[217] 3. ACCUSATION AND CONDEMNATION IN PHILIPPI. (XVI 19) BUT, WHEN HER MASTERS SAW THAT THEIR HOPE OF GAIN HAD DEPARTED, THEY SEIZED PAUL AND SILAS [AND DRAGGED THEM INTO THE AGORA BEFORE THE MAGISTRATES], (20) [AND BRINGING THEM TO THE PRESENCE OF THE PRĘTORS], THEY SAID, "THESE MEN DO EXCEEDINGLY DISTURB OUR CITY, JEWS AS THEY ARE, (21) AND RECOMMEND CUSTOMS, WHICH IT IS ILLEGAL FOR US TO RECEIVE OR TO OBSERVE, AS WE ARE ROMANS". (22) AND THE POPULACE ROSE IN A BODY AGAINST THEM; AND THE PRĘTORS, RENDING THEIR GARMENTS in horror, BADE the lictors BEAT THEM, (23) AND WHEN THEY HAD LAID MANYSTRIPES ON THEM, THEY CAST THEM INTO PRISON, CHARGING THE JAILOR TO KEEP THEM SAFELY: (24) AND HE HAVING RECEIVED SUCH A CHARGE, CAST THEM INTO THE INNER PRISON, AND MADE THEIR FEET FAST IN THE STOCKS.

It is hardly possible that vv. 19, 20 have the final form that the writer would have given them. The expression halts between the Greek form and the Latin, between the ordinary Greek term for the supreme board of magistrates in any city ({archontes}), and the popular Latin designation ({stratêgoi}.{praetores}), as if the author had not quite made up his mind which he should employ. Either of the clauses bracketed is sufficient in itself; and it is hardly possible that a writer, whose [218] expression is so concise, should have intended to leave in his text two clauses which say exactly the same thing.

The title Prętors was not technically accurate, but was frequently employed as a courtesy title for the supreme magistrates of a Roman colony; and, as usual, Luke moves on the plane of educated conversation in such matters, and not on the plane of rigid technical accuracy. He writes as the scene was enacted.

It is impossible and unnecessary to determine whether the slave-girl's owners were actually Roman citizens. They speak here as representatives of the general population. The actual coloni planted here by Augustus when he rounded the colony, were probably far outnumbered by the Greek population (incolae); and it is clear that in the colonies of the Eastern provinces, any Italian coloni soon melted into the mass of the population, and lost most of their distinctive character, and probably forgot even their language. The exact legal relation of the native Greek population to the Roman coloni is uncertain; but it is certain that the former occupied some kind of intermediate position between ordinary provincials and Romans or Latins (when the colony was a Latin colony like Antioch). These colonies were one of the means whereby Rome sought to introduce the Roman spirit and feeling into the provinces, to romanise them; and the accusation lodged against Paul, with the whole scene that followed, are a proof, in this vivid photographic picture, that the population prided themselves on their Roman character and actually called themselves Romans, as they called their magistrates Praetors.

Paul on other occasions claimed his right of citizen- [219] ship; why not here? It is evident that the Praetors made a great to-do over this case: they regarded it as a case of treason, or, as it was termed in Greek, "impiety"({asebeia}), rent their clothes in loyal horror, with the fussy, consequential airs that Horace satirises in the would-be Prętor of a country town (Sat. I 5, 34): the fabric of the Empire was shaken to its foundations by this disgraceful conduct of the accused persons; but the Prętors of Philippi stood firm, and the populace rose as one man, like true Romans, to defend their country against her insidious enemies. In such a scene what chance was there that Paul's protest should be listened to? Perhaps it was made and not listened to, since the whole proceedings were so disorderly and irregular.

The first person ceases at this point; the author was not arrested, and therefore could not speak in the first person of what happened in the prison. He did not accompany Paul further; but remained at Philippi as his headquarters, till Paul returned there, XX 6, when the first person is resumed. It is only natural to understand that he was left in Philippi, because of his obvious suitability for the work of evangelising that city; and his success was so striking that his "praise in the preaching of the good news was through all the Churches,"II Cor. VIII 18 (a passage which is understood by early tradition as referring to Luke). At the same time it is clear that he had not been a householder in Philippi previously, for he went with Paul to enjoy Lydia's hospitality.