Christian Texts and History • Re: Was the Paul-in-Acts a pagan?

Acts 16 continues with her masters being upset that the woman could no longer sooth-say, so they complained to the authorities and had Paul and Silas arrested. I don't think it leads onto Nero. Also, the woman wasn't a Pythian priestess, just a sooth-sayer.

You may be right, but I don't think so:

And it came to pass in our going on to prayer, a certain maid, having a spirit of Python, did meet us, who brought much employment to her masters by soothsaying, (Acts 16:16 [YLT])

The Pythia was a huge business and made a lot of money; emperors, kings, rulers came for their pronouncements, so this is not just a sooth-sayer. del Tondo and Mauck made me read Acts very subtley; they argue that the author of Acts had a subtle role: if Acts is a legal brief to a Roman prosecutor, he had to argue for Paul in a way that would be liked and accepted by a Roman pagan prosceutor. The results for Christianity of a guilty verdict could be catastropic: Christianity could be made an illicit religion - with a possible death sentence associated with membership.

So there are little perks added in for a pagan audience, like the reference to Castor and Pollux (Acts 28:11 KJV). As well as serious digs against Paul thrown in for Christians that a Roman would take as a compliment but Christians as a dig.

But it does not end there for me, and the followup is important to me. After the council of Nicea Constantine moved the Pythia from Delphi to his new capital at Constantinople. He was Pontifex Maximus of the SolInvictus/Apollo/Mithras pagan cult, and showed beyond doubt whose side he was on. Del Tondo has some of videos on YouTube on this:

• 20230208@5 Who was Theophilus to Whom Luke Acts were Addressed Review of Mauck s Defense of Paul@EL6lGR7OtyI
• 20230218@Mauck Meant to say Collegium Illicitum not Religio Illicita as Roman Law Luke was trying to satisfy@CUiX1Q6Cr3Y
• 20230211@Why Does Mounce Omit the Python Priestess in the Greek for Acts 16 16 who endorsed Paul@tYsh7y0yaEo
• 20230311@Why does Luke add for days Paul accepted demonic Python

Statistics: Posted by ebion — Thu Feb 22, 2024 1:45 pm

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