  ARCHÆOLOGICAL LIGHT ON THE ACTS AND EPISTLES The Politarchs of Thessalonica. An Altar to Unknown Gods. An Inscription from Delphi and the Date of Paul’s Contact with Gallio. Some Epistles from Egypt. Inscriptions Mentioning Aretas, King of Arabia. 1. The Politarchs of Thessalonica. In Acts 17:6 the rulers of Thessalonica are called in the Greek “politarchs.” It is a unique term, and its accuracy had been called in question by some scholars. Within the past hundred years no less than nineteen inscriptions have come to light which prove its accuracy, by referring to the rulers of Thessalonica as “politarchs.” One of the most important of these is from an arch in Thessalonica. It runs in part as follows, the beginning being illegible:[616] In the time of the Politarchs, Sosipatros, son of Cleopatra, and Lucius Pontius Secundus Publius Flavius Sabinus, Demetrius, son of Faustus, Demetrius of Nicopolis, Zoilos, son of Parmenio, and Meniscus Gaius Agilleius Poteitus ...... Another fragmentary inscription shows that the rulers of the city bore this title as early as the time of Augustus. It is in part:[617] Bosa, proconsul, made a stone-quarry for the temple of CÆsar, in the time of the priest and judge, the Emperor CÆsar, the divine son Augustus .........., the politarchs remaining faithful, viz.:—Diogenes, the son of Kleon, the ...., etc. It is not clear from the inscriptions whether the number of politarchs was five or six. 2. An Altar to Unknown Gods. In Acts 17:23 it is stated that Paul saw in Athens an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. In the year 1909 an altar was discovered in the sacred precinct and temple of Demeter at Pergamos in Asia Minor, the home of one of the seven churches of the book of Revelation (Rev. 2:12, f.), which bore a mutilated To unknown gods, This is not only a confirmation of the statement of Acts 17:23, but of Pausanias[619] (second century A. D.) and Philostratus[620] (third century A. D.) that altars to unknown gods existed. 3. The Date of Paul’s Contact with Gallio. The chronology of the life of Paul cannot be fully determined from the Bible itself. Such chronological data as the New Testament affords help us only to a relative chronology. Could the year of one of the dates given by the New Testament be determined by a date of the Roman empire, it would enable scholars to fix with approximate certainty the other dates. Hitherto the endeavor to do this has centered about the recall of Felix from Palestine and the coming of Festus (Acts 24:27), but there has been so much uncertainty about the date of this recall, that systems of chronology, differing from one another by from four to five years, have been constructed. A fragmentary inscription has come to light from Delphi, which seems to give us the desired aid for our Pauline chronology in that it fixes the date of the coming of Gallio to Corinth (Acts 18:12). This inscription, as its lacunÆ are supplied by Deissmann, is as follows: Tiberius Claudius CÆsar Augustus Germanicus, Pontifex Maximus, of tribunican authority for the 12th time, imperator the 26th time, father of the country, consul for the 5th time, honorable, greets the city of the Delphians. Having long been well disposed to the city of the Delphians .......... I have had success. I have observed the religious ceremonies of the Pythian Apollo .................... now it is said also of the citizens .................... as Lucius Junius Gallio, my friend, and the proconsul of Achaia, wrote .......... on this account I accede to you still to have the first[621] .......... At this point the inscription is too broken for translation, although the beginnings of several lines can be made out. The importance of the inscription lies (1) in the fact that it mentions Gallio as proconsul of Achaia, and (2) in the reference to the 12th tribunican year and the 26th imperatorship of Claudius. It can Paul’s stay in Corinth extended over eighteen months (Acts 18:11), and the narrative in Acts implies that a large part of it had passed before Gallio went there. Paul must, then, have arrived in Corinth not later than the end of the summer of the year 50. As the journey described in Acts 16 must have occupied some months, the council at Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, cannot have taken place later than the year 49 A. D. In Gal. 2:1 Paul says that this visit occurred fourteen years after the visit which followed his return from Damascus. As the Jews in counting time usually reckoned the two extremes as a part of the number, even if a part of them only should really have been included, the visit of Paul to Jerusalem, mentioned in Gal. 1:18 must have occurred not later than 36 A. D., nor earlier than 35 A. D. As this visit occurred “three” years after his conversion, we find, if we make similar allowance for the possibilities of Jewish reckoning, that his conversion occurred not later than 34 A. D., and possibly as early as 31 A. D.[624] 4. The Epistles. The Epistles of the New Testament, especially those of Paul, are cast in the form of ancient letter-writing. This form in its more stately aspects has long been known through the letters of Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, etc., but the papyri discovered in Egypt afford us many examples of the more familiar and affectionate style of informal letter-writing, and frequently, at the beginning, afford parallels to expressions which are found in the introductions of Paul’s Epistles. The following examples will illustrate this: Isias to her brother, greeting: If you are well and other things happen as you wish, it would be in accordance with my constant prayer to the gods. I too am in good health, and so is the boy; and all at home make constant remembrance of you. When I got the letter through Horus, in which you explain that you are in Epephi 30th, of the 9th year.[625] This letter was written in the year 172 B. C. “Brother” in it probably means husband. The husband had gone on a religious mission and has left the wife without support. He at last sent her a letter, and this is her reply. She wishes to persuade him to return, and writes with great tact. What she says about remembering her husband in her prayers, and her thanks to the gods for his health, reminds one of the language of Paul in 1 Thess. 1:2; 3:9; 2 Thess. 1:3, 11; 2:13; 1 Cor. 1:4; 2 Cor. 1:4-6; Phil. 1:3, 9; Col. 1:3; Philemon 4. Another letter which illustrates the same points is this: Ammonios to his sister Tachnumi, much greeting: Before all things I pray that you may be in health, and each day I make the act of worship for you. I salute heartily my goodest little boy Leo. I am jolly and so is the horse and Melas. Don’t neglect my son. I salute Senchris, and I salute your mother. I likewise salute Pachnumi and Pachnumi junior. I salute ...... and Amenothis. Hurry up about the boy until we go to my place. If I come to the place and see the place, I will send for you and you shall come to Pelusium, and I will come to you at Pelusium. I salute Steches, the son of Pancrates. I salute Psemmouthis and Plato. If your brothers dispute with you, come to my house and stay there until we see what to do. Don’t neglect it. Write me of your own welfare and of my boy’s. Hurry up over the matter of the farm. I wrote this letter in Themuis on the fifth of the month Phamenoth. We have two days more, and then we will arrive at Pelusium. Melas greets you all by name. I salute Psenchnumi, the son of Psentermout. I pray that you may be well and strong.[626] The sentence of this letter which follows the greeting is couched in almost the same language as 3 John 2, and the number of people saluted in it and the manner of their salutation reminds one strongly of Rom. 16:3-16. 5. Paul and Aretas, King of Arabia. Paul says: “In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me.”[627] Aretas is called by Josephus king of Arabia. He was Haretat IV, King of the NabathÆan Arabs. These NabathÆans were found in Arabia by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (668-626 B. C.); they conquered Edom about 400 B. C., driving the Edomites over into southern Judah; they helped one of the successors of Alexander the Great at the battle of Gaza in 312 B. C., and founded a dynasty of kings that lasted until overthrown by the Roman Emperor Trajan in 106 A. D. Haretat IV belonged to this line. The following Aramaic inscription, dated in his reign, affords monumental confirmation of his existence: This is the tomb which Halafu, son of Kosnatan, made for himself and for Shaidu, his son, and his brothers, whatever males are born from this Halifu, both their sons and descendants by right of inheritance forever. And those who may be buried in this sepulcher and in this structure are this Shaidu and Manuath, Kenushath, and Ribamath, and Umaiyath and Shalimath, daughters of this Halifu. Also no descendant of Shaidu has authority, and no man after him of their sons or descendants, to sell this sepulcher, or to inscribe an epitaph or an emblem for anyone, except for the wife of one of them, or for his daughters, or kinsman, or relative by marriage he may inscribe the tomb. If any one shall do contrary to this, then the fine of Dushara, the god, our lord, shall be imposed upon him to the extent of five hundred silver shekels of Haretat, and in accordance with this inscription shall be deposited in the temple of Kaisha. Month Nisan, year fortieth of Haretat, King of the NabathÆans, who loves his people. Rauma and Abdobodat, stone-cutters.[628] As Haretat ruled from 9 B. C. to 40 A. D., this inscription was written in 31 A. D., just a few years before Paul escaped from the officers of Haretat at Damascus. There are many other inscriptions dated in the reign of this king. Another reads as follows: This is the sepulcher and two monuments over it, which Abdobodat, the general, made for Aitebel, the general, his father, and for Aitebel, the commander of the two camps which are in Luhitu and Abarta, the son of Abdobodat. This is in the district of their command, which they exercised in the two places for thirty-six years in the reign of Haretat, King of the NabathÆans, who loves his people. The above-mentioned (monument) was constructed in the forty-sixth year of his reign.[629] |
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