Acts 17:10-21
Carol and I have been intrigued by our Study Bible notes talking about the “Egnatian Way”, how Paul and Silas traveled that road from when they first landed in Macedonia at Neapolis (Acts 16:11) and then stayed on that road to Philippi and Thessalonica. Here’s an interesting online item about that road: “The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thrace, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a continuation of Via Appia.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Egnatia) There is a nice map of the Egnatian Way at that Wikipedia link.
The last part of that Wikipedia text was particularly interesting to us – the “Via Appia” is the Appian Way, the most famous Roman road from that time period. That is, Paul and Silas may have been planning to stay on that highly-populated road with an intent to go on to Rome. [NOTE: That’s a big MAYBE, folks.] But instead they detoured south to Berea: The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea… (v. 10) Berea is NOT on the Egnatian Way. It may be that Berea and Athens and Corinth were Paul’s and Silas’ original targets or it may be that they got off the main road on which they had been traveling to elude capture by the Thessalonican authorities who wanted to try them for treason against Rome. Am I adding too much to the text? Maybe. And I’m no Bible scholar, but it’s interesting to try to reason these things out!
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. (v. 13) It’s just really strange to me that the Jewish leaders were so opposed to this new religion that they followed the same pattern in Macedonia that the Galatian churches had followed on Paul’s first missionary journey, following him and attacking him wherever he went!
More on Athens tomorrow…
Slava Bohu!
Thanks for the map!
I was intrigued by Dionysius and Damaris. Dionysius became the Bishop of Athens and was later martyred with two others. Damaris is a woman, and was sainted. Love how Luke mentions strong women believers. I am fascinated by the lives of early Christians, we could follow their lead!