Erastus, Who Laid the Pavement

In 1929, excavators working near the theater at Corinth uncovered a limestone pavement bearing a Latin inscription. The text reads (in translation): "Erastus in return for his aedileship laid this pavement at his own expense." An aedile was a municipal magistrate responsible for public works and buildings. The name Erastus is uncommon in the Greek and Roman world of the first century, making the coincidence of place and name striking.

In Romans 16:23, Paul writes from Corinth and greets "Erastus the chamberlain of the city," using the Greek term oikonomos — a treasurer or administrator of public funds. The same man is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:20 as having remained in Corinth. The pavement inscription, dated paleographically to the first century, fits the period in which Paul wrote and visited Corinth.

The identification has drawn sustained scholarly attention. Andrew D. Clarke argued in 1991 that the inscription and the biblical figure are most likely the same person, noting the rarity of the name and the parallel administrative roles. However, Steven J. Friesen, writing in 2010, challenged this identification, proposing that multiple officials named Erastus may have served Corinth over time, and that assuming identity on the basis of name and city alone overreaches the evidence. Friesen emphasizes that the dates of the inscription and Paul's visit, while compatible, are not precisely fixed.

The inscription itself remains on display, a concrete artifact bearing a name that echoes in Paul's correspondence. Whether it belonged to Paul's associate or to another Corinthian official of the same era, the inscription demonstrates that the name and the administrative role it records were real elements of Corinthian civic life in the first century.