Chapter 16

Acts 16:1–2. He came down to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go out with him.

Acts 16:3. And taking him, he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. And so there arose a sharp contention. Between Paul and Barnabas there arose a certain pettiness of spirit, the one party honoring justice and the other something like injustice, yet each of them serving the aim of piety. The cause of this pettiness was as follows. Mark had been traveling with them on the evangelical course from Palestine as far as Perga in Pamphylia. Then, when the apostles were keeping up a vigorous pace, Mark, being human, grew sluggish, and renouncing the apostles’ course, turned back to Palestine, not denying Christ, but begging off from the long road as burdensome. So Paul and Barnabas returned, full of the fruits of piety, proclaiming to the Church in Jerusalem the conversion and repentance of the Gentiles. So when everyone was praising them for their good deeds, Mark was grieved and stung in his soul; for he reflected, ‘If I had been a sharer in the labors, I would also have become a sharer in the praises.’ So he wished to run together with them again. Barnabas then received him, since he had repented; but Paul contended that the one who had not gone with them to the work of the Lord ought not to be taken along. So the dissension was not one of injustice, but of justice and pettiness of spirit. Paul sought what was just; Barnabas, what was loving. So though they were at variance in judgment, they were in agreement in piety; and they parted not in faith, nor in disposition, but through human pettiness of spirit. And it became a providential dispensation. For when they separated, Barnabas, taking Mark, went out on his own course. And Paul’s strictness benefited Mark, for he was eager to cover his former negligence with zeal. Paul charged in the Churches that Mark should not be received, not to grieve him, but to make him more diligent; and when he saw that Mark had anticipated this with zeal and had made his defense through his later deeds, he begins to commend him, and says: ‘Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, greets you, concerning whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, receive him.’ And among the prophets too we find this, differing judgments and characters: for example, Elijah was severe, Moses was gentle. So also here Paul is the more vehement. But see how even so he is reasonable: ‘He asked,’ it says; for he was not angry, but was exhorting. What then? Did they part as enemies? God forbid. For you see that after this Barnabas enjoys much praise from Paul in the Epistles. It seems to me that the separation came about also by mutual consent, and that they said to one another, ‘Since I wish one thing and you do not wish it, so that we may not quarrel, let us by agreement divide the regions between us,’ so that they did this entirely yielding to one another. And these things are written for our example, that we may not fall; for it is not possible, being human, not to be provoked; but having been provoked, one must change. And this quarrel greatly benefited Mark. For Paul’s fearsomeness turned him back, and Barnabas’s kindness kept him from being left behind any longer. So they quarrel, but the gain arrives at one and the same end. For seeing Paul choosing to withdraw, he was greatly afraid and condemned himself; and seeing Barnabas thus holding fast to him, he greatly loved him; and the disciple was set right through the teachers’ quarrel, so far was he from being scandalized. ‘And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the Churches.’ He does not go to other cities before visiting those that had received the word. Let us also do this: let us instruct the first ones first, that these may not become a hindrance to those who come after. ‘And behold, a disciple was there named Timothy,’ attested ‘by the Jews,’ it says. And it should be noted that the Jews had so despised the law that they were given in marriage to Greeks and married Greek women. ‘And taking him, he circumcised him because of the Jews.’ Paul’s understanding deserves to be marveled at: he who had fought so much concerning circumcision, and had stirred up everything over this until he prevailed, circumcised his disciple. And he not only does not forbid others, but does this very thing himself. So in everything he looked to what was beneficial, and did nothing without purpose. And the marvel is that he even took him along. ‘Because of the Jews,’ he says, ‘who were in those places.’ For they would not have endured to hear the word from an uncircumcised man. And what then? See the achievement: he circumcised him in order to abolish circumcision, not establishing circumcision, but wishing to accomplish a very great thing, pleasing to all the apostles together. For up and down the Jews slandered him, as everywhere overturning the law and teaching those from the Gentiles apostasy from it, and they were very hostilely disposed toward him. So since he found Timothy, a disciple from the Greeks, suitable for his service, and wished to have him as a fellow-traveler, then because of those who impiously reviled him he circumcised him, wishing through such an arrangement to draw them to himself. For if Timothy were uncircumcised, being a teacher, all would have leaped away from him. For if such great accusation arose against him over Trophimus the Ephesian, whom they supposed Paul had brought into the temple (and this man was of the Greeks), what would he have suffered if he had with him as a teacher Timothy, an uncircumcised man? And see him also purified, in the judgment of his fellow-apostles, and in the temple announcing the fulfillment of the purification. And he did everything for the sake of the salvation of the Jews. Some indeed say that Peter too played the part of a Jew. And these things harmed the apostles not at all; but it became for the Jews an occasion of salvation and a beginning of faith in Christ, that they had such teachers, who, as they supposed, kept the law.

Acts 16:4–12. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which had been decided by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So the Churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. And going through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, they came down to Mysia and tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And in the night a vision appeared to Paul: a man of Macedonia was standing, beseeching him and saying, ‘Come over into Macedonia and help us.’ And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go out into Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. So setting sail from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we stayed in that city some days. ‘They delivered to them the decrees to keep.’ By ‘decrees’ he means not the mysteries of the incarnate dispensation, but to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication, which look to the establishment of a rightly ordered life. ‘Having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.’ Why they were forbidden, he does not say; but that they were forbidden, he said, teaching us only to obey and not to inquire, and showing that they did many things in a human way as well. In Asia and Bithynia the Spirit forbids the apostles to speak the word, foreknowing that the heresy of the Pneumatomachi, the Spirit-fighters, would gain mastery over the inhabitants there. And in the night the vision was given. A man of Macedonia appeared to Paul, and the rest. No longer through an angel, as with Philip and as with Cornelius, but he appears through a vision; in this, henceforth in a more human manner. For where it is easy to be persuaded, it happens thus; but where there is much resistance, it happens in a more divine way. It should be noted that in these cities Luke was with Paul, from which he also includes his own person, saying, ‘We sought,’ ‘we ran a straight course,’ ‘we went out.’

Acts 16:13–15. And on the day of the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made. And sitting down, we spoke to the women who had gathered there. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.’ And she constrained us. ‘By the river.’ Rather, since there was no synagogue there because of their scarcity, the supposedly God-fearing gathered secretly by the river outside the city. For they prayed not only where there was a synagogue, but also outside, as though setting apart a certain place, inasmuch as the Jews were rather carnal, and on the Sabbath day, when a crowd too was likely to gather. ‘If you have judged me faithful to the Lord.’ See a wise woman: first she testified to this very thing, that God had called her. See also her freedom from vanity: this was a lowly woman, and by trade a seller of purple, it says, that is, one selling purple-dyed goods. And the historian is not ashamed of her occupation. She did not say, ‘If you have judged me a great woman,’ or ‘a pious one,’ but ‘faithful to the Lord.’ If to the Lord, much more to you. She did not simply beseech, but left them to be masters of the decision, even though she strongly constrained them.

Acts 16:16–18. Now it happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain servant girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who brought her masters much profit by soothsaying. She followed Paul and us, crying out, saying, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.’ And this she did for many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

Acts 16:19–21. And when her masters saw that the hope of their profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers. And bringing them to the magistrates, they said, ‘These men, being Jews, are throwing our city into confusion, and proclaim customs which it is not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or to observe.’ ‘Having a spirit of Python.’ Who is this demon? A god, it says, Python, so called from the place. And he wished to cast them into temptations. And otherwise, this Pythia is said to have been a certain woman who sat upon the tripod of Apollo, parting her legs; then thus an evil spirit, rising up from below and entering through her generative parts, would fill the woman with madness; and she, loosing her hair, would then fall into a frenzy and let foam come out of her mouth, and thus becoming as in drunkenness, would utter the words of madness. […] ‘These men are servants of the Most High God.’ O foul one! If you know that they proclaim the way of salvation, why do you not stand away from them? ‘But Paul, being grieved,’ that is, being moved and stung; and he silenced her though she spoke the truth, teaching us not to admit demons even when they pretend to advocate for the truth, but to wall off against them every road of error, and to stop our hearing against everything that comes from them. For if Paul had accepted its testimony, he would have deceived many of the faithful. So at first he did not accept it, but spat it out, not wishing to throw himself upon the signs; but when it persisted, then he commanded it to come out. So the demon acted maliciously, but he prudently. ‘And when her masters saw that the hope of their profit was gone.’ Everywhere money is the cause of evils. They wanted the girl to be possessed by a demon, so as to make money. See that they pay attention not even to the demon, but look to one thing, the love of money. He said, ‘They are servants of the Most High God’; but they say, ‘They are throwing our city into confusion.’ He said, ‘They proclaim to us the way of salvation’; these say, ‘They deliver to the people customs which it is not lawful to receive.’

Acts 16:22–28. And the crowd rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their garments and ordered them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them securely. He, having received such a charge, cast them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. And about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosed. And the jailer, being awakened and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.’

Acts 16:29–34. Then he called for lights and sprang in, and trembling, fell down before Paul and Silas. And bringing them out, he said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke to him the word of the Lord, and to all those in his house. And taking them at that hour of the night, he washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. And bringing them up into his house, he set a table before them, and rejoiced with his whole household, having believed in God. ‘And the crowd rose up together against them.’ Paul worked the miracles and the teaching, but Silas too shares in the dangers. Know that demons too know that Jesus the crucified is the Most High God. Being therefore His servant, Paul affirmed, saying, ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.’ ‘And suddenly there was a great earthquake.’ An earthquake came, so as to awaken that man; and the doors were opened, so as to make him marvel at what had happened. But the prisoners did not see these things, or else they would all have fled. And lest the earthquake should seem to have happened of itself, there followed also the opening of the doors, bearing witness to him. ‘Believe on the Lord, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ Not even when he was in the prison does Paul keep quiet; but even there he drew the jailer to himself, working this beautiful captivity. ‘And taking them at that hour of the night, he washed their stripes.’ He indeed washed them from their stripes, but he himself was washed from his sins. ‘And he rejoiced with his whole household, having believed in God.’

Acts 16:35–38. And yet there was nothing received, but only words and good hopes. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, ‘Release those men.’ And the jailer reported these words to Paul: ‘The magistrates have sent that you be released; now therefore go out and depart in peace.’ But Paul said to them, ‘They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they cast us out secretly? No indeed; but let them come themselves and bring us out.’ And the officers reported these words to the magistrates. And they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.

Acts 16:39–40. And they came and besought them, and bringing them out, asked them to leave the city. And going out of the prison, they entered the house of Lydia; and seeing the brothers, they exhorted them, and departed. ‘But Paul said to them.’ Even though the magistrates had given notice, Paul does not go out; but both for the sake of Lydia and the others, he frightens them, lest they should be thought to have been released because someone had asked it. And he brought a charge against them, that they had beaten Romans, and uncondemned men, and publicly. Do you see how they contrived many things in a merely human way? And he said these things lest he should seem to be released as a condemned man and as one who had sinned. And this jailer is the same Stephanas whom Paul mentions in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, ‘I baptized also the household of Stephanas.’ ‘And going out of the prison, they entered the house of Lydia; and seeing the brothers, they exhorted them, and departed.’ For it was not right to leave their hostess in struggle and anxiety; and they would not consent to depart, even though urged on by the magistrates, unless they entered to the humble woman and the others whom they called brothers. How great was their freedom from vanity and their love!