Paul's κοινωνα with the Philippians: Societas as a missionary funding strategy

This article endeavours to illuminate the socio-economic dimension of Paul's with the Philippians. It initially adduces a representative sample of philological evidence which demonstrates that and its cognates frequently convey the sense of partnership in some economic enterprise, and establishes a semantic equivalence between and societas (partnership). It is then argued that, from a Roman socio-economic and legal perspective, Paul's consisted of a societas unius rei (i.e. societas evangelii), whereby Paul supplied the ars and opera (skill and labour), while the Philippians contributed the pecunia (funds) to ensure the progress of his mission.