Criswell
Theological Review 5.1 (1990) 69-82.
Copyright © 1990 by The
ARCHAEOLOGY
AND THE BOOK OF ACTS
JOHN MCRAY
The
winds of biblical scholarship have blown toward the Book of
Acts
from a largely theological direction for the past quarter of a
century,1 providing a corrective
to the pervasive concern with ques-
tions of historicity fostered
by the work of W. Ramsay almost a century
ago.2 However, the winds are
changing again, and interest is once more
being kindled in questions relating to the
trustworthiness of Acts. These
changing winds are blowing from such unlikely
places as the University
of
say prior to his sojourn in
scholar at
ship in supporting the historical integrity of the
Acts of the Apostles. . .
and demonstrates that Luke's account is
historically reliable. . . ."3 Miti-
gating cases against the hyperskepticism
of scholars like J. Knox,4 and
G.
Leudemann,5 are now being made in various
quarters bolstered by
new discoveries in archaeological and inscriptional
material.6
1 C. Talbert, ed., Perspectives on Luke-Acts (Edinburgh: T.
& T. Clark, 1978);
I.
H. Marshall, Luke: Historian and
Theologian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970); L. E.
Keckand J. L. Martyn, Studies in Luke-Acts (Nashville:
Abingdon, 1966).
2 W. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller
and Roman Citizen (
idem, The
Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament
(2d
ed.;
3 From the jacket of Hengel's Acts and the
History of Earliest Christianity (Phila-
delphia: Fortress, 1979).
4 J.
Knox, Chapters in a Life of Paul (New
York: Abingdon, 1950). (Rev. ed.;
5 G. Leudemann,
Paulus der Heidenapostell: Studien zur Chronologie (
Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1980). English trans. by F. S. Jones, Paul-Apostle to
the
Gentiles: Studies in
Chronology
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984).
6 See
works below by Finegan, McRay,
and Herner.
70
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
In this article only a modicum of
current archaeological research
will be presented because an article of this length
requires a high
degree of selectivity in order to include even the
highlights of archae-
ology's ongoing contribution to
the study of Acts. Older works on Acts,
such as those by Ramsay, Foakes-Jackson,
and
be supplemented, and in places corrected, by
contemporary research
on archaeology and classical history in the works
of J. Finegan,8
C.
Hemer,9 the author,10 and
others.
For convenience we may group
significant discoveries relating to
Acts
into the following categories: 1) chronology, 2) inscriptions and
coins, and 3) excavated sites.
Chronology
The unbridled skepticism of Knox and
Leudemann concerning the
trustworthiness of Acts for
constructing a reliable, if not detailed,
chronology of its events has been effectively
neutralized by the careful
work of less radical scholars. Fragments11
of an inscription reproducing
a letter sent from Claudius, either to the people
of
successor of Gallio,
have been found at
(Loukioj [ou] uioj Galliwn
o f [iloj] mou ka [i anqu] patoj [thj
Axaiaj] egrayen. . . ).12 C. Herner and J. Finegan demonstrate
that
most recent studies13 on the Gallio inscription require the placing of
that proconsul's accession to office in Achaia in
A.D. 51/52 (Acts 18:12).
Paul,
having come to
before Gallio (18:11), could
have arrived in the late fall of 49,14 or
7 F. J. Foakes-Jackson and K. Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity (5 vols.;
New
8 J. Finegan,
The Archaeology of the New Testament: The
Mediterranean World of
the Early Christian Apostles (Boulder, CO: Westview,
1981).
9 The scholarly world has
been recently blessed by the posthumous publication of
the exhaustive work of Professor Herner, The Book of
Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic
History (WUNT; Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck],
1989).
His work deals with
questions of the history, language, geography, and
structure of Acts.
10 J. McRay, Archaeology
and the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991).
11 Four were known to A. Deissmann (see n. 12), but a total of nine are now
accepted by Herner (The Book of Acts in the Setting of
Hellenistic History, 252, n. 18).
See
his analysis based on these additional fragments in "Observations on
Pauline Chron-
ology," in D. A. Hagner and M. J. Harris, eds., Pauline Studies (
1980)
6-9.
12 A. Deissmann,
Hodder &
Stoughton, 1912) appendix I.
13 See Herner, Book of Acts,
252, n. 18.
14 Finegan,
The Archaeology of the New Testament, 13.
John McRay:
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 71
taking a less restrictive view of the 18-month period,
in the late fall
of 50.15
This date coincides well with Suetonius' record of an expulsion of
the Jews from
before Paul arrived in
Claudius
“did not drive them out [i.e., because there were so many] . . .
but ordered them not to hold meetings"18
probably refers to the begin-
ning of his reign when he
showed tolerance to the Jews.19
The very recent discovery of a
cemetery in
long with more than 120 tombs, provides support for
this analysis.20
One
of the tombs contained an inscribed sarcophagus which belonged
to “Theodotus, freedman
of Queen Agrippina. . . ." He was freed by
the queen, the second wife of Claudius, between A.D.
50 and 54. This
manumission of a Jewish slave21 (Theodotus is Greek for Nathanael),
points to a favorable relation between the house of
Claudius and the
Jews early in his reign. Later in his reign,
another wife of Claudius,
Queen
Protonice, converted to Christianity, made a
pilgrimage to
wrongfully withheld from Christians the possession
of
cross, and the tomb of Christ. A little known passage
in the Doctrine of
Addai then reads: “And when Caesar heard it, he commanded all
the
Jews to leave the country of
referred to above by Suetonius.
15 Herner,
The Book of Acts, 169,252-53; "Pauline
Chronology," 6.
16 Herner,
The Book of Acts, 169.
17 Orosius
(Seven Books of History Against the
Romans 7.6,15-16) dated it to the
ninth year of Claudius's reign, which Finegan places at A.D. 49 (Handbook of Biblical
Chronology [
idem, The
Teaching of Addai 7b-lla. See G. Howard, trans., The Teaching of Addai
(Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981) 33.
18 Dio
Cassius, History of
19 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 19.280-91. G.
Howard, "The Beginnings of
Christianity
in
Quarterly 24 (1981) 175-77.
20 R. Hachlili
and A. Killebrew, "The Saga of the Goliath
Family-As Revealed in
Their
Newly Discovered 2,000 Year Old Tomb," Biblical
Archaeology Review 9/1
(1983)
52-53.
21 Another Theodotus, who was a priest and synagogue president, whose
name was
found on a pre- A.D. 70 inscription belonging to a
synagogue in
Vettenus" and thus may have been a slave who
had been freed by the prominent Roman
family of the Vetteni,
taking their name as was the custom. A. Deissmann, Light from the
Ancient East (New York: George H.
Doran, 1922) 439-41; Finegan, Light from the
Ancient Past, 306. Albright felt that this
synagogue of Theodotus may be connected with
the "synagogue of freedmen" in Acts 6:9.
W. F. Albright, The Archaeology of
(Baltimore: Penguin, 1960) 172. I
22 Howard, Doctrine of Addai,
33.
72
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
Inscriptions and Coins
One of our most important sources
for the study of the ancient
world continues to be the ongoing decipherment of
already discovered
inscriptions and the continual
discovery of new ones. For example,
some 7,500 inscriptions have been found in the Greek
Agora of Athens
alone.23 They testify to the
huge number of inscribed altars, monu-
ments, and buildings that
existed in this part of
area. Excavations by the
and 1981-82 unearthed about 25 hermai
(statues) in the northwest part
of this western agora alone.
This area had "assumed
something of the aspect of a museum" in
the time of Acts,24 and Petronius, a Roman satirist in the court of Nero,
could say that it was easier to meet a god than a man
in Athens.25 Paul
was thus impressed that he found among these
"objects of your wor-
ship"
an altar even "to the unknown god" (agnwstw
qew), Acts 17:13).
Although
this altar no longer exists, an altar "to the unknown god," was
purportedly located by Pope Innocent III in A.D.
1208 in Athens.26
Pausanias, who visited
altars. Describing his trip from the harbor to
altars of the 'Unknown gods'. . . ."27 Similarly, at
the altar of Olympian Zeus and wrote that
"near it is an altar of the
Unknown gods. . . ."28
Apollonius of Tyana, who was born at the time
of the birth of Christ and died in A.D. 98, spoke
of
"where altars are set up in honor even of unknown gods (agnwstwn
daimonwn
bwmoi)."29
Diogenes Laertes
wrote of altars being erected "To the god whom
it may concern (tw
proshkonti qew)."30 Oecumenius records an altar
23 J. Camp, The Athenian Agora (London: Thames &
Hudson, 1986) 17.
24 T. L. Shear, Jr.,
"
(1981) 362.
25 Petronius,
Satiricon 17.
26 Published in PL 215,
cols. 1559-61. "Palladis in sedem humiliavit gloriosissimae
genitricia veri Dei nunc
assecuta notitiam quae dudum ignoto
exstruxerat Deo
The
fuller text of the testimonium is easily accessible
in J. Travlos and A. Frantz, "The
16th Century," Hesperia 34 (1965) 194. I am grateful for this reference from J.
Binder,
which she excerpted for me from materials in her
forthcoming book on The Topography
of
27 Description of
28 Description of
29 Recorded by his biographer, Flavius Philostratus (A.D. c. 170-c. 245). Life of
Apollonius of Tyana 6.3. (trans. by F. C. Coynbeare, Loeb Classical Library) 2.13.
30 Diogenes
Laertes, 1.110.
John
McRay: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 73
dedicated to “the gods of Asia, Europe, and
and Strange God.”31 When W. Dorpfeld cleared the sacred precinct of
Demeter
at
defective text, which is restored by H. Hepding and A. Deissmann to
read: qeoij agn[wstoij] Kapitw[n] dadouxo[j] “To unknown gods,
Capito, torchbearer.”32
The tendency to view emperors as
divine at the time of Acts is
shown in an inscription found in 1980 in
Thessalonica. A temple of qeoj
Kaisar (divine Caesar) had
been in Thessalonica since the time of
Augustus,33 and in this newly discovered inscription, the
qeoi
sebastoi
(august gods) are venerated as cruvvaol
(fellow sanctuaries) of Serapis
and Isis.34
The other section of the agora lay
250 feet to the east, partially
endowed by Julius Caesar and completed by
Augustus in the last
decade of the 1st century B.C.35 The
identification and date of this area
are confirmed by two inscriptions, one on the
architrave of the gate of
Athena,
which allowed entrance from the Greek agora,36
and the other
on the base of a statue of Lucius
Caesar, Augustus' grandson.37 It is now
customarily referred to as “the market of Caesar and Augustus.” It
would have been more likely in this area, rather than
the more often
visited one to the west, that Paul would have
found his audiences.
Excavators of Amphipolis,
a city on Paul's journey down the
still standing when Paul passed through the area.38
A lengthy inscrip-
tion (139 lines) of 21 B:C.
contains an ephebic law (i.e., a law for youth),
which provides detailed instruction about athletic
activities and equip-
ment in the gymnasium,39
as well as references to the city's road
system, factories, a theatre, and an agora.40
This confirms the impres-
sion of Amphipolis
as a major city. It was, in fact, the capital city of the
first district of Macedonia.
31 Comments on Acts
17:23, in Minge, Patrologia
Grecae, 118.238.
32 See Hepding's report in Athenische Mitteilungen 35 (1910), 454-57. And see
Deissmann's discussion in St. Paul: A Study in Social and Religious
History (
Hodder and
33 Inscriptiones Graecae: Inscriptiones
Attica, 1935. 10.2.31. (Vols. 2 and 3 of this
larger series are now called IG II2).
Hereafter referred to as IG II2.
34 F. Papazoglou,
"
Greek History and
Civilization
(ed. M. B. Sakellariou;
207, n.
35 W,
B. Dinsmoor, "The
J.
H. Oliver, Hesperia 11(1942) 82.
36 IG
1123175.
37 IG
1123251.
38 Archaeological Reports 30 (1983-84) 49.
39 Archaeological Reports 31 (1984-85) 48.
40 Archaeological Reports 32 (1985-86) 68.
74
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
At Beroea,
also visited by Paul along the
important gymnasium inscription has been found,
"The Gymnasiarchal
Law
of Beroea," which was published in 1951,41 and has been re-
cently restudied.42
The age groups categorized in the gymnasium are:
1)
Paidej, up to age 15; 2) efeboi, ages 15-17; and 3) Neoi or Nea-
niskoi, ages 18-22. This may
provide some indication of the age of
Timothy,
who is referred to as a neothj ("youth") in
1 Tim 4:12.
Archaeology continues to make a
contribution to a problem that
has centered around Thessalonica for many years.
Critics of the NT
asserted that Luke was mistaken in his use of the
term politarxai
(politarchs) for the officials before
whom Paul was taken in this city.43
The
containing this term which was found in Thessalonica.
The inscription
begins, "In the time of the Politarchs.
. . ." Finegan writes that the
importance of the inscription is that "it is
otherwise unknown in extant
Greek literature."44
However, in 1000 C. Schuler
published a list of 32 inscriptions
which contain this term,45 and 19 of them
come from Thessalonica!
Three
of these date to the 1st century A.D. (#8, 9, and 10). One of the 32
is from Beroea and also
dates to the 1st century A.D. The word politarch
appears on line 110 of this impressive stele in
the city's museum.46
Three more may be added to that list
as follows: 1) I have seen one
in the
donian Apollonia,
and published by K. Sismanides.47 2) J. H. Oliver
discusses an inscription that appeared on the base
of a statue erected in
Beroea for the emperor Claudius, which refers to a
board of five
politarchs in that city, all of
whom are named on the inscription.48 It
41 Makaronas, Makedonika (1951);
xronika Arxaiologika
629-30, n. 71.
42 J. M. R. Cormack, Ancient
Epigraphique 9
(1978) 430-31.
43 Acts 17:6.
44 Finegan,
Archaeology of the New Testament,
108.
45 C. Schuler, "The
Macedonian Politarchs," Classical Philology 55 (January/
October, 1960) 00-100.
46 It has been the
subject of recent study by J. M. R. Cormack;
"The Gymnasiarchal
Law
of Beroea," Ancient
posium Held in Thessaloniki, 19-24, August, 1973 (
Studies, 1977) 139-49. See also a response by
J. Robert and L. Robert in Bulletin
Epigraphique 9
(1978) 431-32.
47 Sismanides,
however, has not accepted Apollonia as its source. Arxaiologikh
Efhmerij; (1983) 75-84. See also
Archaeological Reports 32 (1985-86)
58.
48 J. Oliver, "The
Dedication to Claudius at Beroea," Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie
und Epigraphik 30 (1978) 150. A reply
was made by J. Touratzoglou in ZPE 34 (1979)
272-73.
John
McRay: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 75
was published originally in modern Greek by J.
Touratzoglou.49 3) In
January,
1975, a reused marble plaque was discovered at Amphipolis
in
Basilica A, containing the word "politarchs" in line 7. C. Koukouli-
Chrysanthaki of the
century B.C.50 It is interesting that
scholarly discussion has now shifted
from whether politarchs
existed at all to the question of when the
institution originated!51 It is now
incontrovertible that politarchs existed
in
The
reference in Acts 16:12 to
district of Macedonia" is enigmatic in the
Greek manuscripts. The
translation is equally enigmatic.52 Coins
minted in Amphipolis from
168
to 146 B.C. carried the inscription MAKEDONWN PRWTHS (first of
districts of
that honor belonged to Amphipolis,54 a
city which Paul would visit
later.55 The conjectural text of
Nestle-Aland's 26th ed., making "first"
(prwthj) a genitive and thus
reading "a city of (the) first district of
Paul undoubtedly travelled
to
according to Strabo,56 ran from Apollonia on the west coast of
donia (on the same latitude
as Thessalonica) to Kypsela (modern Mar-
itza) on the east coast. The
milestones marked it as a distance of 535
Roman miles (493 English miles). One of these milestones
was recently
discovered in the vicinity of Thessalonica,57
and is now housed in the
49
Arxaiaj Makedoniaj (
50
Ancient
Macedonian Studies in Honor of Charles F. Edson (ed.
H. J. Dell;
Institute for Balkan Studies, 1981) 238-39.
51 For a survey of that
question see M. Hatzopoulos, "Les politarques de Philip-
popolis: Un element meconnu pour la datation d'une magistrature macedonienne," a
communication read at the Third
International Congress of Thracology in
1980).
For bibliography previous to 1973 see F. Geschnitzer, RE Suppl. 13 (1973)
483-500.
Also see B. Helly, "Politarques,
Poliarches, et Politophylaques,"
Ancient Mace-
donia 2 (
52 RSV,
2d ed., 1971. This is generally the way the verse is translated.
53 See Lazarides' article on "Amphipolis"
in
Sites (ed. R. Stillwell;
54 Natural
History 4.38. See also Papazoglou, 198; and Lazarides in
Encyclopedia of
Classical Sites,
52.
55 Acts 17:1.
56 Geography 7.7.4.
57 C. Romiopoulou,
“Un Nouveau Milliaire de la Via Engatia,"
Bulletin de Cor-
respondance Hellenique 98 (1974) 813-16.
76
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
museum in that city. It is one of the most interesting
I have seen,58 is
written in both Latin and Greek, and gives the
distance as 260 Roman
miles (Thessalonica is midway between the two points
mentioned by
Strabo).
Inscriptions found at
now illuminated the use of terms in Acts such as
God-fearers59 (fobou-
menoi
sebomenoi),60 town clerk (grammateuj),61 and Asiarchs
(Asiar-
xai).62 In 1974,
M. Rossner identified 74 Asiarchs
or high priests of
in
the repertorium of
inscriptions from
3,500
previously known and new inscriptions, has brought the number
58 The Latin distance is
given as CC followed by an arrow pointing down, followed
by X. Romiopoulou
comments on the arrow as follows: "L'emploi de
la lettre [down
arrow] pour designer le chiffre
50 (le X de l'alphabet {chalcidique}),
mais surtout la
forme des lettres
du texte grec, autorisent a dater l'inscription de la seconde moitie du IIe
siecle avo
J.-C." Bulletin de
Correspondance Hellenique
98 (1974) 814. The distance in
Greek
is clear-SC
= 260.
59 Acts 10:22; 13:16,26,43; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7.
60 See the material on
the recent excavation of the Aphrodisias stele by C. Gempf in
Herner, Book of Acts, appendix 2, "The
God-Fearers," 444-48. In general see: L. Feld-
man, "The Omnipresence of the
God-Fearers," Biblical Archaeology
Review 12/5 (1986)
58-63;
T. Finn, "The God Fearers Reconsidered" CBQ 47 (1985) 81; R. MacLennan and
T.
Kraabel, "The God-Fearers: A Literary and
Theological Invention," BAR 12
(1986)
45-54;
M. Mellink, "An Article on Inscription in the
Synagogue at Aphrodisias Containing
the Word qessebeij," AJA 81 (1977) 281-321; R. Tannenbaum, "Jews and God-Fearers in
the
Acts-A
Reconsideration," JSNT 13 (1981)
109; note also an editorial report in BAR 12/2
(1987)
52-53.
61 Acts 19:35. On the
importance of this office see A. H. M. Jones, The
from Alexander to Justinian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967) 238-40;
and D. Magie,
Roman Rule in Asia Minor
to the End of the Third Century after Christ (
tou
d]hmou, "the clerk (or secretary) of the people." E. L.
Hicks, The Collection of
Ancient Greek
Inscriptions in the British Museum, 3.2 (
dum on 294). The
inscription, which dates to the mid-2nd century A.D., is conveniently
available in G. H. R. Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early
Christianity (4 vols.;
4.74.
62 These high officials
were among Paul's friends in
filoi). Asiarchs
were the "foremost men of the province of
wealthiest and the most aristocratic inhabitants of
the province. See the discussion in my
book, Archaeology
and the New Testament in the chapter on "Cities in
Minor."
See also L. Taylor, "The Asiarchs," in The Beginnings of Christianity (ed. F.
J.
Foakes-Jackson and K. Lake;
63 This is Inschriften grieschischer Stiidte aus Kleinasien
XI-XVII. Die Inschriften
von Ephesos 1- VIII. (Ed.
H. Wankel; Bonn, 1979-84). Newly discovered
inscriptions are
being published in Oesterreichische Jahreshefte.
See Archaeological Studies 35 (1985)
191.
John
McRay: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 77
of Asiarchs in
Asiarch inscriptions have been found in more
than 40 cities throughout
scribed in Acts.65 The fact that such
men were friends of Paul may
suggest that the wealthy and educated people of
opposed to Paul as the superstitious crowd in
the theatre, and that Paul's
ministry was not as exclusively oriented to the
poor and uneducated as
is sometimes assumed, and probably also suggests
that the policy of the
Sometime in the late 1st century,
probably in the reign of Domi-
tian,
worship, became officially designated
"temple wardens" (newkoroi),67
a term used by the clerk of the city of
in Acts the term may only have "referred to
the Ephesians as wor-
shippers of Artemis,"68 it became
in the 2nd century a title conferred
by
worship of the emperors."69 It
appears in its full form newkoroj
twn
Sebastwn ("temple warden of
the Augusti") in numerous inscriptions
from this century and later. For example, an
inscription found in
[ed]ocen thj prwthj kai me[gisthj mhtr]opolewj thj Asiaj kai
dij
nejk[orou twn Seba]ston kai filosebastou Efe[sinw polewj
th bo]ulh
kai
tw dhmw . . .
"It was decreed by the council
and people of the patriotic city of the
Ephesians, first and greatest
metropolis of
Augusti
two times. . . .”70
Some
cities, e.g.,
temples and were designated as "twice
temple wardens"; a few of the
more important ones even became "thrice temple
wardens."72
64 The most recent
publication of a list of the Asiarchs is by M.
Rosser, Studii
Clasice: Bucuresti, Soc. de Studii clasice din RSR 16 (1974) 101-42.
65 See the texts and
extensive comments in Horsley, New
Documents, 4.46-55,
where the careers of four Asiarchs
are traced on 49-50.
66 F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT; rev. ed.;
1988) 376-77.
67 Magie, Roman Rule
1.637; 2.1433, 1451.
68 Ibid.,
2.1433.
69 Ibid.,
2.1432.
70
Horsley, 4.74. See also the inscriptions in J. T. Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus
(London:
Longmans, Green & Co., 1877), "Inscriptions from the City and
Suburbs," #12,
and #15.
71 Magie, Roman Rule,
1.594, 615, and 619 respectively.
72
Ibid, 1.637.
78
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
The care of the temples, the handling
of the sacred funds, and the
recording of public documents (often on the walls
of the temples) were
entrusted to a board of men known as neopoiai (temple wardens) a
term used seemingly synonymously with newkoroj in the inscriptions.73
The
former term appears frequently in inscriptions from
in the form neopoij and newpoioj.74 It has
been conjectured that De-
metrius the silversmith in Acts
19:24 may have been one of these
officials. One inscription 75 mentions a Demetrius
who is a neopoioj, but
Ramsay
rejected the identification of this man with the one mentioned
in Acts.76
In an inscription from the time of
Claudius or later,77 a man named
M.
Antonius Hermeias is called
a "silversmith," and "temple warden"
(argurokopou
neopoiou).78 A number of inscriptions in the
newly pub-
lished Inschriften van Ephesas series contain references to
silversmiths
that are much closer in time to the Book of Acts
than the papyrus
citations recorded in Greek lexicons.79
The Hermeias inscription, men-
tioned above, also mentions a
"guild of silversmiths" (sunedrion
twn
argurokopwn) in
gravesite. It has been reported that Miltner found the shops of the
silversmiths in his excavations in
the agora, though I have not seen
them.80
In the theatre of Ephesus, a crowd
gathered to protest the mission-
ary work of Paul, prompted
largely by the detrimental economic
impact his teaching was having on the livelihood of
the silversmiths
mentioned above.81 They were making
silver images of Artemis (the
Roman
Diana), some of whose beautifully sculpted statues were found
in the town hall, as previously noted. A Greek and
Latin inscription,
73 See the inscriptions
in Wood. Discoveries at
Roman Rule, 2.847 -48; and
inscription #28 with discussion in Horsley. New
Documents,
4.127.
74 Inschriften von Ephesos, 8.1, see index. As newpoihj, Horsley, New
Documents, 4,
Inscriptions
#1, 28; and newpoioj, Wood, Discoveries at Ephesus,
"Inscriptions from the
75 Inschriften von Ephesos
5.1578.
76 W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the
77 Inschriften
von Ephesos, 6, 2212.
78
Horsley, New Documents, 4.7, #1.
79 E.g., Moulton and
Milligan's Vocabulary of the Greek
Testament and Bauer-
Arndt-Gingrich-Danker,
A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament.
For other
examples see Horsley, New Documents, 4.7.
80 P. MacKendrick. The
Greek Stones Speak (New York: St. Martin, 1962) 422.
81 Acts 19:23-41.
John
McRay: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 79
found in the theatre,82 tells how a Roman official
provided a silver
image of Artemis and other statues which would be
displayed in the
theatre when civic meetings were held there, as
was customary.83
Incidentally,
an inscription at
ander the coppersmith,"
who opposed him while he taught in that
city.84 Timothy was probably in
The
inscription refers to the "(work place) of Diogenes the copper-
smith" (Diogenou[j] xarkwmatadoj).86
Sites in Asia Minor and
Due to limitations of space I will
only mention briefly some matters
of interest about several sites and refer the
reader for a discussion of
each to my forthcoming book (see n. 10 above). At
(Acts
13:14) extensive surveys and probes have clarified the existing
structures and produced maps and diagrams of the
entire area (1983
and 1984).87 The full circuit of the
city walls, 15 to 18 feet thick, has
been traced. Domestic as well as religious and civic
structures have
been found.
No excavations have been done at Iconium, Lystra, or Derbe,
although two inscriptions have generated debate
over the location of
Derbe. M. Ballance,
who found the inscription near the town of
Sehri, places Derbe there.88
Derbe is mentioned at the beginning of line
nine as follows: n, [Klaudio]derbhtwn h boulh kai o [d]hmoj e]i
Kornhlio-
(italics mine).
The other inscription, which also mentions
Derbe, was found by B. Van Eldern
in a village nearby (Suduraya)
where he locates the city.89 It reads: o
qeofilestatoj Mixail e[piskopoj
Derbij.90
82 Inschriften von Ephesos, 1.27.
83 Anatolian Studies 15 (1005) 58-59.
84 2
Tim 4:14.
85 Cf. I Tim 1:3.
86 Inschriften von Ephesos 2.554. The form xark- is equivalent to xalk- (see
Horsely, New
Documents 4.10). In Acts he is called more briefly xalkeuj.
87 See the two reports by
S. Mitchell in Anatolian Studies 33
(1983) 7-9; 34 (1984)
8-10.
88 Anatolian Studies 7 (1957) 147-51. The stone is now in the new
Museum for
Classical Antiquities at
89 He reported on it at
the 1963 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
in
Idem, "Some Archaeological Observations on
Paul's First Missionary Journey," 158, n. 2.
90 Both inscriptions are
published in Van Eldem's article, "Some
Archaeological
Observations," 157-58.
80
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
trious city" (lamprotatoj Efesiwn polewj) in an inscription
found in
the city,91 and Strabo
called it "the greatest emporium in
Asia
in the special sense of that term [ie.,
ruins of
forum, the theatre mentioned in Acts 19:29, the town
hall, the odeion,
the beautiful paved streets, temple remains, and
other civic structures.
The extent to which the imperial
cult was established in
strikingly revealed in life-size marble busts of
Tiberius and his wife
Livia found in
situ in insula
VII of the excavations of private houses in
have been worshipped even "in a private context
as guarantors of
peace and prosperity."93 Excavations
in this sector of
uncovered extensive remains of two huge insulae (ie., city blocks),
constructed in the 1st century A.D., on the northern
slopes of Mount
Koressos (Bulbudag).
They were built on a three-terraced hillside and
had water piped into apartments on every level,
unlike those of
and
and
other things, warm beverages. The owners lived in
apartments behind
the shops. Upper levels consisted mostly of middle
class apartments
and a large two-storied mansion. The western half
of the area consisted
of five large luxury apartments. Thus, we have an
example in
of the rich, the poor, and the middle class,
living in close proximity in
these insulae.94
A lecture hall, or auditorium,95 mentioned in a 1st-century-A.D.
inscription,96 has been tentatively
identified by the Turkish archae-
ologist E. Akurgal
in the area adjacent to the east side of the Celsus
library. It may be the lecture hall (or school, sxolh) of Tyrannus
where Paul "reasoned daily."97 Hemer thought the two Greek words
audeitwrion
and sxolh were virtually synonymous.98 The
"auditorium"
91 See Horsley,
New Documents, 4.74, for text and
bibliography.
92 Geography 12.8.15; 14.1.24. See
his description of
93 Archaeological Reports 31 (1984-85) 83.
94 For a fuller
description of these insulae,
see McKay, ibid., 212-17. See also the
chapter in my book on "Institutions."
95 audeitwrion from the Latin auditorium.
96 E. Akurgal,
Ancient Civilizations and Ruins of
Department of Mobil Oil Co., 1970) 161. The inscription is in
J. Keil, Ephesos: Einfuhrer
durch die Ruinenstatte und ihre Geschichte (
Institut,
1964) 109.
97 Acts 19:9.
98 C.
J. Herner, "Audeitorion," Tyndale Bulletin 24 (1973) 128.
John
McRay: ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF ACTS 81
is referred to in recent publication,99
although little, if any, of the actual
structure has yet been found. What have been found
are portions of a
Hellenistic
circular platform which was destroyed when the audi-
torium was constructed.100
Excavations continue at
a well-known inscription containing the name Erastus, which the ex-
cavation report identified with
the Erastus referred to in Romans
16:23
(Acts 19:22; 2 Tim 4:20).101 Although his praenomen and nomen
are missing, the text reads: ERASTVS -PRO
-AEDILIT[at]E S -P-
STRA
VIT. In full it would read: Erastus pro aedilitate sua pecunia
stragit, “[. . .] Erastus in return for his aedileship
laid [the pavement] at
his own expense."102
Previous excavations have also
uncovered the tribunal (bema or
rostrum) where Paul stood before Gallio (Acts 18:12). The structure was
discovered in 1935,103 and identified by
O. Broneer, the excavator, in
1937.104
It is described in detail and carefully analyzed in the later ex-
cavation reports:105
Seven parts of an inscription found in areas around
the bema establish its identity.
follows:
A[ ]SA[ ]ROST[RA-] IN[CRU]STA -MAR[MORAQU]E
-O[MNIA -S -P] -F -C -[EX] TEST[AMENTO], “He revetted the
Bema and paid personally the
expense of making all its marble."106
According
to Wiseman, the bema inscription may be dated to the reign
of either Augustus or Claudius.107 Kent
places the bema's construction
between A.D. 25 and 50 on the basis of the
letter forms of the inscription.
In the 1985 excavations east of the
theatre, C. Williams found
buildings close to the theatre with two or more
stories, whose upper
floors were residential apartments but whose lower
floors had ovens in
them and windows for street selling, similar to the
arrangement in
99 Anatolian Studies 36 (1986) 193.
100 Akurgal, Ancient
Civilizations, 161.
101 J.
Classical
Studies in
102 See the recent
discussion of Erastus as both aedile
and oikonomos
at
D.
Gill, "Erastus.the Aedile,"
Tyndale Bulletin 40 (1989) 293-302. C. Hemer notes that toe
cognomen Erastus was
not uncommon among prominent people in
Herner, The Book of Acts in
the Setting of Hellenistic History (ed. C. -H. Gempf;
Tiibingen: J.
C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1989) 235.
103
Morgan, AJA 40 (1936) 471-74.
104 Broneer,
"Studies in the Topography of
Arxaiologikh Efhmerij (1937) 125-28.
105
106
107 See Wiseman, "
Welt 2.7.1,516,
n. 308.
82
CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL
REVIEW
these functioned as combination taverns/butcher
shops.108
A final note might be added about
the author's work at
Maritima on the coast of
expedition to Caesarea Maritima,
headed by Professor' R. J. Bull of
spiring in this city (chaps.
10-11, 21-26), and our excavations there
have uncovered parts of the ancient city's northern
walls and gate, as
well as warehouses constructed in the time of Herod
the Great and
later renovated. The street system can be recreated
rather well, and the
harbor
is being explored by underwater teams headed by the Uni-
versity of
years ago. Two inscriptions containing the Greek text
of Rom 13:3 in
the form of medallions were found in our
excavations of a Byzantine
building and date to the time of some of our
earliest manuscripts of the
Greek NT. In addition to the pertinent chapter in
the author's forth-
coming book, information about the excavations can be
found in
various publications by the expedition.109
The best available book on
the site is the beautifully done volume for the
Smithsonian Institute
exhibit.110
108 C. Williams, "
109 The official
publication is being done by Edwin Mellen Press in 14
vols, under
the general title of The Joint Expedition to
Caesarea Maritima: Excavation Reports and
is being ed. by R. J. Bull (director),
R.
J. Bull, "
Review 8 (1982) 24-40; R. Bull,
"
Expedition to Caesarea Maritima: Preliminary Reports in Microfiche (
Drew
University Institute for Archaeological Research, 1982); The Greek and Latin
Inscriptions of Caesarea
Maritima: The Joint Expedition to
tion Reports (ed. R. Bull). R. Bull, "Caesarea Maritima"; A. Frova, Scavi di Caesarea
Maritima.
110 K. G. Holum, R. L. Hohlfelder, R. J.
Bull, and A. Raban, King Herod's Dream:
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