Conclusion
21
A Spirit-Filled Teaching Ministry in Acts 19:9
Acts 19 : 9 illustrates that, for Luke and presumably for Paul, no inherent conflict existed between an academic role and the Spirit’s activity in other ways. ¹⁷²⁹
Ministry in the Spirit
Acts emphasizes the empowerment of the Spirit especially for bearing witness to the gospel message among the nations (Acts 1:8; cf. Luke 24:48–49). Although some have sought to limit the commission to “witness” to the original witnesses, the Twelve (cf. Acts 1:21–22), it is clear that for Luke the Twelve are prototypical witnesses in a mission that continues.¹⁷³⁰ The Twelve do not and cannot, within the narrative of Acts, reach the ends of the earth, a mission that falls partly to Paul (13:47)¹⁷³¹ and also continues beyond the book’s open-ended conclusion.¹⁷³² Stephen (22:20) and (most relevantly for our purposes here) Paul (22:15; 23:11; 26:16) become witnesses.
This “power” for witness mentioned in 1:8 is often displayed in healings and exorcisms in Luke-Acts (Luke 4:36; 5:17; 6:19; 8:46; Acts 6:8; 10:38), including in Paul’s ministry in this context (19:11–12). But the coming of the Spirit more generally equips people to speak the message of Jesus like prophets for him; the Spirit was often associated with prophecy in early Jewish sources,¹⁷³³ and this is certainly a key emphasis in the programmatic text Acts 2:17–18. That the testimony is to be effective crossculturally is implied not only by Acts 1:8 but also by a particular expression of Spirit-empowerment Luke notes three times in his narrative, namely, inspired worship in other people’s languages (2:4; 10:46), including in this context (19:6).¹⁷³⁴
Although Acts 19:9 does not specify that Paul speaks by the Spirit in the school of Tyrannus, this premise may be safely assumed from the rest of Acts. Luke indicates in 9:17 that Paul would be filled with the Spirit, and while he does not narrate Paul’s experience, he depicts its effects in terms of his subsequent ministry of the word (9:20).
In the context of the present passage, when Paul lays hands on people, the Spirit comes on them (19:6); Paul likewise does miracles (19:11–12), an activity Luke elsewhere associates, as we have noted, with the power of the Spirit. Most importantly, Paul’s ministry in the school of Tyrannus explicitly results in the message about Jesus spreading to all the residents of Asia, Jewish and gentile alike (19:10; cf. 19:17). Like other summary statements in Acts (such as 2:47; 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 28:31), this one signifies that the crosscultural mission of the Spirit in Acts is moving forward. It is thus clear that Paul’s “academic” ministry reflects empowerment by the Spirit.
The Nature of Paul’s Teaching Activity in Acts 19:9
What was Paul doing in this meeting-place, and how would it have been viewed by his contemporaries? The Greek term for the meeting-place used here applied especially to schools or places of instruction.¹⁷³⁵ Such “schools” could meet anywhere,¹⁷³⁶ though houses or rented quarters were usually preferred.¹⁷³⁷ Scholars generally recognize the “school” here as a hall employed for lectures;¹⁷³⁸ such halls were common throughout major cities of the Roman Empire.¹⁷³⁹ Students of rhetoric would practice speeches in such a “schoolroom.”¹⁷⁴⁰ Some scholars even suggested a particular site for the “school” in Ephesus,¹⁷⁴¹ not far from the theater (19:29),¹⁷⁴² but subsequent research has identified that site as a courtroom.¹⁷⁴³
Even though most scholars view the meeting place in this text as a lecture hall, one scholar has argued for something like a collegium’s meeting hall (which the term could also accommodate), named for its patron Tyrannus.¹⁷⁴⁴ But extant inscriptions from Ephesus reveal that such associations’ buildings were named for their guilds, not their patrons.¹⁷⁴⁵ In any case, it ultimately makes little difference for the passage whether this building was normally used for lectures or guild meetings: what matters here is that Paul uses it as a lecture hall.
Even had it been a guild hall, Tyrannus need not have been the guild’s patron; he was likely either the landlord or the hall’s normal orator in the morning.¹⁷⁴⁶ Perhaps Tyrannus acted as a patron (perhaps at another patron’s recommendation), donating use of the building. At the least, we have reason to believe (and reiterate below) that someone was helping to underwrite Paul’s teaching ministry. Inscriptions reveal that some Asiarchs supported public lectures and education in return for civic respectability,¹⁷⁴⁷ and Luke tells us that some Asiarchs were Paul’s “friends” (19:31), likely meaning patrons (one common sense of the term).¹⁷⁴⁸
The likely text of Acts does not inform us during what hours Paul may have used the lecture hall, but many scholars believe that the Western text preserves a reliable tradition about this question: Paul taught from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.¹⁷⁴⁹ The Western text in general contains numerous guesses, most of which are likely wrong. This one, by contrast, is both plausible and specific, perhaps reflecting an informed source; if not, it is at least a better guess from within the culture than we might venture from our own today. Paul may have worked manually (cf. Acts 20:34; 1 Cor 4:12) for about five hours in the morning,¹⁷⁵⁰ then labored for five hours lecturing in the afternoon.¹⁷⁵¹ At least part of this time may have drawn interested artisans; it was common practice to break from work for several hours at 11 a.m.,¹⁷⁵² a midday siesta being pervasively attested in ancient Mediterranean literature.¹⁷⁵³
If the Western text supplies accurate information on this point, the hall was presumably used for other purposes, probably lectures by Tyrannus or someone else, during the morning, when school was normally held.¹⁷⁵⁴ Whereas secondary education normally reconvened later in the afternoon or evening,¹⁷⁵⁵ lecturers to adults presumably could exercise greater scheduling flexibility.¹⁷⁵⁶ Paul probably used the building when he could, and drew students when he could.
Most of the adults attending Paul’s lectures were presumably non-elite, hence would need to work in the morning,¹⁷⁵⁷ though a later source claims that even Ephesus’s artisans might break from their work to hear a renowned sage on occasion.¹⁷⁵⁸ Many of Paul’s hearers may use their siesta time, their only work break before evening, to hear him lecture; he may have had some other, more formal students (persons of means, or supported by Paul’s work or other benefactors), who remained with him for a longer number of hours.
Paul as a Christian thinker
Speakers often delivered orations even on street corners, but to have a special hall signalled status.¹⁷⁵⁹ Whereas Paul once used such public sites (Acts 14:8–10), he had become a recognized lecturer in Ephesus. Nevertheless, like some other respected teachers,¹⁷⁶⁰ he presumably welcomed outsiders to come hear him with his students; in Acts 20:20 he notes that he lectured “publicly” in Ephesus.¹⁷⁶¹
Ephesus would have viewed Paul as a sophist or philosopher—the two forms of advanced education, hence those naturally associated with a lecturer speaking in such a hall.¹⁷⁶² This achievement was no mean feat; whereas Paul’s training (22:3) must have prepared him well for speaking in synagogues (13:5, 15; 14:1; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19; 19:8–9), Paul by this point is able to move beyond the synagogue. He has thus developed the necessary elements of his training until finally he is able to present himself in terms understood and accepted in the broader Greco-Roman world, namely the categories of philosopher and rhetorician (17:18–31).¹⁷⁶³
Such a public role would have accorded Paul significant status, explaining his connections with some members of the local elite (19:31).¹⁷⁶⁴ (Even Paul’s work as an artisan [20:34; cf. 18:3] need not have diminished that status as it would, say, in Corinth;¹⁷⁶⁵ some wealthy artisans and a growing class of nouveau riche in Ephesus were challenging the status of the city’s traditional hereditary elite.)¹⁷⁶⁶
Paul supported himself and those with him (Acts 20:33–35), but it is unlikely that his artisan earnings would have sufficed for renting the lecture hall. If, as I argued earlier in this book, the Asiarchs of Acts 19:31 were Paul’s patrons, they may have helped sponsor his use of the hall.¹⁷⁶⁷ By sponsoring public activities, benefactors augmented their own reputations, and sponsoring a popular movement like Paul’s (19:10) would prove particularly beneficial in terms of honor.
Unfortunately, once a respected guild denounced his monotheistic “intolerance” of the city’s patron deity (19:26–27), being associated with Paul’s movement would have become a status liability. Luke’s narrative does not imply that God’s favor confers permanent popularity with the surrounding culture. Nevertheless, Paul, like Jesus in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4:42; 5:1, 15, 29; 6:17; 8:4), made use of the favor he had to propagate the good news.
How Plausible is Luke’s Portrait?
Some think that Paul never would have presented himself as a philosopher, given his rejection of worldly wisdom (1 Cor 1:19–25; cf. Col 2:8).¹⁷⁶⁸ Insofar as we are thinking of the title “philosopher” or someone trained in a formal philosophic school this caution may be prudent, but some popular philosophic language is difficult to evade in his letters. We know that Paul was willing to adapt himself to reach Greeks (cf. 1 Cor 9:21), and he could not have easily eluded the public perception that he spoke as a moral sage, probably a sort of philosopher.
Among categories to which public lecturers belonged, the options are limited. Religion was held to involve ritual, sacrifice, and cult; it was philosophy that addressed moral issues. Outsiders would view any teaching movement as a sort of philosophic school.¹⁷⁶⁹ Some already viewed even synagogues as a sort of philosophic school; their readings and homilies offered structural parallels.¹⁷⁷⁰ Indeed, some other Jewish teachers in the Diaspora, like Philo, may well have adapted wider Greek school models.¹⁷⁷¹ Some scholars have even compared the Christian communities Paul founded to original Stoic ideals that were no longer practiced by Stoics in Paul’s day.¹⁷⁷²
What do Paul’s letters indicate? Lacking many classical quotations but full of biblical citations, they indicate that Paul’s primary academic training was in Scripture (cf. Gal 1:14; Acts 22:3). Academically, then, he was a Bible teacher. Nevertheless, his letters are full of rhetorical devices that display at least some basic familiarity with rhetoric.¹⁷⁷³ Paul was no rhetorician (cf. 1 Cor 2:3; 2 Cor 10:10), and could not have succeeded as a professor of rhetoric among the elite (just as many philosophers, such as Epictetus, could not). Nevertheless, he had mastered ancient techniques of argumentation, probably developing whatever training he had and acquiring fresh knowledge. He knew how to communicate his biblical theology in a setting intelligible to the larger culture.
Paul probably had even less formal training in philosophy than in rhetoric. Since most philosophers knew only their own philosophic sect’s philosophy well, however, this may not have been a handicap, so long as Paul could articulate his case logically and contextually. Paul’s letters reveal some familiarity with popular philosophic language. Probably not long after the year 50 CE, Paul employs imagery associated with the ideal Cynic (1 Thess 2:1–11),¹⁷⁷⁴ even though Jewish eschatological imagery overshadows it in the letter as a whole. As he spent time in Corinth and then in Ephesus, Paul must have learned quickly in dialogue with those among whom he ministered; Stoics could have appreciated some elements of his language (e.g., Rom 1:20; 2:14–15; 1 Cor 6:12; 8:5–6; 12:12),¹⁷⁷⁵ and Platonists could have appreciated a few others (2 Cor 4:16–18; cf. Rom 7:22). Paul’s philosophic vocabulary continued to grow, as evidenced in Philippians (e.g., Phil 4:8, 11) and (on my view of authorship) Colossians (e.g., Col 3:2).¹⁷⁷⁶
Paul admittedly shows little interest in many common philosophic topics of antiquity (e.g., rules of logic, language, or cosmological speculation), but his contemporaries would have recognized him as a moralist and sage, and perhaps found some cosmology and anthropology in his teachings about Christ’s universal rule and transformation of believers. In contrast to Philo, Paul would not have utilized Greek philosophy as an interpretive tool, but like Philo he may have sought to articulate a Jewish message in the idiom intelligible to his contemporaries. Paul was using an accepted academic forum of his day both to evangelize and to train believers.
Paul’s Teaching and Support
Teachers had freedom to conduct classes in a variety of forms: lectures in the formal sense, discussions, dialogues with leading students, and exegeting texts.¹⁷⁷⁷ In view of both Acts and Paul’s letters, we can be confident that the texts in Paul’s school were Scripture. In addition, he very likely used some widely accepted, interactive lecture forms like diatribe.¹⁷⁷⁸ This style would not have been hard to acquire, since lecturers employed it even on the streets and in markets.¹⁷⁷⁹ (Against Bultmann, however, diatribe was a common classroom style, not limited to street corners.)¹⁷⁸⁰ Moreover, it was comparable enough to rabbinic argumentation¹⁷⁸¹ and common enough in diaspora Judaism¹⁷⁸² that Paul presumably could have readily acquired the style. If Paul’s letter to the believers in Rome offers a sample of his dialogic teaching style, he probably typically both interpreted Scripture and used forms of pedagogy intelligible in his target milieu.¹⁷⁸³
Ephesus, probably not yet captive to Atticizing rhetoric, would not be as demanding in rhetorical presentation as Athens or Corinth,¹⁷⁸⁴ so many could have desired to hear Paul (cf. 1 Cor 16:8–9). Because people were eager to hear respected speakers,¹⁷⁸⁵ Paul’s growing reputation would expand his influence (Acts 19:10). Apparently he refused fees (20:33–34), unlike most teachers,¹⁷⁸⁶ a factor that would undoubtedly have contributed to his school’s popular growth. Major cities like Alexandria¹⁷⁸⁷ did not have enough schools to meet the interest, and a rapidly burgeoning city like Ephesus probably experienced analogous needs, further promoting the viability of Paul’s school. Besides any regular students, Paul’s possibly unusual hours (noted above) may have attracted other observers. Thus, for example, students of rhetoric went to listen to speeches in declamation schools,¹⁷⁸⁸ and students could sometimes attend lectures of different teachers.¹⁷⁸⁹
Luke reveals that Paul’s Christ-centered academic ministry in Acts 19:9 impacted the local culture, showing that the gospel message can succeed wherever open and intelligent dialogue is available.¹⁷⁹⁰
Paul’s Influence (19:10)
Luke three times reiterates the successful spread of Paul’s message throughout Ephesus and the province of Asia, of which it was the most prominent city (19:10, 17, 20). In two of these verses Luke concludes a section with this emphasis (19:10, 20), and twice he indicates that Jews and Greeks alike¹⁷⁹¹ heard the message (19:10, 17). That Paul got the attention of the Jewish community might soften the blow of his rejection in the synagogue (19:9); that he got the attention of Greeks indicates his impact on most of the rest of the city.¹⁷⁹² The two concluding notices of his success frame the account about his ministry in healing and exorcism (19:11–19), as well as paralleling his “academic” ministry (19:9) with his miraculous ministry. God used both his teaching and his miracles to spread the message about Christ.
That “everyone who lived in the province of Asia” heard about the movement’s success (19:17) is presumably Luke’s hyperbole (as in Luke 6:17–19); the hyperbolic use of “all” appears in a range of ancient sources.¹⁷⁹³ The function of hyperbole, however, is to underline a point. Paul’s influence extended far beyond Ephesus. Ephesus was a strategic cosmopolitan community that exercised a much wider influence in the province and region.¹⁷⁹⁴ Many people from the rest of the province visited Ephesus,¹⁷⁹⁵ and visitors to Ephesus exposed to the new movement could carry news about it with them when they returned home or traveled.¹⁷⁹⁶
Ancient sources reveal how commonly rumors and reports traveled from one location to another in antiquity,¹⁷⁹⁷ and the province of Roman Asia was no exception. An earlier account tells of a rumor spreading throughout Asia,¹⁷⁹⁸ and a later story speaks of how people not only in Ephesus but all Asia wanted the company of a particular prominent youth.¹⁷⁹⁹ What was true in general was also relevant to popular teachers: once a teacher became famous, people from elsewhere might hear and might also visit.¹⁸⁰⁰
Paul’s success in the province of Asia is not Luke’s fantasy.¹⁸⁰¹ Paul’s own letters attest the significance of his ministry in Ephesus and Asia (1 Cor 16:8–9, 19; Rom 16:5),¹⁸⁰² and a generation later we read of churches in the region that had already been established for some time (Rev 2–3).¹⁸⁰³ Some of Paul’s associates or students in Ephesus undoubtedly carried the word further, to people Paul had not met in person (see Col 1:7; 2:1; 4:12–13).¹⁸⁰⁴ Spreading from a major urban center, new ideas would make their way even to villages that might have been more resistant initially.¹⁸⁰⁵ Although disciples sometimes disagreed with their teachers,¹⁸⁰⁶ they nearly always respected them, and they usually propagated their ideas.¹⁸⁰⁷ In a more general way, people normally sought to honor their benefactors by propagating their fame.¹⁸⁰⁸
Conclusion
Luke portrays various ways that the Spirit empowers Christ’s servants to bear witness for him. While Luke’s focus is primarily on evangelism rather than teaching, given the larger theme of his work, Acts 19:9 attests that Spirit-empowered speech for Christ can include speaking in an academic setting. From what we know of Paul’s letters and the wider culture, Paul’s Spirit-inspired teaching surely included both biblical exposition and a teaching style that engaged his first-century listeners. Such an observation may offer a valuable model for those academicians today who value the Spirit and people of the Spirit who value study.