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Κολληθέντɛς in Acts 17.34 and the Establishment of the Athenian Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2022

David A. Evans Open the ORCID record for David A. Evans [Opens in a new window]
David A. Evans*
Affiliation:
Queensland Theological College, 369 Boundary St, Spring Hill, QLD, 4000, Australia; Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia Email: davidaevans26@gmail.com
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Abstract

It is commonly stated that while the author of Acts records some conversions that resulted from Paul's Athenian ministry, it is unlikely that a church was established in the city. This article argues, through an analysis of the use of the κολλάω word family in Luke-Acts, the Septuagint, early Christian writings and other relevant texts, that Luke uses the participle κολληθέντɛς as a way of signifying that a Christian community was indeed gathered together in Athens at this time. Leaving other social groups to join Paul and the other new believers, the new group is fused together by their shared faith, forming a new faith community in this ancient city.

Keywords

AthensκολληθέντɛςjoinAchaiachurchActs of the Apostles
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 188 - 205
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 The quote in the text is from Morgan, here in full: ‘Here [i.e. at 17.34] and at 17.4, where the people of Thessalonica and Beroea “throw in their lot” with Paul and Silas (προσɛκληρώθησαν), Luke uses two colourful words which express rather more than that the converts just “join” the apostles.’ Weiß argues: ‘Schaut man sich den griechischen Text an, sieht man, dass dort für diejenigen, die sich Paulus, „anschlossen“, das Partizip κολληθέντɛς steht, das von κολλάω stammt, was wortlich „kleben“ oder „anhaften“ bedeutet. Was soll damit gemeint sein, wenn nicht eine soziale Zugehörigkeit zur christusgläubigen Gemeinde?’ Morgan, T., Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) 382CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n. 117; A. Weiß, Soziale Elite und Christentum: Studien zu ordo-Angehörigen unter der frühen Christen (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015) 97.

2 Witherington, B. III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 533Google Scholar.

3 Pervo, R. I., Acts: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009) 442Google Scholar.

4 Schnabel, E. J., Acts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012) 743Google Scholar; Keener, C. S., Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. iii: 15:1–23:35 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2014) 2677Google Scholar.

5 Keener, C. S., ‘Note on Athens: Do 1 Corinthians 16.15 and Acts 17.34 Conflict?’, JGRChJ 7 (2010) 137–9Google Scholar, at 139.

6 For points 1 and 3, see Schnabel, Acts, 743.

7 Thiselton, A. C., The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000) 1338Google Scholar.

8 Haenchen, E., The Acts of the Apostles (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971) 526Google Scholar; Bruce, F. F., The Book of the Acts (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988) 343–4Google Scholar.

9 Witherington, Acts, 510.

10 Thesaurus Linguae Graecae® Digital Library (ed. M. C. Pantelia; University of California, Irvine, http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu; accessed 15 September 2018).

11 The cognate προσκολλάω occurs seventeen times in the LXX: Gen 2.24; Lev. 19.31; Num 36.7, 9; Deut 11.22; 13.17; 28.21; Jos 23.8; Judg 20.45; Ruth 2.21, 23; 2 Sam 23.10; Esth 8.1; Job 41.17; Ps 73.28; Ez 29.4; Dan 2.43; and twice in the New Testament: Mk 10.7; Eph 5.31. It operates in much the same way as κολλάω: cf. the parallels between Gen 2.24 and 1 Cor 6.16; Mk 10.1, Matt 19.5 and Eph 5.31; Ruth 2.8 and 2.21, 23.

12 That is, they deal with biblical texts, church practices, the lives of former saints etc. By my count, 1,274 occurrences of the word family (not including the biblical texts) can be identified as Christian.

13 In the top ten ‘highest use by author’, nos. 1, 6, 7 and 8 are authors of medical texts: Galen, Oribasius, Aëtius and Paulus.

14 Transitive in the active: e.g. joining two pieces of metal. In the passive (which usually takes an active sense) it tends to take an intransitive sense: e.g. to associate with. BDAG, 555–6.

15 D. L. Bock, Acts (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007) 230; Schnabel, Acts, 291; Witherington, Acts, 225.

16 J. Albert Harrill has argued that the image in this parable is of παραμονή (indentured labour), rather than slavery or agricultural employment. J. A. Harrill, ‘The Indentured Labor of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:15)’, JBL 115 (1996) 714–17.

17 The D text of Acts also includes κολλώμɛνοι at Acts 14.4. While this reference will not be discussed at length in this article, it is worth noting Theodor Zahn's comment: ‘The expression κολληθέντɛς αὐτῷ, especially according to the text Acts 14,4, signifies an adherence to Paul produced by his ongoing preaching, as opposed to only a temporary contact with him’ (‘Der Ausdruck κολληθέντɛς αὐτῷ zumal nach dem Text A 14,4 bedeutet eine durch fortgesetzte Predigt des Pl bewirkte Anhänglichkeit an seine Person im Gegensatz zu nur vorübergehender Berührung mit ihm’). T. Zahn, Die Apostelgeschichte des Lucas: Zweite Hälfte Kap. 13–28 (Kommentar zum Neuen Testament; Leipzig: Deichert, 1921) 629.

18 There is some debate surrounding the various pronouns in this passage and whom they refer to. I think Craig Keener's explanation of the text is the best. C. S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol. ii: 3:1–14:28 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013) 1197–1200.

19 D. R. Schwartz, ‘Non-Joining Sympathizers (Acts 5:13–14)’, Bib 64 (1983) 550–5, at 550.

20 Schwartz, ‘Sympathizers’, 553.

21 Schwartz, ‘Sympathizers’, 553–4.

22 For commentators’ differing opinions on why the Jerusalem Christians would fear Paul, cf. Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles, 335; Bock, Acts, 369; Keener, Acts, 1689.

23 Cf. Pervo: ‘This irony pointedly illustrates the full circle Saul has traversed, from an ally of Stephen's opponents to the top of their “most wanted dead or alive” list.’ Pervo, Acts, 247.

24 J. Klawans, ‘Notions of Gentile Impurity in Ancient Judaism’, AJS Review 20 (1995) 285–312, at 288–302.

25 Klawans, ‘Gentile Impurity’, 304. While the Mishnah is less uniform in its assertions about gentile ritual and moral purity (compare M. Ohalot 18.7 and M. Toharot 7.6 with M. Avodah Zarah 5.5; 2.1), the Tosefta developed a much more uniform position that gentiles were ritually impure (T. Ahilot 9.2; T. Toharot 8.9; T. Niddah 5.5), and thus contaminating via contact, even though they were ‘not susceptible to Israelite impurities’ (‘Gentile Impurity’, 308).

26 Klawans concludes from this that the idea of Gentile ritual impurity was in an early stage of development in the first century ce. ‘Gentile Impurity’, 310–12.

27 Klawans, ‘Gentile Impurity’, 310.

28 Klawans, ‘Gentile Impurity’, 301.

29 Schnabel, Acts, 496.

30 Further examples of this type are: Ps 43.26 (44.25); 118.25 (119.25); Lam 2.2.

31 A very similar version of this verse appears in an extended end to Ahaziah's regnal resume in 4 Kgdms 1.18a–d (particularly 18c): καὶ ἀπέστησɛν τὰς στήλας τοῦ Βααλ, ἃς ἐποίησɛν, ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ⋅ καὶ συνέτριψɛν αὐτάς⋅ πλὴν ɛν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις οἴκου ιɛροοαμ ὃς ἐξήμαρτɛν τὸν Ισραηλ ἐκολλήθη, οὐκ ἀπέστη ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν (‘And he turned from the pillars of Baal, which his father had made, and destroyed them. But he clung to the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to sin, and did not turn from them’). Cf. G. R. Lanier and W. A. Ross, eds., Septuaginta: A Reader's Edition (2 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson/Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2018) i.1006.

32 Cf. Deut 10.20, with 11.16 giving the negative warning in this context; Ps 119.29–31 for putting away ‘false ways’ in order to cling (ἐκολλήθην, v. 31) to the testimonies of the Lord.

33 For further examples like this, see Deut 28.60; 29.20; Bar 1.20; 3.4.

34 Most likely written in the 130s ce. B. D. Ehrman, ed. The Apostolic Fathers, vol. ii: The Epistle of Barnabas. Papias and Quadratus. Epistle to Diognetus. The Shepherd of Hermas (LCL 25; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003) 7; J. C. Paget, ‘The Epistle of Barnabas’, The Expository Times 117 (2006) 441–6, at 443; F. Prostmeier, ‘Barnabas, Epistle Of’, Brill's New Pauly Supplements i , vol. II: Dictionary of Greek and Latin Authors and Texts (ed. M. Landfester and B. Egger; 2011), available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-8647_bnps2_COM_0045 (accessed 27 November 2021).

35 The references throughout this section follow the translation of Ehrman, Apostolic Fathers, LCL 24–5. He renders κολλάω as ‘cling to’, which perhaps gives a sense of neediness that is not necessarily carried in the verb. A better translation might be ‘attach [yourself] to’, which carries the same strength of the verb, without the unnecessary sense of neediness.

36 Barn 10.3, 4, 8, 11. In G and L (G = a collection of nine defective manuscripts, 11th cent.; L = 17th-cent. Latin version) 10.5 includes κολλώμɛνος, but it is absent from Codex Sinaiticus (4th cent.) and Codex Hierosolymitanus (11th cent.).

37 1 Clem 15.1; 30.3; 46.1, 2, 4. Other uses of κολλάω include 19.2, clinging to God's gifts; 31.1, clinging to God's blessing; 49.5, ‘love binds us (κολλᾷ ἡμᾶς) to God’; 56.2, bound to God's will; 2 Clem 14.5, Holy Spirit clinging to human flesh.

38 Translation from Galen: On the Constitution of the Art of Medicine. The Art of Medicine. A Method of Medicine to Glaucon (ed. and trans. I. Johnston; LCL 523; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016).

39 Translation follows that of H. D. Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1986) 272, except for ‘joins’ (my translation), which replaces Betz's ‘glues’. Greek text: K. Preisendanz and A. Henrichs, eds., Papyri graecae magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1974) 167.

40 D. Martinez, ‘“May She Neither Eat nor Drink”: Love Magic and Vows of Abstinence’, Ancient Magic and Ritual Power (ed. M. Meyer and P. Mirecki ; Leiden: Brill, 2001) 335–61, at 354.

41 M. Roland, ‘Note sur la charpenterie grecque d'après I.G. ii2 1668, ll. 45–49’, Architecture et urbanisme (Rome: École Français de Rome, 1987) 401–10. Roland argues that the type of joint in view in this context is a ‘mortise and tenon’ joint.

42 For example, in IMT Kyz Kapu Dağ 1431, ll. 11–12: δɛδόχθαι τῆι βουλῆι καὶ τῶι δήμωι⋅ συγκɛχρῆσθαι αὐτοῖς ἀναθɛῖναι τὸ ὅπλον ἐν τῷ τῆς Πολιάδος ναῷ (‘The Council and the people resolved to join with them in dedicating the shield in the temple of Polias’). P. Harland, trans., ‘Honorary Decree of the Traders from Asia for Tryphaina (41–54 ce)’, Associations in the Greco-Roman World, available at www.philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/decree-of-the-traders-from-asia-granting-honors-to-antonia-tryphaena/ (accessed 10 December 2020).

43 Translation from Plutarch: Moralia, vol. ii: How to Profit by One's Enemies. On Having Many Friends. Chance. Virtue and Vice. Letter of Condolence to Apollonius. Advice About Keeping Well. Advice to Bride and Groom. The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men. Superstition (ed. and trans. F. C. Babbitt; LCL 222; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928).

44 E. N. O'Neil, ‘Plutarch on Friendship’, Greco-Roman Perspectives on Friendship (ed. J. T. Fitzgerald; Atlanta: Scholars, 1997) 105–22, at 108.

45 The English translation in Loeb suggests that ‘accept – attach – make friends’ could be an ascending tricolon. The Greek text, however, links ‘accept and attach’ to the chance encounters, and ‘make friends’ to those seeking one out. I have offered my own reading of the Greek here.

46 A. J. Batten, Friendship and Benefaction in James (ed. V. K. Robbins and D. B. Gowler; Emory Studies in Early Christianity; Atlanta: SBL, 2017) 81.

47 P. Barnett, Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1999) 331–3.

48 Note the use of ‘brothers’ in 15.1, referring to the church in Antioch, which precedes the Jerusalem Council but introduces the change that is coming. P. Trebilco, Self-Designations and Group Identity in the New Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012) 51–2.

49 Jewish believers are referred to as both ‘disciples’ and ‘brothers’.

50 Salvation: 13.48; 16.31. Baptism: 8.12; 18.8. Community: 2.47; 4.32

51 F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988) 302.

52 In light of Paul's later association with Barnabas (1 Cor 9.6) and Mark (Col 4.10; 2 Tim 4.11), it seems unlikely that, as Luke Timothy Johnson comments, Barnabas committed ‘a kind of apostasy’ and ‘has, simply, taken his relative/friend, and gone home’. L. T. Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992) 288. Cf. Pervo, who favours the idea of that ‘the division has resulted in an expansion … of the mission’, but recognises the possibility of Johnson's argument. Pervo, Acts, 387, n. 8.

53 Witherington, Acts, 533; I. H. Marshall, The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Commentary (Leicester: IVP, 1980) 291.

54 Some have dismissed Luke's record here as anachronistic because Paul never refers to ‘elders’ (πρɛσβύτɛροι) in his undisputed letters, but the term does appear in the Pastoral Epistles: cf. Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles, 436; Pervo, Acts, 362. Even if the terminology is Lukan, which is by no means the only explanation considering the Jewish background to the term and its use in the Jerusalem church (Acts 11.30; 15), the appointment of ‘elders’ is consistent with Paul's concern for the establishment of and respect towards leadership within his churches (1 Cor 16.15–18; Gal 6.6; Phil 1.1; 2.29; 1 Thess 5.12–13). Bruce, Acts, 280; Witherington, Acts, 429.

55 Pervo notes that ‘a subsequent visit is not very likely, for Athens plays no part in Paul's collection’. This may be true but it is by no means certain. Pervo, Acts, 442.

56 G. Schneider, Die Apostelgeschichte. ii. Teil (Freiburg: Herder, 1982) 244; R. Pesch, Die Apostelgeschichte. Teilband 2 (Zürich: Benziger, 1986) 141.

57 ‘Punctiliar’ is my description of his comment, not a word he used.

58 Schnabel, Acts, 743.

59 D. B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 624; emphasis original.

60 Morgan, Roman Faith, 382, n. 117.

61 For further discussion of this nascent Athenian Christ group, see Evans, D. A., ‘The First Christian of Athens’, ABR 68 (2020) 40–53Google Scholar.