Acts 16:16-34; Paul and Silas in Philippi I

The text is too long to reproduce here. My exposition this morning looks at this passage as a rollicking good story which was probably told with enjoyment in the earliest Christian communities. So many of its elements make you pause, smile and wonder. Thus, what I will do here is to "retell" the story with attention to the text and its subtext. I will let the story "explode," as it were, in all its deliciousness so that we can understand ourselves and the text more closely.

Three introductory comments get us going. First, this text is the first indication of the truth of God's words about Paul in 9:16 ("I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name"). Second, the unjust imprisonment and release of Paul from prison here in Philippi "mimics" Peter's imprisonment and angelic release in 12:6-11. One of the ways Luke uses to show Paul's fidelity to the original Gospel, even though he is sent to "outsiders"--i.e., Gentiles, is to show that he imitates Peter, the unmistakeable leader of the Jerusalem Church, in many things. Third, the dual angelic release from prison of the principal Apostles is commemorated in a hymn which gained popularity in the last generation--"And Can it Be." Charles Wesley penned the words of this dramatically rich favorite in 1739. The fourth verse runs as follows:

"Long my imprisoned sprit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee."

Therefore, in the words of the great hymnographer, the apostolic imprisonment is symbolic of our struggle with "sin and nature's night." We are ready now to tell and hear the story.

I. The Slave Girl

Paul and Silas are still on the way to the place of prayer, where they were headed in 16:13 upon arrival at Philippi. They met Lydia at that place and were taken to her house when she showed herself open to the Gospel. Now, in v. 16, they are returning to the place of prayer. I suppose that if you already have a harvest of sorts you want to keep harvesting. You return to the place which already yields fruit. When I was a candidate for elective political office I was told by consultants always to return to people who gave you money at the outset of the campaign. If they gave to you once, they would do so again. So Paul and Silas want to return to the place of prayer.

But this time they meet an unexpected person. They meet a paidiske, a slave girl, a person who elsewhere is contrasted with an eleuthera (a free woman). She followed them, but not as a disciple follows the master. She had a "spirit" (pneuma) in her, but it wasn't the Holy Spirit. It was, as the text says, a pythonic spirit (the Greek word is "python"). What might that mean? Well, a "python" is a serpent, and it originally designated the serpent or dragon that guarded the famed Oracle at Delphi. It lived at the foot of Mt. Parnassus, and was slain by Apollo. Later the word came to designate a "spirit of divination" or even a "ventriloquist," since such a person was believed to have this kind of indwelling spirit. Thus, the slave girl had some kind of divinatory spirit. This spirit must have been rather novel and rare, for she was able through it to earn a "great income" for her masters. Simon Magus wanted to buy the gift of the spirit with money from Peter, and he was condemned for it (ch. 8). Now Paul, the imitator of Peter, runs into a woman who already has a certain spirit within, through which she can make money.

She no doubt is able to make money for her masters because she "predicts" things that will come to pass. Or, in other words, she tells the "truth" about life. As she followed along after Paul and Silas, she spoke the truth: "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation" (16:17). There is no article in Greek before the word for way or road (odon), and so scholars generally translate it as "a way." Nevertheless she isn't far wrong in what she says. She has no knowledge of the particulars of Christian faith, but she does "recognize" in Paul and Silas' message something from the "most high God." Remarkable, isn't it?

So, she spoke things correctly about the Apostles, but this isn't the kind of press that they needed. They must have received these words as a sort of taunting gesture, as a means by which her owners were exploiting her all the more and perhaps embarrassing the Apostles at the same time. What must have been going through Paul's mind as he hear her words? Well, the text says that she continued to do this for many days. Thus, he decided at first to endure it. 'Maybe it will help my business,' he could have thought. Maybe, also, he thought that she would soon go away. But a novelty can soon become an annoyance when it just parrots the same words. Paul realized after a while that her presence and voice hurt his business, and so he put a stop to it. He ordered the spirit in her to stop.

This language of Luke fits into the ancient concept of ventriloquism, briefly mentioned above, where the one practicing this art is actually taken over by or indwelt by a "spirit," rather then simply "projecting a voice," as is our concept of ventriloquism. Thus, the casting out of the spirit of ventriloquism is a sort of exorcism, even though it isn't quite put in that language by Luke. As a result, she wasn't able to do her job anymore. The interesting (and quite foreign, at least to us) idea that runs through this narrative is that various spirits are at work in the world, and that the Spirit of God, which Paul has, is able to overcome these lesser mantic expressions.

The next essay completes these reflections.

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