Acts 14: Ideology of difference

The Acts of the Apostles

Amy L. Wordelman has formulated an ideological challenge to traditional New Testament interpretation. She has identified 'orientalizing' in traditional interpretation. Her study focuses on Acts 14, which narrates a visit of Paul and Barnabas to Lystra in Lycaonia, where the people think Paul and Barnabas are Hermes and Zeus (1994). As she worked with traditional interpretations of the passage, she became conscious of an 'ideology of difference' that regarded the Lycaonians as backward, rustic, superstitious, barbarian people. Through a survey of literature on stereotyping, she concludes that the particular kind involved here was described well in Edward Said's well-known study entitled Orientalism (1979). Much of Western literature, Said reveals, contains an orientalizing ideology that caricatures people of the East as unintelligent, unrefined people, in contrast to people in the West, who are intellectually astute, democratically civilized and theologically sophisticated. The rhetoric of orientalism, Said proposes, communicates 'gross generalizations about "the Orient" as some kind of organic whole, completely opposite of and essentially inferior to "the Occident"' (Wordelman 1994: 17). The particular figures of speech vary within different authors, exhibiting a variety of stereotyping genres: 'a linguistic Orient, a Freudian Orient, a Spenglerian Orient, a Darwinian Orient, a racist Orient--and so on' (Said 1979: 22). In each instance, the people of the Middle East and Asia are characterized as socially, culturally, morally and mentally inferior--sub-human, alien 'others'--to European people.

Equipped with a basic description and typology of orientalizing ideology, Wordelman analyzes traditional interpretations of Acts 14. Calvin, writing during the sixteenth century, stereotypes the Lycaonians as 'barbarous men', 'superstitious', 'infidels', 'unbelievers' and an 'unlearned multitude'. He uses this language especially for the priest of Zeus who prepares to make sacrifices in honor of the arrival of the gods in their midst, and he directs this language toward the Roman Catholicism of his day (Wordelman 1994: 31-2; Calvin 1844, II: 1-31). His virulent description is a launching pad for a wholesale attack on Catholicism in France, with an assertion that the superstition of the Greco-Roman world had lived on in the institutions of his day: 'the priests of France begat the single life of the great Cybele. Nuns came in place of the vestal virgins. The church of All Saints succeeded Pantheon' (Calvin 1844, II: 15, quoted by Wordelman 1994: 31-2). Thus, the stereotyping of the Lycaonians does not keep its focus on the people of Lystra; rather, this language is a medium for Calvin to describe the religious opponents against whom he sets himself as a reformer.

Sir William Mitchell Ramsay's use of terminology during the nineteenth century is not far behind. He characterized the Anatolian plateau in which Lycaonia is located as 'vast, immobile, monotonous, subdued, melancholy, and lending itself to tales of death' (Wordelman 1994: 73-4). The people who live in it in modern times (Turkey), he claimed, are '[s]imple-minded, childish, monotonous, fickle, changeable, sluggish, obedient, peaceable, submissive' (p. 77). General Anatolian religion, in his view, was constituted by elaborate and minute ritual which was 'a highly artificial system of life' that perpetuated a 'primitive social condition' on a 'lower moral standard'. It glorified the 'female element in human life', which reflected its national character as 'receptive and passive, not self-assertive and active', and it emphasized rituals connected with graves (p. 87). For Ramsay, the goal was to authorize the Christian apostles as 'Hellenistic' in contrast to the Oriental spirit of the people whom they converted. Asia Minor, he proposed, was 'Greco-Asiatic', containing people with an oriental spirit and piety in a context of some Greek forms of culture and organization. Ramsay considers Paul's letter to the Galatians to exhibit the challenge for the apostles in an exemplary manner: formerly the people were enslaved to elemental spirits who were not God but cycles of nature; the apostles converted them to the true God and 'belief' rather than superstition (pp. 83-86). Ramsay does not use this analysis to attack Catholicism, as Calvin did, but to equate his form of European Protestant Christianity with enlightened Hellenistic belief and worship in contrast to the 'general Anatolian type', which was morally, spiritually and intellectually lower.

After an extensive analysis of other commentators in addition, to exhibit the presence of an orientalizing ideology in traditional interpretation, Wordelman turns to ideology in the text of Acts. To what extent does the text itself exhibit an orientalizing ideology? To draw a conclusion about this, Wordelman investigates the 'geo-cultural map' manifest in the text, which extends from Jerusalem in the East to Rome in the West. Her conclusion is that Luke operates with a geo-cultural map in which the island of Malta is clearly a 'barbarian' culture but Lystra is not (p. 147). Lukan discourse refers to the people of Malta as barbarians (Acts 28.2, 4), and in this setting Paul heals but does not preach the gospel. This evokes a perception that the people are able to respond to religious belief on the level of miraculous cure but not on the level of understanding a system of belief. In turn, these friendly barbarians offer hospitality and bestow honor (pp. 144-5). The account at Lystra, on the other hand, has many parallels with the account of preaching and healing in Jerusalem (pp. 149-55). This suggests that Luke's geo-cultural map includes Lystra in the 'East' along with Jerusalem, and in the East, from the perspective of Lukan discourse, both wonderworking and preaching occur (pp. 150-61).

In contrast to both Malta and the East, however, in both Athens and Rome Paul speaks and argues with the people, but he does not heal anyone. This suggests to Wordelman that Luke imagines a religious and cultural ethos in Athens and Rome in which supernatural or wondrous deeds are problematic. For Athens, the challenge is philosophical, and for Rome the challenge is to convince Jewish leaders through explanation, argument and testimony. Paul's approach is somewhat different, but in neither locale does he attempt to convince the people through miraculous deed. In Wordelman's view, then, Lukan discourse presents a form of 'proto-orientalism': the West is 'the realm of rational thought', and the East is 'the realm of irrationality where exotic, wondrous, and supernatural things can happen' (pp. 172-3). Cultural-geographic location plays a greater role than religious location or identity. If Jews or Gentiles are in the East, miracles occur in their midst and early Christian leaders preach in the context of these exhibitions of God's power. If Jews or Gentiles are in Athens or Rome, Paul argues with them or teaches them, but no wonders occur in their midst. The only location for 'barbarians' on this geo-cultural map is the island of Malta. Here there is no attempt to preach, argue or give verbal testimony. Rather, communication between God and these generously hospitable people occurs only through miraculous escapes from danger and death and benevolent healings through the prayers and hands of people endowed with divine powers.

After this investigation of ideology in traditional interpretation and ideology in the text, Wordelman extends her analysis and interpretation toward a full socio-rhetorical project. This means that she does not limit her study to ideological texture but moves on to major aspects of the inner texture, intertexture and social and cultural texture of the text. She begins with 'historical' intertexture in the account. Observing a series of assertions that imply the presence of certain historical phenomena at Lystra, Wordelman makes an extensive exploration of archeological, inscriptional and literary data to ascertain the relation between assertions in the text and outside historical evidence about Lystra, both material and textual. The major questions are as follows. Is there any material or literary evidence that:

  1. people in Lystra spoke Lycaonian during the first century CE (Acts 14.11);
  2. a priest was appointed to Lystra to oversee a cult to Zeus (Acts 14.13);
  3. a temple dedicated to Zeus existed 'in front of the city' (Acts 14.13)?

Inscriptional evidence offers reasonably good support for worship of Zeus and Hermes in the region of Lycaonia and possible support for worship of them in Lystra (pp. 90-101). In Wordelman's words, 'it would not be unrealistic to suppose that Lystra had a temple to Zeus' (p. 211). No archeological evidence, however, has been found for a temple of Zeus at Lystra (p. 211), nor is there evidence of an appointment or selection of a priest for Zeus worship there. There is ample evidence for 'worship of Zeus--under various local designations--in Phrygia' (p. 212), and evidence that the local population in the mountainous regions directly south of Lycaonia in Cilicia 'Graecized the Hittite weather-god Tarhu(nt), calling him Zeus; and the divine protector of wildlife, Ru(nt), calling him Hermes' (pp. 212-13). By extension, then, a person may argue for the possibility of similar worship at Lystra, but again, there is no direct evidence for worship of either Zeus or Hermes there.

If Wordelman's study stopped at this point, it would not be a truly socio-rhetorical investigation of Acts 14. But her investigation continues. Given the plausibility, but not the certainty of Zeus worship in Lystra, she returns to the inner texture of the account and performs a careful analysis of its 'cultural' intertexture in relation to the image of Lycaonia and the nature of mythical accounts of Zeus and Hermes in Greek and Roman literature. Her results are stunning. Her search takes her beyond Ovid's tale of Baucis and Philemon, which many commentator's have cited in relation to the account in Acts. In this story, 'Zeus and Hermes appear in human form to ordinary people, and they do something miraculous' that exhibits their identity (p. 217). The problem is that the story occurs in Phrygia, and the Acts 14 story occurs in Lycaonia. The last story in Ovid's Metamorphosis features King Lycaon of Arcadia, and word-plays in literature show that Mediterranean people have fun with Lycaon as a person (King Lycaon), a place (Lycaonia), and being wolf-like (lykon) (pp. 231-8). The King Lycaon episode is 'the final straw which drives Jupiter and the other gods to destroy the world by flood' (p. 222). Jupiter, to test rumors that humans have become impious, descends from Mount Olympus and travels up and down the land as a god disguised in human form. Worrying most about King Lycaon, who is 'well known for his savagery', Jupiter travels to Arcadia, 'gives a sign that a god had come' into their midst, and the common people begin to worship him. King Lycaon does not believe the human-looking stranger is a god, so he puts him to a test. He makes a plot to kill him in his sleep, but serves him a meal of the flesh of a human hostage before sending him off to bed. Jupiter, knowing the flesh is human, destroys the house with a mighty thunderbolt, and when Lycaon tries to escape he gradually turns into a wolf, 'the same picture of beastly savagery' he had in his human form (p. 223). In Wordelman's words, 'Lycaon's new form as a wolf, reveals for all time his character as a human king' (p. 223).

Wordelman then reads the story in Acts 14 in relation to this myth of Zeus at the end of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Paul and Barnabas come into Lystra, and Paul heals a man who was crippled from birth. The local residents, seeing the deed and knowing the story of Zeus/Jupiter, are not fooled. They know that Paul is Hermes and Barnabas is Zeus, appearing to them in human form, so they cry this out 'in Lycaonian' (Acts 14.11). When the priest of Zeus begins to prepare sacrifices of oxen and garlands in honor of the visit of the gods, Paul and Barnabas are 'caught in this latest version of an ancient tale and largely unaware of their predicament. As Paul and Barnabas finally do catch on and object to the proceedings, the tone of the episode changes from one of entertainment to one of edification' (p. 240). But this is not the end of the story. Immediately after Paul and Barnabas clarify for the people who they really are and what they believe, 'Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium; and having persuaded the people, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead' (Acts 14.19). Who, then, takes on the nature of a wolf-like creature? 'Wolf-friendship', Wordelman explains, is 'friendship characterized by an initial show of friendliness, which quickly turns to enmity or hostility' (p. 246). In Acts 14.18 the people 'are ready to serve a banquet to their guests', but 'the next minute they prefer to destroy them'. '[T]hrough the wolf analogy ... the behavior of the Lycaonians becomes indicative of the larger persecution and rejection themes of Luke's narrative' (pp. 249-50). And then Wordelman expresses her shock:

The analogies with primary themes in Luke's narrative jump out starkly from the page. 'The Jews' who rejected Jesus are responsible for his death, i.e., 'they' have tasted the flesh of a human victim. They have 'tasted kindred blood' with tongues and lips now unholy. The Lycaonians are that docile mob. Paul, the Roman citizen, is unjustly accused, dragged out of the city, and left for dead (14.19). Contact with 'ravenous wolves' has transformed the originally docile and worshipping Lycaonians into ravenous wolves themselves. (pp. 250-1)

Wordelman does not go on to analyze the social and cultural texture of this discourse in the socio-rhetorical manner recommended in the last chapter. I would suggest that Wordelman's analysis shows once again the dominant conversionist nature, in Wilson's terminology, of Lukan discourse. Paul and Barnabas take Christianity on the road to change people's attitudes about their worship. This conversionist argumentation is supported by thaumaturgic rhetoric about healing (Acts 14.8-10), which provides the occasion for the conversionist discourse but is also moderated by a general thesis about God's creating and nurturing of the universe and the people in it through the ages (Acts 14.15-17). Culturally, Lukan discourse presents Christianity as a Mediterranean subculture that understands and participates in Greek and Roman life. The narrator reveals that he knows Greek and Roman mythology and can use it to play with and persuade his reader/audience. Also, Christianity's belief system fulfills the highest values of Greek and Roman life: doing benevolent things that bring happiness to heart and body (Acts 14.17). This subcultural discourse, however, is embedded in contracultural Jewish discourse. The fun the narrator has with his culturally informed audience occurs at the expense of Jewish tradition. Jews, whose overall behavior is 'wolflike', transform the hospitable Lycaonians into wolflike people, willingly stoning Paul and leaving him for dead after they had initially been hospitable. Despite all the 'Jewish' tradition that informs the Lukan story, what the reader hears again and again is rhetoric that suggests that Christianity is something quite distinct from, and quite opposed to, 'the Jews'.


From: Vernon K. Robbins (1996) The Tapestry of Early Christian Discourse: Rhetoric, Society and Ideology, London: Routledge: 201-207.

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