Video Transcript: Acts 18-20

Announcer - This is Dr. Craig Keener in his teaching on the book of Acts, this is session number 20 on Acts 18-20.  

Dr. Keener - Remember that Paul split the synagogue in Corinth, as he's also going to split the synagogue in Ephesus in the next chapter. That means that the community was divided, some people believed him, and some people didn't. But the ones who didn't, eventually, they realized there was no other way to get rid of him. So they brought him before Gallio, the new proconsul of Achaia. And they charged him with doing things and speaking, contrary to the law. Now, technically, it was their view that he was doing it contrary to their law. They may have worded it ambiguously to make it sound like it was against Roman law. But in any case, they may have wanted him to be dissociated from the Jewish community, if it was just against their law. If Christianity if the Christian movement, if it could be argued that it wasn't Jewish, then it would no longer have the same kind of protection under Roman law. Judaism wasn't technically what some people have called a religio licita. That is, it wasn't technically what you call illegal religion, but because of its antiquity, it was considered a respectable, reputable religion. And if Christian, the Christian movement were considered to be dissociated from it, which would be very difficult since it was entirely based on the same scriptures as Judaism was. But if it if it could be argued that it was a different religion, then it could be seen as a new cult, and therefore threatening to the stability of the Roman Empire. 

So you had in Thessalonica, the charge of maiestas, treason, and now it's a different kind of legal strategy. Paul claimed the Christian movement is the true Judaism, the true fulfillment of what the biblical prophets spoke about. Gallio regarded it as a Jewish sect, in contrast to the way it was being accused as being dissociated from Judaism, and contrary to their law. And he said, this is supposed to be an internal Jewish issue. Jewish people, like other groups of resident aliens in cities, were considered to be their own community, where they could judge their own internal affairs. But when it came to Roman law, that's when Romans would step in. So he said, You have to see to this yourselves. This is not my affair. So in this case, it doesn't go like Pilate who was influenced in Luke 23. Instead, this is a case where Roman law and Roman justice are actually followed, as opposed to political issues. And that may be partly because the Jewish community didn't have that much political force in Corinth. It may also be because Gallio didn't like the Jewish community. And he certainly had precedent within Rome because of Claudius's expulsion. 

So in 18:14, you know, Jews condemned by Jewish courts could always appeal to Rome. But in this case, Gallio's decision is that this was simply a Jewish issue. This wasn't something that could be taken beyond that. Gallio's decision, unlike the local decision to the politarchs in Thessalonica, or somewhere else, Gallio's decision wouldn't be merely local, because he was the governor. And so this would set the highest precedent in Roman courts until the time of Nero. Afer the time of Nero it was not very well reputed. But unfortunately, he set some precedents that brought about persecution, 

Acts 18:16-17. What happens to Paul's accusers? It looks like they get beaten instead of Paul. Domitian punished Josephus's own accusers, Josephus's Jewish accusers. An emperor executed Samaritans who had brought charges against Jewish leaders. Greeks were notably anti Jewish, anti semitic, although less so than the Greeks in Alexandria. If you read about Flaccus, and so on. But there's another possibility. Maybe the Jewish community was exercising synagogue discipline against its own leader. Whatever the case Sosthenes gets beaten, whether it's by an angry mob of Greeks that the  governor simply ignores, or whether it's members of the synagogue community, beating their own leader for getting them into it. It's interesting though that the name of the leader, it's not a real common name. Sosthenes turns up in one of Paul's letters as a co sender of the letter to the Corinthians. And so it suggests that he became a believer, he either was a believer already at this point or became one. And Luke doesn't really explain exactly what the details are of what goes on here. 

Chapter 18:24-19:7, and here I'm going to be speeding up. Apollos is contrasted here with other followers of John. Apollos is taught more fully the ways of Jesus. And then he goes from Ephesus to Corinth, and publicly debates there. And this is a really good public debate, a really good public speaker. As you also see from I Corinthians, why doesn't Apollos get rebaptized after he's taught more about Jesus, the way the other followers of John in 19:1 - 7, are rebaptized. Well, it's because they were Baptists, and he was Anglican. Now I'm just joking. It's because in 18:25 Well, this is what I think in 18:25, he was enthusiastic in the spirit could be translated, and commentators are divided in this could mean that he was enthusiastic in his own spirit. But given Luke's normal usage, and even given the the slightly parallel usage in Romans 12, I  think it probably means that he was enthusiastic in the spirit in God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And so he already had received the Spirit, he may not have known much about Jesus, but he knew enough and he received the Spirit. In the case of these other followers of John, but both have received John's baptism.  They said in chapter 19:2, we've not even heard, whether the Holy Spirit is that is whether the Holy Spirit is available already. I mean, if they knew anything at all about Judaism, they knew that there was ruach ha-kodesh, Holy Spirit. And as John's disciples, they would have at least known John's prophecy about the coming baptism in the Holy Spirit. But they apparently didn't know that the spirit baptizer had come. So Paul explains that to them. And their case, they have not yet received the Spirit until Paul, Paul baptizes them lays hands on them, and then they received the Spirit. John's baptism counted retroactively for Apollos, because he already had the spirit. So he didn't need to be re baptized, but they didn't. And so they had to go from John's baptism to more specifically, Christian baptism. And then, as they were filled the spirit. And again, there were plenty of places of water in Ephesus, but they were filled the spirit, Paul laid hands on them. And they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Again, this emphasis on Spirit inspired, Spirit empowered speaking, that they, they would now be welcomed to join in the mission even so quickly after now there's a division of thoughts. Some people think that they were these disciples who just knew John's baptism were Christian disciples. And some think that they were just John's disciples and it's divided. I think the slight majority of us think that they were John's disciples, and they hadn't been converted yet. But that is another issue of of debate. 

So I'm speeding up for the rest of Acts and moving further into Acts 19. Verse 9, the School of, of Tyrannus. Some people think that the schola here could be a Guild Hall, named for its patron. It's possibility but most scholars think, I think including the scholar who originally proposed that most scholars think that it was a lecture hall. And the lecture hall was named for Tyrannus, this Tyrannus may have been the owner, the landlord, or he could have been the lecturer and Tyrannus this is probably a nickname. It does appear a few other times in Ephesus, but it's probably a nickname. Probably meaning this guy was a real tyrant if he was a lecturer. He was like one of those teachers that you better work hard if you're going to take that Professor right. So anyway, probably, given the normal ways of doing things in Ionia, which included Ephesus, probably he was done with the hall, or whoever was using it was done before 11am. That's when public life and Ionian cities ended. Paul probably did his manual labor until 11am. And then had use of the school, in the afternoons and so on. People would normally break in, you know, around noon, for resting, sleeping, just a little nap, or eating, or sometimes both. That's that's why, in Acts 26, when you see, Paul was traveling at noon, means he considered his mission quite urgent. 

Well, Paul, here is a model of a spiritual teacher. He teaches, he uses the venues for teaching that were already available in his culture. He speaks as a lecturer, something like a Christian philosopher, because people came and listened to philosophers, so he would have his own students. And then other people could come in and listen if they wanted. And they probably did. And this was impacting the whole region. It was impacting Ephesus directly, but also some people were going out from Ephesus. The word of Lord was spreading throughout that region, through all of Roman, the Roman province of Asia, which was one of the wealthiest provinces in the Roman Empire. Ephesus was the most prominent city, in Asia Minor, in the Roman province of Asia. 

And so we read that also, miracles were taking place through him. It was teaching, it was also a ministry of miracles. And here, it seems to come up to the same level that you had in Acts 5. Because of the miracles taking place and exorcisms taking place, some Jewish exorcists decide, well, let's imitate him, let's do what he did. Jewish exorcism techniques were often using like a stinky root or some sort of really foul odor to gag the demon out, you know, get the demon to flee. You have that Tobert you also have it attested in Josephus antiquities eight I believe. Also Jewish exorcism techniques used name invocation. So for example, someone in antiquities 8 use of Solomon's magic ring and is casting out spirits supposedly in the name of Solomon. And early Christians, they would cast out spirits name of Jesus. But what that meant was they were authorized by Jesus. Somebody is not really authorized by Jesus doesn't really have that authority, doesn't really have the ability to use that name. Paul was a disciple of Jesus, I mean, not one of the original disciples I'm using disciple in the sense in which it's used in Acts for the movement of Jesus followers. But the seven sons of Sceva were not.

Sceva was a Latin name. And he said to be a Jewish chief priest. Josephus used the high priests of the chief priests, archiereus in the plural. But the question arises here, whether this person was genuinely from an aristocratic priestly family, or he was just said to be that it was just a claim that he made to recruit more people to make use of his followers are his. Maybe they were his literal sons. It could be understood either way. But, it does make you think of Luke chapter. Luke 11, where Jesus says, by whom do your own sons cast them out? And in that case, Jesus says, I'm not casting them out by Beelzebub in this narrative. Their sons don't prove able to cast them out. In fact, the irony of it is that it's not the demon that gets cast out. It's the exorcists who get chased out. In any case. syncretism was common in Jewish magic, where it blended together traditional magic and attempts to use the supreme name of the supreme God. Some other people tried to do that too, thinking they could learn from Jewish magical practices. Again, this is not the majority of Jewish people but just a minority, were practicing magic, but they were among the most highly praised in antiquity. Well, we've come across this a few times, in Acts, I mean, you've come across Simon, the sorcerer, Acts 8 in Samaria not Jewish, but kind of close to that. We've come across Elymas bar Jesus in Acts 13. And now we have these Jewish exorcists who also are doing things that mainstream Judaism, at least in Judea, and Galilee would not have approved of. And the point seems to be look, you know, you want to complain about us followers of Jesus, who are miracle workers. Why don't you complain about these people? Because we are actually following scripture. We're not following these kinds of practices, but in a case and exorcisms continued to be common. Exorcisms in the name of Jesus, by Jesus followers were so effective. However, compared to other attempts at exorcisms, that is late as the fourth century that was the leading cause of conversion to Christianity was exorcisms and healings.  

Now this use of of a name to cast out demons. They're trying to use Jesus name to cast out the spirits. And they're not successful because the demon speaks through the man and says, I know Jesus. I've heard of Paul, but who are you? In other words, you're not authorized use this name. And he could tell and he jumped on them and apparently ripped the clothes off a couple of them so that they are stripped shamefully naked and they flee. You may also remember what Jesus said about how he's casting demons out and this generation is like inviting them back in seven-fold more. So he chases them out. And word spread and the name of the Lord Jesus was glorified because people realize that the name of the Lord Jesus was not like the name of a higher spirit to control a lower spirit. The name of the Lord Jesus was not some magical formula. The name of the Lord Jesus was authorization for his true followers. And that may be why when Paul later writes to Ephesus, there's division among scholars, but I'm among those who think that Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians. In Ephesians 1, he's writing to people, it probably wasn't just Ephesus alone, but to the area around Ephesus included. But certainly, Ephesus was one of the cities that was particularly addressed within the context of the Roman province of Asia. He is addressing people who have come from often an occult background. They’re afraid of these spiritual powers. And Paul reminds them, that Christ has been exalted above every principality and power, every ruling authority, he says, and every name that is named, every name that is invoked. The name of Jesus is higher. And that's why he can go on to say that we have been enthroned with Christ in heavenly places that is far above these powers. We have nothing to fear from the spiritual powers. 

Well, as a result of this, many people brought together their magic books that they were using to try to manipulate spirits and so on. And it says that they confessed their practices.  Well, some scholars have noted even though the wording doesn't have to mean this probably includes divulging their spells because the wording certainly could include that in ancient sources. Divulging spells deprived magical spells of their power. That was at least the belief. So they come together with their magical books, and they burn them, burning books was often used in antiquity to repudiate their contents. So this is a way of the people saying we don't want to have anything to do with this anymore. We're following the true way. So Paul's impact on Ephesus was massive. It was impacting the entire community.  And the amount of the books that was burned, publicly burned, the amount was 50,000 drachmas worth or about 50,000 days wages for an average agrarian worker. That was a lot of magical books being burned and it probably made a big public scene. Some people argue that it's not actually books but it's Ephesia grammata. These were magical papyri, spells or counterspells rolled up in small cylinders or lockets worn around the neck or elsewhere as amulets. It's Ephesia grammata. The term has often been associated by many scholars with magical formulas that could be used this way. So whether they're little pieces of papyrus or magical Papyri, or whether they are something a bit larger, either way that people are repudiating the contents of this. 

But the big conflict ends up coming with local religion. In this case, not so much from the priests of the local religion, but for economic reasons, because it's cutting into people's business. Artemis of Ephesus, verses 24-27. Some have suggested because of the bulbous appendages on her breasts and the statues that Artemis of Ephesus was a fertility goddess. And some contrast her with chaste Greek, Artemis of Ephesus. They've suggested that the bulbous appendages mean that she's got lots and lots of breasts, or that they are some sort of fertility eggs, or something signifying fertility. However, there's also a statue of Zeus with something like this, which suggests that it may not have been that. I like to joke that maybe she just needed a dermatologist. But in any case, in literary sources, she's still the Virgin Huntress. She's not a fertility goddess at all. And all the sources we have that could possibly interpret the artwork from antiquity suggests that no, she's not the mother goddess of the interior of Anatolia, she's just Artemis. Basically, the Greek Artemis, but in a famous way, in Ephesus. 

In verse 35, the city clerk speaks of Artemis, it is a statue that fell from heaven. So some have suggested maybe it's a meteorite. But there are a lot of statues that were said to have fallen from heaven in antiquity, and those were not meteorites. Many of these supposed statues from heaven, they were just carved by people. So this one may have been the same as well. And plus, it's interesting that in Ephesus, although there are many statues that were said to have fallen from heaven, we don't read about this anywhere else. So the city clerk is saying, seeing that these things are undeniable, and Luke's audience is laughing haha, these things are very deniable. But in any case, her statue was well known, there were a lot of miniature statues that were made to imitate the big statues.

Her temple was among the seven wonders of the ancient World. It wasn't as big as the Jerusalem temple. But, you know, there was a lot of anti Jewish prejudice, because they believed in only one God. So this one made the Seven Wonders and the Jerusalem temple didn't. It's often then calculated, depending on what you calculate the entire base or the temple proper. But it's often been calculated to 420 feet by 230 feet, that's 130 meters by 70 meters. It's about four times as large as Athens, famous temple for Athena, the Parthenon. So this is a huge temple. It wasn't in the city proper. There was a route you could take a sacred route out to the site of the temple about 1 1/2 miles or 2.4 kilometers northeast of the city. They have a special month dedicated to Artemis. Special festivals dedicated to Artemis, including her birth, supposed the birth date and so forth. And this is Artemis of Ephesus, whom all of Asia and the world worships.

19:27 Well, even though Artemis, the Greek Artemis was worshipped all over the place, the specifically Ephesian version of Artemis actually was worshipped around the world as well. There are over 30 places in the known world, places that we know about, where specifically the Ephesian Artemis was worshipped, and not just Artemis in general. Missionaries spread the cult. Now often these were merchants and they just got dreams or something from Artemis, and they would go and spread that. But Jews around the Roman Empire knew about Artemis of Ephesus. This was a well-known deity. 

But what really provokes the riot involves economics, economic issues. Demetrius here, calls together his fellow craftsman. He's portrayed as a demagogue by Luke.  Demagogues in ancient literature were very poorly looked upon especially in the Roman Empire when people who stirred up mobs, people who stirred up riots could be prosecuted for sedition. Demetrius here speaks like a demagogue, the rhetoric of his speech is very populist, which was very looked down upon by orators in antiquity. But he was a maker of silver shrines. Many of the shrines that archaeologists have found, are terracotta souvenir shrines of Artemis, that is they were modeled after the the real shrine of Artemis. It is kind of souvenirs that the tourists could take with and pilgrims could take with them. But silver was more prestigious. So among the makers of shrines, he's among the elite makers of shrines. But he's still a worker. He may be a silver worker, which was among the most respected classes of artisans. But he's still an artisan, so he's not part of the elite per se. When he speaks of similar trades, it may have been others involved in making shrines may have been others who were metalsmiths. We have a lot of gold and silver statuettes of Artemis from antiquity. Besides having shrines, we also have the statuettes of Artemis that averaged about between 3 to 7 pounds or 1.4 to 3.2 kilograms. 

Well, economic issues could cause a lot of instability, even in Rome, where they imported massive amounts of grain so the children in Egypt were a lot of the grain was raised often went hungry. Even in Rome, where they tried to keep everybody happy, keep things stable, especially in the heart of the Empire, there was sometimes grain riots.  Well, here, economics is involved, their livelihood is involved in making the silver shrines. And we also know of other examples of trouble in Ephesus due to economic troubles at this time. There actually were some people who misappropriated some funds from the Temple of Artemis, which owned massive estates. And this became a major scandal just a few years before the events narrated here. So everything fits pretty well what we have here. And it fits what we know of antiquity that fits what we know of some other parts of the world.

Acts 16. Remember why were Paul and Silas arrested and beaten. Because they messed with the economics of somebody who was speaking by the Spirit of Pythoness, they mess with the economics of pagan religion. And that's true here. It's happened in various other places. Happened one time, I used to work in a street mission, where we worked with people on the street and helped people in the street and fed them and so on.  And one area where we were, there was a place that dealt a lot in sexual practices that are forbidden in the Bible. And they were complaining that we were too close to them, and therefore interfering with their clientele and their business. And so because of their economic influence, and because we were helping people for free, we were forced to relocate to another location in the city. So things like this happen. 

Well, the people were very loyal to Artemis of Ephesus. I mean, this was part of their civic loyalty. Civic loyalty was a big thing back then. It was like nationalism. And riots would spread easily when you when you touched on something like patriotism, especially given the close knit and public structure of ancient urban society word traveled quickly. Trade guilds was one place they could travel quickly. And the crowd ends up in the theater. Now there are 2 places that have been suggested based on remains that have been found, of where Demetrius may have been, where the guild that he was addressing may have been. And one is on Arcadius Street, or what later became known as Arcadia Street, which is the street that runs directly from the harbor to the theater. And the other is a bit closer to the market, which is also right beside the theater anyway. In any case, they didn't have far to go while they were stirred up. The marketplace was right by the theater, it would be full of people. So you go into the marketplace and you start shouting these things, you can stir up a riot very quickly. And the theater, they could into very quickly. The theater was massive. You could see it from the harbor. In fact, you can still see it from where the harbor was, you can still see it from there today.  It had a seating capacity of over 20,000. Sometimes we've said 25,000. But that actually was after some expansion later in the first century. So at this point, it may have just been not 25,000 yet, but over 20,000, which suggests that the population of Ephesus may have been somewhere around 200,000 at this point. But it was right by a crowded market. The theater was used for civic assemblies, regular civic assemblies that met at regular times, and sometimes irregular civic assemblies, where somebody could just call a meeting. And it appears that some of the people are rushing into the theater of Ephesus. We know a lot about Ephesus, from the Ephesian inscriptions, which have been published a great number of volumes of Ephesian inscriptions. But they apparently some of the people running into the theater think it's a regular assembly that's been called to deal with an issue. They have no idea it's just a mob. They don't know what's going on just like in Acts 21. During the riot, you have different opinions of what's going on. That's sometimes what happens when you have a riot. Some people are there. And they have a misunderstanding of the real issues behind it. 

The Asiarchs in verse 31, Paul's disciples didn't want him to go into the theater. And especially the Asiarchs didn't want them to go in. Demetrius hadn't been able to find Paul.  But they had seized a couple of Paul's companions and drag them into a theater to accuse them. The Asiarchs were many of them were priests of the Imperial cult in Asia. Not that Asiarchs automatically without but they were taken from the same group, the same elite people, often who made major donations, and so on. The Emperor cult was a major issue in Ephesus, it had been a major issue since Augustus. They got the first Imperial temple in Asia Minor, there in Ephesus. Well, why were these Asiarchs Paul's friends. Friends could mean different things in antiquity, you had friends who were peers, normally that the Greek ideal of that was your shared confidences. You might even lay down your life for one another and be willing to die with one another. That was, you shared all things in common, that was the Greek ideal.  But it also came to be a euphemism, particularly in Roman culture, but also in Greek culture, for patrons and clients, for benefactors in the Greek world, and their dependents. Well, the Asiarchs, part of the way that they got honor and inscriptions would be dedicated to them was their donation to public works. But they also could be what we sometimes today called patrons of the arts, or patrons of education. They sponsored things for public good. Well, here's Paul, he's a popular teacher. And you know, what better way to get honor for yourself and to help sponsor this popular teacher who's very well liked. He has great reputation, miracles are taking place. Hey, we're in it. And we get honored by sponsoring him right? Well, what happens if suddenly there's a scandal about him? You don't want to be associated with him? Or if you know that it's a false scandal is the very least okay you want to work behind the scenes you want it to be as least associated with Paul as possible. So you know, this riots going on? You see, okay, we'll handle this behind the scenes. Paul, please don't go in there. Now we know Paul liked to go preach even in the case of danger. In Acts 21 there's a riot in the temple. The Romans take him out and he wants to speak to the people who are going to restart the riot. Here, he doesn't, because here well, you know, these Asiarchs have laid themselves on the line for him, he does owe them something in terms of the social structure. And so to prevent embarrassment for them, probably, he doesn't go in when the Asiarchs requested in verse 31, not to go in. 

But think about this. Here were people who were leaders in pagan society. Undoubtedly, they weren't Christian. So well, perhaps one or 2 of them became Christians, or do you think that Luke would like to mention that if he knew it like he did with Sergius Paulus. But you think of how Paul related to people, Paul preached monotheism, that's what he's denounced for, by Demetrius that he's preaching against Artemis of Ephesus. Well apparently he wasn't preaching against any god in particular, he was just preaching that there was one true God and therefore you shouldn't follow other ones. But he wasn't speaking particularly against Artemis of Ephesus. But in any case, for a monotheist, you know, he's doing a good job of relating to people who don't agree with him. And that's a good model for us. In societies that aren't completely Christian, which means virtually every society because the society is everybody really following Jesus. He wasn't. He gives us a model here, not for being separatist, but for integrating with the culture and reaching the culture. Now, what you have in Revelation is a bit different. What you have in John 15:18-25, talking about the world hating you is a bit different, because they're addressing a different kind of social situation. When you're in persecution, when you're being persecuted, where the lines are more clearly drawn and we see this with Jesus too. I mean, Jesus is willing to eat with tax collectors and sinners, but what is he doing when he's eating with tax collectors and sinners? Well, whenever we hear what he's doing, it says they were hearing him gladly. He was sharing the good news of the kingdom with them. So we're not friends with the world. So we can absorb the world's values, like sexual immorality, materialism, instead of caring for the poor, or things like that. We are there to, to bring hope, and light and truth and peace, good things to the world. We're there to be an influence of good for the world, not to be influenced by the bad things in the world. And not to say that everything in the world is bad. But we see different approaches and different parts of the New Testament that sometimes people favor only one or the other. And we need to be sensitive to what the times are what they call for. And this was a wonderful opportunity for Paul to minister. But this opportunity is quickly coming to an end. 

Well, the city clerk gets up and addresses the people who have come into the theater and are chanting, chant that was often used for ancient deities. They were just saying great is Artemis of Ephesus, and repeating that over and over it. Well, those those kind of chants. We know it from antiquity, that was way of hailing the goddess. And the city clerk comes in. Luke tells us that most of the people there didn't even know what the riot was about. They didn't know it had anything to do with Paul. The city clerk comes in, he's the grammateus, which in many places, it just meant a scribe. Could even mean somebody helped people with their legal documents. But in Ephesus, that was the title of the chief official. So this is the chief official of Ephesus. And the crowd quiets down some when he comes onto the platform in the theater. The theater, by the way, had statues of Artemis and other things around it was a pagan venue like Ephesus, as a whole was and they quiet down when they see him. If this is a regular meeting of the assembly, well, then he is the one in charge. And so it's good to quiet it down because otherwise they wouldn't have heard anything. He said, Well, how could they hear him anyway? Well, normally in a theater, you could hear people, it was built for acoustics. They didn't have microphones. But, you know, if people quieted down, they should be able to hear him. He would be able to project his voice. 

Now he speaks, and how did he find out about this? How does he know that Demetrius stirred the riot? Well, probably the Asiarchs were Paul's patrons got word to their peer, this city official behind the scenes, so he could quiet down the crowds. And he clearly condemns Demetrius as a demagogue. Now in an honor and shame society, that means Demetrius would probably want to lash back. But the city clerk said, this needs to be dealt with in the courts. So, that may be why Paul doesn't end up in town later on. But anyway, he speaks of lawful assemblies and verses 39-40, these things need to be dealt with in a lawful assembly. He says the courts are open. The governors are here. This may have been one time shortly after the assassination of a governor where there were 2 people who were functioning in his place. But in any case, Ephesus was a free city, just like we said about Athens and Thessalonica wasn't a colony, but it was a free city, with its own Senate and Assembly. But this was completely dependent on Roman goodwill. And conflicts within a city sometimes led to Roman intervention, after all, the Proconsul or possibly during this period. Proconsuls their headquarters were in the city of Ephesus, so you really didn't want to mess up because the city could lose privileges and sometimes some of the Hellenized cities of Asia Minor did lose privileges. Because riots well, Luke, I love the way Luke narrates things. He's upbeat, he's positive, but he's kind of like Josephus, on the anti Jewish riots. When there were riots against Jews. Josephus reports, the precedence, the legal precedents, that said, Okay, well, the Jews, this wasn't their fault. These are their rights had been asserted by those in authority. And Josephus is always eager to show the Jewish community did not start the riots. Now, Luke, is always at pains to show that Paul is not the one that started the riots. And given what we know of Paul, that makes sense. Paul, who wrote the letters of Paul would not have started riots. Having said that, Luke needs to show this because that's one of the major charges against Paul. Initial charges against Paul in Acts 24:5. Well, he's, he goes around starting riots, therefore, he can be charged with sedition, which is a capital offense. 

Now that if you look through the book of Acts, there are a number of riots where Paul goes. You have them in Acts 13, and Acts 14, you have these mobs’ scenes. Who starts those riots? Well, it looks like it's often the Jewish community in the cities Acts 19. It's not the Jewish community in Ephesus, just like in Acts 16. It's not the Jewish community there, both in 16 and 19. It's because Paul's a monotheist. That's why he gets accused from pagan sources.  But in Ephesus, the Jewish community ends up getting blamed for it. Paul doesn't take the stage because he's been begged not to. But somebody from the Jewish community does take the stage from the synagogue, Paul split, because a lot of the synagogue went with Paul is Jewish believers in Jesus and the rest of the synagogue that stayed behind. They put forward Alexander who's a member of their synagogue to us to try to dissociate themselves from Paul. Even though Paul is accused of preaching monotheism and preaching against Artemis, they don't want to be associated with this, they don't want to rock the boat. This is their community but once the crowd realizes that he's a Jew, they cry out all the more great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And so the local Jewish community ends up getting blamed for it, even though they didn't start this riot. 

So it's not surprising in Acts 21, that it's going to be Jews from Ephesus from the synagogue, who are going to accuse Paul of having taken in Ephesian Gentile Trophimus into the temple with him and they started right there. But again, Paul didn't start that riot. So it's important to see this and to see why Luke is developing this the way he is. As I argued at the beginning, this would be true material, but Luke doesn't have to include everything. We've seen that he leaves out a whole lot. So there's a reason for this. Ephesus, the city clerk humiliates Demetrius, but the Asiarchs were likely embarrassed, which may be one of the reasons that Paul circumvents Ephesus in Acts 20:16. Many commentators, Ben Witherington, myself and others, have often argued this. Partly, it's for the reason that Luke explicitly gives to save time. Well, how will that save Paul time to circumvent Ephesus, when he has to wait for the elders to come from Ephesus to Miletus, where he goes. Part of it may depend on where his ship was going to be traveling. But most likely, it was to save time due to hospitality obligations. If you go to city where you've been for a long time, you know, everybody's going to want to visit you, everybody's gonna want you to visit. People may be offended if you don't visit them. So in cultures that don't have that, we may not be as familiar with that. But cultures that are familiar with hospitality obligations, may understand a bit more of that people actually get offended if you're in town, and you don't stop to visit them. And we have that in ancient letters where people said, Oh, I heard you came within 30 miles and you didn't visit me, I'm hurt. But a reason that may be an additional factor that Luke doesn't mention probably Paul was not as welcome. And it probably would have done more harm for the church than good for Paul to show up in Ephesus. You know, it's not like the Asiarchs didn't like him, but it was better for everybody if things laid low. So Paul doesn't come personally there at this point. Although what he is going to say in his message is you won't see my face again. 

Acts 20. We have in the first few verses, we have Paul traveling to Achaia. Again, wintering with them. And the letter to the Romans was written from there and so forth. But also, we come to the narrative of Eutychus when they get to Philippi, the We picks up again. So Luke rejoins them after many years, and then they travel across six days that they don't have the favorable winds. They did for the 2-day voyage before they travel across from Philipi's port city of Neapolis to Troas, and he's there in Troas speaking to the believers. And they have what is apparently a Sunday evening meeting. There's some dispute whether it's Saturday evening or Sunday evening. Think all the evidence together probably fits a Sunday evening meeting that lasts all night long. Well, is this a precedent for holding all night Sunday meetings? Probably not. Probably the reason they held this Sunday meeting all night long is because like the text says, Paul was leaving the next day. So if he's going to catch up with them about stuff, he's got to pull an all nighter, and they're gonna have to pull an all nighter to hear His message. 

Well, like Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, right. So this is where Eutychus falls asleep. It was considered a bad thing for students to fall asleep on their teachers. Sometimes teachers actually literally threw their books at the students to wake them up. We have reports of that from antiquity. But he goes in the window. Now windows were often fairly large. It's not like squeezing yourself in their little window, it was often fairly large, especially windows higher up on the wall. I did some study on ancient architecture, looking through a lot of sources to look at what these windows were like. Usually, the very few windows had glass in them. In this period glass did exist, but it wasn't normally used for windows. So it was very rare in windows at this period. People sometimes would have wooden shutters, or drapes or something which they open at certain times of year and close at certain times of year. But this was a large window, most likely. Why is he sitting in the window? And why is he falling asleep? That's sometimes connected to the question. Why does Luke mentioned lampstands? Well, some say that maybe the lampstands or to show that this was not a subversive meeting because they actually had light they weren't meeting in the dark. Some say the smell of the oil of the warmth of the oil we put into sleep. And friends of mine who smelled oil a lot, it doesn't have that effect on them. But then one said yes, it does have that effect on me. So I don't know. But in any case, the smell of the oil or the warmth may have made a window seat desirable to get away from that. Although at this time of year on Troas, whether it could have been so. 

But maybe the point is simply that he fell asleep despite the fact that lighting was available. In any case, he falls out the window. And Paul goes down and raises him. In some language that's reminiscent of falling on him reminiscent of Elijah and Elisha raising people. Now this one isn't we material. So we have a raising here, where Luke himself is a witness, the young man is taken up alive, it doesn't indicate that there was nothing wrong with him, doesn't indicate that he wasn't like, little dizzy or something. But in a case, he's alive and well, which they didn't think he was going to be. Especially the way he landed. We do have other reports in antiquity of people falling off things and breaking their necks, and so on. And then what does Paul do? Does he say, well, he fell asleep during my preaching, it must be boring, everybody go home. No, he finishes, he goes all night, and then they eat together again and break bread together again. 

And his travels are very interesting. And I'm not mentioning all the places in chapter 20, where he traveled, even though I do with him where my commentaries are mentioned a few of them in chapter 21. But Paul gives a farewell speech and in the latest farewell speeches were actually a category of speeches in antiquity. In fact, in Jewish literature, they were often testaments when somebody was about to die. But in ancient literature in general, you had often farewell speeches in these verses 18-35. Paul is addressing the elders of Ephesus, who have had to gather very quickly drop everything and come meet him in Miletus. And there are many parallels with Paul's letters, even in wording. In fact, there was an entire monograph on this by Steve Walton. And there are many other works that mentioned these. Steve Walton was just mentioning parallels with I and II Thessalonians, which were among Paul's well, I Thessalonians probably Paul's earliest letter, if not his earliest, his second earliest. And others have noted parallels with other Pauline letters. 

Very many parallels we read about Paul is addressing the elders, he speaks of them as overseers, and how God has made them shepherds. We have the same linkage among among these terms in Titus 1, and especially including the shepherds in I Peter 5. So in the first century, it appears that church elders were also overseers, Episcopi, which is a language that later becomes used. By the time you get to Ignatius it's used for what we call bishops. So that did evolve very quickly. But in this period, these are still overseers, probably local churches, they could have multiple ones per local church, even if we're reading some of the other texts correctly. And they were also shepherds, they were pastors. Pastor is just Latin for Shepherd, poimén in Greek. And in the Old Testament, the leaders of God's people were often called shepherds, shepherd had been a frequent metaphor for leaders, even for kings going back, I think as far as Sumerian literature, it's all over the place. And in Homer, Agamemnon, the shepherd of his of people, as a king of the Achaians. So, in any case, these are these are the people who are responsible. And in Jesus teaching, these are not people are lorded over the flock, these are people who are to serve the flock, and they have to watch out for the flock and Paul and Paul presents himself as an example for them, which was a moralist and philosophers often did this. 

He says, in Verse 26, after he talks about, you know, day and night, ministering to people from house to house as well as is in the larger assemblies, he says, in Verse 26, I'm innocent of the blood of all people.  Well, that sounds like Ezekiel 33:8-9, also Ezekiel 3, but Ezekiel 33. And then he goes on to talk about shepherds in verse 28. Maybe evoking is Ezekiel 34 which suggests that even though Luke doesn't spell out all the connections, Luke doesn't go into detail, Luke is remembering a real speech that Paul gave and Paul is actually expounding some scripture from Ezekiel. Also in verse 29, you know, you shepherds you need to watch out because from your own number, wolves will arise. Well, back in Luke 10:3, Jesus warns that he's sending his disciples his lambs among wolves. But here in Acts 20:29, we see that wolves will come among the lands among the sheep. False teaching became a very big issue and Ephesus, as we see later, and then a lot of other places as well. It's something we really need to watch out for. And we're not talking about people holding minor divergences on minor things. I mean, those things over time can grow and become worse. We want to be as accurate as possible, without breaking fellowship over minor things. But when you have some serious false teaching, that needs to be addressed. And when people become like wolves, that is they start exploiting the sheep for their own interests you have to watch out. Paul has appointed elders, or maybe, you know, in Ephesus, they're mature enough now that they're appointing some of their own elders. But it can be very serious, we have to be careful. And sometimes, I mean, there are people, friends of mine, that I started with years ago who was serving the Lord, most of the ones who were serving the Lord then is still serving the Lord. But I have some very close friends in ministry who fallen away. And some of them are not hostile. I mean, they're still, I mean, they love Christians, they just, but then there are others who really went the wrong way. And so Paul warns against that, and we can't let the sheep be harmed by that, we have to protect the sheep. 

The Holy Spirit testifies, it says, in every city, that dangers await him in Jerusalem. And he says that this is part of his example of self sacrificial, being willing to suffer for God's people. He says, even though the Holy Spirit testifies this in every city, I'm determined to go there, because I'm going to fulfill my calling, no matter what. Paul was driven by his calling, you know, when it burns inside of you, you're going to do it and nothing is going to stop you. You don't want to run over people with it. Remember Paul and Barnabas. But Paul, is going to fulfill his calling, nothing's going to stop him, including death itself. So what does this mean the Holy Spirit testifies to him in every city, well, probably the spirit of prophecy. We get examples of that after this, when he when he goes to Tyre and also when he stops in Caesarea he's receiving prophecies like this in Tyre the prophecy. 

It just says they said to him through the Spirit that he shouldn't go, and in verse 11, in Caesarea, it's very explicit what's going to happen to him, which is probably the substance of what happened in Tyre as well. In any case, there's a lot of pathos. There were a few people who didn't believe you should use pathos in speaking but most orators did accept it. And I mean, some things do generate emotion, pathos, often sympathy. This was often used by defendants in speaking, and it was used in other ways as well. But Paul says I exhorted you with tears. And by the time he's done, the people are crying, because they know that they may never see his face again. And their affection for Paul communicate something that Luke couldn't just communicate by saying, you know, Paul's a great guy, everybody ought to like Paul. Well, you can see how much people did love Paul, that sometimes, depending on our own background, we may take certain things in Paul's letters where he has to be firm, and miss other things. Paul's letters of full of pastoral concern and love. And yes, sometimes he's firm. But so much of that firmness is caused by love by caring for the people. I Thessalonians we would have given our own lives for you. Like a nursing mother cares for her children, just so much of that. And Paul, was that kind of person driven by his calling, but a people person. I don't know if he was an extrovert or an introvert. He probably was an extrovert. I guess I don't like to know because I'm an introvert. But I think the apostle John was probably an introvert. So we're all right. Peter was definitely an extrovert. But Paul was loved by people. I mean, some people disagreed with him. Some people didn't like him, but the people who really knew him. You see them weeping, you see it, you see them kissing him. 

Now, keep in mind the way kissing was done back then. Different cultures do it differently, you might have a kiss on the lips and some traditional Russian culture kisses on the cheeks and traditional French culture. You know, in my culture that's considered poor hygiene. Don't even get near my space bubble. We can hug you know, people that we like. But in any case, different cultures do differently. But in ancient Mediterranean culture, family members, and close friends, were a student and a teacher, a teacher and a student would often greet with a kiss, you might greet a very respectable person or your patron, you might kiss them on the hand. But usually, the kiss was a light kiss on the lips. Not a passionate kiss. That was reserved for lovers. But just the light kiss on the lips. No teacher could give a student a kiss on the forehead or something but usually family members or what light kiss on the lips. And that's probably what was going on here as they see Paul off. Well in the next session, we'll turn into chapter 21. And we'll learn about some of Paul's travels some of the prophecies and when Paul is about to get in trouble again. And this one will not be resolved quite so quickly. 

Announcer - This is Dr. Craig Keener in his teaching on the book of Acts. This is session number 20 on Acts 18 – 20.