God’s Word for You
Acts 18:17 Dogs and cats and governments
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, October 29, 2020
17 Then they all laid hold of Sosthenes the synagogue ruler, and they beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio was not concerned about any of this.
A synagogue generally had more than one “synagogue ruler” (see Acts 13:15, and perhaps Luke 12:11 and Acts 4:5). There is a Sosthenes mentioned in 1 Corinthians 1:1; could he be the same man? Perhaps. If so, he was converted to Christianity later on. The possibilities for how we understand this verse seem to fall into these categories:
1, “They” were the Jews who brought the case to court, and Sosthenes was their spokesman. Having failed to win the case, they beat him in the courtroom.
2, “They” were the Jews, and Sosthenes was a Christian member of Paul’s group. After Paul left, they grabbed one of his followers (Sosthenes) and beat him.
3, “They” were the proconsul’s guards (the lictors), who beat the leader of the Jewish delegation, Sosthenes, as they drove the Jews away.
4, “They” refers to the Greeks. This is a variant reading of certain witnesses to the text, and actually appears in the King James Version. This would be an opportunity for the Gentiles to vent their emotions of ill-will against the Jews in general.
There are variations on these, such as Sosthenes being a “maybe” believer and being driven into Paul’s camp after the beating. But “they” probably refers to Gallio’s guards, otherwise the proconsul would not have permitted violence of this kind in his courtroom. So the third possibility above is the best of the group. That is my opinion based on the text before us. The Sosthenes of 1 Corinthians 1:1 may or may not have been the same man, but if he was, his conversion took place later. There would have been an excellent opportunity for this either through Paul (who remained for at least six months after this) or through Apollos, his successor. The name Sosthenes is common enough that they could easily be two different men.
When Luke reports that Gallio was not concerned about any of this, he doesn’t just mean the beating, but the whole incident. He did not get himself tangled up in the religion of the Jews, whether Jewish or Christian.
This verse is a good example for us of a passage that challenges our interpretive skills. Fortunately, it doesn’t affect any doctrine. Whether “they” were Jews, Greeks, or the local police, and whether Sosthenes was the leader of the Jewish synagogue or the Christian synagogue or an innocent bystander, we read the text as a factual recollection of what certainly did take place in Corinth in the late spring or early summer of 51 AD. The Gospel had been preached. Objections were brought to the highest court, and they were rejected. Christianity in Corinth was now a legal religion, able to be defended by Gallio’s decision not to prosecute Paul. Church and State remained separate, but the State’s actions allowed the Church to thrive and grow.
The prophet said, “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). God himself guides and directs the path of his people. When, along the way, the church benefits from the actions or inactions of an outside entity, it is the hand of God that helps. This might be through an animal (Genesis 22:13; Numbers 22:25), a storm (Acts 27:14-44), or a nation (Genesis 45:17-20). Surely the spread of the gospel was helped by the Roman policy we call the pax Romana, the peace of Rome which unified the language of the western world, provided overland travel with good roads, relative peace, and seagoing trade by means of better shipping, improved ports and lighthouses, and the suppression of piracy. Consider how you have been blessed by the hand of God in your life—sometimes in one way, sometimes in another. If even the dog or cat cuddling up to your knee gives you emotional support, recognize the hand of God in these blessings, and share the word of Christ in your life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.