Erastus of Corinth


Erastus, also known as Erastus of Paneas, is a person in the New Testament. According to the Epistle to the Romans, Erastus was a steward in Corinth, a political office of high civic status. The word is defined as "the manager of household or of household affairs" or, in this context, "treasurer"; The King James Version uses the translation "chamberlain", while the New International Version uses "director of public works". A person named Erastus is also mentioned in the 2 Timothy and Acts, and these mentions are usually taken to refer to the same person.
According to the tradition of the Orthodox Church, Erastus is numbered among the Seventy Disciples. He served as a deacon and steward of the Church at Jerusalem and later of Paneas in Palestine. The Church remembers St. Erastus on January 4 among the Seventy, and on November 10.

Relevant verses

Erastus inscription

In 1929, an inscription mentioning an Erastus was found near a paved area northeast of the theater of Corinth. It has been dated to the mid-first century and reads "Erastus in return for his aedileship paved it at his own expense." Some New Testament scholars have identified this aedile Erastus with the Erastus mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans but this is disputed by others. This debate has implications relating to the social status of the members of the Pauline churches.

Hymns

Kontakion
Source: St. Nikolai Velimirovic, The Prologue of Ohrid