NOTES for Act 16:18-19

During his apostolic ministry Paul had to find himself in many scrapes: whatever else one may say, his life was not poor in adventures. So it was in Philippi, a relatively small Macedonian city. Macedonia by this time was already fully Hellenized and belonged to the Roman Empire. There was also a Jewish community there. The city itself was fairly ordinary, not especially religious, the kind of place that in Gospel times was called "pagan." But lack of religiosity did not mean lack of superstition or lack of interest in everything supernatural: such interest is usually characteristic precisely of societies not distinguished by special religiosity. Against such a background the appearance of possessed people is quite understandable.

Sometimes these are simply ecstatics by nature, inclined to hysteria; sometimes they are people truly possessed, under the influence of a will alien and hostile to man. It is hard to say exactly what the servant girl mentioned in the book was: the description is too brief, the details few. It is clear only that she sensed the breath of the Kingdom that the apostles carried with them. For this one need not be a Christian or simply a believing person; a certain heightened "mystical" sensitivity is enough. In the end Paul, who was tired of the unceasing "religious" show accompanying his testimony, returned the servant girl to a normal state. And then her masters were indignant.

Not for religious reasons, of course, but for commercial ones: evidently they exploited their servant girl's unusual abilities to their own advantage. Still, they apparently did not want to admit such self-interested motives and decided to pose as defenders of state foundations and Roman traditions. They, of course, had no concern for the Messiah, the Kingdom, or Paul himself, just as they had no concern for Roman traditions. And the representatives of local authority cared that no unrest or disorder should happen in the city. So the local authority strives to get rid of unwanted witnesses.

The story of the Savior's earthly ministry, His condemnation and execution, is repeated. Not literally, of course, but in essence. They too wanted to get rid of Him not so much for ideological reasons as out of simple political expediency. In this respect the logic of all authorities in every age is apparently the same. Both secular and religious. The Kingdom of God threatens every authority. Except one: God's authority over the human heart.