CHAPTER XII THE NEW TESTAMENT 339 Hadrian the island was governed by a propraetor; under was a very rare title for magistrates, and might easily be Severus, again by a proconsul. confounded with the more usual designation “poliarchs.” 7. The proconsular status of Achaia under Gallio, But Luke’s accuracy has been confirmed by an inscrip18:12 (Γαλλίωνος ἀνθυπάτου ὄντος της Αχαίας). Achaia, tion still legible on an archway in Thessalonica, giving which included the whole of Greece lying south of Mace- the names of seven “politarchs” who governed before the donia, was originally a senatorial province, then an im- visit of Paul.1075 peratorial province under Tiberius, and again a senatori12. The description of Athens, the Areopagus, the al province under Claudius.1070 In the year 53–54, when schools of philosophy, the idle curiosity and inquisitivePaul was at Corinth, M. Annaeus Novatus Gallio, the ness of the Athenians (mentioned also by Demosthebrother of the philosopher L. Annaeus Seneca, was pro- nes), the altar of an unknown God, and the quotation consul of Achaia, and popularly esteemed for his mild from Aratus or Cleanthes, in Acts 17, are fully borne out temper as “dulcis Gallio.” by classical authorities.1076 13. The account of Ephesus in 8. Paul and Barnabas mistaken for Zeus and Hermes the nineteenth chapter has been verified as minutely acin Lycaonia, 14:11. According to the myth curate by the remarkable discoveries of John T. Wood, 1071 described by Ovid, the gods Jupiter and Mercu- made between 1863 and 1874, with the aid of the English ry (Zeus and Hermes) had appeared to the Lycaonians Government. The excessive worship of Diana, “the great in the likeness of men, and been received by Baucis and goddess of Artemis,” the temple-warden, the theatre (caPhilemon, to whom they left tokens of that favor. The pable of holding twenty-five thousand people) often used place where they had dwelt was visited by devout pil- for public assemblies, the distinct officers of the city, the grims and adorned with votive offerings. How natural, Roman proconsul (ἀνθύπατος), the recorder or “towntherefore, was it for these idolaters, astonished by the clerk” (γραμματευς́ ), and the Asiarchs (Ἀ σιαρχαι) or miracle, to mistake the eloquent Paul for Hermes, and presidents of the games and the religious ceremonials, Barnabas who may have been of a more imposing figure, have all reappeared in ruins and on inscriptions, which for Zeus. may now be studied in the British Museum. “With these 9.The colonial dignity of the city of Philippi, inMace- facts in view,” says Lightfoot, “we are justified in saydonia,16:12(“a Romancolony,” κολων́ ια; comp. 16:21, ing that ancient literature has preserved no picture of “being Romans”). Augustus had sent a colony to the fa- the Ephesus of imperial times—the Ephesus which has mous battlefield where Brutus and the Republic expired, been unearthed by the sagacity and perseverance of Mr. and conferred on the place new importance and the priv- Wood—comparable for its life-like truthfulness to the ileges of Italian or Roman citizenship (jus Italicum).1072 10. “Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira,” praefectos civitatis, the rulers of the city. Grimm says: “Usita16:14. Thyatira (now Akhissar), in the valley of Lycus in tius Graecis erat, πολίαρχος “ 1075 The Thessalonian inscription in Greek letters is givAsia Minor, was famous for its dying works, especially en by Boeckh. Leake, and Howson (in Conybeare and Howfor purple or crimson.1073 son’s Life and Letters of St. Paul, ch. IX., large Lond. ed., I. 11. The “politarchs” of Thessalonica, 17:6, 8.1074 This 860). Three of the names are identical, with those of Paul’s of his Natural History and as his chief authority for the facts in the second and eighteenth books, two of these facts being especially connected with Cyprus. The Consul L. Sergius Paulus, whom Galen the physician met at Rome a.d. 151, and whom he mentions repeatedly, first under his full name and then simply as Paulus, may have been a descendant of the convert of the apostle. 1070 Tacitus, Ann. I. 76; Sueton., Claudius, c. 25. 1071 Metam., VIII. 625-724 1072 Dion Cass., LI. 4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. IV.11. 1073 Strabo, XIII. 4, § 14. Inscriptions found in the place attest the existence of a guild of purple-dealers, with which Lydia was probably connected. 1074 τοὺς πολιτάρχας , i.e.,τούς ἄρχοντας των πολιτων,
friends in that region-Sopater of Beraea (Acts 20:4), Gaius of Macedonia (19:29), and Secundus of Thessalonica (20:4). I will only give the first line: ΠΟΛΕΙΤΑΡΧΟΥΝΤΩΝ ΣΩΣΙΠΑΤΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΛΕΟ. 1076 See the commentaries on Acts 17:16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 28. The singular θεῳ in 17:23 creates some difficulty; for Pausanias (I. 1-4) mentions “altars to unknown gods” which were set up in the harbor and streets of Athens; and Diogenes Laërtius (Epimen., c. 3) speaks of “altars without name” in many parts of Athens. It is supposed that Paul meant one of these altars, or that he ingeniously adapted the polytheistic inscription to his argument. In the dialogue Philopatris which is erroneously ascribed to Lucian, one of the speakers swears “by the unknown god of Athens.”
