Second Tuesday in Lent
Lectionary Texts for Today:
OT: Exodus 20:7-11
NT: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Today is Acts Bible Study. Please read Acts 16:6-12.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy move west through Asia Minor to the Aegean Coast. For some untold reason the Holy Spirit forbids their preaching in the western coastal regions of Phrygia and Mysia. Paul has a vision of a man beckoning them to come to Macedonia in Europe. They go to the port town of Troas and from there by ship to the Greek island of Samothrace for overnight. You may know of Samothrace from the magnificent sculpture, "The Nike of Samothrace", a.k.a "Winged Victory," which was still there in Paul's time. It now is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I think it is the most magnificent sculpture I have ever seen. I have been to the Louvre many times. Everytime I've been, when people turn the corner and first see the Nike, there is an audible gasp. Nike overwhelms us. I'll forgo the art lesson for now.
From Samothrace they sail to Neapolis, the modern day city of Kavala, a lovely Aegean port. From there they go inland a few miles to Philippi, a large Roman colony city. Let me note the pronunciation of this city's name, mispronounced by just about every pastor and lector I have ever heard. It is not Phil-i-pie. It is Phil-ee-pee (accent on the second syllable). I have been to Philippi six or seven times over the years. It is a superbly preserved ruin. Unfortunately for us almost all of what is preserved is from the third century A.D. The city of Paul's time was wiped out by an earthquake. Still there are vestiges of the ancient city left. Guides will always want to point out a small cave in a rock formation where they say Paul was imprisoned. Maybe.
One major change in the narrative occurs in verse 10, "we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia. This is the first time the pronoun we has occurred in Acts. There will be numerous other "we" passages in the next chapters of Acts. Scholars have debated for the last two centuries what is happening here. There are several choices. Here are the most common: (1) these passages reflect time during which Luke was with Paul and eye-witnesses the accounts he records, (2) these passages represent a diary which a companion of of Paul had written and that Luke had obtained and used for one of his sources on the life of Paul, (3) these passages are historical fiction fabricated by Luke. There are many scholars, German scholars in particular, who hold this third view. They also tend to think that most of Acts is Lucan creation rather than actual history. There are many books and articles on this subject. I can't go into all the arguments now. I'll just say that I contingently support the first option. It's an Occam's razor kind of thing: the simplest solution is usually the most accurate. I will write from the perspective that Luke is giving us his first hand account in these passages. As we read the next chapters, let's look very closely at the "we" passages and what they can tell us.
Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke sail from Samothrace to Neapolis, a short distance. It's also from Asia to Europe, a large difference. Many scholars minimize this distinction, noting that the very idea of "Europe" as a continent and a culture had not yet been invented. They were merely sailing from one place in the Greek speaking eastern part of the Roman Empire to another place in the Greek speaking part of the Roman Empire. I think the difference is bigger than that. Just read our text for today again. The Gospel is moving westward into something different.
God of the Gospel,
We give thanks for your servants Paul, Silas, Timothy, and especially for your faithful historian Luke and all he records. In Christ's name. Amen.
Faithfully
Christian
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