Colonia und Ekklesia

While few today argue that Jerusalem and Pauline Christ groups chose ekklesia to distance themselves from Jewish synagogues, scholars still debate the background and meaning of this self-designation. After a concise review of the scholarly debate the article asks what one can learn from Paul’s correspondence with the Christ group in Philippi. While Paul does not address the Philippians as an ekklesia in Phil 1:1–2, he nonetheless calls them ekklesia in Phil 4:15. Yet, the city’s ekklesia of Hellenistic times was a Latin colonia after the battle at Philippi in 42 BCE. In Paul’s time, the city was ruled by a tiny Latin-speaking elite of Italian families. It is argued that by manifold allusions to political practice and language Paul recurs to the democratic traditions of the expropriated and disfranchised Greeks that were moved to the outskirts and vincula of the area.