mean something less than that, namely, that Paul combines two terms among many that Rome independently made use of in propagating her imperial agenda (Weima's arguments, in particular, are somewhat equivocal on this point), both the argument for a clear allusion to that agenda and the case against it become weaker.

2 Cf. Bammel, E., ‘Ein Beitrag zur paulinischen Staatsanschauung’, TLZ 85 (1960) 837-40Google Scholar. The thesis was promulgated a year before Bammel by Ehrhardt, A. A. T., Politische Metaphysik von Solon bis Augustin. Vol. 2, Die christliche Revolution (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1959)Google Scholar 21. If Bammel was aware of Ehrhardt's work, he does not mention it. Ehrhardt refers to Pliny the Younger Ep. 10.52, Tacitus Agr. 3, and Epictetus Diatr. 1.9.7, in support of his thesis, but none of these texts mentions pax/εἰρήνη, only securitas/ἀσϕάλεια. Further, given the dates of the works cited (late first/early second century ce), they actually help to demonstrate that the emphasis on security in Roman political rhetoric was a later development. See below.

3 Bammel, ‘Beitrag’, 837.

4 Cf. Bammel, E., ‘Romans 13’, Jesus and the Politics of his Day (ed. Bammel, E. and Moule, C. F. D.; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1984) 375-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 This becomes apparent when one notes how frequently Bammel's characterization of pax et securitas as ‘das Programm der frühprinzipalen Zeit’ is echoed in later scholarship. Cf. Frend, W. H. C., Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus (Oxford: Blackwell, 1965)Google Scholar 96: ‘Pax et Securitas, the programme of the early Principate’; Donfried, K. P., ‘The Cults of Thessalonica and the Thessalonian Correspondence’, NTS 31 (1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar 350: ‘the Pax et Securitas programme of the early Principate’; Faust, E., Pax Christi et Pax Caesaris: Religionsgeschichtliche, traditionsgeschichtliche und sozialgeschichtliche Studien zum Epheserbrief (NTOA 24; Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag, 1991)Google Scholar 444: εἰρήνη καὶ ἀσϕάλεια reflects ‘das gleichlautende pax et securitas-Programme des römischen Prinzipats’.

6 Cf. Diehl, J., ‘Empire and Epistles: Anti-Roman Rhetoric in the New Testament Epistles’, CBR 10 (2012) 217-63Google Scholar, esp. 226-8. For an example of this approach, cf. Segovia, F. F. and Sugirtharajah, R. S., eds., A Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings (London: T&T Clark, 2009)Google Scholar, esp. F. F. Segovia, ‘Introduction: Configurations, Approaches, Findings, Stances’, 1-68.

7 Cf., in addition to Weima, ‘Peace’, and the works mentioned in n. 5, Wengst, K., Pax Romana, Anspruch und Wirklichkeit: Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen des Friedens bei Jesus und im Urchristentum (Munich: Kaiser, 1986) 98-9Google Scholar; Koester, H., ‘From Paul's Eschatology to the Apocalyptic Schemata of 2 Thessalonians’, The Thessalonian Correspondence (ed. Collins, R. F.; BETL 87; Leuven: Peeters, 1990) 449-50Google Scholar; Elliott, N., Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994)Google Scholar 189; Malherbe, A. J., The Letter to the Thessalonians (AB 32B; New York: Doubleday, 2000)Google Scholar 303; Brocke, C. vom, Thessaloniki, Stadt des Kassander und Gemeinde des Paulus: Eine frühe christliche Gemeinde in ihrer heidnischen Umwelt (WUNT 2/125; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2001) 170-8Google Scholar; Harrison, J. R., ‘Paul and the Imperial Gospel at Thessaloniki’, JSNT 25 (2002) 86-7Google Scholar; Crossan, J. D. and Reed, J. L., In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom (London: SPCK, 2004)Google Scholar 167; Smith, A., ‘Unmasking the Powers: Toward a Postcolonial Analysis of 1 Thessalonians’, Paul and the Roman Imperial Order (ed. Horsley, R. A.; Harrisburg: Trinity, 2004)Google Scholar 48; Oakes, P., ‘Re-mapping the Universe: Paul and the Emperor in 1 Thessalonians and Philippians’, JSNT 27 (2005) 317-18Google Scholar; Wright, N. T., Paul in Fresh Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005)Google Scholar 74; Carter, W., The Roman Empire and the New Testament: An Essential Guide (Nashville: Abingdon, 2006)Google Scholar 54; Witherington, B. III, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006)Google Scholar 146; Keesmaat, S. C., ‘In the Face of Empire: Paul's Use of Scripture in the Shorter Epistles’, Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (ed. Porter, S. E.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006) 204-5Google Scholar; Punt, J., ‘Paul and Postcolonial Hermeneutics: Marginality and/in Early Biblical Interpretation’, As It Is Written: Studying Paul‘s Use of Scripture (ed. Porter, S. E. and Stanley, C. D.; SBLSymS 50; Atlanta: SBL, 2008)Google Scholar 270; Harrison, J. R., Paul and the Imperial Authorities at Thessalonica and Rome (WUNT 273; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011)Google Scholar 327; Mackenzie, E., ‘The Quest for the Political Paul: Assessing the Apostle's Approach to Empire’, EuroJTh 20 (2011)Google Scholar 44; Zerbe, G., ‘The Politics of Paul: His Supposed Social Conservatism and the Impact of Postcolonial Readings’, The Colonized Apostle: Paul through Postcolonial Eyes (ed. Stanley, C. D.; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2011)Google Scholar 68.

8 This view has not gained widespread acceptance in German scholarship. Konradt, M., Gericht und Gemeinde: Eine Studie zur Bedeutung und Funktion von Gerichtsaussagen im Rahmen der paulinischen Ekklesiologie und Ethik im 1 Thess und 1 Kor (BZNW 117; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar reflects the caution of many on the continent: One can, so Konradt, ‘erwägen, daß in 1Thess 5,3 römische Friedenspropaganda…als Assoziationshorizont zu berücksichtigen ist’ (145-6). Nonetheless ‘[a]ls bündige programmatische Propagandaformel Roms läßt sich die Wendung εἰρήνη καὶ ἀσϕάλεια…nicht erweisen’ (145 n. 676).

9 I will not interact with the texts referred to by various authors that mention only pax but not securitas (cf. esp. Weima, ‘Peace’, 331-55; Witherington, Commentary, 146), since it is beyond all doubt that the Pax Romana ideology played an important role in the propaganda of the empire from its inception onward. What demands scrutiny are the claims that (1) securitas also played a significant role, and (2) there is evidence that pax et securitas had the character of a slogan. Both must be deemed to hold for the imperial period before the mid-first century ce when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians if the thesis is to be considered viable.

10 Both vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 179 n. 64, and Oakes, ‘Re-mapping’, 317-18, regard this as important evidence for their position. Weima, ‘Peace’, 341, also refers to it.

11 The translations of ancient texts in this section, except where otherwise indicated, are mine.

12 Winter, E., ‘Stadt und Herrschaft in spätrepublikanischer Zeit: Eine neue Pompeius-Inschrift aus Ilion’, Die Troas: neue Forschungen zu Neandria und Alexandria Troas (ed. Schwertheim, E.; Asia Minor Studies 22; Bonn: Habelt, 1996) 175-94Google Scholar, reproduces the full text (176) and includes a photograph (Beilage 3, Tafel 19) of the inscription. It is slightly irritating that the first three letters of εἰρήνην are missing at the beginning of the line. This is due to the fact that the far left side of the inscription is damaged. Still, there are few other abstract nouns ending in -ηνην that could reasonably be combined with τὴν ἀσϕάλειαν in this instance.

13 Cf. Winter, ‘Stadt’, 179.

14 Cf. Plutarch Pomp. 24-30. For a thorough discussion, cf. de Souza, P., Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1999) 149-78Google Scholar.

15 Cf. the references in Winter, ‘Stadt’, 178.

16 The text consulted is that of Rahlfs. Cf. Septuaginta: id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1935)Google Scholar loc. cit. Bammel, ‘Beitrag’, 837, Faust, Pax, 444 n. 42, and Harrison, ‘Paul’, 86 n. 61, refer to this text as early attestation of the Roman political ideology of pax et securitas. Terminus a quo for the composition of Pss. Sol. is 48 bce since Ps 2.26-27 alludes to the death of Pompey. It is likely that the Hebrew original was composed shortly after that event. Cf. Atkinson, K., ‘Solomon, Psalms of’, The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (ed. Collins, J. J. and Harlow, D. C.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010)Google Scholar 1239.

17 So also vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 174.

18 Harrison, ‘Paul’, 86, Crossan and Reed, Paul, 166-7, and Weima, ‘Peace’ 345-6, all refer to these inscriptions.

19 Cf. D. A. Arya, ‘The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text’ (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2002) 351.

20 Crossan and Reed, Paul, 166, helpfully provide pictures of the altars but mistakenly describe them as the ‘[f]ront and back of an altar from Praeneste’.

21 Cf. Rowe, G., Princes and Political Cultures: The New Tiberian Senatorial Decrees (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar 117.

22 Cf. Gottschalk, H., ‘Monumentum Ancyranum’, Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike: Altertum (13 vols.; Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2001)Google Scholar 8.388-9. The text and the English translation of Res Gestae here and of Velleius in the following paragraphs is that of F. W. Shipley. Cf. Paterculus, Velleius, Compendium of Roman History. Res Gestae Divi Augusti (LCL 152; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1924)Google Scholar loc. cit. Weima, ‘Peace’, 349-52, appeals to this inscription.

23 Terminus a quo for Velleius's History is 30 ce since it is dedicated to M. Vinicius on the occasion of the latter's attainment of consulship in that year, and, since such a commemorative work is ‘time-sensitive’, it was probably not written much later than that date. The date of Velleius's death is unknown. Cf. Woodman, A. J., ‘Velleius Paterculus’, Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University, 4th ed. 2012)Google Scholar 1539. Vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 178-9, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 353-4, make reference to this text.

24 Witherington, Commentary, 146, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 354, appeal to this text.

25 Cf. L. D. Reynolds, M. T. Griffin, and E. Fantham, ‘Annaeus Seneca (2), Lucius’, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 93. The text is that of J. Basore. Cf. Seneca, Moral Essays, Volume I (LCL 214; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1928)Google Scholar loc. cit. Vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 175, makes reference to this text.

26 Cf. J. Dingel, ‘Seneca’, Neue Pauly 11.413. The text and English translation is that of R. M. Gummere. Cf. Seneca, Epistles 66–92 (LCL 76; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1920)Google Scholar loc. cit. Wengst, Pax, 33, and vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 174-5, mention this text.

27 The text quoted here is that of Thackeray, H. St. J., The Jewish War, Books 3–4 (LCL 487; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1927)Google Scholar loc. cit. Wengst, Pax, 33, offers this text in support of his thesis.

28 The text quoted here and in the following is that of Marcus, R. and Wikgren, A., Jewish Antiquities, Books 14–15 (LCL 489; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1943)Google Scholar loc. cit. Wengst, Pax, 34, Witherington, Commentary, 146, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 353, mention this passage.

29 Witherington, Commentary, 146, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 353, appeal to this text.

30 Cf. E. Flaig, ‘Tacitus’, Neue Pauly 11.1210. The text and English translation of Tacitus's Histories here and in the following references are those of Church, A. J. and Brodribb, W. J.. Cf. Tacitus, The Annals and the Histories (Modern Library Classics; New York: Random House, 2003)Google Scholar loc. cit. Witherington, Commentary, 146, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 354, cite this text.

31 Wengst, Pax, 33, and Witherington, Commentary, 146, mention this passage.

32 Weima, ‘Peace’, 354, mentions this text.

33 Wengst, Pax, 34, vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 175-6, and Weima, ‘Peace’, 354, appeal to this text.

34 It is not possible to date Plutarch's Lives with any precision, but Plutarch probably died ca. 1920, and it is likely that the Lives of Romans during the late Republican period date to the latter part of his life. Cf. L. B. R. Pelling, ‘Plutarchos. Biographien’, Neue Pauly, 9.1160-1. The text is that of Perrin, Bernadotte. Cf. Plutarch, Lives IX: Demetrius and Antony. Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius (LCL 101; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1920)Google Scholar loc. cit. Surprisingly, only Weima, ‘Peace’, 354-5, mentions this text.

35 Weima, ‘Peace’, 354-5, argues that Plutarch, by portraying the Parthians as offering ‘the very benefits that Roman rule was supposed to provide’, is employing irony here. There is, however, no hint of irony in the text, and Weima assumes what must first be proven: that ‘peace and security’ was a well-known Roman slogan. If that cannot be independently shown to be the case, the argument loses its force. Even if one were to allow it, it would merely offer insight into use of Roman imperial topoi in Plutarch's time, not the mid-first century ce.

36 Cf. K. Rudolf, ‘Hermetik/Hermetika: I. Schriftum – II. Wirkungsgeschichte’, RGG 3.1668-70. The Greek text is that of Nock, A. D. and Festugière, A.-J., Hermès Trismégiste. Corpus hermeticum. Tome 2: Traites XIII–XVIII Asclepius (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1946)Google Scholar loc. cit. Faust, Pax, 444, refers to this text.

37 Cf. LSJ, πρυτανάρχης κτλ, 1543.

38 Cf. Markschies, C., Das antike Christentum: Frömmigkeit, Lebensformen, Institutionen (Munich: Beck, 2006)Google Scholar 28.

39 Cf. Wengst, Pax, 32-3; Harrison, ‘Paul’, 86; Witherington, Commentary, 146; Weima, ‘Peace’, 352.

40 An independent search of the Greek and Latin collections of the Perseus Digital Library (cf. www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper) did not reveal any other examples worthy of consideration.

41 This fact should, at the very least, give pause to scholars who with alacrity translate the Greek phrase εἰρήνη καὶ ἀσϕάλεια into Latin. By doing so, they lend credence to the widely held but manifestly baseless assumption that the phrase pax et securitas enjoyed currency in the Roman Empire and thus prejudice the case in favor of their thesis. To his credit, Weima, ‘Peace’, avoids this pitfall.

42 I have pointed out what I believe to be the main difficulty of each text offered in evidence. Many of the texts could have been assigned to two or more of the categories above, but for simplicity's sake each text is listed only once.

43 Cf. Bammel, ‘Romans 13’, 377; vom Brocke, Thessaloniki, 177-8; Weima, ‘Peace’, 333-41.

44 Cf. H. U. Instinsky, Sicherheit als politisches Problem des römischen Kaisertums (Deutsche Beiträge zur Altertumswissenschaft 3; Baden-Baden: Verlag für Wissenschaft & Kunst, 1952) 21. Both Bammel and vom Brocke (cf. n. 43) readily acknowledge this. Weima offers many examples of the use of pax (whether the word or the personification) on imperial coins, but none bearing securitas before the reign of Nero. He nonetheless makes appeal to one coin that was issued early in Caligula's reign (RIC I 33) that bears an image of the emperor on the front and a representation of his three sisters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Julia, on the back (cf. Weima, ‘Peace’, 340). According to Weima (who relies on the judgment of Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy 31B.C.–A.D. 68 [London: Methuen, 1951]Google Scholar 113), the three personify the goddesses Securitas, Concordia, and Fortuna. This vague allusion to securitas would seem to constitute the sum total of numismatic evidence for an emphasis on security in the decades before Nero's reign.

45 Cf. Instinsky, Sicherheit, 22.

46 Cf. Instinsky, Sicherheit, 25-6.

47 Pace Bammel, ‘Romans 13’, 376-7, who claims that the ‘term’ pax et concordia was used to describe the imperial agenda within the city of Rome, whereas the ‘formula’ pax et securitas was employed elsewhere in the empire. He provides evidence for neither claim. Indeed, with regard to securitas, he undermines his own case when he notes that the term was often juxtaposed with or replaced by clementia, tranquillitas, stabilitas temporum, or quies. (This is not to deny that the concepts may have been operative in later propaganda in the manner Bammel posits.)

48 Cf. A. Kneppe, Metus temporum: Zur Bedeutung von Angst in Politik und Gesellschaft der römischen Kaiserzeit des 1. und 2. Jhdts. n. Chr. (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1994) 233. Interestingly, according to Kneppe, Velleius is the first Roman author to use the word securitas in the sense of a general state of freedom from cares and dangers on the part of a collective entity, rather than simply for an individual.

49 Cf. Kneppe, Metus, 233.

50 Cf. Kneppe, Metus, 234.

51 Bammel, ‘Romans 13’, 377, admits that the propagation of securitas ‘could not have happened earlier, because it was only under Nero that the doors of the temple of Janus were shut again [this symbolized the absence of armed conflict in the empire—JRW] for the first time since Augustus’.

52 Cf. Kneppe, Metus, 244-5. Instinsky, Sicherheit, 17-20, concurs. He argues forcefully that when security is emphasized in Roman imperial literature, it is generally a sign that the political order had been significantly disturbed and that Rome's leaders were eager to restore it. In the first century ce this was the case after the humiliating defeat of Varus in Germania (9 ce) and during the later part of Nero's reign and the Year of the Four Emperors (65–69 ce).

53 Cf. e.g. Calpurnius Siculus 1. Ekloge 46.

54 Cf. Kneppe, Metus, 245.

55 Cf. with regard to arguments from vocabulary in postcolonial interpretation of NT texts in general, White, J., ‘Anti-Imperial Subtexts in Paul: An Attempt at Building a Firmer Foundation’, Biblica 90 (2009) 309-11Google Scholar.

56 Weima, ‘Peace’, 358.

57 Cf. Holtz, T., Der erste Brief an die Thessalonicher (EKK XIII; Zürich: Benziger; Neukirchen–Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1986)Google Scholar 215; Plevnik, J., Paul and the Parousia: An Exegetical and Theological Investigation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997) 103-4Google Scholar.

58 Cf. Wenham, D., Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) 314-16Google Scholar.