The Architriklinos at Cana

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) Translators have chosen a variety of terms to render the Greek determinative compound ... from the second chapter of the Gospel of John (2:8 and 9). The term is a title of some sort applied to an individual with a prominent role in the celebratory that accompanies the famous wedding at Cana. The NRSV translates it as chief steward. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., the principal annotator for the Gospel in the New Oxford Annotated Bible, glossed the word with headwaiter or of ceremonies. These are two incompatible choices, but, in offering them, Hendricks adheres to the general editorial policy of inclusivity of interpretive strategies.1 Leon Morris chose master of the banquet in his commentary, as did Andrew T. Lincoln for his.2 Craig R. Koester, in his study of symbolism in John, renders the term as steward of the feast.3 Martin Hengel, with the assistance of Gerhard Schmidt in translation from the German, abjured euphemism and settled on head slave.4 Jean-Bosco Matand Bulembat, drawing a contrast between the helpful service of the mother of Jesus at the wedding and the incompetence of the architriklinos, used head-waiter; Raymond E. Brown chose the same term in his major work on John.5 J. Duncan M. Derrett viewed the position as more elevated in status and rendered the term as master of ceremonies.6 The variation in translation would seem to relate to a debate about the status of the individual involved: is the architriklinos an invited guest with a special role in the ceremony, or is he a slave serving in the dining room, albeit one with an elevated position in the household? The primary objective of this project is, however, to provide a third alternative that nullifies that choice, although the resolution will not, regrettably, provide much help to translators. By reviewing the few extant occurrences of architriklinos as well as those of the inverse compound trikliniarches (...), I demonstrate that the term would best apply to an individual who is both a slave or freed slave and an honored guest. Such a confluence of social categories is so distant from the twenty-first century that no word in modern English will capture the incongruity. In reviewing the examples of both words, I apply the larger social context of dining in the first-century Mediterranean world as an interpretive tool to establish the role of the architriklinos. The latter task has been made much easier by the significant work recently done in comparing dining practices in the NT with those of Greek and Roman cultures.7 In closing, I make a few comments about the implications of this small lexical study for three larger issues in NT studies: the type of dining practices portrayed in the NT, the degree of hellenization in Galilee of the first century, and the historical accuracy of the Gospel of John. Before turning to the extant examples, some background on the choice between waiter and guest will be useful. Both of the standard interpretations of the architriklinos cause problems for particular constructions of Jesus. If the archi - triklinos is a guest with a special role to play, that role would probably be similar to that of a symposiarch at a Greek symposium.8 Such a scenario would be inconsistent with the degree of hellenization thought to be possible in a first-century Galilean village.9 Furthermore, if Jesus should be considered modest and temperate, attendance at a stereotypical symposium of the Platonic type would be incompatible with that characterization.10 If, on the other hand, one decides upon a servile status for the architriklinos, Jesus becomes a guest of a wealthy family-indeed, one that has a hierarchy of slaves not only in the household generally but even in the dining room. What is more, Jesus himself effected a successful, extravagant for this rich family by turning a large quantity of water into wine. With evidence such as this, it becomes difficult (but not impossible certainly) to view Jesus as a mendicant advocating a Cynic rejection of civilization. …