04_Peters_copiaaa_67-84 28/04/15 12:15 Pagina 80 80 JANELLE PETERS h`mei/j does not refer to those who obtain the prize; it only pertains to those who are competing for the prize. Thus, it would seem that the possibility exists that some of the Corinthians might not win the crown of the race or, perhaps, the crowns of the multiple events of an athletic competition such as the Isthmian Games. This exegetical possibility is reinforced by the exodus typology that immediately fol- lows the athletic metaphors of 9,24-27 in the next chapter 43. Paul in- terprets the deaths in the wilderness as a product of sin and a sign for the contemporary churches of God, whom he references with the first person plural, that sin will lead to exclusion from the race of faith 44. In 9,25, Paul reminds the Corinthians of the discipline (enkrateia) needed to achieve elite status as an athlete. Every competitor (avgwnizo,menoj) refrains (evgkrateu,etai) from everything (pa,nta). Whereas the athlete does so for a perishable crown (fqarto.n ste,fanon), the Christian does it for an imperishable one (a;fqarton). Paul’s “imperishable crown” would have played off the crowns awarded at athletic events. At the Isthmian Games held in Corinth during the time of Paul’s correspondence, winners received a pine crown, though a celery one had been offered in recent memory 45. Absent from Paul’s construction of the crown in 9,25 is an indi- cation of the individual responsible for awarding crowns, a role that would have been recognized as important and conspicuously miss- ing from Paul’s formulation. Crowns were awarded by officials and on behalf of certain groups. Conceptually, they could be bestowed by the athlete upon himself or herself 46. A common image in Corinthian visual culture would have been that of Herakles Crown- ing Himself as the apotheosized athlete 47. This image was dis- 43 J.L. SUMNEY, “The Place of 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 in Paul’s Argument”, JBL 119 (2000) 329-333. 44 A. YARBRO COLLINS, “The Function of ‘Excommunication’ in Paul”, HTR 73 (1980) 251-263. 45 O. BRONEER, “The Apostle Paul and the Isthmian Games”, Biblical Ar- chaeologist 25 (1962) 2-31. 46 C.M. KEESLING, “Misunderstood Gestures: Iconatrophy and the Recep- tion of Greek Sculpture in the Roman Imperial Period”, Classical Antiquity 24 (2005) 50. 47 An example is the cippus of Tiberius Octavius Diadumenus in the Vatican: W. HELBIG, Guide to the Public Collections of Classical Antiquities in Rome (1895) I, 77. See CIL VI 10035; E.S. MCCARTNEY, “Canting Puns on Ancient Monuments”, American Journal of Archaeology 23 (1919) 59-64, 60.