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  • Approaching Athena the ruling goddess of Athens

    Approaching Athena the ruling goddess of Athens

    The Lord’s apostle to the gentiles — Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, a Roman citizen of CILICIA — has hurriedly fled Thessaloniki and Berea MACEDONIA sailing south along the Aegean coast of ACHIA to Athens.

    sailing from Macedonia through the Aegean Sea to Achia, home of ancient Athens and a larger city of Corinth

    Sailing from Macedonia to Athens

    Although fleeing the Jews we must think of Paulos as a ROMAN citizen on some sort of commercial Roman ship traveling from Macedonia to Achia. Yes, the destination of his ticket in Athens – a city of a 300 year old fading glory – but the more important city of Roman Achia is now Corinth.

    What is more important here along Paul’s nearly 300 mile journey here is the context of culture so evident as he sails to Athens and then walks through the entrance of a city steeped in its former Hellenist glory.

    Jews in Berea receive and believe the Gospel
    Previously we addressed the ‘Greek‘ influence of Alexander the Great and Macedonian culture.
    Statue of Alexander the Great atop a fountain in Thessaloniki, Greece. In Acts 17 Paul fled from there to Berea on his second missionary journey;

    This modern-day statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, Greece partially demonstrates this Macedonian’s lasting influence even since his death in 323 B.C.

    Paul would have no sooner left port in Macedonia than all would have viewed the great mountains of Greek mythology on their starboard side.

    Google Earth View of Mount Olympus, Olympus mountains toward Berea
    (We will approach these gods Zeus and others upon arrival in Athens.)
    Mount Olympus, highest peak in Greece
    Mount Olympus – Highest peak in Greece, home of Zeus and the mythology of the Greek gods and goddesses

    As we noted earlier the apostles’ journey along this mountainous coast of about 300 miles takes them from Macedonia (with its Alexandrian history) to Achia, the Roman region of strategic importance which includes Corinth on an inland isthmus and the port of Athens, formerly devastated by war but brought back to prominence by Rome as a ‘free city.’

    Approaching Athens

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    As their commercial Roman sailing ship rounded mountains descending into the Aegean on their approach Athens, Paul would have seen ruins of the destroyed Acropolis appear on the hill to their starboard side prior to their ship docking in port.

    acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, “highest point, extremity”) and πόλις (polis, “city”). – source – Flickr (same as photo)

    Upon arrival, as we noted last time, Paul sent his Berean brothers back to let the church know that he had arrived safely — again a 300 mile return trip while the Apostle Paul takes in the sights of this ancient ruined Greek city of Hellenist influence and lessor free city of Rome gaining the attention of its Emporer (a Caesar and god of the people).

    Visitors to the Athens of A.D. 50 would have walked along streets lined with monuments and statues as they ascended the hill into the city and its agora (marketplace).

    Unknown gods and goddesses

    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
    Thomas Cahill - SAILIING THE WINE DARK SEA - Why the Greeks Matter

    NOTE: Although I have researched several sources as a background for Paul’s Acts 17 speech in Athens, you will find this one most useful and detailed. – Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    https://thomascahill.com/books

    YOU and I cannot fully understand Paul’s more contemporary knowledge of his first century A.D. context of clashes between Hellenist, Roman and Hebrew cultures; however after a brief overview of the text we will take a glance at Athens through the A.D. 50 eyes of all.

    Acts of the Apostles 17:

    Acropolis -

    17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles,

    and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

    18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are speaking? 20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what these things mean.” 

    Luke now inserts a parenthetical glance at our 1st century A.D. philosophers of Athens.

    21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.)

    Luke's account continues from ACTS 17:22 'So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus..

We will listen to the apostle to the gentiles addressing the men of Athens next time, but first some CULTURAL CONTEXT.

    The Jews (in the eyes of Athens)

    The acts of Saul of Tarsus persecuted Christians until on a road to Damascus the Lord anoints the Apostle to the gentiles

    Saulos of Tarsus frequented the synagogues of his Hebrew brothers first in many other cities. He is a Pharisee who had believed in the Resurrection even prior to meeting the risen Messiah Jesus (same as Joshua in Hebrew) live and in Person.

    This belief in the resurrection of JESUS, Ἰησοῦς in the common Greek language, yᵊhôšûaʿ or Joshua in Hebrew, held by some Pharisees and some Essenes but not the Jewish sect of the Sadducees attracted Pharisaic Jews and proselytes to Christ’s fulfillment of Hebrew Scripture.

    Jews were merchants who mostly seemed to fit into the Pax Romana like any other religious culture except for one strange belief: Jews only had One God.

    An even more strange belief of some Jews about what happened to the body after death seemed somewhat ghoulish. (Just imagine some neighbor walking around Athens after he died — laughable!) What a strange belief of some of these Jews.

    For the Jews, who had little or no belief in the immortality of the soul, only salvation in one’s body could have any meaning.

    Thomas Cahill, Why the Greeks Matter, p.260

    The ‘peace’ of Rome accomplished in Athens by conquest was tenuous. Athenians and Romans were somewhat suspicious of Jews who the Emperor Claudius had just expelled from Rome.

    Therefore, just as Saul of Tarsus had fled Macedonia secretly and swiftly, Jews in Achia and other cities of the Roman Empire most likely worshiped somewhat ‘under the radar’ in A.D. 50 so as to peaceably blend in with other Greeks.

    As to Jewish cultural traditions of the past, Hellenist and Roman alike would have admired the great Jewish Empire of Solomon which was even more ancient than the centuries-old fallen glory of Alexander of Macedon who also conquered all of the world including the ancient cities of Greece.

    To the Hellenist eyes of Athenian philosophers Jewish wisdom differed from their own ancient Greek wisdom. Paul understood both.

    .. a Hebrew mode of argument .. proceeds by assertion and contrast rather than step-by-step reasoning [of ‘Socratic method’]

    Thomas Cahill, excerpt ibid. p.165

    17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles

    Dialogue with men in the Agora

    .. and in the marketplace G58 every day with those who happened to be present.

    You might think that based on previous witness in other cities the apostle would have steered clear of the agora where everybody who’s anybody gathers in town.

    A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi
    But when her masters saw that their hope of profit had left, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, – Acts 16:19 LSB
    Acts of the Apostles Missions trips of Paul, Barnabas, Silas and several others

    Paulos, sent out by Christ to the world of the Greeks, is a Roman citizen with a public duty, a Greek-speaking orator with a heart for the One God revealed in Hebrew Scripture and by the Messiah and the Spirit of the Living God.

    This visitor to Athens brings a unique perspective to Roman authorities and citizens of this free Roman city in addition to an appeal to traditional and classic Greek values represented in-part by their many gods.

    The agora in Athens is crowded with Gentiles EVERY DAY.

    ἀγορά –

    1. any assembly, especially of the people
    2. the place of assembly
    3. market place, street

    The Greek or Hellenist or Roman agora is a multi-purpose public place.

    For: public debating, in-person democratic elections, trials, for buying and selling and all kinds of business

    Aristotle & the pantheon of Athenian gods of philosophy

    Classic Greece is long gone. Aristotle died in 322 B.C., his student Plato in 347 B.C. and Socrates had accepted his death sentence of hemlock for disbelief in the gods of Athens way back in 399 B.C.

    ~A.D. 50

    Acts 17:18

    And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.

    Who are these endless debaters of the Agora?

    Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?”

    Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

    Classic Schools of Philo-sophy [love of wisdom]

    Roman and Hellene aristocratic families would send their young men to Athens. It’s schools included: Cynicism, Stoicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism and others. Among these that Paul would have encountered:

    Stoics taught virtuous detachment from the physical things of the world (a sort of monastic approach). Epicureans taught to love of life and pleasure much to the liking of most powerful Roman and well-healed Greek men celebrating so many festivals of various gods with little thought of wisdom at all.

    In fact, over the centuries since the esteemed Greek philosophers Athens and other Hellenist cities had had so many varied festivals and pantheons of gods that no man could truly remember them all.

    THE LOVERS OF WISDOM continually TALKED about gods and religion as a contest between PHILOSOPHERS seeking advantage over their opponent without seeking the TRUTH of the LOGOS which the Apostle Paul was about to present.

    And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus

    Acts of the Apostle Paul in ATHENS — To be continued…

  • The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

    The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

    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.

    Source: Wikipedia Commons

    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.

    Previously:

    A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi
    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

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    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.

    ACTS of the Apostles 16:4 KJV – Mission of Paul, Silas and Timothy

    Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi

    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

    Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge

    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..

    And then, something happens!

    Acts of Paulos and Silas

    δικαίωμα Παῦλος δέ Σιλᾶς

    Acts of the Apostles Missions trips of Paul, Barnabas, Silas and several others

    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

  • A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

    A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

    a Roman Government of Greek Culture

    The Roman-built forum in Philippi with its bustling traditional Greek agora resembled the forum in Rome (cover-photo remains of the Roman forum pillars shows some of the grandeur of these most-public areas of the Empires greatest cities.

    Archaeological Site of Philippi: General view of the forum with adjacent agora marketplace
    Archaeological Site of Philippi: General view of the forum

    Similar-sized pillars in the foreground of the Philippi Forum and agora (to the R) in this aerial view of the archaeological ruins at Philippi gives us a glimpse at the size and importance of this Macedonian City-State namesake of the father of Alexander the Great – a second Rome at the head of the Aegean.

    roman forum
    Roman Forum

    Agora

    Romans call it the public square, others the marketplace — Greeks called it the agora.

    From their own ancient traditions people worshiped there, bought and sold goods, conducted most public aspects of government over the governed and frequently gathered at the agora for general celebrations of social life preceding both religious and private parties.

    Everybody’s there for business seven days a week. The agora was where the paths of the powerful crossed publically with every-day classes of the city-state and also slaves employed to the gain of all.

    The Hellenist agora suited Rome as a place where Roman citizens could mingle with their colonists in Macedonia or any other defeated foe. Roman government was conducted formally from an adjacent forum and pavement for and gathering of citizens, people or slaves before the Prefect.

    You may not agree with my overview of the agora condensing some 500 years back to ancient Greece up to the era of Rome’s first century dominance of all of Europe, but as always check my sources for more details. More later.

    Philippi was ROME in western Macedonia.

    Antioch - Crossroads of Christianity and map of 1sr c. AD Roman Empire
    .. and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Acts of the Apostles 11:25b NASB

    We began an introduction to Philippi last time which partially answered what Alexander the Great has to do with a second missionary journey of the apostle Paulos and Luke’s account of the ACTS of this 1st c. A.D. Roman citizen in a city of Greece.

    a few additional thoughts that may change your mind about the significance of Philippi
    • Greece is NOT a country
    • City-States of ancient Macedon & Greece were separate from each other
    • Democracy gave way to Empire
    • Philippi was named for Emperor Alexander’s father
    • Alexander died in the same Susa of Persia and Babylon where the Jews had been taken previously
    • Augustus Caesar (mentioned in Luke’s Gospel) is the same Octavian who had defeated Brutus and Cassius in the Battle of Philippi
    • Roman roads connected the land all across Eurasia
    • Philippi as a port between Rome and Alexandria was strategically important SO..

    Rome had rebuilt Philippi as a ROMAN city.

    Think of Philippi as a 1st c. New YORK City to Roman colonies of a ‘new world’ similar to expansion seventeen centuries later when a current Roman conquest to the west Britannia would rule the seas.

    Enter Paul and Silas apostles sent into all the world from a gateway Roman city of Philippi.

    Acts of Paul and Silas

    “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    v. 17b – a slave girl who had a spirit of divination

    “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

    v. 18b – Paul, to the spirit in her

    And it came out that very hour.

    We don’t know how many more days have passed in Philippi, but Luke records that the young slave girl no longer has any demonic power to profit her owners. And of course these influential men want justice against any men who have impeded their profit by evil means.

    19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

    More about Philippi’s Forum & Agora

    We need to see the Philippi of A.D. 50 as Roman citizens and Hellenist merchants of this important city would have viewed this scene of commerce interrupted by these out-of-towners.

    forum adjacent to agora of Philippi ruins
    ruins of Forum in Philippi adjacent to agora

    agora, in ancient Greek cities, an open space that served as a meeting ground for various activities of the citizens.

    Agora – source Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “agora”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Dec. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/agora. Accessed 13 March 2023.

    • surrounded by public buildings and by temples. Colonnades, sometimes containing shops, or stoae, often enclosed the space, and statues, altars, trees, and fountains adorned it.
    • the agora influenced the development of the Roman forum and was, in turn, influenced by it. The forum, however, was conceived in a more rigid manner than the agora and became a specific, regular, open area surrounded by planned architecture.
    • meetings devoted to ostracism were still held in the agora, where the main tribunal remained.
    • A distinction was maintained between commercial and ceremonial agoras
    • Men accused of murder and other crimes were forbidden to enter it before their trials. Free men went there not only to transact business and to act as jurors but also to talk and idle

    Democracy of the Marketplace

    20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said,

    “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 

    22 The crowd joined in attacking them,

    and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

    23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

    24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

    ACTS of Paul and Silas — To Be Continued…