LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

28 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX
strategic plan to target the pater familias for conversion was a wise decision
for a number of reasons:
1. The pater familias was the “emperor” of his household. His authority
and decisions were absolute. Vincent Branick writes, “At the top of the
pyramid was the paterfamilias, the family father or other ‘head of the
house,’ whose power extended at times to that of the children’s life or
death.” 11 When we discuss the pater familias we must remember the oikos
or oikia was not defined
[b]y kinship but by the relationship of dependence and subordination.
The head of a substantial household was thus responsible for—and
expected a degree of obedience from—not only his immediate family but
also his slaves, former slaves who were now clients, hired laborers, and
sometimes business associates or tenants. 12
2. A common household religion was the glue that bonded the family.
Every Roman home had its own official house cult. 13 In the Jewish world, at
the time of the New Testament, the family was the primary place for
transmission of the household faith. 14
3. The first-century Mediterraneans were not an individualistic-oriented
people. They were more dyadic or group-oriented. Their basic unit of social
analysis was not the individual person but the dyad, a person in relation
with, and connected to, at least one other social unit. They were primarily
of the group in which they found themselves inserted. Without this
group they ceased to have an identity. Thus, the decision of one
member would influence and affect the rest, especially if that decision
was made by the pater familias. 15
4. The household was the foundation upon which the Roman Empire
rested. 16
With these factors taken into consideration one can see why Paul and
the other missionaries would try to convert the pater familias. The
conversion of the pater familias would result in a “people movement”
Branick 18-20; Elliott, A Home for the Homeless 188-89; Elliott, “Temple versus Household”
226; Castillo 113-15.
11 Branick 37.
12 Meeks 30.
13 Judge 35; Kyrtatas 28-29; L. E. Binns-Elliott, The Church in the Ancient World
(London: The Unicorn Press, 1938) 23.
14 Branick 46ff.
15 Elliott, “Temple versus Household” 72ff.
16 Tidball, 1984: 79-80; Judge 30-32; Robert Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community: The
Early House Churches in their Historical Setting (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1980) 15.