The Shepherd, November 2004
SAINT PAUL’S VISIT TO ATHENS, 3
References to the Games in St Paul’s Letters
To the Greeks, the Games were a patriotic passion, rather than an amusement, and St Paul’s Gentile converts would have been thoroughly familiar with them. The Apostle makes frequent allusions in his Letters to the Games and the training of the athletes to illustrate and reinforce his teaching on the strenuous and sustained effort needed in the Christian’s struggle for the heavenly reward. The training of the athletes was severe in the extreme. Our English word “agony” comes from the Greek word for the struggle involved in the training. It raises the interesting question of whether St Paul himself ever attended the Games. Strict Jew as he was, he had a Hellenistic background. It would certainly have been possible for him to have attended the great Isthmian Games at Corinth, as we have reason to believe that he was there in the year 53 A.D. when the Festival took place.
The gymnasium was an important feature in every Greek city. The men and boys practised athletic exercises “in the nude” (gymnos = naked). It was also, at times, a lecture room. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had all taught in gymnasia, as well as in other places. In Roman times the gymnasium developed a multi-functional purpose as civic centre, leisure centre, club, place of worship and school.
Most cities staged their own games in honour of the gods, but there were four great Panhellenic Festivals, - the Olympic Games at Olympia in honour of the national god Zeus, the Pythian Games at Delphi in honour of Apollo, the Nemean Games in Argolis, and the Isthmian Games, next in importance to the Olympics, on the Isthmus at Corinth, in honour of Poseidon. Here the prizes were crowns of pine leaves or parsley, whereas at Olympia they were made of olive leaves.
The Olympic Games were held every four years, and this period of time was known as an Olympiad. Only Greeks could take part, and no women or slaves could attend. A truce was declared during the “sacred month” to enable athletes to come from all parts of Greece to attend. This was necessary as the Greek city-states in ancient times were constantly fighting each other. Training for the games kept the men fit for war. The earliest and most esteemed contest was the foot-race, but over time others were added - jumping, boxing, wrestling, discos and javelin throwing, horse and chariot racing. In Roman times, both Romans and barbarians took part and gladiatorial fights with wild beasts were introduced. One of the altars to abstract virtues at Athens was the altar to Pity. When the Athenians were considering introducing these gladiatorial shows, Demonax the Cynic philosopher told them, “Do not do this till you have first thrown down the altar of Pity.” St Paul writes of having “fought with beasts at Ephesus,” an allusion to some great danger at the hands of the Ephesian mob. His Roman citizenship would have saved him from literally being cast to the wild beasts in an amphitheatre.
On the whole it seemed best to use the more familiar King James Authorised version for the following quotations from St Paul’s Letters, although the translation is not always the most accurate one and at times the meaning can be obscure. St Paul’s imagery varies, but most of his references are to the foot-race in the stadium. With the Isthmian Games in mind, he writes in his first letter to the Corinthians (9:24-27) that as in a race only one runner wins the prize, so they must run the spiritual race in the same way, - that is, to win, although of course, unlike the Isthmian Games, not only the one who runs best, but all who run well in the spiritual race will receive the prize. Even so, the heavenly prize, like the crown of leaves at the Games is not given to all who enter the contest. There is no suggestion in either St Paul’s letters or the Gospel of the Alice in Wonderland kind of thinking where all have run and so all shall have the prize.
As the athlete is forbidden to indulge in any excess while training, and has to follow a prescribed diet (referred to by the Greek physician Galen), so the Christian must practise self-control and be “temperate in all things.” The athlete makes all this effort to win a “corruptible,” or fading crown of leaves, in contrast to the infinitely superior “incorruptible” crown for which the Christian strives. St Paul then draws on the violent contest of the boxers to illustrate the very real adversaries against which the Christian must fight - passions within and the powers of darkness without. “I keep under my body,” literally “bruise my body,” says the Apostle, to “bring it into subjection.” The subduing of the flesh is a main part of spiritual conflict. Particularly in Great Lent and the other periods of abstinence, the Christian works to “bring the body into subjection” by foregoing lawful pleasures, not as an end in itself, but as a means to gaining ground in the spiritual life. St Paul writes that he himself must “run,” and “fight,” and “keep his body under,” lest having “preached to others,” that is, having summoned others to the contest as a herald did at the Games, he himself should fail shamefully. It is possible to receive the Grace of God as St Paul did, and still to fall away..
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