An idol, a riot, and a townclerk

Self-interest motivates both ancient men and modern man. The love of profit and property gets between man and God. Compare Acts 1:18; 5:1-11; 8:20-22; 16:16-18.

Verse 28: The speech of Demetrius filled his hearers with anger. They lifted up a coordinated raucous cry, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”

 

Verse 29: The loud cry soon engulfed the city in confusion. Two disciples who traveled with Paul, Gaius and Aristarchus of Macedonia, were caught and swept along by a mob that rushed into the theatre. The theatres this period were places of public assemblies and deliberative meetings.[i] The Ephesus theatre was located on the slope of Mount Panayir, and had a capacity of about 25,000 seats. It is a quite well-preserved site and a popular tourist attraction.

 

Verse 32: The chaotic scene at the theatre indicates why the disciples and “certain of the chief of Asia” desired Paul to stay away.  The crowd shouted diverse and contradictory things, “cried one thing, and some another”. The assembly was so confused that the majority did not even understand why they were there.

 

Verses 33-34: Bock suggests that “Paul’s presence seems to have disturbed an uneasy civil tolerance between Jews and Greeks and their religious views.”[ii] While the Jews were philosophically and theologically opposed to idolatry, the Christians were making disciples in the Gentile community. Demetrius recognized that as a threat.

Alexander “beckoned with the hand” to get the attention of the audience. He intended to speak, making a defense to the crowd gathered in the theatre. When it was generally known to the crowd that Alexander was a Jew, they would not give him opportunity to speak, but they united in a two-hour chant (“about the space of two hours) crying out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Over and over, loudly, in unison; nothing else could interrupt their frenzied cry.

Verse 35: They would not allow the Jew Alexander to speak, but eventually one of their own calmed the commotion enough to address the crowd. The townclerk (γραμματευς) might be thought of as something like a “city manager” in modern terms in the United States. He directly addresses the “men of Ephesus,” attempting to return calm thinking and good sense. He reminds them that Ephesus is specially known for its devotion to “the great goddess Diana.” It is not unusual that worshippers of Diana might perceive the image in the temple as fallen down from Jupiter in the heavens. There is no such surviving direct historical record concerning Ephesus. However, in a play Euripides writes similarly of Diana of Tauris: “And then Phoebus cried out a golden voice from the tripod, and sent me here, to get the image Zeus hurled down, and set it up in Athena’s land.”[iii] These kinds of superstitions were readily accepted by many.

 

Verse 36: The townclerk allowed that the facts concerning Diana were so universally accepted among the Roman people “that these things cannot be spoken against.” For the reasons he gives, the disorderly crowd must come to order, be quiet, and make no rash mistakes they will later regret.

 

Verse 37: The men brought into the theatre – Gaius and Aristarchus – the townclerk advised were not guilty of any assault against religion or blasphemy against Diana.

 

Verses 38-39: If there is any legitimate complaint, Demetrius and the silversmiths have legal recourse – according to the law (the law is open), before the proper authorities (there are deputies), and in the proper manner to bring charges (let them implead one another). If there are matters not covered by such legal recourse (any thing concerning other matters), a legal assembly of citizens to consider such matters can be called out.

 

Verses 40-41: However, this gathering clearly is not “a lawful assembly.” It is so irregular and disorderly that “we are in danger…of being reported at Rome as disturbers of the peace. It is a very hazardous thing to instigate a riot anywhere in the Roman Empire, for its power to punish extended as far as its eagles flew.”[iv] With the speech, the townclerk appeased the citizens of Ephesus and dismissed them to disperse from the theatre.

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[i] “...the theatre at Antioch, where the people regularly hold their public assemblies...” Cornelius Tacitus, The Histories of Tacitus, Book II, Chapter 80 (Translated by Clifford H. Moore. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925) | https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Histories/2b*.html Accessed 24 April 2024 8:50 pm. See also Josephus, “De Bello Judaico” (“Wars of the Jews”) Book VII 3:3 in Complete Works, Whiston, p. 591.
[ii] Bock, Acts, p. 611.
[iii] Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, Robert Potter, Editor. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0112%3Acard%3D939 Accessed 5 May 2024 10:35 pm.
[iv] Brief Notes on the New Testament, J. M. Pendleton, p. 359.

Name that ministry

Not to be too critical of folks who may be doing a good work; some of them seem to be accomplishing much more than I.[i] BUT what is up with the modern impulse of needing a “cool” name in order to serve the Lord? Like cattle, churches and parachurch ministries need branding (but apparently not for the same reason).[ii] “Tame That Wave Surfing Ministry,” “Fire It Up Revival Ministry,” “Deep Down Scuba Ministry,” “High As a Kite Medical Marijuana Ministry,” “This Ministry,” “That Ministry,” on and on, ad nauseum.[iii]

Did Peter & Andrew, James & John start “Fishers of Men Not Fish Ministry”? Seems not. Paul did not have “Preach the Synagogue Ministry,” “Get Stoned and Live Ministry,” “Down by the Riverside Ministry,” “Singing Praises in Jail Ministry,” “One Tyrannus School Ministry,” “Broken Boards Shipwreck Ministry,” or such like (Acts 9:20; 14:19-20; 16:13; 16:25; 19:9; 27:44). Rather, these called men of God just did ministry as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Are these official cool ministry names now necessary in our society today in order for ministries to be able to collect enough money to do the ministry? Are they in some way needed to satisfy the taxman when he comes calling? Or maybe there is something else going on?

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[i] Disclaimer: No missionaries or ministries were harmed in the making of this post.
[ii] One website claims, “In today’s world, building a strong brand is crucial for churches to effectively communicate their message and reach more people for Christ.” Another states, “…we help you define your brand’s personality. What it looks like, smells like, feels like, and sounds like.”
[iii] Disclaimer: Any ministry names depicted in this post are fictitious, made up by the author. Any similarity to real names is entirely coincidental. However, these names are now copyrighted, just so you can’t use them.

Recommended, with reservations

Historic Churches of Texas: The Land and The People, Frank A. Driskill and Noel Grisham. Burnet, TX: Eakin Press, 1980

This is a book about churches in Texas, and their church buildings. I was excited when I found I could borrow this book at Archive.Org. The excitement quickly dissipated, and overall I was sadly disappointed. The work contains many mistakes, some perhaps of only a typographical nature, but others are errors in fact. For example:

• On page 1, Driskill and Grisham introduce the famous Baptist preacher Z. N. Morrel (sic). When they refer to him again on page 3, he becomes J. N. Morrell. On the same page (3), the real Isaac Reed becomes “Isaac Read,” J. S. Milstead is “J. M. Milstead,” and M. Melton becomes “W. Melton.” If there are this many typographical errors in the first three pages, no doubt the book is filled with them. 
• The name Union Church is claimed to be so because the house was used by Baptists, Methodists, and Primitive Baptists (a sort of “union,” I suppose). On the other hand, the house itself already had name – Liberty School House – and there is no evidence of any Methodists or Primitive Baptists meeting there in 1838 when the Union Baptist Church was formed. Union is the name of the church – the congregation – not the building.
• The constitution of this church, the first of its kind in East Texas, was a “union” of Baptist believers in covenant, organized by a presbytery of ordained Baptist ministers. It took that name at its very beginning, in the conference conducted after the church was constituted – “Church met for business – chose bro. Green moderator, -- named the church Union…” The church, not the building. No other explanation need be devised.
• At the bottom of page 3 we “learn” that the “earlier migrant Pilgrim Baptist Church was organized near Nacogdoches in 1824.” Actually the “migrant Pilgrim Baptist Church” was organized in Illinois in 1833, and moved as a congregation to Texas, arriving in January 1834.

I have some questions about which churches were chosen, and which were left out, and why, but I suppose that is a matter of an author’s purpose and perspective. There is some interesting stuff in this book, all collected in one place. Nevertheless, the reader should be keenly aware that, because of the nature of some of the mistakes, that details must be verified by more reliable sources. Read with caution, and check the work.

ArchiveOrg

On this blog I have a lot of posts with links to the Internet Archive. If you try to use those link now you will find them not working. They have suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Hopefully they and their books will be back online soon.

Using texts the wrong way

“...it is always appropriate to understand personal application is not the ultimate goal. There is a real sense in which texts that glorify God for His grand plan of world redemption are worth studying for their own right...how we read the Word of God matters. We have no right to make God’s Word mean whatever we want it to mean...We ought to be careful in how we use God’s Word, because we don’t want to put a meaning in God’s Word that He did not intend! We are under obligation to apply Scripture, but that does not always mean inserting ourselves into the ancient audience. There are other ways Scripture must be applied...”

Peter Goeman

Thou lovely source of true delight

“Desiring to know and love him more” is one of Anne Steele’s “Hymns on Various Subjects” found in her Poems on Subjects Chiefly Devotional: In Two Volumes (London: J. Buckland and J. Ward, 1760). Her poetry was initially published under the pen name “Theodosia.”

1. Thou lovely source of true delight,
Whom I unseen adore,
Unveil thy beauties to my sight,
That I may love thee more.
 
2. Thy glory o’er creation shines;
But in thy sacred word
I read, in fairer, brighter lines,
My bleeding, dying Lord.
 
3. ’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop,
And sins and sorrows rise,
Thy love, with cheerful beams of hope,
My fainting heart supplies.
 
4. But ah, too soon, the pleasing scene
Is clouded o’er with pain;
My gloomy fears rise dark between,
And I again complain.
 
5. Jesus, my Lord, my life, my light,
O come with blissful ray,
Break radiant through the shades of night,
And chase my fears away.
 
6. Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of thy love;
But the full glories of thy face
Are only known above.

Anne Steele was born in 1716. Her father William Steele was a timber merchant, as well as the pastor of the Particular Baptist congregation at Broughton in Hampshire for 60 years. She united with the Broughton Church by experience and baptism when she was 14 years. In life she was long afflicted with the pains and suffering of poor health, but wrote many beautiful hymns out of her grief. In this hymn Steele expresses a deep desire to know more about Christ. This ought to be the since longing of every believer. She recognizes “the bleeding Lord” as the “lovely source of true delight.” The hymn is written in common meter, containing six stanzas. Melody Publications’ 2020 Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs pairs it with the tune Rodmell, a traditional English melody printed in The English Hymnal, with Tunes (W. J. Birkbeck, Ralph Vaughan Williams, et al., London: Oxford University Press, 1906). Other hymns with which the hymn is sung include St Peter and Varina – but it may be sung with a good common meter tune with which you are more familiar.

Anne Steele wrote nearly 150 hymns. She also produced several metrical verses of psalms. She was the first woman hymn writer whose hymns came into wide use in hymnbooks in England and America. Anne died November 11, 1778, and is buried at St. Mary Churchyard, Broughton, Hampshire, England. J. R. Broome tells her story in the book A Bruised Reed: The Life and Times of Anne Steele. Her story is also one of the stories of four women told in Sharon James’s book In Trouble and In Joy. The book To Express the Ineffable: The Hymns and Spirituality of Anne Steele is a study of her hymns, written by Cynthia Y. Aalders.

In other words, -onyms to let

• acronym, noun. A word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word (e.g., scuba, from “self contained underwater breathing apparatus”).
• allonym, noun. The name of another person taken by an author as a pen name (cf. pseudonym).
• anonym, noun. An assumed or false name.
• antonym, noun. A word that has an opposite or nearly opposite as another word.
• autonym, noun. The name that an ethnic, racial, or social group uses for itself or its language; a person’s real name.
• cryptonym, noun. A secret name or word; a code name or code word.
• demonym, noun. A name for an inhabitant or native of a specific place that is derived from the name of the place.
• endonym, noun. The name used to refer to a place by its inhabitants, as opposed to a name used by foreigners (cf. autonym, demonym, and toponym).
• eponym, noun. A person, real or imaginary, from whom a place or thing takes or is said to take its name; a word based on or derived from a person’s name.
• exonym, noun. A name used by outsiders for a place; a name used by outsiders to refer to an ethnic, racial, or social group or its language that the group itself does not use (contrast endonym).
• heteronym, noun. A word spelled the same as another but having a different pronunciation and meaning (e.g., lead, to conduct; and lead, a metal).
• homonym, noun. A word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not (e.g., heir and air).
• metonym, noun. A word or phrase used in a figure of speech in which the name of one object or concept is used for that of another to which it is related (e.g., the bottle for strong drink).
• -onym. A combining form of Greek origin, meaning “word,” “name”(e.g., homonym, pseudonym).
• oronym, noun. A sequence of words that sounds the same when pronounced as a different sequence of words (e.g., “ice cream” and “I scream”).
• paronym, noun. A word containing the same root or stem (e.g. wise and wisdom).
• pseudonym, noun. A fictitious name used especially by an author to conceal their identity; pen name (cf. allonym).
• synonym, noun. A word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.
• tautonym, noun. (Biology) A scientific name in which the generic and the specific names are the same (e.g., Chloris chloris).
• theonym, noun. The proper name of a deity (from Greek theos, Θεός, meaning ‘god’; and onoma, ὄνομα, meaning ‘name’).
• toponym, noun. A placename; a name derived from the name of a place.
• z-nym, noun. A name starting with “z” (just kidding, not a real word).

Joseph’s clothing

The coat of Joseph’s sonship

Genesis 37:3, 23, 31-33 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

• Proclaimed the favoritism of his father.
• Provoked the jealousy of his brothers.
• Provided the implication for a deception.

The garment of Joseph’s servitude

Genesis 39:12-13, 15-18 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth, and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home. And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out. 

• Expedited a saint in fleeing fornication.
• Enhanced the documentation of a lie.

The vesture of Joseph’s exaltation

Genesis 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

• Accompanied an honest man’s restoration.
• Advertised a prophet’s new position.

Renouncing curious arts

Acts 19:13-20 Evil spirits, exorcism, and book burnings

 Verse 13: These unusual “goings-on” encouraged certain Jews to try to take up the business of exorcism in “the name of the Lord Jesus.” The men are described as (1) vagabond Jews, and (2) exorcists. They were already “exorcists” practicing their incantations. Now, seeing the power of God wrought through Paul, they imagine they can tap in to that power. “Adjure” means to command, especially under oath. They adjured or commanded the evil spirits to depart in the name of Jesus, adding “whom Paul preacheth.” They act presumptuously, without authority. They were willing to try any possible method to ply their trade.

• vagabond, traveling from place to place, περιερχομενων
• exorcists, those who expel or pretend to expel devils, εξορκιστων

 Verse 14: “And there were seven sons of one Sceva…which did so” – as placed in these two sentences, suggests that these may not have been the only ones who acted in this rash manner. Acts records one representative incident of what can happen to those who illicitly undertake to redelegate the power of God.

Sceva, the father, was not only a Jew, but also a priest. “chief of the priests” does not mean he was the high priest, but most likely that he was or had been head of one of the twenty-four divisions of priests. See I Chronicles 24:7-19.[1]

Verses 15-16: Seven stupid scoundrels are in for the surprise of their lives. Not only did the evil spirit not depart from the man they possessed; he spoke boldly to them, challenging their authority. He knew Jesus, and he knew Paul (indicating he recognized Paul’s authority to speak for Jesus) – “but who are ye?” Now the evil spirit has their attention! And men possessed of devils are also possessed of ferocity and great physical strength. See Mark 5:3-4; Luke 8:29. The one possessed man leaped on the seven quack exorcists, leaving them bruised and bloody (“wounded”). They bolted the house, leaving behind their profession, their dignity, and their clothes!

Verse 17: The event, as well as the contrast between the authority of Paul and these exorcists became known to the Jews and Greeks dwelling at Ephesus. The effect was a fear that “fell on them all” – a reverential fear of the power and authority of God, in general and over evil spirits in particular. Because of all this “the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.” Contrast “name” here with “name” in verse 13.

Verses 18-19: When the name of Jesus was magnified people believed and were saved. “shewed their deeds” at least in the case of those who embraced magical and superstitious practices, probably includes revealing the secrets of their “curious arts” (περιεργα πραξαντων). The removal of secrecy destroys the secret’s hold.

• A Christian response. “many that believed came, and confessed” They did not reform and then become Christians. They became Christians and then reformed, under the power of the word and the Spirit.
• A voluntary undertaking. “brought their books” The Christians openly confessed, then brought their books; they were not seized by church authorities.
• A settled conviction. “burned them” They are convinced of what is truth and what is false, and make a distinct and final separation between the two. They made no provision for a return to them.
• A public statement. “before all men” In a public manner and open testimony, they signal to all men their determined change of faith and practice.
• A sincere renunciation. “the price of them” Sincerity is seen in what it cost them. The worth of these books added up to fifty thousand pieces of silver.[2] They counted as financial loss what had been a gain to them.

The Ephesian example instructs us to “be ye separate,” for there is no fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness and no communion of light with darkness. William J. Larkin warns:

“Today the temptation is still present to syncretize a newfound faith with pre-Christian ways of using ‘power’ to cope with life…those who live under Jesus’ lordship must sooner or later come to terms with any compromise in these matters and follow the Ephesian Christians’ example of making a clean break with their ‘power’ past.”[3]

Verse 20: A summary statement; compare Acts 12:24. This mighty Christian commitment was followed mighty growth of the word of God. “So” in this manner, by salvation and sanctification, “grew the word of God,” the cycle repeating, and “prevailed” (ισχυεν cf. v. 16). The church at Ephesus was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone,” and “all the building fitly framed together [grew] unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

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[1] Additionally, this far from Jerusalem, perhaps he operated in some unauthorized priestly fashion.
[2] Various guesses of today’s worth, however accurate, range from an estimated 100,000 thousand to several million dollars (in modern U.S. currency). Regardless, it was a lot of money. The books were a valuable commodity, whose loss was a financial sacrifice for the cause of truth.
[3] William J. Larkin, Jr., Acts, InterVarsity Press, 1995, p. 278.