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Acts forms a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and narrates the evangelistic activities of the apostles during the 3o-year period following Jesus' ascension to heaven. The book's position between the Gospels and the Epistles makes thematic sense by emphasizing the apostles' carrying out Christ's Great Commission through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7ff.) and by introducing the widespread Christian congregations, the letters to which elaborate Jesus' teachings.

Content

The first dozen chapters of Acts track the birth of the Christian church and the spread of the gospel among the Jews, first in Jerusalem and throughout the surrounding territory of Judea (chs. 1-7), and then northward to Samaria and neighboring regions (chs. 8-12). The Apostle Peter occupies the most prominent leadership role in these efforts. The rest of the book (chs. 13-28) traces the northwesterly spread of the gospel mainly among the Gentiles in Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece through the missionary journeys of Paul, whose continued preaching in Rome while a prisoner awaiting trial ends the account. Written primarily for a Gentile audience, as was Luke, Acts portrays Christianity as fulfilled Judaism. The Roman government of the 1st century A.D. declared legal the religions of the nations it conquered. Judaism fit this category, so certifying the mother-daughter relationship of Judaism and Christianity became especially urgent for Christianity. And since social unrest arose wherever the gospel took root, Acts takes particular pains to portray Christianity as nonthreatening to Rome, possibly to assure Roman citizens that nothing should prevent their participation in the Christian community.

Authorship and Date

The same author who wrote the Gospel of Luke also wrote Acts. Both books are dedicated to a man named Theophilus. Acts 1:1 refers to the "first account" (the preceding, companion volume), and both works display similarities of thematic interest and writing style. The "we"sections of Acts reveal that on Paul's second missionary journey Luke accompanied him as far as Philippi (in Macedonia) and rejoined the apostle for the return trip to Palestine at the end of his third evangelistic tour. Likely, Luke relied on his own memory of eyewitnessed events and gleaned additional information from Paul and his other traveling companions (e.g., Barnabas, Silas, and Timothy), from Christians in Jerusalem, Antioch (Syria), and elsewhere, from the administrator-evangelist Philip, and from written documents such as the decree of the Jerusalem Council (15:23-29) and the letter of Claudius Lysias (23:26-30). Because Luke does not record Paul's trial by Emperor Nero, Nerds persecution of Christians (which began in 64), or the Jewish Revolt of 67-70, some scholars date Acts to the early 6os. Since, presumably, Luke wrote Acts after writing his Gospel account, most scholars propose a later date in the 8os.

1:1-11 Reviewing the Facts

As a sequel to Luke, Acts begins by recapping the last 40 verses of the Gospel. Those verses recount Jesus' postresurrection appearances, instructions to the apostles, and ascension to heaven (vv. 3-12; cf. Luke 24:13-53). When in anticipation of the day of Pentecost Jesus foretells the apostles' baptism in the Holy Spirit, they wonder aloud about the imminence of the messianic kingdom, which the Old Testament associates with an outpouring of God's Spirit and characterizes as a worldwide phenomenon with Israel at the fore (e.g., Isaiah 11-12). But Jesus redirects the apostles' attention to their immediate mission of evangelizing the world (v. 8; cf. Luke 24:47). His admonition to ignore distracting interests and instead to focus on fulfilling the Great Commission, plus the emphasis on the enabling Holy Spirit, make for a fitting transition from the Gospel of John, which stresses both themes in its later chapters (e.g., John 14:16ff.;16:7ff.; 20:22; 21:18-22). The Bible regularly associates clouds with the presence of God, thus the incarnate Christ's conveyance to heaven in a cloud and his angelically foretold return "in the same way" (vv. 9-11; cf. Exod. 13:21; 40:34; Rev. 1:7).

Acts and History

Unlike the modern sense of history as a record of names, dates, and events in the past, in the ancient world history writing often represented a chronicle or journal of current or recent happenings and the author's impressions. Approaches to understanding the type of history represented in Acts include reading the book as either Acts of the Apostles or as Acts of the Holy Spirit. While both readings offer useful perspectives, neither is altogether sufficient as a lens through which to read the entire set of events depicted in the book. Only certain apostles - notably Peter and Paul - receive significant narrative focus, and the pivotal role of the Holy Spirit is mentioned infrequently (e.g., 8:29, 39; 10:19;132, 4). A more comprehensive view is to understand Luke-Acts as the story of how God's promise to Abraham was connected to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (cf. Luke 1:5; 24:49). Specifically in Acts, the work of Jesus is understood as directly connected to fulfillment of promise (cf.1:4; 2:33, 39; 7:17; 26:6-7). Indeed, in the introduction to his two-volume account of the beginnings of the Christian movement (the Gospel and Acts), Luke sets forth to present an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us" (Luke 1:1-4).

Perhaps the best way to discern what the book of Acts is essentially about is to compare the composition of the Christian

community at the beginning of Acts and at the end. At the beginning, the community is comprised primarily of Jews. At the end, it includes persons from a wide range of ethnicities. In fact, this transformation of the community of believers is the result of the living out of the promise. In Acts, the historical movement is toward inclusion of all nations and away from a perspective that made the law of Moses a necessary requirement for Christian faith. It is no surprise that Paul, in the course of his work among Gentiles, relied quite heavily on the promise to justify the inclusion of non-Jews (e.g., Rom. 4:14-16; Gal. 3:14-19).

Given this combination of enactment of the promise and of communal growth in Acts, an examination of the story-telling process embodied in Acts will prove illustrative.

Twelve to Seven to Paul

The reorganization of the Twelve in chapter 1 foreshadows how they will be characterized throughout the narrative. Luke portrays them as ones who are concerned to maintain a powerful Jewish cultural symbol: the Twelve. By chapter 6, Luke has transformed the Twelve. Here they are portrayed as having instituted a communal hierarchy with them at the top, and the community's division of labor is based upon this hierarchy (cf. 6:1-6). Luke depicts the Twelve as believers in Jesus who occupy a

position of authority, based upon both their knowledge about Jesus and their Jewish heritage (1:15-22). Their primary focus is on Jews, although those non-Jews who submit to the law of Moses may be included (e.g., 6:5). After chapter 6, the Twelve, as a group, are not mentioned again in Acts.

In chapter 6, the Seven are introduced N. 5). Notably, here also a major shift occurs regarding who addresses the Jerusalem Jewish council on behalf of the faith. Previously in Acts, only Peter - a member of the Twelve - has spoken on behalf of the faith. Now a series of events occur that place Stephen - a member of the Seven - before the council. His remarks include references to Abraham (7:2, 8,16,17, 32) and lead to a general persecution of believers, which causes the movement to expand into the regions to which the Christians are fleeing. Only the Twelve are left in Jerusalem (8:1). Narrative focus remains on the ministry of the Seven until Saul - later called Paul (13:9) - comes to accept Jesus (9:1-9).

Transformation of Paul

We are introduced to Saul as Stephen is being killed. Luke characterizes Saul as a "young man." He is Jewish and has animosity for Jewish Christians (8:1; 9:1-2). In Acts, Saul begins as an upholder of the authority and worldview of the Jerusalem temple authorities. A transformation toward acceptance of the fulfillment of the promise takes place when Jesus confronts Paul (9:5). Paul's worldview became flexible. He is successful in negotiating the boundaries of a variety of cultures but only after his transformation. This experience was radical, and so is his ability to move crossculturally to carry out the promise.

Transformation of Peter

Peter is introduced as a leader among the Twelve. As Luke portrays the events, under Peter's leadership the movement did not move beyond the geographical bounds of Jerusalem. Peter and John went to Samaria, but only in response to the missionary activity of one of the Seven, Philip (8:14-25). After this, Peter is depicted away from Jerusalem, but only among Jews and possibly

Samaritans (8:25; 9:32-43). At this point he has not expanded his own worldview to include the "ends of the earth."

Chapter io depicts the process of transforming Peter. On a rooftop in Joppa, Peter has a vision and is challenged to forgo the restrictions of Mosaic law (v. i5). In Luke's account, a vision, a conversation with a divine voice (vv. 13-16), and a visit from the Spirit (vv. 19-2o) occur to encourage Peter to see the implications of the promise.

The Spirit sends Peter to Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman army. Peter goes to Cornelius's house out of obedience to the Spirit, but he does not know what he is expected to do once there (10:28). Here Luke portrays explicitly Peter's unchanged worldview. He is a believer in Jesus whose acceptance of Mosaic law forbids interaction with non-Jews. After

hearing Cornelius's account of how God had instructed him to send for Peter, Peter exclaims: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God" (10:34)• In fact, it is the transformed Peter who speaks on behalf of nonJewish inclusion at the Jerusalem council that convenes to discuss Jewish and Gentile community rules (15:7-ii).

Conclusion

Acts is history that incorporates an emphasis on the transformational impact of the promise. Persons, institutions, and the world are being transformed to conform to the embodiment of the promise in history. Believers today are the heirs to this work.

COTTREL R. CARSON

1:12-26 Obedience and Prayerful Preparation

The apostles (less the late traitor, Judas Iscariot) demonstrate their obedience to Christ's command "not to leave Jerusalem" (v. 4) by returning to the city from the site of Jesus' ascension, the Mount of Olives ("Olivet"), which rises up from the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. A "Sabbath day's journey" equals three-fifths of a mile, the maximum distance allowed by Jewish law for travel on the day of rest. The devotion of the apostles to prayer, their unity of mind, and their inclusive association with other believers, including women (to whose voice the Gospel of Luke gives unique prominence), show the fledgling church as a model community.

Beginning in verse 15 and continuing through chapter 12, the Apostle Peter takes the lead in "shepherding" the Christian flock and furthering the mission to the Jews (cf. John 21:15-17). His first initiative consists in identifying a replacement for Judas. The disciples nominate two men whose faithfulness during Jesus' earthly ministry parallels that of the apostles, from their favorable response to the baptism of John up to the present moment. Lots are cast to determine God's will, and Matthias emerges as the candidate of divine choice.

2 The Holy Spirit Rushes In

The day of Pentecost - the Feast of Weeks, which concludes the grain harvest - falls on the 5oth day after Passover and the immediately succeeding, weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:15-21). It is the first Jewish festival after Jesus' passion and ascension, and the celebration sees Jerusalem swelling with pilgrims, both Jews living outside Palestine and Gentile converts who speak a wide array of foreign languages (vv. 8-11).

The manifestation of the Holy Spirit as a "rushing wind" plays on the words for "spirit" and "wind" in both the Aramaic spoken by first-century Jews and Greek, in which Acts was written. The "tongues, as of fire;" that rest on each of the apostles signify the Holy Spirit's enabling them to speak in foreign languages and thus to communicate "God's deeds of power" (the gospel) to the pilgrims present in the Judean capital.

The Jerusalemites, to whom the foreign languages sound like unintelligible babble, dismiss the Galilean apostles as drunk already at 9 a.m. But Peter explains the occurrence as satisfying the prophecy of Joel concerning the outpouring of God's Spirit. Peter's sermon proclaims the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ as embodying the ultimate heir whom God promised to David (2 Sam. 7:12-16). The apostle points out the responsibility of his audience in putting Jesus to death, and some 3000 people respond by accepting baptism to demonstrate repentance. In turn, they receive the Holy Spirit, thus signifying their forgiveness. Together the Christians pursue communal living characterized by corporate learning, prayer, and worship and the sharing of meals, property, and possessions. The apostles perform miracles ("wonders and signs"), and new converts join the Christian community daily.

3 Peter Heals and Preaches

Peter's healing of a man lame since birth provides an example of the "wonders" performed by the apostles. The lame beggar sits outside the temple gate because his condition makes him ritually unfit to approach God's holy sanctu ary. His physical exuberance over having been healed and enabled to enter the temple precincts on his own two feet catches the attention of other worshippers. Peter gives all the credit to Christ, reminds the awestruck onlookers that out of ignorance and in fulfillment of God's purposes they put Jesus to death (cf. the "Suffering Servant" of Isaiah 42-53), gives eyewitness testimony to his resurrection, and urges the crowd to repent of their sins. The promise of divine "refreshment" and "restoration" after "returning" to God recalls the assurance of Isaiah 54-55. Peter's observation that God raised up his "Servant" for the Jews "first" notes the initial offer of salvation to them (cf. Matt. 10:515; Rom. 1:16).

4:1-31 Peter and John Arrested

The Sadducees, who deny any resurrection from the dead at all, try to stop Peter's proclamation of healing in the name of the resurrected Christ. But the arrest of Peter and John fails to diminish the effect of the apostles' evangelistic efforts.

Peter turns the hearing before the Jewish leaders into an opportunity to proclaim Christ as the only way of salvation (v. 12; cf. John 14:6), but despite acknowledging the "notable sign" they refuse to believe. The failure of the religious rulers to find a legitimate charge against the apostles, along with popular knowledge of the healing, leaves the leaders no recourse save prohibiting Peter and John from further public proclamation of Christ. The apostles counter that by preaching they are only doing the will of God.

When the larger Christian community hears about the ordeal of Peter and John, they petition God for continued "signs and wonders" in the name of Christ and like boldness to proclaim the gospel. In ancient Palestine, freed slaves became bondslaves by voluntarily submitting to a lifetime of servanthood to the master who emancipated them; thus the Christians consider themselves "bondservants" of the Lord, who frees them from sin (v. 29).

4:32-5:11 Sharing Goods

The convert Barnabas exemplifies the communal practices of the early Christians by donating to the group the proceeds from his sale of land. Later in Acts, Barnabas surfaces as a missionary associate of Paul. Ananias and Sapphira also sell some land and give a portion of the money to the apostles, while claiming to have donated the full amount from the sale. Peter discovers the lie, separately reprimands husband and wife - not for keeping some of the money but for lying about it - and both die on the spot. The swift and severe divine punishment for attempted deception of the Holy Spirit strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear and shows that participation in the Christian community is a serious commitment.

5:12-42 The Apostles Undeterred

In the temple precincts the apostles continue their ministry of healing and evangelism. The rapid multiplication of believers becomes too much for the Sadducees, who dominate the high priesthood. They again arrest the apostles out of jealousy and a reasonable fear that the increasingly numerous Christians will retaliate against the Jewish leaders, whom the apostles continue to blame for Jesus' death.

But during the night the apostles miraculously escape from the public jail and return straight to the temple to teach. The perplexed Jewish leaders usher them to a hearing before the Sanhedrin, whose members complain that the apostles have ignored the previous order not to speak in Christ's name (4:18). Peter repeats their obligation to obey God, not human beings. When Peter preaches the exalted Christ before the Sanhedrin, they plan to silence the apostles permanently. But one of their prominent members - Gamaliel, a rabbi who taught the Apostle Paul (22:3) - persuades the Council to drop the matter in hope that the Christian movement will simply fade away.

Herod the Great's palace by the sea and amphitheater at Caesarea Maritima. (www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

After receiving further threats and yet another flogging, the undeterred apostles celebrate their suffering for Jesus' sake by preaching both in the temple and door-to-door.

6:1-7 A Practical Problem Fairly Addressed

Jewish Christians from outside Palestine (Greek-speaking Hellenists) complain that their widows aren't getting a fair share of the communal food rations. Native Palestinian converts agree to appoint Hellenistic believers (indicated by their Greek names) to ensure fair distribution of food among all the Christians. The 12 apostles "lay hands on" the seven men to signify agreement with the congregation's choice of administrators. The group includes Stephen, the record of whose martyrdom immediately follows (6:8-8:1a).

6:8-8:1a The Lynching of Stephen

Like the apostles, Stephen performs miracles that reveal God's power and follows up with masterful arguments defending the Christian faith. But Stephen runs up against some determined opponents from a synagogue established by one-time Jewish deportees, who after release by their foreign captors returned to Jerusalem from areas around the Mediterranean. Unable to refute Stephen fairly, the Freedmen foment antagonism toward him by pressuring witnesses to testify that he blasphemes God, the temple, and the Mosaic law.

Stephen's extended self-defense rehearses the history of the Hebrew people, beginning with Abraham's migration from Mesopotamia and including Joseph's success in Egypt, the raising up of Moses to deliver the enslaved Hebrew people, their worship of the golden calf at Sinai, and the building of the temple by Solomon. Appealing to the prophet Isaiah (7:49-50; Isa. 66:1-2), Stephen charges the Jewish leaders with following in the spiritually misplaced footsteps of their forefathers. They themselves violated the Mosaic law by murdering the "Righteous One" (Jesus) prophesied in it. Thus their accusation against Stephen returns to them as an indictment.

Paul's Cities

Paul spent his lifetime as a Christian missionary travelling to almost 50 cities of the Roman Empire, proclaiming his message of salvation to Jews and Gentiles through the promise God made to Abraham. Although he would have preached wherever he found receptive audiences, whether in the countrysides or small villages, he concentrated primarily on larger important cities such as Antioch of Syria, Jerusalem, Caesarea Maritima, Athens, and others to which most of his preserved letters to churches were written - Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Colossae, and Ephesus.

Paul's letters bear the imprint of that Greco-Roman-Jewish cultural amalgamation that occurred in what he called the fullness of time" (Gal. 4:4). Nowhere was the culture of the ancient world more evident than in its large metropolises. It was to these that Paul persistently made his way, seeking out those cities with significant Jewish populations that would catapult his cross-cultural work into a new geographical area.

Paul's missionary method involved giving the gospel in each new city to the Jew first and also to the Greek [= Gentile]" (Rom. 1:16; Acts 13:46). He sometimes passed through significant sites without stopping to preach, such as the island of Samothrace, and the cities of Neapolis, Amphipolis, and Apollonia in Macedonia, in none of which any evidence of Jewish population has been found.

Tarsus

Paul was born and spent his earliest years in the Diaspora, the dispersion of Jews outside the borders of the Holy Land. He was "a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a

citizen of no ordinary city" (Acts 21:39), whose population has been estimated at half a million. The city lay on the Cydnus River, ca. 1o miles north of the southeastern coast of Turkey (ancient Asia Minor).

The Bema, a marble platform for public oration and the administration of justice in the agora at Corinth. Here Paul addressed the Corinthians. (www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

A great international highway, connecting the west coast of Asia Minor to Syria-Palestine and points east, ran through Tarsus, passing north of the city through the narrow Gates of Issus in the Taurus Mountains. It was the most important city of Cilicia, which was made a province under Pompey in

67 B.c. Eastern Cilicia was joined to Syria ca. 25, and throughout Paul's lifetime Tarsus was a part of the province called Syria-Cilicia (cf. Gal. 1:21).

When Julius Caesar visited Tarsus in 47, the residents called

it Juliopolis (the City of Julius) in his honor. After defeating Brutus and Cassius, leaders in the assassination of Caesar, Mark Antony spent time in Tarsus and in 41 had a rendezvous with Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, who was rowed up the Cydnus River dressed as the goddess Aphrodite.

Tarsus was an important educational center. Strabo, the 1st-century geographer, wrote that its citizens were fervent in the pursuit of culture and that most of its university students were from Tarsus itself (unlike Athens and Alexandria, which drew students from throughout the empire), so there probably was not as much cross-cultural activity in Tarsus as in these other university cities. Nevertheless, it did provide Paul with an educational setting in which to spend his early years. His later writings are saturated with images from the Greco-Roman world, and these play an important role in Paul's communication and interaction in his Jewish-Gentile environment.

Antioch of Syria

Antioch of Syria, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with a population of 300 thousand, contained the mother church of Paul's work, sponsoring his missionary journeys, and, more than any other in the empire, became identified with the early Jewish Christian outreach to the Gentile world. It was the "headquarters" of earliest Gentile Christianity and, next to Jerusalem, was undoubtedly the most important base of missionary work in the history of the early church. Here the disciples of Christ were first called "Christians" (Acts 11:26).

Jerusalem

Jerusalem was the most important city in the history of the Jewish people, their capital city, where God had the temple erected and where Jesus the Messiah was crucified, buried, and resurrected. Portions of some of the walls, streets, pools, gates, and buildings from the 1st-century city have been excavated in modern times.

Paul first saw Jerusalem as a young boy when sent there to study under the noted Pharisee

Gamaliel I (Acts 22:3). He lived in Jerusalem until his conversion to Christ and his call to become an apostle to the Gentiles. He ended his third and last recorded missionary journey by taking a large monetary contribution to the needy church in Jerusalem.

The Old City, in the southern part of modern Jerusalem, lies north and west of the Temple Mount, surrounded by a wall 2.5 miles long. This was also the location and extent of the city in the time of Paul. Its population numbered between 25 and 40 thousand.

Major Port Cities

During his travels Paul visited a number of major port cities in the Mediterranean world. Caesarea Maritima was the most important center of commercial and political influence in Israel, housing the governor Pontius Pilate, named in an inscription found near the theater, and the later governors Felix and Festus, under whom Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea for two years. A mosaic inscription from the floor of Festus's reception hall has recently been discovered. The Jewish king Herod the Great built the harbor city, which included one of his palaces also recently discovered near the theater. Other harbor cities visited by Paul included Assos and Miletus in modern Turkey, and Nikopolis on the western shore of Greece.

Ephesus

Paul spent three years in Ephesus, on the western coast of Asia Minor and with a large harbor now filled with silt. Ephesus housed the temple of Artemis (Roman Diana), one of the seven wonders

of the ancient world. It was the largest city in the Roman province of Asia, with a population of 200 thousand, and contained the most important church in the area, the first of the seven to which the book of Revelation was addressed. The theater in Ephesus (Acts 19:29) is still standing.

Philippi

Philippi was probably not a large or impressive city at the time of Paul's visit. It had been ravaged by a brutal battle between the forces of Octavian and Brutus only a few decades earlier (42 B.c.) and was repopulated as a Roman colony by the authority of Octavian and Mark Antony. Later, in 30, after Octavian defeated Antony's revolt, he forced some of Antony's troops to leave Rome and settle in Philippi. Of the several cities known to be Roman colonies in the New Testament (Philippi, Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, Troas, Corinth, and Ptolemais), Philippi is the only one specifically so designated (Acts 16:12). The international east-west Egnatian highway passed through the city. On the Sabbath Paul went to the riverside, where he "supposed there was a "place of prayer" (= synagogue; Acts 16:13,16).

Thessalonica

When Paul and his companions left Philippi, they "passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia" and came to "where there was a synagogue of the Jews" (Acts 17:1).

Thessalonica (modern Thessaloniki) is located on the eastern coast of Greece in the northern province of Macedonia. Built into the western slope of Mount Khortiatis on the bay of Salonika, at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, the city lies in a natural amphitheater. Since the 2nd century B.C., Macedonia had been divided into four smaller districts for administrative purposes, and Thessalonica was made the capital of the second district. Luke refers to officials of the city as politarchs (Acts 17:6); 19 inscriptions containing this term have been found in Thessalonica, three from the 1st century.

Athens

Another harbor city in the southeastern coastal area of Greece visited by Paul was Piraeus, which served as the harbor for the betterknown city of Athens nearby. Athens was an internationally known educational center more concerned with ideas than commerce. It, too, housed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple of Athena, also known as the Parthenon. A city of about 25 thousand people, Athens was so filled with statues, altars, and temples of pagan gods that Petronius, a Roman satirist, said it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens.

Corinth

Paul's limited success in Athens prompted him to move on to Corinth, 50 miles southwest. Unlike Athens, where classical Greek culture was predominant, Corinth was a Roman colony. In the 1st century B.C. it had a population numbering 300 thousand, with an additional 500 thousand slaves. Its Jewish population dated to the reign of the Emperor Caligula in the 1st century A.D. The city derived its name from the currant and was a wealthy commercial center of agriculture, famous for its vineyards and the

production of wine. The temple of Aphrodite on the adjacent Acrocorinth was renowned as a center of prostitution long before Paul's arrival. Immorality was so prevalent there that the expression to Corinthianize" meant to be immoral." The officials of the famous Isthmian Games were headquartered in Corinth.

Rome

Unlike most of the cities visited by Paul, the church in Rome had evidently been established by "visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes" (Acts 2:10) who had been converted in Jerusalem during the Feast of Pentecost and returned to the capital with their new faith. Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, was built on seven hills along the east bank of the Tiber River, 22 miles from its mouth. It was the official residence of the emperor and the senate, the political powers that governed the known world at that time. The city, whose population in the 1st century is estimated at between 6oo thousand and one million,

was filled with arches, streets, and aqueducts and was crowded with buildings constructed on Greek architectural orders. The Pantheon, one of the best-preserved buildings from the Roman Empire, still stands in the heart of the city. It was a temple dedicated to all the gods, built by the Emperor Augustus, and completely rebuilt by Hadrian between 120 and 125. The Mammertine Prison, where Paul and Peter may have been imprisoned before their martyrdom, still exists beside the Roman Forum.

Cleopatra's Gate at Tarsus, also called the Sea Gate, leading to the Cydnus River. (www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

For Further Reading

Blaiklock, E. M. Cities of the New Testament. Westwood, N.J.: Revell, 1965.

McRay, John. Archaeology and the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991.

Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome. St. Paul's Corinth. 3rd ed. Collegeville: Liturgical, 2002.

Paul His Life and Teaching. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003.

JOHN McRAY

Taking as blasphemy Stephen's description of the exalted Jesus, the angry hearers disregard civil law by seizing the right to exact capital punishment - the penalty for blasphemy, according to Mosaic law, but the meting out of which the governing Romans reserved for themselves. The dying Stephen's commendation of his spirit to Jesus and his forgiving prayer for his executioners parallel Jesus' words on the cross (Luke 23:34, 46). At Stephen's stoning, a young man named Saul lends a hand, and the incident seems to whet his appetite for persecuting Christians (8:3; 9:1-4).

8:1b-40 Spreading the Gospel

The stoning of Stephen sparks a Jerusalem-wide persecution of believers by Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah. Saul personally imprisons all the Christians he can. But instead of stamping out Christianity, the intimidation encourages believers who flee the capital to spread the word into the surrounding territory of Judea and north into the region of Samaria. Their preaching is bolstered by the exorcisms and miracles of the evangelist Philip.

A Samaritan local named Simon has been astonishing his townsfolk with magic, but the wonders worked by the Christian evangelist outstrip the magician's tricks. So much greater prove the miracles of Philip that they amaze even Simon into belief in Jesus. When word reaches the apostles in Jerusalem that the Samaritans are being baptized, Peter and John set out to impart to them the Holy Spirit, so signifying the Samaritans' full Christian equality with their traditional enemies, the Jews. Simon mistakenly thinks he can buy apostolic

authority, but Peter's rebuke shows the apostles immune to bribes.

When the apostles head back to Jerusalem, the Lord diverts Philip southwestward. The Holy Spirit leads him to a Gentile God-fearer (or perhaps full convert) returning home to Ethiopia and his job as royal treasurer after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Ethiopian's eagerness to understand the prophetic words of Isaiah allows Philip to explain how Jesus fulfills them. When the travelmates happen on a pool of water, the new believer jumps at the opportunity to be baptized. The homebound Ethiopian takes the gospel deep into Gentile territory, while Philip, miraculously transported to the southern Palestinian coast, preaches Jesus to the Jews, from Azotus (Philistine Ashdod) north to the provincial capital of Caesarea-by-the-Sea.

9:1-31 Saul's Conversion

Back in Jerusalem, Saul plans to expand his persecution of those belonging to the "Way," the term used to designate the community of believers. Armed with letters of authorization from the high priest in Jerusalem, Saul heads for Damascus, Syria, to arrest and extradite believers in Jesus. Near the city, however, a dramatic encounter with Christ completely changes Saul's course. From a flash of blinding light, Jesus voices solidarity with his disciples by questioning Saul's persecuting him through them. Reduced to dependency on his traveling companions, the visually incapacitated Saul spends the next three days sitting dumbstruck in Damascus.

There the Lord convinces a certain Ananias to heal the infamous Way-hater. Ananias lays hands on "Brother" Saul, thereby renewing his sight and imparting to him the Holy Spirit. Saul responds by accepting baptism, fellowshipping with the Damascene disciples, and vigorously proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God.

Saul's newfound enthusiasm causes the unbelieving Jews to plot against him. Supporters help Saul escape by lowering him in a basket through the window of a home built into the city's encircling fortification wall. Successfully reaching Jerusalem, where he had originally persecuted Christians, the enthusiastic convert meets with a chilly reception by the understandably suspicious disciples there. But Barnabas befriends the unlikely "brother" and promotes Saul's acceptance by the community of believers. When Greek-speaking Jews plot to murder Saul, the disciples whisk him from the hill country down to the coast and set him sailing from Caesarea to his hometown of Tarsus, in southeastern Asia Minor (22:3).

9:32-11:18 Welcoming Gentile Believers

Once again Peter ventures from Jerusalem toward the Mediterranean coast. Stopping at the town of Lydda, situated beside the main east-west highway connecting the Judean hill country to the seaport of Joppa (modern Tel Aviv), Peter heals a paralytic and thus turns the region's inhabitants to belief in Christ.

Summoned to Joppa by disciples mourning the death of their beloved Christian sister Tabitha, Peter performs another miracle (cf. Jesus' raising Jairus's daughter; Luke 8:40-42, 49-56 par.). The lodging of Peter with a tanner shows his Christlike willingness to associate with the socially marginalized, for Jewish regulations on ritual purity rendered tanners untouchable by virtue of their constant contact with corpses. The mention of Peter's housing arrangements hints at the apostle's readiness to respond open-mindedly to further relaxation of Mosaic rules for the sake of welcoming Gentiles into the Christian community.

The challenge comes when a vision from the Lord prompts a devout, God-fearing Gentile named Cornelius to summon Peter north to Caesarea. Before receiving the call to the home of this Roman military man, Peter himself sees a vision, in which God commands him three times to kill and eat creatures declared unclean by Jewish food laws (Leviticus 11). As a result, Peter does not hesitate to disregard the ritual taboos attached to associating with Gentiles. To the audience gathered at Cornelius's home, Peter proclaims God's impartial welcome of people from "every nation" (Gentiles as well as Jews) who accept forgiveness from sin through belief in the crucified and resurrected Christ, the "Lord of all." The Holy Spirit's "falling on" the Gentile hearers signals their saving belief and demonstrates to the "circumcised believers" present (the Jewish Christians who accompanied Peter from Joppa) God's full acceptance of Gentiles without their having to submit to circumcision after having already received the Holy Spirit. The new believers' submission to water baptism upholds the importance of the rite as a demonstration of membership in the Christian community.

11:19-30 Christianity Takes Root in Antioch

Through believers fleeing persecution in Jerusalem and missionaries from points west (Cyrene, on the northern African coast, and the Mediterranean island of Cyprus), Christianity continues to spread northward. In the Syrian provincial capital of Antioch - outstripped in population only by Rome and Alexandria - the gospel takes root among both Jews and Gentiles. The church in Jerusalem initiates a sister relationship with the Antiochene congregation by sending Barnabas to encourage the church there. Barnabas goes on to Tarsus to retrieve Saul (9:27-30), and the two return to Antioch, where they conduct a yearlong teaching ministry among the city's "Christians" - a term coined there, possibly derisively. The Syrian Christians demonstrate concern for the church in Jerusalem by sending back Barnabas and Saul with economic relief against the "worldwide" famine that hit Palestine ca. 46/47 (Claudius reigned 41-54).

12:1-24 Herod Struck Down

The events related here predate Barnabas's and Saul's mission to Jerusalem (11:27-30). In 41, Claudius awarded to Herod Agrippa I rule over all the domains of Palestine formerly governed by his grandfather Herod the Great. To curry political favor with the Jewish leadership antagonistic to Christianity, Agrippa perpetrates further persecution of the church. James, brother of John, suffers martyrdom at the hands of Herod, who during the Passover festival imprisons Peter with a view toward killing him too. But an angel of the Lord secretly breaks the bound and heavily guarded Peter out of jail (cf. 5:17-20). John Mark, at whose mother's house the local disciples have been praying, later becomes a missionary companion of his relative Barnabas (Col. 4:10) and Paul (13:5) and composes the Gospel of Mark. Peter instructs the prayer group to send word of his release discreetly to James - presumably the brother of Jesus.

Representatives of Tyre and Sidon, which had fallen from favor with Agrippa, appeal to him for reconciliation in the hope of restoring access to sources of food. They acclaim him as a god, whereupon the Lord inflicts on Herod a severe intestinal disease (peritonitis? roundworms? cancer?). He dies (44), and the gospel continues to spread.

12:25-14:28 Paul's First Missionary Journey

Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch, having completed their mission to Jerusalem and enlisted John Mark to journey with them. The rest of Acts will detail the westward spread of the gospel through Asia Minor, across the water to Greece, and eventually to Rome through the efforts of Saul, called from 13:9 on by his Roman name, Paul.

The church in Antioch commissions Barnabas and Saul, who sail from Seleucia (the nearest Mediterranean port) to Cyprus, Barnabas's home. The irrepressible Paul establishes an evangelistic strategy that becomes the format for all of his missionary trips. Following the example of the Twelve, who centered their evangelistic efforts at the heart of Judaism, the temple, Paul and Barnabas preach at local synagogues in urban areas. As the synagogue floor remained open to all qualified speakers, these settings expose the gospel to mixed crowds of Jews, Gentile God-fearers, and Gentile converts to Judaism. From the very start, a pattern develops in which Gentile enthusiasm for Christianity generates Jewish jealousy that causes the missionaries to abandon the synagogue setting and pursue evangelism exclusively among area Gentiles. Persecution by persistently hostile Jews eventually causes the evangelists to flee to the next town, where the cycle repeats. In this early stage of the church's development, the Roman government still views Christianity as a form of Judaism, and Rome's toleration of the

established religions of its conquered populations postpones official persecution until the empire perceives Christianity as a new religion, distinct from Judaism.

In the port of Paphos, at the end of their trek through Cyprus, Paul and Barnabas meet an influential Gentile - the Roman proconsul (ruler of the senatorial province) Sergius Paulus. The missionaries also encounter Elymas, an antagonistic magician who, for fear of losing the proconsul's business, tries to thwart his conversion to Christianity. But Paul's striking Elymas blind demonstrates to Sergius Paulus the gospel's superiority over magic and so seals his faith.

After sailing to the region of Pamphylia, along the south-central coast of Asia Minor, John Mark leaves Paul and Barnabas to return home to Jerusalem. In 15:38-39, Paul calls him a deserter, but Barnabas shows him the same generosity of spirit from which the newly converted Paul himself benefited (9:26-27).

Paul and Barnabas penetrate the interior of Asia Minor by going north to Antioch, near the region of Pisidia. Paul's first recorded sermon, given in the synagogue there, reviews the history of the Hebrew people and proclaims the resurrected Jesus as the culmination of salvation history (cf. 7:2-53). Paul also proclaims the availability of forgiveness and freedom from sin made possible by Christ's sacrificial death and offered on the basis of belief alone - "justification by faith," which Paul elaborates in his letters (esp. Romans). The Gentile hearers welcome Paul's proclamations gladly, but the Jewish aristocracy force the evangelistic duo to abandon their cause in Antioch (13:51; cf. Matt. 10:14).

After similar successes and persecution in Iconium, the missionaries land in Lystra, home of Paul's later traveling companion, Timothy. Paul's miraculous healing of a man lame from birth reminds locals of a legend according to which the disguised Greek gods Hermes and Zeus earlier visited an elderly Lystran couple. The townsfolk quickly equate Paul and Barnabas with those deities, but the apostles tear their robes to mourn their misidentification and rush to prevent worship of themselves.

Persistent Jews from Antioch and Iconium catch up with the two in Lystra, stone Paul, and leave him for dead. But the apostle revives and takes off for Derbe, final stop for this first missionary journey. On the return to Syrian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas backtrack through the same cities and towns, but rather than speaking publicly they concentrate on strengthening the faith of the believers made on their outbound trip and on appointing elders to lead each local congregation. Back in Antioch the apostles report their success among the Gentiles, perhaps blissfully unaware of the controversy brewing among Judean Judaizers over the spiritual status of uncircumcised Gentiles.

15:1-35 The Jerusalem Council

Gentile males who converted to Judaism had to undergo circumcision, in compliance with the Mosaic law. Some Jews and Gentile converts believed the rite should likewise apply to Gentiles who converted to Christianity. When such "Judaizers" from Judea push this doctrine in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas argue against the position, aware that the requirement will discourage conversion by Gentiles, who view circumcision as a mutilation that mars the Greek ideal of male physical beauty, and will foster fundamental differences in the form of Christianity practiced by Jews and by Gentiles who do convert. So the Christians in Antioch send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to settle the issue with the apostolic Twelve and the elders of the mother church.

Peter opposes some fellow disciples converted from Pharisaic Judaism when he denies the necessity for Gentile Christians to observe Mosaic law, which even Jews have found unbearable. Peter's argument appeals to his vision in chapter io, according to which God's repealing of the kosher food laws symbolizes his cancellation of the entire Mosaic law, and to the subsequent reception of the Holy Spirit by uncircumcised believing Gentiles in the ritually unclean home of a Roman! Peter deduces that Jews and Gentiles alike receive salvation solely through God's grace.

Jesus' brother James bolsters Peter's position with quotations from the prophets Amos and Isaiah that support the salvation of Gentiles apart from observance of the Law. But James suggests the Gentile Christians in Antioch voluntarily forgo Greek practices that will hamper their social interaction with Jewish Christians: eating food sacrificed to idols, marrying close relatives, and eating the meat of strangled animals undrained of their blood. With a united voice, the Jerusalem church composes a letter outlining the conclusions expressed by Peter and James and sends it to the Christians at Antioch by Judas Barsabbas and Silas, leaders of the Jerusalem congregation.

15:36-18:23 Paul's Second Missionary Journey

Paul's desire to check on the churches established during his first missionary journey sparks a second trip through Asia Minor and beyond.

15:36-16:5 The Team Splits Paul's disagreement with Barnabas over whether to give John Mark a second chance at accompanying them causes the team to split up (13:13; cf. Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11; Phlm. 24). Barnabas sails home to Cyprus with his relative Mark, while Paul and his fellow Roman citizen Silas (15:22ff.) take the land route back to Asia Minor. In Lystra Paul also teams up with Timothy, a half Jew/half Greek who undergoes circumcision to avoid distracting disputes among Jews over his status with regard to Mosaic law.

16:6-40 On to Macedonia The Holy Spirit prevents both the missionaries' preaching in "Asia;" a western Roman province of Asia Minor, and movement into areas along the region's northern coast. So the evangelists travel northwest to the port city of Troas, where in a vision Paul sees a man beckoning them across the water to Macedonia. Luke now includes himself as one of Paul's companions (v. 10). The travelers end up inland at Philippi, a colony established for Roman veterans. Pious Jews prove scarce in Philippi, which apparently lacked the minimum of 1o Jewish men to form a synagogue; for on the Sabbath Paul and Silas find gathered at the river a prayer group composed only of women. One of them, a businesswoman named Lydia, becomes the first recorded European convert to Christianity.

The Course of Paul's Ministry

Any discussion of the course of Paul's ministry is largely dependent on Luke's portrayals in Acts. While Paul's letters provide firsthand information about his theology, pastoral counsel, and relations with various churches, they generally lack a great deal of historical information about the course of his ministry.

There were certainly differences between Paul's purposes in writing his letters and Luke's purposes in writing Acts, and undoubtedly differences between Paul as represented in his own letters and as portrayed by his "biographer." But we must not drive too large a wedge between them, for both contribute what little we know about the course of Paul's ministry and of the history of the early church in general.

Encounter by Christ and Early Ministries

When Saul the Pharisee was encountered by Christ on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-19; cf. 22:6-16; 26:12-18), a number of realizations must have almost immediately become fixed in his consciousness:

(1) Despite his zeal and sense of doing God's will, his previous life and activities in Judaism lay under divine rebuke. A voice from heaven had corrected him, and there was nothing more to be said.

(2) Jesus of Nazareth, whose followers he had been persecuting, was alive, exalted, and in

some manner associated with God the Father, whom Israel worshipped. So he had to revise his whole estimate of the life, teaching, and death of Jesus, for God had vindicated him.

(3) If Jesus is Israel's Messiah and the fulfillment of the nation's ancient hope, then traditional thinking of the goal of life, rather than merely dwelling on the future, must be revised to emphasize what has been realized and inaugurated with Jesus of Nazareth and to focus on the personal and transcendent instead of just the legal and historical.

(4) The question from heaven, "Why do you persecute me?" signaled something of the indissoluble unity that exists between Christ and his followers.

(5) He had a mandate to minister to Gentiles on behalf of Jesus, Israel's Messiah and the nations' Lord. Later, he would come to understand that mission as involving the equality of Jews and Gentiles before God.

Immediately following that Damascus road encounter, Saul began proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and the Christ (Messiah) in the Jewish synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:19b-22). Then he took up residence in Arabia for three years (Gal. 1:17), during which time he evidently reevaluated his theology in the light of his Christian experience. After that he returned to Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32-33; Acts 9:23-25) and then to Jerusalem, where he ministered

to Hellenistic Jews and Jewish believers in Jesus (Gal. 1:18-20; Acts 9:26-29). Subsequently, he traveled to Caesarea and Syria, and then back to his hometown of Tarsus in Cilicia (Gal. 1:21-24; Acts 9:30).

Some of the afflictions and hardships enumerated in 2 Cor. 11:23-27 may have occurred during those days in Tarsus, perhaps in retaliation for an attempted mission to Gentile proselytes within the Jewish synagogues of Cilicia. It may also have been during this period that he began to experience the loss of all things for Christ's sake (cf. Phil. 3:8), perhaps being disinherited by his family, as well as having the ecstatic experience mentioned in 2 Cor. 12:1-4.

Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch of Syria, where he successfully ministered for one year (Acts 11:25-26). Here this group of Jewish and Gentile believers were derisively called "Christians" ("Followers of Christ"), for many viewed such a ministry to Gentiles and the fellowship of Jewish and Gentile believers as going beyond what was usually permitted within Judaism.

First Missionary Journey and the Jerusalem Council

Paul's activities at Syrian Antioch were evidently confined to believers associated with the synagogue, both Jews and Gentiles. The conversion of Gentiles who had come under the ministry of Judaism before they believed in Jesus would not have seemed exceptional.

During the missionary journey reported in Acts 13-14, however, Barnabas and Saul were providentially directed into a radically new policy for their mission to Gentiles - the legitimacy of a direct approach to Gentiles, with no prior commitment to Judaism required, and of Gentile believers expressing their faith in Jesus apart from any distinctive Jewish practices. Paul's acceptance of this new policy is signaled by the change of his name henceforth in the record from Saul to Paul (13:9) and by his listing first among the missionaries N. 13a) - with John Mark evidently registering his objection by leaving the group (v. 13b). The implications appear in the typical pattern of Paul's ministry at Pisidian Antioch and every city thereafter with a sizable Jewish population: an initial proclamation in the synagogue to Jews and Gentile adherents, and then, when refused an audience in the synagogue, a direct ministry to Gentiles.

Until now, Gentiles who had come to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah had been either full proselytes or "God-fearers" (Cornelius was an exception; cf. 10:1-11:18). Preaching to Gentiles directly, however, begun by Paul in his mission on Cyprus and continued throughout southern Asia Minor, was a matter of far-reaching concern at Jerusalem - especially in view of the tensions arising within Palestine after the death of Herod Agrippa I (A.D. 44).

Paul's new approach to Gentiles, despite his claims of divine sanction, must have seemed to many Jewish believers in Jesus to

threaten the ministry of the Jerusalem church and to raise grave suspicion among other Jews. It was apparently at this time and in this context that Paul wrote to his converts in southern Galatia, who were being influenced by Jewish Christians from Jerusalem.

At the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-29), however, the gospel was set free from any necessary Jewish rituals and practices (v. 19) - except for those measures intended to engender harmonious relations between Jewish and Gentile believers (vv. 20-21). In effect, Paul was left free to reach Gentiles directly, apart from any Jewish teaching or prerequisites, and to integrate them as believers in Jesus into the body of Christ," apart from any Jewish regulations. This was an important turning point in the course of Paul's ministry.

Further Missionary Journeys

Acts 16:6-19:20 portrays the working out of this new Gentile policy through two further missionary journeys of Paul throughout the eastern Roman Empire from 49 to 56. An extraordinary combination of strategic planning and sensitivity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit enabled Paul to establish churches in western Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece. Paul's ministries at such cities as Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus focused on God's direction in and supervision of the gospel's outreach, Christianity's right to be considered a "legitimate religion," and Paul's circumstantial proclamation.

During this period Paul wrote 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Corinthians, and Romans. A major concern of Paul throughout the period, but

particularly in the later years, was the collection of money from his Gentile churches for impoverished Jewish believers at Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 9:1-15; Rom. 15:25-32). This was not only an act of love, but also a symbol of unity that would help his Gentile converts realize their debt to the mother church at Jerusalem and give Jewish believers an appreciation of the vitality of the Christian faith in the Gentile churches. Paul seems to have felt it necessary to present the gift personally to the Jerusalem church so that it would be viewed as a true symbol of Christian unity, and not as a bribe - though he feared both opposition from the Jews and rejection by the Jewish Christians there (cf. Rom. 15:30-31).

Imprisonments, Defenses, Ministries, and Martyrdom

Acts 19:21-28:31 sets out Paul's somewhat circuitous final journey to Jerusalem, his arrest and defenses there and imprisonment at Caesarea, and his voyage to Rome and ministry there. Inherent in Luke's narrative are three major themes: (1) Paul's relations with the Roman provincial government in Judea ended with an acknowledgment of his innocence (cf. 2525; 26:31); (2) even though the Jewish high priests and Sanhedrin opposed Paul, the Jewish king Agrippa II agreed with a verdict of innocence (cf. 26:32); and (3) Paul's innocence was demonstrated before Roman and Jewish rulers and also publicly (25:23).

At Rome, despite being under house arrest, Paul was free to receive visitors, including the leading Jews of the city (Acts 28:17-28; cf v. 30). Despite all the difficul ties encountered, Paul continued "proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance" (28:31).

Some argue that Luke did not speak of Paul's execution because that would have ruined his portrayal of the triumphant advance of the gospel. Others propose that Paul's case never came to trial because his accusers failed to appear within the statutory 18-month period and so Paul was released. It seems likely that Luke intended his readers to infer that Paul's case - whatever its outcome - did, in some manner, come before the imperial court for judgment.

We are forced to look elsewhere for further information about Paul's Roman imprisonment, his trial in Caesarea, and its aftermath. Accepting the so-called Prison Epistles (Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians) as having been written dur

ing Paul's Roman imprisonment, we may surmise that Paul fully expected to stand before Caesar's court - and, while he could not be certain, he also expected to be released (cf. Phil. 1:19-26; Phlm. 22). There is little reason to doubt his intuition, and such a release may be dated ca. 63.

Accepting the Pastoral Epistles (1-2 Timothy, Titus) as genuine - whether written directly by Paul himself, penned by a secretary at Paul's direction, or coauthored by someone such as Silas - we may believe that after Paul's release from this Roman imprisonment he continued his evangelistic work in the eastern portion of the empire, at least in lands surrounding the Aegean Sea. Perhaps after that he even fulfilled his longcherished desire to visit Spain (Rom. 15:23-24; cf. 1 Clement 5). Since 2 Tim. 4:6-18 speaks of an approaching second trial, we may conclude that Paul was rearrested ca. 67 and, according to tradition,

beheaded at Rome by order of the Emperor Nero.

For Further Reading

RICHARD N. LONGENECKER

In Philippi, Paul exorcises a spirit from a female fortune-teller, whose masters resent their lost means of income and falsely charge Paul and Silas with public disturbance and infringement on the rights of Roman citizens. Ironically, the local authorities strip, beat, jail, and shackle Paul and Silas in violation of their right as Roman citizens to a proper trial! The evangelists witness to their fellow prisoners till a midnight earthquake shakes them free. Presuming that all the inmates have escaped, the distraught jailer attempts suicide to avoid execution for failure at his post, but Paul intervenes. In response, the jailer begs to know how to become saved and then takes Paul and Silas to his own home for first aid and food. When on the next morning the local authorities order the evangelists released, Paul and Silas reveal their Roman citizenship and refuse to go without an apology for their illegal treatment.

17:1-15 Paul at Thessalonica When the missionaries depart Philippi for Thessalonica, Luke no longer refers to the group as "we" The "we"-narrative resumes when Paul returns to Philippi, thus indicating that Luke stayed there, perhaps to pastor the fledgling Philippian church (20:6).

In the seaport city of Thessalonica, capital of Macedonia, the familiar pattern resumes: Paul's success with the Gentiles, then antagonism from the Jews, and finally flight from persecution. That "God-fearing Greeks" and "leading women" embrace the gospel casts Christianity in a good light, but jealous Jews' rousing of "wicked men" to plague Paul with mob violence makes disbelieving both irrational and unrespectable. In nearby Beroea, that "nobleminded" Jews prove to themselves the truth of the gospel by examining the Hebrew Scriptures, and that "prominent" Greeks also accept the faith, makes converting to Christianity the right and reasonable thing to do. When Thessalonian troublemakers hound Paul, their persecution ironically helps spread the word by propelling Paul to Athens, with Silas and Timothy soon to follow.

17:16-34 Proclaiming the Unknown at Athens By the time Paul visits Athens, the thousand yearold city exhibits a high degree of intellectual, cultural, and religious pluralism. There the disturbing abundance of idols provokes Paul to proclaim publicly "Jesus" and the "resurrection," which Epicurean and Stoic philosophers understand as heretofore unheard-of deities. The materialistic Epicureans held the pursuit of pleasure as the highest ideal, while the rationalistic Stoics prized steadfastness in the face of adversity. The curiosity of these high-minded philosophers gets the better of them, and they seek further interpretation of Paul's teaching. Given a platform at the "Areopagus" - either Mars Hill or the council that met there - Paul draws on the diverse richness of Athenian culture to fill the gaps in its religious poverty. He reveals to them the "unknown god" to whom they have dedicated an altar and quotes from the Greek poets Epimenides and Aratus in focusing his attack on idolatry (v 28). Having made the case for the Creator-Sustainer God for whom all humanity "gropes;' Paul foretells the final judgment by the resurrected Christ.

Some Greek philosophical schools tentatively taught the immortality of the soul, but the idea of bodily resurrection repelled the population as a whole, for the Greeks believed that the body only encumbered the superior soul. But Paul's knowledge that God created humans as a union of a tangible body and an intangible soul makes the bodiless existence of the soul an incomplete and imperfect notion, and he remains firm on Jesus' bodily resurrection. Unconvinced skeptics write him off, and others reserve judgment till they hear more. But a few believe, including the council member Dionysius and a woman named Damaris. Their high social standing bolsters the good image of Christianity repeatedly emphasized by Luke, especially in the record of this second journey.

18:1-17 Tentmaking in Corinth The association of Paul with fellow Jewish tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla starts in Corinth, some 50 miles west of Athens. The former residents of Italy had fallen victim to the A.D. 49/50 ousting of Jews from Rome by Emperor Claudius for rioting over the preaching of "Chrestus" (probably a form of Latin Christus, "Christ"). Paul's supporting himself economically while carrying on his evangelistic activities has spawned the modern designation of self-supporting missionaries as "tentmakers."

In Corinth, Luke emphasizes the rejection of the gospel by Jews, Greek God-fearers, and proselytes to Judaism. Their vehement resistance steels Paul's resolve to abandon their evangelization and take the gospel to the area's as yet unbelieving Gentiles. When the synagogue leader Crispus converts, however, others follow suit, and Paul settles in for an i8-month mission among the Corinthians.

When the Jewish opposition complains before the Roman proconsul Gallio that Paul's preaching violates Jewish law, Gallio dismisses the charge as insignificant and irrelevant to his judicial purview. The frustrated prosecution pounces on the new synagogue leader, Sosthenes, perhaps because they blame him for losing their case. Gallio's disinterest in the religious dispute allows the spread of the gospel throughout Achaia (= Greece). 1 Corinthians 1:1 reveals that the pummeled Sosthenes followed his predecessor, Crispus, by becoming a Christian.

18:18-23 Back to Antioch The vow Paul takes in Cenchreae, port for points east of Corinth, may express his thankfulness for past blessings, petition protection for his return voyage, or express a specific religious commitment. Aquila and Priscilla accompany Paul as far as Ephesus, provincial capital of Asia to which he pledges to return. Paul's homeward sail ends at the Palestinian port of Caesarea, from where he goes "up" to greet the church in Jerusalem and then "down" from the Judean hill country, northbound to Antioch, where the journey originated.

18:24-21:16 Paul's Third Missionary Journey

18:24-19:41 Upheaval in Ephesus Paul now retraces his route through the regions of southern Asia Minor called Galatia and Phrygia, in which lay the previously evangelized cities of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium, with Pisidian Antioch not far north (chs. 14, i6). While Paul makes his way eastward toward the coastal capital, Ephesus, an eloquent orator from Alexandria, Egypt, arrives in the coastal capital. Well educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and a believer in Jesus, Apollos no doubt honed his rhetorical skills in his hometown, renowned in the ancient world as a bastion of learning. But Priscilla and Aquila must inform the well-meaning Apollos concerning the baptism of Jesus, which supersedes that of John.

The Areopagus (Mars Hill), the rocky outcrop overlooking Athens, where Paul revealed the "unknown god" and called the Athenians to repent (Acts 17). (www. Ho l yL an d Ph otos. o rg)

After Apollos leaves for Corinth, Paul becomes the main teacher in Ephesus. First he rebaptizes those whom Apollos had baptized with John's baptism of repentance, and their speaking in tongues and prophesying confirm their reception of the Holy Spirit.

Paul's two-year, self-appointed tenure at a local lecture hall (during siesta time at the "school of Tyrannus") enables Ephesian converts and visitors traveling to the provincial capital to spread the gospel throughout Asia Minor. The apostle's healings and exorcisms underscore his teachings about Jesus. Paul's abilities outshine those of the seven Sceva brothers, sons of a selfstyled high priest (perhaps not even Jewish), who attempt to perform their own exorcisms by using the name "Jesus." When a demoniac attacks two of these magicians, many Ephesians come to believe in Jesus. They make public the supposedly secret rituals and incantations and burn textbooks containing magical formulas.

When a local idol-maker, Demetrius, recognizes the economic implications of Christianity's growing popularity at the expense of paganism, he stirs up trouble. Many Ephesian merchants sold goods relating to the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis (Roman Diana), whose "image" (evidently a meteorite thought to represent her) stood in the city's temple - one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Demetrius weds business concerns with religious fervor for the local goddess in stirring up antagonism against the "Way." The Ephesians drag Paul's Macedonian companions to the theater, which accommodated 25 thousand people, but most in the raucous crowd are unaware of what the fuss is about. Jews in the audience, fearing they would be identified with the Christians, thrust a certain Alexander to the fore to offer their defense. But only the town clerk can quiet the crowd, persuade them to see reason, and break up the disorderly assembly, which risks reprisal by the Roman authorities.

Daily Life in New Testament Times

Daily life was hardly uniform among the various residents of the early Roman Empire. An urban craftsman in Ephesus experienced life much differently from a tenant farmer in rural Galilee or a Roman magistrate in Philippi. Men and women also generally undertook distinct roles and responsibilities. The most profound differences in quality of life, however, existed between elites and nonelites.

Occupations

The Roman Empire was a preindustrial, agrarian society with an underdeveloped economy. Elites controlled much of the landed wealth, and they typically viewed manual labor of any kind as incompatible with their social status, instead exalting leisure as the goal of the good life. The labor force consisted of nonelites (slave and free), the majority of whom worked in agriculture (grain, olives, and grapes) and lived at a subsistence level. Although we have evidence for the continued existence of small landholders during the imperial era, nonelites more often worked as tenants on large landed estates owned by the urbandwelling aristocracy. The pastoral images of the Gospels (esp. the parables portraying agricultural day-laborers and tenant farmers; Matt. 13:24-30; 20:1-16; Mark 12:18) reflect these realities.

Other occupations included fishing, leather-working, potterymaking, and various crafts. Jesus

is identified as a tekton, a term used to refer to craftspersons who do hand fabrication, usually of some complete product such as a plow or a table. In no case should these artisan occupations be viewed in terms of the modern "free enterprise" system. The fishing industry around the Sea of Galilee, for example, was controlled by local ruling elites who sold fishing rights to brokers ("tax collectors"), who in turn contracted with local families who fished the lake. Given the location of his toll office in Capernaum, Matthew may have served as just such a broker of Galilean fishing rights on behalf of the ruling tetrarch Antipas (Matt. 9:9).

Education

Education in ancient Mediterranean society finds its origins in classical Greece and, except for the addition of Latin to the general curriculum during the Roman era, schooling remained remarkably uniform throughout the Hellenistic world. The threefold division of primary, secondary, and higher education will be familiar to modern readers. Less familiar will be the centrality of physical training and the general restriction of higher education to elite males.

Primary schooling was widespread and included children of both genders and nearly every social class. Beginning at age seven, children attended the reading school and the palaestra,

which focused, respectively, on elementary reading/writing skills and physical training. Memories of primary education preserved in ancient literature paint a rather dark picture of brutality at the hands of underpaid and socially despised instructors. Elites generally trained their children at home under the care of slave tutors.

Secondary education led students on to grammar school, where they studied the classics and, to a lesser extent, mathematics, music, and astronomy. Homer, Euripides, Menander, and Demosthenes were favored Greek authors; Virgil, Terence, and Cicero represented the Latins. Studies ranged from the careful copying of texts to discussions of a work's contribution to the moral life. The culmination of secondary education found students producing an original composition, typically in Attic Greek, on an assigned theme.

Higher education was the province of elites, who typically attended the ephebeia, an exclusive male institution associated with the municipal gymnasium, where future aristocrats spent a year or two in a program that was primarily physical and only secondarily academic in nature. The gymnasium contained a stadium and sand-covered courtyard for physical exercises, along with baths and a lecture hall. Activities included wrestling and related contact sports, as well as running, longjumping, and discus throwing. Completion of the course of study at the ephebeia qualified young males for full social and political acceptance into the small circle of powerful elites found in each of the cities of the Greco-Roman world. More serious academic pursuits at the third and final level of training included the study of rhetoric or, for a smaller percentage of the population, philosophy.

One of several pools at the gymnasium in Sardis (www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

Many Jews also received a standard Hellenistic education, as surviving evidence from the Jewish community at Alexandria clearly indicates. Other Jews attempted to insulate their children from pagan influence by focusing on Scripture and Jewish tradition rather than the Greek classics. Formal Hebrew schools, patterned after the threestage model, appear well after the establishment of the Hellenistic schools. Late evidence for Jewish primary schools (early 2nd century A.D.) suggests that much early training was done, according to the biblical mandate, in the home (Deut. 4:9; 6:7). Jewish boys clearly learned to read well enough to participate in synagogue readings and exposition (Luke 4:16-20). Debate in later rabbinical works suggests that at least some girls also studied Torah.

Housing and Life in the Ancient City

Ancient cities were smaller than the large urban centers familiar today. Rome, with ca. one million residents, was by far the largest, and most municipalities were probably less than a tenth this size. Population density, however, guaranteed that urban dwellers in the cities in which early Christianity took root endured uncomfortable crowding at home (200 persons per acre).

Extensive open space and attractive public facilities offered some consolation for crowded living conditions, and life was lived mostly in public - on the streets and sidewalks, in the marketplaces, and in public squares.

Privacy was rare, and few events in the neighborhood would escape the attention of local residents. Persons of common ethnic origin (a number of ancient cities had a Jewish quarter), or families who shared the same trade (e.g., the "Portico of the Perfumers" in Rome), would live and work in close proximity. While Paul was in Corinth he had no difficulty locating a couple who shared both his Jewish ethnicity and his craft (Acts 18:1-3).

Urban housing always presented a challenge, and nonelites generally occupied small rented apartments carved out of poorly designed buildings. These dwellings were typically cramped, cold, and dark.

The elites who owned these apartment buildings generally lived elsewhere. Large Roman villas, familiar from excavations at Pompeii, housed a number of the empire's wealthier persons. These larger homes, along with their

extended households, became an important component in the social life of the early Christians. The few elites who joined the Christian movement ("not many," writes Paul, but some; 1 Cor. 1:26) served as patrons of their local communities. The whole church in Corinth, for example, enjoyed the hospitality of a certain Gaius (Rom. 16:23), a gathering that could hardly occur in a cramped urban apartment. Phoebe apparently played a similar role in the Greek city of Cenchreae (Rom. 16:1-2).

JOSEPH H. HELLERMAN

Harbor Street leading to the theater at Ephesus. (www. Ho l yL an d Ph o to s. o rg)

20:1-21:16 Farewell to Ephesus The near riot in Ephesus marks the end of Paul's 27-month sojourn in that city. With representatives from several Gentile churches in Asia, Paul moves on to Macedonia and Greece (Achaia). There, according to Paul's letters, the Christian congregations entrust to the apostle relief aid for the church in Jerusalem, where he determines to arrive in time for Passover (24:17; Rom. 15:25-27; 1 Cor. 16:1-5; 2 Cor. 8-9). That Paul is forced to take the land route back through Macedonia allows Luke to rejoin him at Philippi ("we"section beginning in v. 6). Returning to Asia Minor, Paul fellowships with Christians in the port of Troas, where his long, late-night Sunday sermon lulls young Eutychus to sleep. Paul either revives or resurrects Eutychus from his seemingly fatal fall from a third-floor window. Meeting up again at Assos, Paul and his companions island-hop their way south to Miletus, for bypassing congregations on the western coast of Asia Minor allows them to make speedier progress toward Jerusalem (20:16).

Paul's long stay in Ephesus led to particularly close relationships with fellow believers, and his knowledge that he will never again see his Ephesian friends prompts him to summon the city's church elders to meet him in Miletus for a final farewell. Paul emphasizes to them the boldness of his preaching in the face of persecution, the uncertainty of the fate that awaits him in Jerusalem, and his determination to complete his missionary task. After warning the elders to guard against influences that would weaken belief, the apostle assures them of the sufficiency of God's gracious word to give them the promised "inheritance" (i.e., eternal life). Paul's closing admonition that they follow his example of working hard and helping the weak precedes his final, impassioned parting from them.

More island-hopping finally lands Paul and company back in Palestine. At the Syrian port of Tyre, Christians warn the apostle against going to Jerusalem, and further south in Caesarea Agabus predicts Paul's arrest in the Judean capital (21:11).

Remnant of the Roman road north of Tarsus. (www. Ho l yL an d Ph o to s. o rg)

Travel in the Roman Empire

The New Testament relates how a singular message of good news to humanity was carried across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire. Part of the preparation for the spread of that message can be credited to Caesar Augustus, who had earlier undertaken for the empire's strength and stability certain measures to ensure an unhindered peace, good communication, and a reliable coinage. These measures began a two-centuries-long period of peace that ancient writers such as Philo and Plutarch came to call the "peace of Rome" (pax Romana). Cleared of pirates, the growing network of Roman roads and seaways thronged with merchants, government officials, those seeking medical treatment, pilgrims to sanctuaries and holy festivals, holiday-makers, sightseers, teachers of various kinds, and students seeking an education. Conditions could not have been more favorable for spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:19-20) by missionaries and their converts who were a part of that increased traffic.

Overland Travel

Travel in antiquity was a much slower affair than today. The most speedy but least common form of land transport was by horseback. The only explicit New Testament reference to travel by horseback is Paul's hurried night trip under military escort to Caesarea (Acts 23:23-24). His earlier persecuting

mission to Damascus was probably on foot - unable to see, the persecutor had to be led by the hand" (Acts 9:8). Ancient sources report that, in very exceptional circumstances, a courier or dispatch rider on urgent official business might cover between loo and 150 miles in a day. This amounts to ca. 10 to 12 miles an hour. Distances of ca. 50 miles per day were much more the norm.

Donkey and mule transport were the more widespread forms of animal transport. A laden animal might make no better time than a walking man (Mark 11:1-11; Luke 13:15); an animal-drawn cart was only slightly faster (Acts 8:27-29, 38). But the modest gain in speed was more than offset in carrying power. A pack mule could carry a 25o-lb. load, and an animal-drawn cart between two and four times that. These options in transport were quite costly.

The most common and slowest traffic on Rome's highways and byways was pedestrian, and this would have included most Christian travelers. A normal day's journey by foot was ca. 20 miles (Acts 10:23-24, 30), though crises might call for covering much longer distances (23:23, 31-32).

Travel over land was also subject to the seasons. Many would avoid the dangers of travel during the winter months (early November to early March) and the discomforts and risks of the fall wet season and the spring runoff. There were, however, professional

travelers who were prepared to undertake the risks of travel in the "off seasons" for profit, as well as government and military travelers on urgent official business. Paul and other missionaries were probably among these more intrepid professionals (Acts; 2 Cor. 11:26-27).

Except where one was entitled to requisition transport and hospitality (Matt. 5:40-41; Mark 11:3-6; Acts 27-28) or could count on the help of family or friends (27:3; 28:14), the average traveler had to fend for him- or herself by sleeping rough or by putting up in a boarding house or inn. Wayside facilities were of generally poor quality and often rather nightmarish.

The genius of the call to Christian hospitality was that not only did it ensure close-knit local communities, it was also the means to a more vigorous Christian mission. Jesus instructed his disciples that they were to receive the hospitality of those who accepted their message on the way (Luke 9:3-4; 10:1-7). Hospitality to travelling missionaries (Acts 16:11-15; 1 Cor. 9:4-6; 3 John 5-8) and their lettercarrying associates (Rom. 16:1-2; 1 Cor.16:10-11; Col. 4:7-9) reflected well on the Christian community because it was an expression of love and helped spread the good news about Jesus throughout the empire. Where hospitality was denied (Luke 9:5; 10:10; 3 John 9-10), the progress of the gospel might be hindered.

Travel by Sea

In the century before Christ, the Romans had vigorously engaged in clearing the Mediterranean of pirates. This ensured a more regular and safer flow of maritime traffic and trade in foodstuffs, building products, metals, and a wide variety of exotic goods. Grain, however, was arguably the most critical transport commodity on the Mediterranean. Failure in its sufficient production and regular supply raised the double threats of inflation and hunger. The emperors were keenly aware that discontent among the Roman population was a risk to political stability. Among other strategies, they offered significant inducements to shipbuilders and merchants to transport a significant volume of grain - even during the risky season.

Paul and his associates book passage on trading vessels to and from the island of Cyprus and to and from various points along the northern and western coastlines of the Mediterranean on their missionary labors (Acts 13:4,13; 16:11; 18:18, 21-22; 20:6, 13-16; 21:1-3, 6). Later, Paul and the rest of the prisoner detail are transported to Rome aboard a coastal trader (27:1-5) and two Alexandrian grain carriers (vv. 6-44; 28:11-13). The first such carrier mentioned in Acts, bearing cargo and 276 passengers and crew, was certainly not the largest of its kind plying the open waters of the Mediterranean. Paul and the other passengers would have stayed on deck, bringing their own food and

shelter (27:3). The description of the ship, the conditions it met, and the manner of its sailing at Acts 27 match well what we know from both ancient maritime sources and archaeological artifacts.

Ancient writers such as Vegetius Renatus, Pliny the Elder, and Tacitus indicate that from the end of May to mid-September conditions generally favored maritime travel; from early November to early March seaboard travel was extremely dangerous. The rest of the year was risky. The temptation of riches and the risk of a sudden change in weather could be a lethal mix for merchants and traders. First-century authorities and modern maritime archaeology indicate that shipwreck on the Mediterranean was far from uncommon. In fact, the remains of ships and their cargoes at some wreck sites lie pancaked one atop the other.

That Paul was also a seasoned maritime traveler seems to be the case from his knowledgeable advice at Acts 27:9-1o and the fact that three times previously he had experienced shipwrecks and on one of those occasions had spent a night and a day clinging to wreckage out in the open sea (2 Cor. 11:25). The first Alexandrian grain carrier on which the prisoner Paul traveled was making a "dangerous season" run (Acts 27:9). It was also carrying a dangerous cargo. If not sacked or binned, grain can "flow" in rough seas, threatening breach or capsize. If it gets wet, it will expand and can split a ship's hull. The nautically

responsible efforts to undergird the hull of the ship (Acts 27:17), to lighten it by dumping cargo and tackle (vv. 18-19), and to drop four anchors to control its shoreward progress (vv. 29, 40) all failed. Driving shoreward, the ship became stuck on a sandbar just off the coastline of the island of Malta (Melite Africana) and was broken up by the surf.

One might wonder why Luke would include such an extended description of Paul's shipwreck. Luke's object, from the divine assurance given to Paul at Acts 27:23-24, is to demonstrate that the Lord Jesus provides for his prisoner witness so that his mission will succeed. Nothing - not storm, shipwreck, or snakebite - can stand in the way of the progress of the gospel to the capital of the empire and its sovereign (cf. Acts 19:21; 23:11).

For Further Reading

BRIAN M. RAPSKE

21:17-23:11 Paul Imprisoned

The Christians in Jerusalem, including Jesus' brother James, give Paul a warm welcome. But a rumor is circulating that Paul instructs Jewish Christians outside Palestine not to observe the Mosaic law - a teaching utterly intolerable to legal loyalists in the religious capital. To discredit the rumor, Paul shows his respect for Jewish law by voluntarily undergoing prescribed purification rites along with four other Jewish Christians. Their ritual defilement while fulfilling a Nazirite vow necessitates a week of "cleansing" before resuming the obligations of the vow, which ends in shaving the head and presenting offerings at the temple. But Paul's well-intentioned demonstration backfires when Jews from western Asia Minor spy Paul in the inner court of the temple and assume that he has brought to this sacred place of sacrifice his Gentile companion Trophimus, from Ephesus. Jewish law allowed Gentiles to enter the outer court, but their entry into its inner court warranted the death penalty.

The mob drag Paul to the outer court, where Roman troops intervene to prevent his being beaten to death, but the unruliness of the crowd necessitates removing Paul to the adjoining Fortress of Antonia. The din prevents the soldiers from determining why their prisoner has caused such uproar. Evidently the commanding officer (Claudius Lysias) wonders whether Paul might be the Egyptian Jew who three years earlier convinced revolutionaries to join him in standing watch on the Mount of Olives (opposite the Temple Mount to the east) till the walls of Jerusalem collapsed at his command, and then to help him liberate the city from the Romans. Have the Jews recognized Paul as that escaped leader of the Sicarii ("Assassins"), on whom they now seek revenge for fostering false hopes? But when Paul identifies himself as a Cilician Jew, Lysias grants the chained apostle permission to address his antagonists from a perch on the staircase.

When Paul speaks in Aramaic ("the Hebrew

dialect"), a hush comes over the crowd. He identifies himself as one of them: a fellow Jew reared in Jerusalem, a disciple of the respected Pharisee, Gamaliel (the Sanhedrins voice of restraint in 5:34-40), and a strict adherent of the Law. In fact, his Judaistic zeal drove him to persecute the followers of Christ ("this Way") after approvingly witnessing the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Thus the drama and surprise of Paul's unlikely conversion to Christianity, which he publicly recounts, appear all the more intense. In describing the restoration of his sight by Ananias, Paul shows his conversion was sanctioned by a Jewish Christian who measures up to Mosaic standards and enjoys a good reputation among the Jews of Damascus.

When the apostle mentions his commission to the Gentiles, however, the Jews of Jerusalem resume their uproar, and the Roman military whisk Paul to the barracks for a torturous interrogation. Victims of a Roman scourging often died from their wounds, made worse by the bits of metal and bone embedded in the leather thongs of the wooden-handled whip. Just in time, Paul identifies himself as a Roman citizen - as such he would avoid a scourging even if tried and found guilty. The revelation strikes fear into Lysias - who bought his Roman citizenship (perhaps with a bribe) in contrast to Paul's superior citizenship-by-birth - for he himself could be severely punished just for chaining the uncondemned Roman without a fair trial, much more for scourging him.

Paul spends the night in protective custody, but in the morning, with Lysias still wondering why the Jews harbor such intense antagonism toward the prisoner, the Roman commander summons the 71-member Jewish Council (Sanhedrin) for a hearing. The high priest Ananias takes as blasphemous Paul's claim to have a "perfectly good conscience before God" (with regard to keeping the Law), so he orders the apostle slapped on the mouth. Ignorant of Ananias's identity, Paul reprimands him for breaking the Mosaic requirements of justice in judgment and restraint in punishment, but Paul immediately apologizes on becoming aware of Ananias's status as a religious "ruler;" even though the high priest made the first wrong move. Then thinking on his feet, Paul takes control. He tells the Sanhedrin (and the listening Lysias) what the complaint against him is: his belief in the resurrection of the dead. Paul believes that the resurrection of Jesus makes possible this "hope" (not a wish but a certain expectation), but he refers to resurrection only in general terms so as to pit against each other the Sanhedrin's Sadducees, who deny the bodily resurrection and the spiritual world, and his fellow Pharisees, who believe in both, though not in the resurrection of Jesus. Thus the apostle garners partisan support, the infighting ends the hearing, and Paul retains protection by the Romans. That night God informs him of his upcoming mission in Rome - a destination already on Paul's mind (cf.19:21).

23:12-35 Paul Sent to Caesarea

When Paul's nephew overhears his uncle's enemies hatching a plot to murder him, the young man relays the news first to Paul and then to Claudius Lysias. The Roman commander, no doubt glad for an excuse to dissociate himself from the situation and the personal risk involved, assembles a 270-strong military escort to usher Paul out of Jerusalem in the middle of the night. Regional unrest may have necessitated the large contingent, though its size might reflect overcompensation for the previous day's mistakes, strategically glossed over in Lysias's explanatory letter to his superior - the Judean governor Felix, to whom Paul is now passed. By bringing to the fore his discovery of Paul's Roman citizenship, Lysias presents himself as Paul's protector from start to finish (contrast V. 27 with 22:27-29). When Paul and his military escort reach the coastal plain at Antipatris (ancient Aphek, rebuilt and renamed by Herod the Great), the flat terrain enables a swift, 30-mile horseback ride northwest to Caesarea, accompanied only by the 70 cavalrymen. Felix houses Paul in the official governor's residence - the palatial Praetorium, built by Herod the Great - while awaiting the arrival of Paul's accusers.

24 Paul's Case Unresolved

Though Paul retracted his reprimand of the high priest (23:1-5), the mistake makes leveling charges against Paul a matter of honor for Ananias, and the foiling of the plot to murder the apostle further injures the high priest's pride. Instead of sending to Caesarea the Asian Jews who stirred up trouble for Paul in the temple (21:27-29), Ananias himself takes to the governor a contingent of Jewish elders and a skilled orator-attorney (Tertullus) to act as prosecutor. Tertullus starts with the standard compliments to Felix and then states the charges against Paul: he is an agitator who tried to desecrate the temple. Roman tyrants used the first, catchall charge as a political weapon of terror. With no eyewitnesses present, the prosecution's second, false accusation amounts to hearsay, as Paul points out (vv. 18-20). The Jewish leaders' claim to have arrested Paul certainly stretches the truth, for the crowd's near lynching of him necessitated involvement by the Romans.

Paul denies the charges against him and points out the lack of supporting evidence. He admits as a member of the Way (a Christian) to serving the same God as his Jewish accusers, believing their Scriptures, expecting the resurrection of the dead (as does the Pharisaic component of the Jewish leadership), and striving to live a religiously and civilly righteous life. To that end, he ritually purified himself before peacefully bringing alms and sacrifices to the temple. But Felix delays deciding the case - supposedly till Lysias can come and clarify the facts. In the meantime, he treats his teenaged, Jewish wife, Drusilla, to an audience with Paul. But the fact that Felix had coaxed this third wife away from her Syrian husband makes Paul's talk of righteousness, self-control, and future divine judgment too close for comfort, and the governor cuts the encounter short.

Lysias never makes it to Caesarea to follow up on Paul's case. Interest in Paul's preaching and persistent hope for a bribe (v 26) lead Felix to keep Paul in custody indefinitely, though his granting to Paul limited freedoms belies any suspicion of his guilt. When after two years a new administration in Rome relieves the ineffective Felix of his duties, the outgoing governor knows that his political career hangs in the balance. Leaving Paul in prison means leaving on a good note with the Jews, who might otherwise complain to the new administration about Felix's multiple former offenses against them - offenses that go unmentioned in Luke.

25:1-12 Paul Forced to Appeal

Festus, the new governor of Judea, wants to start off right with the Jews, so three days after his arrival in Caesarea he heads for the region's religious capital, Jerusalem, to meet with the Jewish rulers. Two years have not tempered the Sanhedrin's grudge against Paul, and in Festus's play for their favor they see a chance to revive their conspiracy to murder his inherited prisoner. They request that Festus send for Paul, whom they plan to ambush en route. Festus refuses on account of the brevity of his visit to Jerusalem, but he invites Paul's accusers to Caesarea for a hearing. Though they cannot prove their allegations, Festus wants to please the Sanhedrin, so he proposes returning to Jerusalem to try the case.

But Paul senses trouble and knows his rights. Since the charges concern Jewish law, he may fear that Festus will relinquish the case to the Sanhedrin, whose opposition to him precludes the possibility of a fair trial. He evades the clutches of the Jewish Council by exercising his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to the emperor - by now Nero, who only later initiated his intense persecution of Christians (ca. 64).

25:13-26:32 Paul's Defense before Agrippa

Festus receives an official welcome from a regional ruler more experienced in matters of Jewish law and religion - Herod Agrippa II, brother of the ex-governor's Jewish wife Drusilla and great-grandson of Herod the Great, an Idumean (Edomite) descendant of Esau. Agrippa's younger sister Bernice accompanies him from Caesarea Philippi, his capital 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. Festus seizes the opportunity to get Agrippa's expert advice about Paul's case, for Festus knows that the Jews' theological opposition to Paul does not by Roman law warrant execution.

In defending himself before Agrippa, Paul emphasizes his upbringing as a strict Pharisee and details his intense persecution of Jesus' followers under the authority of the Jewish chief priests. He credits the irresistible intervention of God that brought about his belief in the resurrected Christ as fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and as an event that required his obedient preaching of the gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. Other than the Sadducees, Paul's fellow Jews believe in the resurrection of the dead, so his belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus should not call for his execution. Nor should his belief that through Christ their own Scriptures find fulfillment. For the Gentile Festus, however, the idea of physical resurrection seems preposterous, so he accuses Paul of insanity. Paul appeals to Agrippa for backing. Agreeing with Paul means contradicting in public the politician to whom he is paying official respects; but disagreeing with Paul offends the listening Jews by belittling the Hebrew Scriptures. So Agrippa evades the question with a quip about Paul's attempt to convert him and quickly signals the Roman adjudicators to adjourn for consultation. Agrippa's verdict accords with the assessment of Felix and Festus: Paul has committed no crime, religious or civil. He does not even deserve imprisonment, much less execution. But Paul cannot take back his appeal to the emperor, so off to Rome he must go.

27-28 Paul's Passage to Rome

That Luke accompanied Paul to Rome shows in the detailed report of the 2000-mile voyage, which takes several stages and three seafaring vessels to complete. Harsh weather in the Mediterranean region required suspending the sailing season during the winter months, beginning in mid-November. When Paul and company reach Crete - not quite halfway to Rome - it is time to drop anchor, for it is already past "the fast" (the Day of Atonement), which comes in October. Paul prophesies disaster if they put out to sea, and when the crew tries skirting the coast to find safe harbor for the winter a northeaster sweeps in. The crew can only hope to hold the vessel together till the storm lets up. They load the lifeboat out of the water, encircle the ship's hull with supporting cables, drop a drift anchor (or take down the top sails) to avoid entrapment in the whirlpools and sandbars off the North African coast, and toss overboard the tackle and cargo. Lacking compasses, 1st-century sailors steered their course by the sun and the stars, which the crew of Paul's ship cannot see for the storm, and after 11 days of cloud cover, the seasick sailors have no idea where they are. When their hope hits bottom, however, Paul encourages them with a reassuring vision from God that promises the survival of all on board. The two-week ordeal ends with the sighting of an unfamiliar island (Malta). The ship breaks apart after getting stuck in a reef off the bay, and all 276 voyagers swim and paddle ashore.

The warm hospitality of the Maltese people turns to reverence for Paul when he survives unharmed a deadly snakebite. During the next three months, Paul heals the father of the island chieftain and the area's other ill. The people show their gratitude by donating supplies for the last leg of the sail to Italy, taken on an Egyptian ship bearing figureheads of the "Twin Brothers" - the Roman deities Castor and Pollux, protectors of sailors. The refreshingly uneventful cruise to Sicily and on to the Italian mainland ends at Puteoli, some 120 miles south of Rome. The welcome of fellow Christians along the land route from there to Rome bolsters Paul's courage. Once in the capital, it takes the apostle just three days to summon the city's Jewish leaders to his quarters, which he shares with a single Roman guard. Paul wants the opportunity to tell his story face-to-face and to show that his Christianity does not make him anti-Jewish. Although they claim ignorance about his case and feign only cursory knowledge of Christianity, several factors cast doubt on such claims: by this time, a Christian community already existed in Rome, as evidenced by Paul's writing Romans before he journeyed there as a prisoner, and Paul's reputation precedes him among believers stationed close to the city (cf. 28:15). Nevertheless, in a subsequent forum with "large numbers" of local Jews, Paul explains to them the gospel. After quoting Isaiah's prophecy that foretells their disbelief, Paul announces God's extension of salvation to the Gentiles.

Acts closes by noting the evangelistic freedom enjoyed by Paul during two years under house arrest in Rome. The long delay in his appearance before Emperor Nero may have resulted from the loss at sea of the list of charges against him plus the necessity of waiting for prosecutors to arrive from Palestine. Luke probably does not relate the occurrence or outcome of Paul's trial because it had not yet taken place when he wrote Acts. By starting with the birth of the Christian church in Jerusalem and ending with Paul's ongoing evangelism in Rome, center of the entire inhabited world in the 1st century, Luke portrays the early Christians' obedience to Christ's commission that his followers globalize the gospel - a task that requires fulfilling by subsequent generations of believers to the present day and beyond (Luke 24:47; cf. Matt. 28:19-20).

Christianity in the Eyes of Non-Christians

Since information about the earliest stages of Christianity comes mostly from the New Testament itself, determining how outsiders viewed the fledgling movement proves difficult. The earliest New Testament writings, the letters of Paul, which were written to Christians as they struggled with doctrinal and behavioral issues within the church, only occasionally grant a glimpse of how outsiders viewed the church. Likewise, the Gospels and other writings that were written in the decades after Paul reveal more about how the early Christians saw themselves than about how non-Christians viewed them. When the New Testament does speak to the matter of outsiders' perceptions of the church, it speaks with an insider's voice; the voices of the outsiders themselves remain silent or muted.

The Gospels all depict Jesus and his followers operating within the context of 1st-century Palestinian Judaism. Jesus preached in towns and villages that were characteristically Jewish rather than in the larger cities of Galilee with significant Gentile populations. His movement would most likely have been seen as an attempt to reform Judaism from within, and his questioning of traditional beliefs and practices aroused the concern and opposition of some Jewish leaders. Indeed, Jesus' interruption of proceedings in the Jerusalem temple seems to have solidified

the opposition of the Jewish establishment. His execution by the Romans, however, seems to have resulted from their perception that he represented a threat to security and stability.

According to the book of Acts, Jesus' followers continued to participate in regular Jewish activities, visiting the temple and attending synagogue meetings, much as a local synagogue community would have. But their teaching about the resurrection of Jesus alienated them from other Jews, leading to occasional riots or hearings before Jewish authorities. Their eventual openness to non-Jewish members, which led to their being known derisively as "Christians" (Acts 11:26), also caused tension with other Jewish groups. Disruptions of the peace brought them to the attention of Roman officials, who nevertheless determined that they were no tangible threat to law and order. In fact, perhaps for apologetic reasons, Acts portrays the Roman officials as generally sympathetic to the movement.

Paul's letters also indicate that relationships with Gentile outsiders was overall positive. He expressed concern that Christians behave as good citizens (Romans 13), as did the author of 1 Peter, and that their worship be orderly so as not to disturb outsiders (1 Corinthians 14). Paul also addressed the growing tension within

the church and between Christians and non-Christian Jews concerning observance of the Mosaic law.

In the period when the Gospels were written (A.D. 70-100), tensions between church and synagogue grew more acute, due in part to the different routes taken by Jews and Christians after the Roman destruction of the temple (70). Matthew's vilification of the Pharisees in particular and John's castigation of the Jews" indicates the depth of the division. Luke's portrayal of the church as the true Israel and Revelation's designation of Jews as the "synagogue of Satan" (Rev. 2:9) further speak to the division, while showing that Christianity affirmed its Jewish roots but dismissing Jews as an illegitimate branch.

The separation of Christianity from Judaism was clearly final by the middle of the 2nd century, as Justin Martyr's "Dialogue with Trypho (the Jew)" and Marcion's rejection of the Jewish Scriptures and their God confirm.

If the tradition that Gamaliel II (80-115) introduced into synagogue worship the "benediction of the heretics" is valid, and if it referred to Christians, then rabbinical Judaism was also consciously distancing itself from the church by the end of the ist century. Information from Jewish sources about Jewish perceptions of Christianity during the first few centuries is practically nonexistent, however, since traditions reflecting the division come from after the compilation of the Mishnah (ca. 200). Talmudic stories about Jesus and his followers, which generally discredit his character and teachings, serve mainly to reinforce the view from Christian sources that animosity toward the other existed in both camps.

The earliest information from Gentiles about their perceptions of Christianity come from the early 2nd century. Around iio Pliny the Elder was appointed governor of the Roman province of BithyniaPontus in Asia Minor. According to one of his letters to the emperor Trajan, sometime in 112 he encountered there a problem involving a religious group known as Christians. Upon investigation, Pliny concluded that their faith was superstitio - a designation Romans gave to religions they considered strange and non-Roman. The influence of the movement had sometimes led to the neglect of traditional religious

observances. A few years later, the Roman Tacitus, in his Annales, succinctly described the brief persecution of the Christian superstitio that had occurred in Rome under Nero. This superstitio was "deadly," Tacitus wrote, because of its "hatred of mankind." Writing a few years later, Suetonius also commented briefly on this episode in discussing Nero's reign in his Lives of the Caesars: "Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given over to a new and mischievous superstitio."

Bust of the young Nero (www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

Alexamenos grafitto (with tracing) from Rome depicting a crucified figure with the head of a donkey. (Wikimedia Commons)

In short, while the New Testament suggests that Roman officials were curious about and sympathetic to Christianity, Roman sources from the early 2nd century indicate that the movement was seen as dangerous. Followers of such superstitio were a threat to the empire's welfare because they ignored and even challenged the traditional piety toward the gods, as expressed in rituals and observances intended to guarantee the

well-being of the state and society. Tacitus, as well as Plutarch, saw Judaism also as a perverse superstitio. But Christians, as Pliny observed, carried their superstitio to "extravagant lengths." Thus their religion was more dangerous than that of Jews.

The evidence of the New Testament and of later sources, then, indicates that the movement begun by Jesus aroused concerns about its threat to traditional observances. The tension between Christianity and its Jewish origins, which eventually led to the break between church and synagogue, and the suspicions that Christianity subverted the traditional order of society are both reflected in the New Testament. Later Roman evidence reveals that those suspicions became a standard component of Roman perceptions of Christianity.

R. SCOTT NASH

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