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An Ephesian interlude (7): a reflection for Day 15 of Lent

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  “Paul entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” (Acts 19.8-9)      We have seen that Luke takes pains to record declarations by imperial power-players of the blamelessness of his protagonists ( Jesus : Lk. 23.4, 14, 22; Paul : Ac. 26.30-32).   According to one scholarly theory, the book of Acts consists of Luke’s “evidence” of Paul’s innocence of any capital charges – evidence that Luke intended to submit during Paul’s trial before the imperial tribunal in Rome (cf. Ac. 25.10-12; 28.30-31).   If this is true, then Luke, with his two-volume work, is doing for Jesus and Paul what Plato had done for Socrates following Socrates’ condemnation by the “council of 500” of Athens to die by drinking ...
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An Ephesian interlude (6): a reflection for Day 14 of Lent

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  “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” (Acts 17.16-17)      One of the ways the emperor of Rome expected his subjects to demonstrate their allegiance to him was to worship his “genius” or his “spirit” (represented by his image, i.e., statue). [1]   Two years after his death in 44 B.C., the Roman senate had voted in favour of granting Julius Caesar “apotheosis”, i.e., he was proclaimed to have ascended to join the Roman pantheon as a god.   As a result, shrines were constructed for the worship of “the divine Julius Caesar”; this also meant that his adopted son and heir, Octavian [2] was hailed as “the son of a god” (this was inscribed on the coins bearing his image, along with his other titles of “lord” and “saviour”).   Eve...
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An Ephesian interlude (5): a reflection for Day 13 of Lent

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  “Paul lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28.30-31)      The book of The Acts of the Apostles comes to an “end” with Paul under house arrest, proclaiming that Yahweh’s kingdom has been established by kurios Iesous Christos … in Rome , under the very nose of kurios Nero kaisar (Lord Nero Caesar). [1]   It is completely understandable if readers of the book of Acts – or the New Testament as a whole – don’t realize that this entire book was written, and describes events which occurred, under the pervasive shadow of the Roman empire.   Most readers of the NT will notice that Jesus was crucified by Roman soldiers, after having been condemned by a Roman provincial governor (Pilate).   However, beyond the explicit references to the imperial apparatus that we find in the Gosp...
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An Ephesian interlude (4): a reflection for Day 12 of Lent

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  “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also… They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor [1] , saying that there is another king named Jesus .” (Acts 17.6-7)      Rome: the best the world had to offer. Nero (reign: AD 54—68) inherited the empire which had been forged by Julius Caesar and his heir, Nero’s great-great-grandfather, Augustus.   Beginning a century before Nero’s accession to the imperial throne, Caesar and Augustus had “pacified” the world – each victory of Rome’s legions was heralded as “good news” (a gospel) – and thus established (so the imperial propagandists said) an empire of peace and justice.   All the peoples of the world had to do was submit, worship the emperor…and, of course, pay their taxes for the privilege of living in the world of Rome.   Rome basically steamrolled its way around the Mediterranean, slaughtering all those who opposed it, bribing local elites to ensure...
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An Ephesian interlude (3): a reflection for Day 11 of Lent

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  “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also… They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor [1] , saying that there is another king named Jesus .” (Acts 17.6-7) “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones     and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things     and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1.52-53)      The story Luke is telling is of a God who up-ends the world-order…by sending his Son Jesus…to be conceived “prematurely” in the womb of a Galilean girl, to establish his kingdom among his people…by being murdered by them and then by the risen (!) Messiah’s messengers fanning out from Jerusalem to wreak “holy havoc” on the Roman Empire…through the proclamation that this Son of (the real) God is the true Lord of the nations.   Make no mistake, Luke’s two-volume oeuvre is a work of subversion.   Jesus and the kingdom of God a...
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An Ephesian interlude (2): a reflection for Day 10 of Lent

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“Paul entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.” (Acts 19.8-9)      The historian of the first century has to deal with a peculiar problem – how did the movement loyal to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of Israel survive the death of its leader?   Many Jewish messianic movements came and went both before and after the time of Jesus, and they all – without exception! – came to the same tragic end (cf. Ac. 5.36-37 for a few examples of movements who preceded Jesus’).   As Luke knew well, a crucified “Messiah” was a failed Messiah, a false Messiah (cf. Lk. 24.19-21).   So, the (honest) historian has to face the question – why did this movement survive (and thrive!) when all the others ended up i...
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An Ephesian interlude (1): a reflection for Day 9 of Lent

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  “Now after these things had been accomplished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go through Macedonia and Achaia and then to go on to Jerusalem . He said, “After I have gone there, I must also see Rome.” (Acts 19.21)       In many ways, the book of The Acts of the Apostles mirrors Luke’s Gospel.   In “the first book” (cf. Ac. 1.1), Luke has Jesus “set his face” to go to Jerusalem (Lk. 9.51) and then embark on an 11-chapter-long journey to the Jewish capital.   In the sequel to his Gospel, Luke portrays Paul as “resolving in the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem, where he will – like Jesus – cause a disturbance in the Temple, be put on trial for blasphemy and be handed over to the Roman authorities before undergoing a 2-year imprisonment, interspersed by multiple hearings before different Roman governors as well as a Herodian tetrarch (Ac. chapters 21-26; cf. 9.15-16; Lk. 23.1-12).   Unlike Jesus, Paul will not be executed in Jerusalem, but will fina...
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