An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 211: Tentmakers, Silversmiths, and Sellers of Purple (Acts 16-20)

Acts 16-20
Tentmakers, Silversmiths, and Sellers of Purple.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Acts 16

“And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”

Whoa, now, hold on there. At the start of this chapter a man named Timotheus is circumcised, because his father was Greek. Now, doesn’t that go against what they agreed last chapter? Actually it’s more complicated – his mother was a Jew, so is he circumcised because of this? I don’t know how it works, can you be “a bit Jewish”? However it works, though, it’s largely irrelevant to the rest of the chapter, which sees Paul and co. travel to Macedonia after Paul “has a vision”.

Oddly, this travelogue section (which really needed a map to help interpret it) is written in the first person plural, but also refers to Paul, so inferring it’s written by Silas? Paul and co. are “were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia”, which to me sounds like they just couldn’t get there for some reason. I reckon Paul got scared and made up some “vision” that they had to go in the other direction, but then I don’t really like Paul so I’m probably biased.

In the city of Thyatira they stay with a woman called Lydia, a “seller of purple” (which I guess is the murex dye); there’s an odd little incident with another nutty woman who follows them round proclaiming them to be servants of God. You’d think they’d find this flattering, or at least truthful (since flattery leads to pride which is sinful), but Paul casts a demon out of her for this all the same. It’s probably that she was drawing attention to them from the authorities that they did not want, because afterwards Paul and co. are arrested and put in stocks, in prison.

There is, however, an earthquake that breaks open the prison, but Paul and co. do not use this as a chance to escape. Their honesty causes the jailer to convert, and shortly orders come down for the apostles to be released anyway, but Paul refuses unless the magistrates that made the order come and give it in person, using his Roman citizenship as a bargaining chip. There is an amusing repetition up and down the chain of command here that reminds me of an AA Milne poem about a king who “only wants a little bit of butter for my bread” and the command is relayed down from the king to a cow, and back up again.

Acts 17

“Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.”

After a bit of blether about who goes where with whom, Paul, Silas and Timotheus (ah, so that’s why he had a mention before) first go and preach at Thessalonica, where some Greek philosophers seem interested, but the Jewish authorities stir up trouble with the Romans and try to accuse the apostles of going against Caesar. Paul leaves for Athens, ahead of the other two (see, I said before he’s always the first to turn chicken and run!).

Here he disputes with philosophers about the Athenian’ “Unknown God”, and claims that his God doesn’t need altars and idols. Well, He did need altars back in the days of Moses and David. Evidently He doesn’t now. When Paul teaches of the Resurrection, some mock him, some are interested to learn more. I like the note that “For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing”. Seems like a good way to be, to me.

At the end, Paul has gained some converts, notably Dionysus the Areopagite and a woman called Damaris.

Acts 18

“And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.”

There are several things in this chapter that make it more than simply a sequence of places where Paul and Co. go to teach in the Mediterranean region, because otherwise it’s a list of places where they go, and in each place annoy the Jewish authorities and gain converts – same as most of the other Acts chapters to be honest.

There are a lot of named people, as well as named places, here. From Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers exiled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius, to Gallio the “deputy” of Achaia and Justus, synagogue leader to Apollos the false preacher, there are plenty of actual personalities that makes it seem more real.

The second is that Paul has another vision and we get some more “direct” speech from Jesus. At least, the online KJV that I use treats it as such, putting it in red text the same is Jesus’ words from the Gospels. Paul’s imaginary Jesus tells him not to be afraid in Corinth and to preach the word. As well as Corinth, Paul visits Ephesus and Galatia, so presumably the later letters are to the people he meets and converts there.

What else? That Paul stays with Aquila and Priscilla because they are tentmakers like his old craft – interesting, suggesting a kind of society of craftspeople. Gallio the deputy is like Pilate-lite, refusing to get involved in what he sees as an internal Jewish theological dispute. Apollos the false preacher is interesting – he’s been preaching of John the Baptist, and Paul and Co are able to convince him that John was just the precursor, not the actual Messiah. I remember from discussing the Gospels how I was interested in John the Baptist as a sort of nearly-man, and it seems like he’s managed to inspire his own little following. Lacking someone with the zeal of Paul, though, I guess he never made it as big.

Acts 19

“And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

May you live in interesting times, indeed. This chapter gives an idea of turmoil following Paul and Co. around wherever they take their message. Apollos, from the last chapter, and the people that he has baptized, have never heard of the Holy Spirit, and so Paul upgrades their baptism from John-style to Jesus-style. He also gains the power to heal the sick – cloths that have touched him are taken away and used to heal the sick, allegedly. When a group of Jewish savants try the same trick to exorcise a demon, the demon possesses them instead (see quote above). People come out and burn their books (hinted at being sorcery/astrology, that sort of thing) which, even if they are nonsense superstition I can’t condone.

The rest of the chapter concerns the actions of the Ephesian silversmiths, angry that Paul is taking away their business of making statues of Diana. This spreads to general discontent about Paul trying to do away with the Ephesian’s cultural mores of worshipping Diana, and Paul (once again) wusses out of talking in the amphitheatre (where I have visited!) – the chapter claims that the other disciples had to hold him back from talking, but I don’t believe it - and it is down to the town leaders to point out that Ephesus is built on the rule of law and not mob-rule.

Acts 20
“And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.”

Paul even manages to bore a man to death (well, almost. The man is alive, but oddly enough Paul doesn’t use any of his magic handkerchiefs on him to heal him). You may by now have taken away the message that I don’t particularly like Paul, which would be a fair thing to say. In this chapter he leaves Ephesus (see, told you last chapter he runs when it gets too difficult), and does a sort of Jesus-lite by telling his followers that he has to go to Jerusalem and that they won’t see him again, because he’ll probably be killed. I mean, the man even copies everything done before him.

I’ll say this for him, though. He’s dedicated. As he tells his followers “I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations” and that “I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel”, also seeking charity wherever possible. He’s a complicated man, driven with zeal, perhaps too much zeal sometimes and also apparently spinning how much he actually does, but it does feel that without Paul the apostles would have probably become just a minor Jewish sect that ended when they did, if even that long (after all, we’ve not heard much of Peter during Acts – what was he doing all this time?)