Once again I am reading ahead just to see what next Sunday's sermon is about. A lot is happening in Chapter 16.
First of all, Paul has acquired a new partner, Timothy, who is half Jewish and half Greek. Now there's a story right there, how Timothy's parents met and married seeing the two groups normally didn't socialize but of course, we don't hear any of that. Anyway, the first thing Paul goes and does is to have Timothy circumcised. Ouch! Wait a minute, I thought we discussed that in the last chapter, that that wasn't a requirement anymore. Oh, well, I am sure that the pastor will discuss that one.
So anyway, Paul and Timothy and a dude named Silas are in this town when a slave girl comes up them and starts telling everyone that these people are here to tell all about how to get saved. I mean she really is a pest. She will not go away and she will not shut up. Now you'd think that the three evangelists would be delighted to get free publicity but oh, no. Finally Paul tells the "demon" inside of her to get lost in the name of Jesus. That is when the you know what hits the fan.
It seems this slave girl is associated with one of the pagan temples in town (the notes for the Jerusalem Bible says she was an oracle at the temple of Python), and her ability to "see" people's future has made her owner a pretty well-to-do man. He's not happy about losing this lucrative income, and he goes to the town officials. They arrest Paul and his companions, flog them and throw them in jail. In the middle of the night there is an earthquake, the jailer gets miraculously converted (ever notice how many conversions in Acts are due to miracles, not reason?) and then Paul drops the bomb. He's a Roman citizen which means what they have done to him is super-illegal. And no, he will not go quietly out of town, he wants to be publicly escorted, full apology and all that.
But in the meantime, what about the slave girl? Acts doesn't say how old she was but I am guessing she could have been anywhere from 8 to 13 years old. So she was female, a minor, and a slave, not a good thing to be at any time, but especially then. She may have been abandoned to die as an infant because she was female, and picked up by a slave trader. That was common practice at the time. Somehow it was discovered she had this ability to either read people's minds or predict the future, and so she was probably leased out to the temple of Python. At any rate, she didn't have a whole lot of say in what happened to her. Considering the fate of many female slaves in the Roman empire, there were probably a lot worse things than being a temple oracle. But Paul doesn't stop to think about that. Oh, no. He doesn't ask her, he doesn't ask her owner, he just jumps right in and exorcises her without a thought as to what happens next.
So what did happen to this poor child? I'm willing to bet that as soon as her owner found out that she was useless, he probably beat her senseless. Then, he probably sold her. I think it's pretty safe to say that her story didn't have a happy ending. But who cares? She was just a nameless female slave. Just a child who got caught in the cross-fire.
First of all, Paul has acquired a new partner, Timothy, who is half Jewish and half Greek. Now there's a story right there, how Timothy's parents met and married seeing the two groups normally didn't socialize but of course, we don't hear any of that. Anyway, the first thing Paul goes and does is to have Timothy circumcised. Ouch! Wait a minute, I thought we discussed that in the last chapter, that that wasn't a requirement anymore. Oh, well, I am sure that the pastor will discuss that one.
So anyway, Paul and Timothy and a dude named Silas are in this town when a slave girl comes up them and starts telling everyone that these people are here to tell all about how to get saved. I mean she really is a pest. She will not go away and she will not shut up. Now you'd think that the three evangelists would be delighted to get free publicity but oh, no. Finally Paul tells the "demon" inside of her to get lost in the name of Jesus. That is when the you know what hits the fan.
It seems this slave girl is associated with one of the pagan temples in town (the notes for the Jerusalem Bible says she was an oracle at the temple of Python), and her ability to "see" people's future has made her owner a pretty well-to-do man. He's not happy about losing this lucrative income, and he goes to the town officials. They arrest Paul and his companions, flog them and throw them in jail. In the middle of the night there is an earthquake, the jailer gets miraculously converted (ever notice how many conversions in Acts are due to miracles, not reason?) and then Paul drops the bomb. He's a Roman citizen which means what they have done to him is super-illegal. And no, he will not go quietly out of town, he wants to be publicly escorted, full apology and all that.
But in the meantime, what about the slave girl? Acts doesn't say how old she was but I am guessing she could have been anywhere from 8 to 13 years old. So she was female, a minor, and a slave, not a good thing to be at any time, but especially then. She may have been abandoned to die as an infant because she was female, and picked up by a slave trader. That was common practice at the time. Somehow it was discovered she had this ability to either read people's minds or predict the future, and so she was probably leased out to the temple of Python. At any rate, she didn't have a whole lot of say in what happened to her. Considering the fate of many female slaves in the Roman empire, there were probably a lot worse things than being a temple oracle. But Paul doesn't stop to think about that. Oh, no. He doesn't ask her, he doesn't ask her owner, he just jumps right in and exorcises her without a thought as to what happens next.
So what did happen to this poor child? I'm willing to bet that as soon as her owner found out that she was useless, he probably beat her senseless. Then, he probably sold her. I think it's pretty safe to say that her story didn't have a happy ending. But who cares? She was just a nameless female slave. Just a child who got caught in the cross-fire.
