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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Many gods and their images

The Greek and Roman world was full of gods, each with temples, statues, priests and local stories. Jews and Christians called the images things made with hands, while holding that there were real powers behind them.

Greek and Roman worldTemple, synagogue and festivals

First, in plain English

Every town in the region had its own saint's statue and its own festival, and the stories about the saint were local pride. Greeks and Romans worshiped many gods. Each city had temples, statues, priests and sacrifices, and stories of its own about gods who had visited it. Jews refused all of it. To them an idol was something made by human hands, and worshiping it was the first and worst sin. Many Jews also believed real spiritual powers stood behind the gods of the nations.

What it meant then

Wright writes, "The primal sin, in all major Jewish writing, is idolatry." To call something made by hand, he explains, "meant that God had not made it or commanded it," and Stephen turns the phrase on the temple. Jewish writers stressed that idols were the work of human hands, a phrase that fit a man-made shrine just as well. The rabbis counted the golden calf Israel's worst sin. The idea is very old. At Uruk around 3200 BC, Podany explains, the goddess Inana's shrine was her home and her statue was the goddess present on earth. Every god's statue needed housing, food, drink and clothing, and no god was thought false. In the cities of Asia Minor each place had its gods: Apollo near Syrian Antioch, Aphrodite at old Paphos, the emperor and Men at Pisidian Antioch, and Cybele at Iconium. Near Lystra a legend told how Zeus and Hermes visited in disguise and only an old couple, Baucis and Philemon, took them in. Inscriptions show the two gods worshiped together there. Beside the violent and lustful Olympians, people served newer cults such as Sarapis and Isis, household gods, nymphs, Hekate and heroes such as Heracles. Heiser argues that Deuteronomy 32:17 calls the gods of the nations shedim, real spiritual beings, which Paul renders demons in 1 Corinthians 10:20: "they are not pieces of wood or stone." Athens was crowded with statues, the Hermae among them, and with altars to unknown gods, raised by tradition during a plague. Justice, Dike, was honored as a goddess who carried out the will of Fate, and survivors of deadly danger could be taken for gods.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a city where every guild and neighborhood has its patron saint, with a shrine, a feast day and a parade. Refusing to march is taken as an insult to the whole town.

What it changes in the reading

Calling something made with hands, as Stephen does of the temple in Acts 7:48, borrows the standard Jewish verdict on idols. At Lystra in Acts 14:11-15 the crowd fits two visitors into a local story about Zeus and Hermes, and 1 Corinthians 10:20 says the sacrifices of the nations are offered to demons.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a single religion. Paganism had no creed or central authority; it was a crowd of local cults, festivals and stories, and a person could honor many gods at once.

Where scholars disagree

What the gods were. Heiser holds that the beings behind the idols were real and dangerous. The cultural backgrounds notes on 1 Corinthians 10:20 say most early Jewish and Christian sources regarded them as demons. Arnold takes a middle line on 1 Corinthians 8:5. The gods have no existence in their own right, yet demons stand behind the images (10:20), and the gods are real to those who worship them. He notes that the Greek version of Psalm 96:5 calls the gods of the nations demons. Keener stresses the Jewish mockery of idols as vain and notes that Luke is not above making fun of pagan religion. On Stephen and the temple, Wright says the temple had become ambiguous at best and an idol at worst. Keener says Stephen does not deny God blessed it, but denies it was meant to be the idol his hearers made of it. The ESV Study Bible says Stephen is not calling the building of the temple wrong.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-6-8-7-53\/","n":"Acts 6:8-7:53, Stephen's charge and speech","s":"Men from the Diaspora synagogues accuse Stephen of speaking against the temple and the law. He answers with Israel's story, from Abraham to the temple, and turns the charge back on his judges.","r":"Acts 6:8-7:53"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-14-1-20\/","n":"Acts 14:1-20, Iconium and Lystra: taken for Zeus and Hermes","s":"After a plot in Iconium, Paul heals a lame man at Lystra and the crowd hails him and Barnabas as Hermes and Zeus. When they refuse the sacrifice, the crowd is turned against them and Paul is stoned.","r":"Acts 14:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-17-16-21\/","n":"Acts 17:16-21, Athens: idols, the marketplace and the philosophers","s":"Waiting in Athens, Paul is distressed at a city full of idols. He argues in the synagogue and the marketplace, and Epicurean and Stoic philosophers take him for a preacher of foreign gods and bring him to the Areopagus.","r":"Acts 17:16-21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-17-22-34\/","n":"Acts 17:22-34, Paul before the Areopagus","s":"Before the Areopagus, Paul starts from an altar to an unknown god and from the Athenians' own poets, speaks of the one Creator who made every nation from one man, and ends with a coming judgment and a man raised from the dead. Some mock; a few believe.","r":"Acts 17:22-34"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-28-1-10\/","n":"Acts 28:1-10, Malta: the viper and the goddess Justice","s":"The islanders of Malta welcome the shipwrecked with a fire. When a viper fastens on Paul's hand they decide that Justice will not let a murderer live; when he takes no harm they call him a god. Publius, the island's chief man, takes them in, and Paul heals his father and many others.","r":"Acts 28:1-10"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-28-11-16\/","n":"Acts 28:11-16, The Twin Brothers and the road to Rome","s":"After three months they sail in an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead, land at Puteoli and walk the Appian Way toward Rome, where believers come out to meet Paul. In Rome he is allowed to live on his own with a soldier guarding him.","r":"Acts 28:11-16"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-1-18-32\/","n":"Romans 1:18-32, Images of the immortal God","s":"Paul describes God's anger against people who knew him from creation yet traded his glory for images of humans and animals, and the disorder that followed.","r":"Romans 1:18-32"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/romans-2-17-29\/","n":"Romans 2:17-29, You who boast in the law","s":"Paul turns on an imagined Jewish teacher who boasts in the law yet steals, commits adultery and robs temples, so that God's name is blasphemed among the nations, and says true circumcision is of the heart.","r":"Romans 2:17-29"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-8-1-13\/","n":"1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Knowledge, idols and the weak","s":"Answering those who know that an idol is nothing, Paul agrees there is one God and one Lord but warns that their freedom to eat sacrificial food, even in an idol's temple, can destroy a weaker believer.","r":"1 Corinthians 8:1-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-10-1-22\/","n":"1 Corinthians 10:1-22, Israel in the desert and the table of demons","s":"Paul warns that Israel too had its baptism and its spiritual food in the wilderness, yet fell into idolatry and immorality and was struck down, and tells the Corinthians that they cannot share both the Lord's table and the table of demons.","r":"1 Corinthians 10:1-22"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-12-1-31\/","n":"1 Corinthians 12:1-31, Mute idols and one body","s":"Paul reminds the Corinthians that as pagans they were led astray to mute idols, describes the many gifts of the one Spirit, and pictures the church as one body whose weaker and less honored members are indispensable.","r":"1 Corinthians 12:1-31"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-6-14-7-1\/","n":"2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1, Unequal yoke, Belial and the temple of God","s":"Paul tells the Corinthians not to be yoked with unbelievers, for light has no fellowship with darkness nor Christ with Belial, and calls them the temple of the living God, who must come out and be separate.","r":"2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/galatians-4-1-11\/","n":"Galatians 4:1-11, Heirs, slaves and the elements of the world","s":"An heir who is still a child is no better off than a slave, Paul says; so we were enslaved under the elements of the world until God sent his Son to redeem us and his Spirit to cry Abba, and he asks why the Galatians want to go back to observing special days, months, seasons and years.","r":"Galatians 4:1-11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1thessalonians-1-1-10\/","n":"1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Turned to God from idols","s":"Paul, Silas and Timothy thank God for a young church that received the message in the middle of suffering, whose story is now told everywhere: they turned to God from idols to serve him and to wait for his Son from heaven.","r":"1 Thessalonians 1:1-10"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1john-5-13-21\/","n":"1 John 5:13-21, The sin that leads to death, the evil one and idols","s":"John writes so that believers may know they have eternal life, and that God hears them. They are to pray for a brother or sister whose sin does not lead to death, though there is a sin that does. Those born of God are kept from the evil one, while the whole world lies under his power; the letter ends with a warning to keep away from idols.","r":"1 John 5:13-21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-9-1-21\/","n":"Revelation 9:1-21, the Abyss opened and the armies from the Euphrates","s":"At the fifth trumpet a fallen star is given the key to the Abyss, and from its smoke come locusts like horses with human faces, women's hair and scorpions' stings, under a king called Abaddon and Apollyon. At the sixth, four angels bound at the Euphrates are released with a cavalry of two hundred million that kills a third of humanity, yet the survivors do not repent.","r":"Revelation 9:1-21"}

Beings in the Gods of the Bible

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/zeus\/","n":"Zeus","s":"The chief Greek god, whom a crowd mistakes Barnabas for.","r":"Acts 14:12-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/hermes\/","n":"Hermes","s":"The Greek messenger god, whom the same crowd mistakes Paul for because he did the talking.","r":"Acts 14:12"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/daimonion\/","n":"Daimonion","s":"The New Testament word for demon, borrowed from a Greek word that was morally neutral.","r":"Mark 1:34"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-host-of-heaven\/","n":"The host of heaven","s":"Two things at once: God's heavenly army, and the sun, moon and stars Israel was told not to worship.","r":"1 Kings 22:19"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/molech\/","n":"Molech","s":"The god associated with child sacrifice in a valley outside Jerusalem that gave us the word Gehenna.","r":"Leviticus 18:21"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/sikkuth-and-kiyyun-rephan\/","n":"Sikkuth and Kiyyun \/ Rephan","s":"Star gods carried in procession, where the Greek Bible and the Hebrew give different names.","r":"Amos 5:26"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-unknown-god\/","n":"The unknown god","s":"An Athenian altar hedging against offending a god nobody could name, which Paul preached from.","r":"Acts 17:23"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-dioscuri\/","n":"The Dioscuri","s":"Twin gods who protected sailors, carved on the ship that carried Paul to Rome.","r":"Acts 28:11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/shedim\/","n":"Shedim","s":"A Hebrew word for the beings Israel sacrificed to, translated demons in Greek.","r":"Deuteronomy 32:17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/baal-peor\/","n":"Baal-peor","s":"The local version of Baal tied to an incident where Israel ate meals offered to the dead.","r":"Numbers 25:3"}

In the Divine Council Index

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-32-8-9\/","n":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9","s":"The Most High divided the nations, and the number He divided them by is where the whole argument turns.","r":"Deuteronomy 32:8-9"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/deuteronomy-4-19-20\/","n":"Deuteronomy 4:19-20","s":"Israel must not worship the host of heaven, which Yahweh allotted to all the other peoples.","r":"Deuteronomy 4:19-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/acts-17-26-27\/","n":"Acts 17:26-27","s":"Paul tells the Areopagus that God fixed the times and the boundaries of the nations.","r":"Acts 17:26-27"}

Sources

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 7:35-53
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 7:40-41, 7:44-47, 7:48-50, 11:20-21, 14:1-4, 14:9-11, 14:12, 14:13 and 14:15-16
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 7:41, 7:48, 11:20, 13:6, 13:14, 14:1, 14:12 and 14:13, and on 1 Corinthians 10:20
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 7:44 and 13:6
N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography, ch. 5, Cyprus and Galatia
Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 4, God Alone
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 17:16, 17:23, 28:4 and 28:6
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 17:16, 17:23, 28:4 and 28:6
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 17:23 and 28:4
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article The Gods of the Greeks and Romans
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 4, Demons and False Gods, and ch. 6, They Are Involved in the World Religions
Amanda H. Podany, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East, ch. 2, How They Understood Their World and Their Deities, and Caring for the Gods

All ideas