Even as Paul has journeyed into all the Roman world since his conversion as an itererate zealous Jew traveling on a Roman road between JUDEA and SYRIA back in A.D. 37 DOCTRINE has been at the center of every CONFLICT as an obstacle to the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Saul of Tarsus (CILICIA or GALATIA in those days, according to Roman designation of its local governance) had REPENTED!
JESUS had drawn this great enemy and pharisaic sceptic of the Truth of Jesus’ resurrection across the line of DOCTRINE.
ATTACKS by other Jewish men continue to threaten Paul’s mortal life.
Paul who once persecuted the faithful followers of the Messiah Jesus had been the Lord’s boldest advocate of the Gospel. The Apostle now preaches a NEW COVENT to the JEWS which includes GENTILES!
Paul has been preaching the Gospel of Christ to the JEWS first, as is his custom.
7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.
A.D. 50 - These apostles of the gospel arrive in Corinth ACHAIA.
The Corinthians meet in the home of a disciple of Paul's teaching right NEXT DOOR to the synagogue where the Jews teach embellished Hellenized traditions of the OLD broken Covenant.
The Corinthian church will grow under Paul's NEW COVENANT teaching as he remains there until A.D. 51.
8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.
Paul had encountered Christ perhaps fourteen years ago on a road to Damascus. NOW, as the Apostle sent out to all the world of the Gentiles is encouraged by the Lord in a dream just as he is expecting attack and opposition and possibly DEATH as had happened so many times before.
NO ATTACK will harm you
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”
11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Attack, Trial, Case Dismissed
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying,
“This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”
Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus
Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus or Gallio was a Roman senator and brother of the famous writer Seneca. source: Wikipedia
In AD 51, he was chosen to serve as the proconsul of Achaea in Greece. - MORE.
14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews,
“If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves.
I refuse to be a judge of these things.”
16 And he drove them from the tribunal.
17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.
Did Sosthenes another appointed 'ruler of the synagogue' of the Corinthian Jews perhaps also believe the Gospel of the Messiah Jesus or did he simply fail the Jews in their attack on the Gospel of Paul?
But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.
To Be Continued…
NEXT: Paul’s DEPARTURE & an important port on his return journey.
The Hill of Ares or Mars’ Hill, depending on language reference of Greek or Roman for the god of war.
The Apostle Paul is about to make an important speech to the Romans and Hellenists studying in Athens in ~A.D. 50 at the university lecture hall of the day which sits atop a hill facing the crumbling 5th c. B.C. temples of Athena and many idols.
(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. – Acts of the Apostles 17:16
Visiting Professor Paulus teaches on the topic of an unknown God addressing stoics, epicureans and other religious professors of idolatrous worship graciously.
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
Acts 17:22b ESV
Those claiming Christ in this 21st century A.D. would do well to address unbelievers and idolaters with the same grace as Paul employed in the first century A.D. in the beginning of his apostleship into all the world of the gentiles.
What is Paul’s outline of a logical approach to the proclamation of the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST?
The Apostle to the Gentiles points toward the incarnation of Christ as a pivotal recent event in the timeline of human history as part of GOD’S timeless plan for mankind.
God who made the world
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
ACTS 17:23b NKJV – of the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus
The religious men and other men of Athens, as well as religious Romans adding their own iconic monuments to the Athens’ landscape of religious festivals, admittedly could not possibly know every god.
Therefore, Paul begins from their own documented conclusion. They need to hear what I have to proclaim about the TRUE GOD Romans and Greeks do not know.
(And God is NOT just the God of the Hebrews worshiped in Jerusalem.)
Who IS the GOD WHO MADE THE WORLD?
(Certainly not Zeus who was not in the beginning, nor the goddess Athena — but Paul does not even need to state this accepted timeline from mythology which does not worship the very God of creation.)
α – θεός (theos) does not live in temples made by man
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation (ethnos) of mankind (anthrōpos) to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him.
Although contemporary twisting of imagery limits such use of an archaic word, I like the more literal translation of this picture of man groping for God, as a blind person reaches near for that which can be touched.
.. in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us
Now our Professor of Theology, Paul of Cilicia, quotes two poets likely studied by the university he addresses -- NOT Hebrew poets such as David or Solomon -- NOT Jesus, whose many teachings have become well-known these past twenty years -- but GREEK or Hellenist poets revered by the university of classical thought in Athens.
One is likely from Crete, where earlier along with Barnabas, Paul professed Christ to the gentiles. Paul also quotes a classical Greek poet from the forth century B.C. - source
Paul's introduction of the One God (of the Hebrews) is non-confrontational, providing an outline of God's plan to have all people of all cultures and all nations seek and find the Living God at a time appointed by Him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Paul could have quoted Jesus here, who quoted David, but instead the Apostle to the Gentiles quotes their own learned teachers.
δ – οὖν – therefore as God’s offspring
The question never-the-less remains the same: WHAT IF GOD created YOU?
(It’s not simply a question of ONLY the FIRST MAN {adam}, therefore the Apostle leaves no room for arguments of philosophers backing him into a creation corner.)
What if we are SONS (& DAUGHTERS) of the Living God?
WHAT IF GOD CONSIDERS ME FAMILY?
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
Do you think of your own mother or your own father as one of these idolatrous worshiped things? Of course not!
YET if you belong to GOD's own family with your LIVING human father and mother as progeny of the LIVING GOD and Creator of all life, how can you worship your loving God like a stone, a man-made myth or self-breathed thoughts?
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked,
ε – θεός νῦν παραγγέλλω – theosis now declaring
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,
Acts 17:30 CSB
ζ – ἄνθρωπος πανταχοῦ μετανοέω – ALL men everywhere repent
The apostle to the Hellenists and Romans proclaims a STRONG authoritative choice to listeners in the Areopagus: GOD 'winked' (says the King James Version) but now commandeth all men every where to repent!
REPENT, therefore, sons and daughters of the Living God!
For YOU are no longer ignorant.
And WHY should you REPENT?
WHY turn back to the Living God?
η – ἡμέρα κρίνω οἰκουμένη – a day he will judge righteousness
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed;
Can WE SAVE the earth anymore than WE can save our own FLESH and BLOOD from DEATH and destruction?
But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
SO is this professor of the unknown god proclaiming that his teaching must be given authority over all other schools of thought about our gods?
WHO IS THIS MAN Paulus of Cilicia claims will JUDGE all of mankind?
and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts of the Apostles 17:31b CSB
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
What is your experience as the keeper of something important?
Have you ever been the one of importance kept safe in some place?
(Were YOU ever the prisoner OR a jailer guard charged as the keeper a prisoner for justice?)
Prison and Prisoners
IF the only light you ever see seeped filtered though a hole in the ceiling of your cell WOULD YOU SING?
(Likely, neither would I.)
Roman prisons were nothing to sing about, but that didn’t stop Paul and Silas.
S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies
Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory law.. Incarceration (publica custodia) .. was intended to be a temporary measure prior to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but were officially censured. Located near the law courts, the [prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette)] was used as a jail or holding cell for short periods before executions and as a site for executions.
Of course this Philippian carcer of the Roman colony is bound by the same same rules for jailer and prisoner alike according to Roman Law and the SOP manual of its occupying Legions of this Greek-speaking European colony of Macedonia.
φυλακή – Strong’s translates G5438 in the following manner: prison (36x), watch (6x), imprisonment (2x), hold (1x), cage (1x), ward (1x).
Paul and Silas end up in the ‘temporary’ place near the agora and forum where they have already been punished severely by flogging under the jurisdiction of a Roman Magistrate for unspecified crimes against culture and misdemeanors for which they will most likely be run out of town rather than executed.
Therefore, this evening they have been placed into the care of a prison keeper (jailer) in Philippi for final disposition of their case in the morning.
ACTS 16: 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.
.. they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?
φυλάσσω –
Strong’s G5442 – phylassō, Probably from φυλή (G5443) through the idea of isolation
NOTE, however the same responsibility of the Roman 'keeper' of prisoners AND the jailer's two Roman prisoners, apostles sent out with the message of the Jerusalem Council to communicate interpretation of the LAW for these Gentiles as well as the few Jews of Philippi.
to guard
to watch, keep watch
to guard or watch, have an eye upon: lest he escape
to guard a person (or thing) that he may remain safe
to guard i.e. care for, take care not to violate
to observe
to observe for one’s self something to escape
to avoid, shun flee from
to guard for one’s self (i.e. for one’s safety’s sake) so as not to violate, i.e. to keep, observe (the precepts of the Mosaic law
And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
A guard of the second watch [9 pm] comes on duty and shouts down to you in the hole and other prisoners in cells near you, “Lights out!” He then extinguishes the candle above expecting all to go to sleep.
Unlike the other prisoners YOU and your brother have been locked in here with wooden stocks bound to your ankles and chained to the floor of your cell.
What now?
We prayed for a while. Out loud. In fact, we recited much scripture as we prayed. Other prisoners complained to us, but after no intervention from the keeper assigned to this second watch they had no choice but to sleep (or just ignore us).
A little later we hear sounds through the darkness of the third watch [midnight-3 am] keeper coming on duty.
Silas starts singing and Paul joins his voice to the familiar Psalm:
Acts of Awesome Faith
As we continue with the Acts of Paul, Silas and Timothy in Philippi put yourself in their place — an uncertain and unpleasant prison of the moment. Hear the cries of each soul cast into the trembling darkness — the fear of God resounding in each heart.
What Psalm? (For they knew so many from faithful worship.)
YOU may find other PSALMS on TalkofJESUS.com which will encourage you in such dark circumstances: https://talkofjesus.com/shaken/
Perhaps this: The LORD is My Salvation from Psalm 27:13 OR
A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.
When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.
I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.
Suppose that you are another prisoner listening to the apostles sing..
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.
When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 And [he] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.
“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all,” Paul will write a decade later to the church in Philippi from a prison in Rome.
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
ACTS of the apostles 16:30-31 ESV – Keeper of the Philippian jail to Paul & Silas, followed by the apostles’ answer.
Acts of the Apostles 16 – To Be Continued in the light of a new day in Philippi
