NT Doctrine — Acts 16

Paul and Silas passed through the Cilician Taurus Mountains and went directly to Derbe on the plain beyond. Next was Lystra, the pagan Phrygian town where Jews were too few to have a synagogue, but thanks to Paul, they had a church. By this time a young man named Timothy had risen as a major figure in the church there. His mother was Jewish, but his father was a well-known pagan Gentile. The Jews in that region knew Timothy as a pagan, but to the pagans, he was regarded as a Jew. So to settle the issue, Paul sponsored his full conversion to Judaism with circumcision. This placed him on par with Paul and Silas as far as Jews were concerned, and he joined their company. They continued visiting the church plants in the area.

This trio passed through the church plants from the previous journey of Paul and Barnabas, sharing the letter from the Jerusalem Council. As with Timothy, this gave the churches a much clearer identity that distinguished them from pagans and Jews both. The trio were hoping to plant more churches in Asia Minor, but the Lord restricted them from going either into the southwest or anywhere near the north coast of modern Turkey. They split the difference and ended up in Troas, near the site of ancient Troy. It was there they were joined by Luke, who now includes himself in the narrative as part of “we”.

The Lord revealed in a dream that they should head across the Aegean Sea into Macedonia. So the next morning, they sailed at the first opportunity and landed in Neapolis, directly across the bay from the island of Thasos. The land here is mountainous, with few flat areas. Thus, Neapolis (modern Kavala) sat on a narrow shelf near a faint pass through a ridge of mountains that otherwise ran down to the sea all along the coast. Through that pass ran the Egnatian Way, and it crossed one of the few open flat areas, skirting a large swamp. The Roman highway led them mostly northward to Philippi.

Today the ruins of Philippi sit at the southern tip of a great rocky hump of a hill, rather elongated north to south, and connected to some mountains on the north end. Just to the east now stands the City of Krinides, which had been the original name of Philippi. Once the Romans conquered Greece, this ancient city was renamed after one of the emperors. It was made into a Roman colony, populated mostly by Roman army veterans and offering all the privileges of their home city of Rome, with all the officials and Roman habits. Indeed, it was built up to look somewhat like a miniature of Rome.

On both sides of this elongated hump above the city ran a small watercourse. It’s impossible to know for sure which is the one Luke refers to as the meeting place of women who had converted to Judaism, but it was only a short walk either direction from the city. As was customary in Jewish synagogue services, Paul sat down to teach. Among the women was one who resided in Philippi selling the expensive purple dyed fabrics produced in her hometown of Thyatira, back over in Asia Minor where the men had just left. A Roman colony like Philippi would require a certain amount of this dyed fabric for official uses, among other things. The city also had plenty of rich folks who would wear that kind of stuff.

Anyone who traded in that purple fabric would be rather well off, too. The woman was named for the region whence she came, Lydia. She was baptized and persuaded the rest of her household family and servants to join her in baptism, confessing Christ. The trio had no good reason to turn away her offer to be their sponsor in the city, and her house became their home base.

I’ll insert here a paragraph from my previously published commentary: One young female slave in Philippi was able to cast fortunes by her demon, certainly with sufficient accuracy to bring in quite a big profit to her masters. There’s no doubt they knew it was the work of a foul spirit haunting her life. When she began following Paul and Silas around town, she spoke the truth. She used the standard pagan term for the Jewish God and said the men knew the way of spiritual security. The problem is that when demons speak the truth they do so without the power of the Holy Spirit, so it becomes a form of blasphemy, gutting the power of Truth. This grated on Paul’s nerves, and he felt compelled to deliver the girl from the demon, if only to end the blasphemy. Sadly, a good thing for her was bad for her masters’ business.

The owners of this slave took these men as Jews, whose religion was just barely tolerated under Roman law. They publicly charged these men with interfering in the religion of others, having driven out a pagan spirit from their slave. They added in common complaints about Jews disrupting Roman social order. A mob was stirred up and the local magistrates didn’t bother with any kind of hearing, but ordered them stripped and beaten by with the rods normally wrapped around the standard Roman symbolic axes carried by the guards escorting these magistrates. Then the trio were turned over to the jailer, a retired army veteran himself.

Since the custody order included ensuring they would be present for further court action the next day, the jailer put their feet in stocks, which meant a very uncomfortable posture, neither quite sitting nor lying down overnight. Nearing midnight, the trio sang a hymn, which triggered an earthquake. It’s for sure any other prisoners would have made that association, and Paul managed to convince them all to stay put when the prison didn’t quite collapse, but all the internal fixtures, including the stocks and doors, came open.

For the jailer’s superiors, it wouldn’t matter the cause. Losing custody of his prisoners would mean a humiliating public execution. The jailer lived in the same building; upon a cursory examination of the facility, he prepared to take his own life to avoid the shame. Paul expected this and called out for him to wait, as none of the prisoners had fled. So he came to where they stood and asked the same question any pagan man would: How does one find the spiritual security all men sought?

Now it became clear why the Lord had allowed Paul, Silas and Timothy to suffer this awful experience in the first place. The man was baptized along with everyone in his household. He treated the three as honored guests, dressing their wounds and feeding them. They passed the rest of the night in teaching and celebration. The jailer could do as he wished with his prisoners, as long as they were still in custody.

At dawn the lictors arrived to call for the trio to be released. Paul objected. His point was not to shame the magistrates, but to impress upon them that they were honorable men as Christians, not trouble-making Jews. This was the best way to gain a permissive attitude, if not respect, from the city government. What they had done in summarily beating these three men was flatly forbidden, as they were Roman citizens. Had Paul wanted to file a complaint with the regional officials, the magistrates would be very lucky if they were only dismissed, turned out of office. They could have been publicly beaten in the same manner, or worse.

They hurried and came to beg the men to leave town quietly, and may have even offered a bribe. But they couldn’t order them to leave town, and having gotten their attention, Paul decided to stay just a little longer and depart when it was convenient for them to move on. They left behind a church with a wealthy sponsor and a government official as member.