893
. From Craig S. Keener, “Between Asia and Europe: Postcolonial Mission in Acts
16
:
8–10
,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies
11
(
1–2
,
2008
):
3–14
. Reprinted by permission of the Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies, APTS Press.
. I envision his ideal audience as from somewhere in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean world, probably especially in the north or west Aegean region. If the audience is from the eastern Aegean, they would view themselves as part of “Asia.”
. Scholars emphasizing “postcolonial readings” should find fertile soil for exploration in this passage.
. Barrett, Acts,
771
.
. E.g., Fitzmyer, Acts,
579
.
. Hemer, Acts in History, 112
(esp.
112–13
n
29
).
. Mitchell, “Archaeology,”
138
. On Troas, see further Fant and Reddish, Sites,
331–35
; Blaiklock, Cities,
35–38
; Trebilco, “Asia,”
357–59; more extensively, Frisch, Inschriften von Ilion. For other towns in the Troad, see Pliny Nat.
5
.
33
.
125–27
.
. Fant and Reddish, Sites,
333
.
. Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
87–88
.
. Hemer, Acts in History,
179
.
. Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
94
, also noting that in the first century it appears that Ilium freely produced coins, but Troas did not. The wealthier part of the late Roman city apparently faced the Dardanelles (Mitchell, “Archaeology,”
138
).
. Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
88
(citing Polybius
5
.
111
.
3–4
).
. From the map in Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
86
(plus a comment on
92
), Ilium appears fewer than ten miles north of Alexandria Troas.
. With regard to continuity in Ilium itself: some supposed that the Palladium (Athena’s image) might have remained in later Ilium, unless Diomedes and Odysseus actually succeeded in carrying it off (Appian Hist. rom.
12
.
8
.
53
; despite the city’s destruction!).
. Mitchell, Anatolia,
1
:
208
.
. Especially emphasized in Philostratus Her.
2
.
11
;
11
.
7
;
18
.
1–2
; but the local tradition of Hector’s appearances appears in Maximus of Tyre Or.
9
.
7
.
. Philostratus Her.
25
.
13
, complains that Homer departs from this stated subject after Il.
22
. Homer’s actual explicit theme in the Iliad is the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles (Il.
1
.
6–7
) and how Achilles’s stubborn anger led to many deaths (
1
.
1–5
).
. E.g., Lucian Prof. P.S.
20
.
. In Dio Chrysostom Or.
33
.
8
, the actor apparently would have acted out Troy’s fall, to the displeasure of his audience in Ilium; Troy was among the most prominent cities to fall in Lucian Charon
23
.
. Dormeyer and Galindo, Apostelgeschichte,
245
.
. Believers in Troas itself might envision this less so, since their local experience would not be limited to their knowledge of ancient traditions.
. In reality, fusing Greek and Asian cultures.
. Between Macedonia and the part of the world including Syria (hence Judea), Phoenicia and Egypt in Pausanias
1
.
6
.
5
. On western Turkey as the boundary for Asia, see e.g., Le Cornu, Acts,
78
.
. Although Demosthenes Philip.
3
.
31
complained that Macedonians were not only barbarians but even unfit as slaves, subsequent Hellenistic civilization treated both Macedonians and the “hellenized” ruling class in Asia as culturally Greek.
. Virgil Aen.
7
.
224
; Ovid Am.
2
.
12
.
18
; Apollodorus Epit.
3
.
1
; Maximus of Tyre Or.
35
.
4
; Menander Rhetor
2
.
13
,
423
.
17–19
; Philostratus the Elder Imag.
1
.
1
. One could even depict the mythical flight of Jason and Medea from Colchis, from the generation preceding the Trojan War, as Europe opposing Asia (Valerius Flaccus
8
.
396
).
. Seneca Troj.
6–7
.
. From an ethnocentric Greek perspective (which classified the non-hellenized as “barbarians”), the Trojan War was a war of “Europe” against “barbarians” (Philostratus Her.
31
.
2
). This war became the prototype of any subsequent wars between Greeks and barbarians, particularly those across the Hellespont (Philostratus Her.
23
.
12
; cf.
23
.
16
).
. Polybius
3
.
6
.
4
; Menander Rhetor
2
.
17
,
444
.
4–5. Cf. Alexander’s alleged critique of his father’s ambition to cross Europe to Asia (Plutarch Alex.
9
.
5
, complaining that he was too drunk even to move between couches).
. Quintus Curtius
4
.
1
.
38
.
. Livy elsewhere couples Greece and Asia (
37
.
53
.
7
;
38
.
48
.
3
;
38
.
51
.
3
) and contrasts Asia (esp. Asia Minor) with Europe (esp. Greece;
34
.
58
.
2–3
;
37
.
53
.
13
;
37
.
54
.
20
).
. Plutarch Alex. 15
.
4
; Philostratus Her.
53
.
16
. He allegedly took a sacred shield from the Trojan temple of Athena (Arrian Alex.
6
.
9
.
3
).
. Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
81
; cf. Menander Rhetor
2
.
17
,
444
.
8–9
. The tradition has been questioned; cf. Bruce, Acts
¹
,
311
; see also Pliny N.H.
5
.
33
.
124
.
. E.g., Aeschylus Pers.
73
(they ruled Asia; Greece, by contrast, is in Europe, Pers.
799
); Aelius Aristides Panath.
13
,
157
D–
158
D.
. Lysias Or.
2
.
21
, §
192
;
2
.
28
, §
193
; Cornelius Nepos
1
(Miltiades),
3
.
4
;
17
(Agesilaus),
2
.
1
; Philostratus Her.
28
.
11
.
. Thucydides
1
.
89
.
2
(Persians retreating from Europe); Valerius Maximus
6
.
9
. ext.
2
; Cornelius Nepos
2
(Themistocles),
5
.
3
.
. Yet even Xenophon, whose Anabasis demonstrated Persia’s military weakness (providing the groundwork for Alexander’s later invasion), respected Persia’s glorious past (fictionalized in his Cyr.).
. “Barbarian” Asia opposed Greece’s greater glory (Valerius Maximus
4
.
6
. ext.
3
). The frequent exclusive prejudice for classical rather than ancient Near Eastern foundations for modern western civilization (e.g., Weber, Sociology; see Oakes, “Weber’s Sociology”) follows too readily the classical Greek division of the world.
. See comment below.
. Pliny Nat.
5
.
33
.
125
reported an earlier monument to Achilles near his tomb in the Troad; cf. Philostratus Vit. Apoll.
4
.
11
.
. Maclean and Aitken, Heroikos, lix. Still, Philostratus also recognizes the continuing power of the hero Hector (Her. 19
.
3–7
, esp. his help in
19
.
4
and vengeance in
19
.
5–7
).
. See Witherington, Acts,
486
.
. Hemer, “Alexandria Troas,”
99–100
.
. For trade connections, see e.g., Pliny Nat.
8
.
4
.
7–8
;
9
.
54
.
106–9
;
12
.
8
.
17
;
12
.
41
.
84
; Wheeler, Beyond Frontiers, 115–71; Drexhage, “India”; Casson, Mariners,
199
,
204–6
; for religious and philosophic connections, e.g., Juvenal Sat.
6
.
585
; Philostratus Vit. Apoll. Bks.
2
—
3
; for political connections, e.g., Suetonius Aug.
21
.
3
. For a fuller treatment, see Keener, Acts,
1
:
704–6
.
. E.g., Pliny Nat.
12
.
1
.
2
;
12
.
41
.
84
; Casson, Mariners,
198
,
205–6
; Ying, “Ruler”; Herbert, “Silk Road.”
. Traders with the Roman empire reached even Annam (today’s Vietnam) by the late second century, and others “traded with Malaya and Java” (Casson, Mariners,
205
).
. For the danger of mixing apples and oranges by confusing cultural spheres with traditional Greek continental divisions, cf. Usry and Keener, Religion,
41–44
.
. “Asia” in
16
:
6
is the Roman province, not Greater Asia.
. E.g., Cicero Rosc. Amer.
31
.
103
; Sallust Jug.
17
.
3
; Pliny Nat.
3
.
1
.
3
; Dio Chrysostom Or.
4
.
49
.
. A view of some geographers noted in Sallust Jug.
17
.
3
(who treats Egypt as part of Asia,
17
.
4
). The world’s primary division in Philo Mos.
2
.
20
is Europe and Asia, although he writes from Alexandria. Some texts mention just the two, but perhaps because only these two are relevant to their point (e.g., Dio Chrysostom Or.
8
.
29
). On the background and ancient understandings of the Europe/Asia distinction, cf. also Olshausen, “Europe,” esp.
209
.
. E.g., Aeschines Ctes.
250
; Thucydides
2
.
97
.
6
; Manetho Aeg. frg.
35
.
3
; Livy
34
.
58
.
2–3
; Appian Hist. rom.
11
.
9
.
56
;
11
.
10
.
63
; Bell. civ.
4
.
17
.
134
; Menander Rhetor
2
.
10
,
417
.
13–17
(on excellent governors in both, esp.
417
.
14
).
. E.g., Appian Hist. rom.
11
.
2
.
6
. Asia Minor was only a small part of greater Asia, which included, e.g., Scythia (Ptolemy Tetr.
2
.
3
.
60
).
. See e.g., Pliny Nat.
6
.
29
.
112
—
6
.
31
.
141
. Still, Parthians were called “barbarians” (e.g., Dio Chrysostom Or.
72
.
3
; Josephus Ant.
14
.
343
; War
1
.
264
).
. See comments on India and China above.
. Juvenal Sat.
3
.
62
.
. LCL
2
:
5
; see also Warmington and Hornblower, “Europe.” Pliny viewed Europe as only a bit smaller than Asia and Africa combined in Nat.
6
.
38
.
210
, and as roughly half the world in
3
.
1
.
5
.
. Of course the salvation-historical issue was specifically Jewish (a gift to all gentiles, Rom
15
:
27
); my point is only that by traditional Greek categories known and used by Luke’s audience, Judea belonged to Asia.
. See Balch, “ΜΕΤΑΒΟΛΗ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΩΝ,”
152–53
,
186
. It was not without reason that, in the heyday of historians wrongly calling mystery cults “oriental,” Harvard classicist Arthur Darby Nock pointed out that Christianity was more “Oriental” in character than the mysteries (Nock, “Vocabulary,”
136
).
. It was also more successful than the failed Persian invasion under Xerxes. It was not, of course, a military invasion, but a sort of cultural infiltration, an approach more successful in the past (Hellenistic culture, though maintaining Greek as its dominant element, involved significant cultural fusion).
. Regarding Judaism, see Gager, Anti-Semitism,
55–56
; Yavetz, “Judeophobia.” Many in the Greco-Roman world were attracted to what they regarded as the exotic and esoteric lore of the east or Egypt (e.g., Valerius Maximus
8
.
7
. ext.
2–3
; Lucian Cock
18
; Phil.
3
; Iamblichus Vit. Pyth.
3
.
14
;
4
.
19
).
. Hammond, “Western Part”; cf. Friedländer, Life,
1
:
284
.
. E.g., Bornkamm, Experience,
15
.