ERASTUS. - A name that occurs three times in the New Testament: 1) Acts 19:22; 2) Rom. 16:23; 3) 2 Tim. 4:20; but it is uncertain whether these refer to one, two or three individuals. In 1) it is said that Paul, toward the end of his stay at Ephesus (third missionary journey), sends Timothy and E. to Macedonia. The latter is, therefore, like Timothy, in Paul's retinue, by whom he is entrusted with apostolic missions. In 2) an E., who is treasurer of the city, sends his greetings from Corinth. In 3) Paul, emphasizing the abandonment in which he finds himself, says that E. has remained at Corinth.
The residence at Corinth, which emerges from texts 2) and 3), would suggest a single individual, whom the responsibilities of his office do not permit to absent himself from the city. The E. of 1) is not connected with Corinth and seems free from commitments hardly reconcilable with his character as an itinerant missionary. There would, therefore, be two E.s to distinguish: one (1) in Paul's retinue, the other (2 and 3), himself also close to Paul, but not freely devoted to apostolic work.
Others (C. Spica, Les Épîtres pastorales, Paris 1947, p. 307) think that it is always the same person. According to the Greek Menologia E. would have been a deacon of the church of Jerusalem, then bishop of Caesarea Philippi. The Martyrologium Romanum makes him bishop of Philippi in Macedonia, martyred there. The Greeks commemorate him on 10 November; the Latins on 26 July.
Bibliography4 works
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro