Reading: Acts 17-18, Psalm 127

Yesterday we left Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Philippi, having survived yet another attempt to have them arrested or put to death. In fact, they may have been there for a while, but Luke is not terribly interested in writing about how Paul and company spent their days. He is communicating the high points of Paul’s visits to various Greek cities. He goes to the synagogues, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, gets arrested, and somehow gets delivered. Then he goes on to the next place. The in between events are not Luke’s interest.

I bring this up because Paul appears to have started several gatherings of believers in each of the cities he visits. When he is writing his epistles, or letters, to these churches later, he several times instructs them to pass the letter around to the various houses where Christians have been meeting. So when we read about what appears to be a breakneck charge through Greece in the book of Acts, we should take a moment and realize that this was not the mad dash it might appear to be to us. Paul, Silas, and Timothy actually spend seasons or years in each of these places. They were itinerant preachers, but not manic ones.

Anyway. The next stop on their tour is the major city of the province, a very large city by ancient standards called Thessalonica. Total population estimates are very hard to do from that long ago, but based on the number of known persons it was likely a city with hundreds of thousands of residents. We know it had a large Jewish synagogue, and relatively recent excavation has uncovered a Samaritan synagogue. It also had special dispensation from Rome to self rule- the city used the form of government that it liked, and as long as it wasn’t planning revolt, the Romans just left it alone. All this makes it quite interesting the Paul spends only three weeks here. We are told he goes to the synagogue on three Sabbaths, wins some converts, and is (as usual) hauled before the local courts. What makes this different it that these are not Roman courts exactly. This tribunal is only beholding to the laws of Thessalonica, and it shows. He simply ignores the complaint of the militant Paul haters, and uses a typical tactic of control to make sure no one will let Paul stay with them: he takes a bunch of money from them to ensure their compliance. This was a well known tactic in the Greek and Roman world for getting compliance. Once obedience had been demonstrated, the money would be returned. Even though he had only been there a matter of weeks, Paul takes off for a nearby town called Berea.

While in Berea, Paul does what he does and starts yet another church by preaching in the synagogue. These people take what he has to say and argue with him, but in good faith, not by starting a riot. Luke calls them a noble people for their honest inquiry after the truth from the Scriptures. But the angry Thessalonians hear what is going on, and show up to start riots there. See, the whole riot when someone says something you don’t like it not a new idea.

In response to this, Paul once again leaves, this time for Athens. When he gets there we are told by Luke that the Athenians used to spend all their time doing nothing but talking about anything new. It does not appear to be a ringing endorsement of the Athenian lifestyle, but it serves Paul’s purpose. He waltzes into the Areopagus, an ancient place of argument, and does a full blown Scriptural argument for the gospel of Jesus Christ using both the Hebrew Scriptures and a bunch of Greek poetry! He quotes a “Hymn to Zeus” and claims to explain the “unknown god,” appropriating Athenian culture to order to proclaim Jesus as Lord. It’s brilliant. Paul does not assume his listeners know the whole story of the Scriptures, so he hits the high points with them while linking his declaration of the gospel to their own traditions.

And it works. Kind of. For some people. There are three responses that Luke records. There were people who scoffed, thinking the whole idea of the resurrection of the dead nonsense. There were those who wished to hear again on this matter. They weren’t convinced, but they were curious. And there were those who believed. While all this is going on, Paul appears to have written his first epistle, the first letter to the Thessalonians. Also while this is going on, the Roman empire is engages in some anti-Jewish sentiment, causing an imperial decree that all Jews leave Rome. Used to diaspora by this point, the Roman Jews show up in Greece and other places. Paul will meet up with a couple of them when he leaves Athens and heads for Corinth.

Corinth is yet another provincial capital and ancient city, though in this case a little less ancient due to it’s penchant for being destroyed by earthquakes. It has happened three times in recorded history and been rebuilt each time in the same place. Stubborn people, the Corinthians. And so it proves with the Jewish population there when Paul goes to speak the gospel to them. Things were bad in Thessalonica, but no where near like that in Corinth. Like Thessalonica, Corinth had it’s own legal authority and could try criminals by it’s own laws. Once again Paul winds up hauled in front of the magistrate, and this guy displays a disinterest that is truly heroic. He interrupts the charge brought against Paul, effectively saying he doesn’t care. Apparently to demonstrate how serious they are, the rioters bring the ruler of the synagogue in and start beating him in public, but the magistrate pays no attention. It appears that justice in Corinth was limited to things the magistrate actually cared about, and saving poor Sosthenes from a beating was not among them. Unlike Thessalonica, the Corinthian magistrate doesn’t even care if Paul hangs out, as he takes no action to get him to leave. So Paul stays a while before heading back to Antioch to once again report on the things he has been up to after being sent.

Tomorrow we will run into another itinerant preacher of the gospel, a guy named Apollos, and for the first time Paul will arrive at a city where people have already heard about Jesus. They will not have heard the whole gospel message, though, leading to an early case of division in the church over who brought you the message of salvation.