Another paper, this time on an Acts narrative:
*****
JESUS, PAUL, AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD:
VINDICATION AND SPIRITUAL POWER IN EPHESUS
The goal of this
paper is to examine Acts 19:11-20 (especially 19:13-16 – the examination of the
other verses will be much more cursory) in light of its context in the larger
section of 18:24-19:20 and Luke-Acts as a whole, with particular attention to
the relationship between spiritual power – whether in the form of exorcism,
healing, or magic – and vindication of the subject of such power or his
message.
In the course of this study I
will be arguing for the thesis that my chosen passage has the effect of
re-enacting and re-appropriating the vindication of Jesus and his message, thereby
applying this vindication to Paul and his message.
To demonstrate my
thesis I will first show how Paul is re-enacting Jesus’ ministry generally in 18:24-19:12.
In the next two sections of the paper, I will then show how Jesus’
vindication in Luke is re-enacted and applied to Paul as Jesus’ legitimate
envoy in 19:10-16, with most of my focus being on verses 13-16. The first of these final two sections will
focus on the re-enactment of vindication in the form of both demonic testimony
and contrast with other exorcists, and the second will focus on vindication in
the form of superior spiritual power.
Paul Re-enacting Jesus’ Ministry
In this section I
will show the ways in which Paul seems to be re-enacting Jesus’ ministry in 18:24-19:12, which will help us to see how
Paul, as re-enactor of Jesus’ ministry, can thereby receive Jesus’
vindication.
Like Jesus in Palestine,
Paul is preceded in Ephesus by another; in Luke, Jesus is preceded in ministry
by John the Baptist, who prepares the way for him, whereas in Acts Paul is here
preceded in ministry by Apollos who, teaching accurately about Jesus just as
John had done (yet without knowledge of the full truth about Jesus), prepares
with his teaching for the fuller message about Jesus to be delivered by Paul.
As can be seen in Acts
18:24-28, Apollos and John are both portrayed in rather similar ways.
Both, for instance, are associated with “the
way of the Lord” (
τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου
– Luke 3:4; Acts 18:25) and Apollos
knows only John’s baptism.
And like John
with Jesus, Apollos more or less falls out of the story to make way for Paul’s own
ministry in Ephesus.
Apollos, like John, preaches about Jesus,
whereas Paul, like Jesus, following, preaches the kingdom
of God after his forerunner
disappears from the scene (Acts 19:8).
More parallels could be laid out,
but the overall effect seems to be that presenting the Apollos episode in the
way that it does, and placing it where it does just before Paul’s arrival and
preaching of the kingdom of God, has the effect of already inclining a reader
towards seeing Paul portrayed as a true successor to Jesus in his ministry and
in his message (and makes the further links in this paper to and through the
Baptist material in Luke all the stronger).
Following the
material dealing with Apollos, Acts 19 begins with Paul’s arrival at Ephesus
and his interaction with more people (called “disciples”) who are associated in
some way with John the Baptist and his baptism.
Earlier, John the Baptist and his baptism had
prepared for the coming one (a form of
ἔρχομαι
is used in John’s speech in Luke 3:16
and Luke 7:20, as well as in Acts
19:4) who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
This coming one, of course, was Jesus, who
baptized his disciples with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 (see also Acts 1:5; 11:16; 13:24-25).
So now those prepared with John’s baptism
receive the Holy Spirit, Paul playing the part of Jesus as the envoy of Jesus, the
one who came after John, and mediator of their Spirit baptism.
Given the
connections outlined between Paul and Jesus as successor to John the Baptist
and sender of the Holy Spirit, 19:7’s mention of the number of these disciples
being “about twelve” (
ὡσεὶ δώδεκα)
has the effect of calling to mind the original Twelve disciples called by Jesus
(who themselves seem to be connected with John’s baptism in Acts 1:21-22) and
the group of “about” (
ὡσεὶ) one
hundred twenty (Acts 1:15) who meet to reconstitute the Twelve by adding one to
the Eleven
.
Indeed, this latter scene is immediately
followed by Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit upon the gathered disciples.
Contra many commentators, then, whatever the
historical author’s intention, the effect of the narrative at this point,
highlighting the number by setting it at the end of the scene in 19:1-7, is
precisely to call to mind these other passages.
The addition of
ὡσεὶ
to the number in 19:7, rather than detracting from the effect (say,
because that word is never applied to the number of apostles), adds to it,
since the same word also appears in 1:15
(in connection with the larger group in which the apostles appear), as already
stated.
The effect of
saying these disciples were “about twelve” in number, then, is to further set
Paul up as a successor to Jesus and also connects him further with apostles
such as Peter, who themselves are portrayed as Jesus’ successors and bestowers
of the Spirit by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:17).
Paul is thus seen as, like the apostles, the
legitimate envoy of Jesus and his message is the legitimate one as well, the
source for the legitimation and full incorporation of those disciples he lays
hands on.
Acts 19:11-12 further links Paul both with
Jesus and the apostles as he is associated with displays of spiritual power including
exorcism, healing, and the passing on or application of spiritual power from
his person to another via physical intermediaries, acts previously associated
both with Jesus and with his legitimate envoys, the apostles (see, for
instance, Luke 8:43-48; Acts 5:12-16).
Paul’s entire
Ephesian ministry, indeed, can be seen as a paradigmatic fulfillment of Jesus’
mission and his preaching of the kingdom, particularly as he had passed it on
to his disciples in Luke 24:46-47 and Acts 1:8 – not only are displays of
spiritual power evident but it is one of Paul’s longest, most successful, most
universal ministries.
Indeed, it can be
seen as a culmination of Paul’s ministry thus far (and thereby a culmination of
any and all various portrayals of Paul as legitimate successor or envoy of
Jesus).
This ministry (Paul’s last
before he goes to Jerusalem for the final time) lasts two years, including a
successful three month ministry in the synagogue, where instead of the usual
broad rejection he meets with large success and is not kicked out but rather moves
out of his own accord when some oppose him, addressing
both Jews and Gentiles in his ministry rather than turning
from Jews to the Gentiles.
What we have here, then, is a culmination of
the various portrayals of Paul so far.
Given what we have
seen so far, then, Paul is set up in 18:24-19:12
as generally re-enacting Jesus’ mission and message and is portrayed as, like
the apostles before him, a legitimate envoy of Jesus. In the following sections we will see further
how this background serves to help us read 19:13-16
in particular in terms of a transference of Jesus’ vindication to Paul through
the topic of spiritual power.
Testimony and Contrast of Power
In the next two
sections I will show how the theme of Paul as Jesus’ legitimate envoy is once
again established in Acts 19:11-16 and how Jesus’ own vindication is applied to
Paul, thus effectively demonstrating my main thesis. In the current section I will demonstrate
that the effect of 19:11-16, following as it does the previous verses (and seen
in the larger context of Luke-Acts), is to display Paul as being vindicated
with the vindication of Jesus by demonic testimony and by contrast with other
exorcists, which is one example of the pattern posited in this paper’s thesis.
In various places
in Luke, demons recognize Jesus’ identity and power, thus vindicating his
message of the kingdom of God
and his person (e.g., Luke 4:31-37,
40-43). As spiritual beings with a grasp
of spiritual powers and realities, the demons provide a kind of hostile
(though, paradoxically, consistently reliable) witness to Jesus in the Third
Gospel. This is re-enacted to a certain
degree in Acts 19:15, where the demon answers the sons of Sceva who are
attempting to cast it out, not by recognizing them but by recognizing Jesus and also Paul – that is, it
recognizes Jesus, re-enacting earlier vindications, but also recognizes Jesus’
power and its presence in Paul as well (and not in the sons of Sceva).
In contrast to the
spiritual power evinced by Paul, then, including his own exorcisms, the sons of
Sceva seem to be lacking – the power of Jesus present in his ministry and in
his legitimate followers is not similarly present with them and thus sets Paul
up as one vindicated like Jesus, with Jesus’ own vindication, in contrast with
these others. Coming right after
19:11-12 and immediately prior to the response of the burning of magical texts,
it would seem that these would-be exorcists use Jesus’ name to rival Paul’s own
spiritual power he had been demonstrating in Ephesus. But instead Paul is the one who is vindicated
in connection with Jesus and Jesus’ name, not them – he is the one who is
vindicated through the Vindicated One.
Like the greater spiritual power evinced by Paul in contrast with the
Jewish sorcerer Elymas in 13:4-12, the power of Paul in Ephesus again is in
contrast, this time with these other Jewish seekers after spiritual power.
The story
similarly connects with 8:9-25, where there is a contrast between the magician
Simon who covets the apostles’ spiritual power and their bestowing of the Holy
Spirit and the apostles themselves (this connection works whether or not we
want to call the lesser spiritual power of the sons of Sceva “magic”).
Because of the connection with Elymas and
Simon, the proximity to the burning of the magical texts in the following
verses – and the fact that this is a response to the current episode – suggests
a formulaic usage of Jesus’ name in 19:13; an attempt, like Simon the Magician,
to co-opt the spiritual power of the church which had been so apparent in Paul.
The episode here
thus re-enacts in these events the situational vindication of Jesus in Luke
11:19-20, where Jesus charges his opponents with inconsistency in ascribing to
him illegitimate spiritual power derived from the demonic realm and yet not
doing the same against certain other Jewish exorcists – despite the fact that
his exorcisms and miracle working are even more unmistakably
unlike magical practices than the more
ambiguous exorcisms traditionally performed by Jewish exorcists.
But if Jesus’ power is not demonic, his deeds
are by God’s own power.
Hence, by the
liberating power of God, Jesus’ kingdom message as seen throughout Luke is
vindicated and the kingdom of God
(
ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ) – God’s
eschatological power and rule which has broken proleptically into the present,
constituting the sphere of God’s salvation – are present in Jesus.
Thus his message of the coming kingdom in his
person is vindicated and hence Jesus himself is vindicated as well.
Here again, then,
Jesus’ kingdom message, now proclaimed by Paul, is once again vindicated in the
display of that liberating kingdom power by which Paul heals and casts out
demons. And because it is Paul who is
the legitimate envoy of Jesus here, and is affirmed as such by the demon’s
testimony as well as the deeds and words of Paul, the vindication of Jesus now
applies to Paul as well. Hence, like
Jesus, demonic testimony and the contrast with other exorcists vindicates Paul.
Jesus’ Kingdom Power against the Demons
In this section, I
will now show further how Acts 19:11-16, in its context, portrays that Paul’s
spiritual power, greater than that of the sons of Sceva, belongs to him
precisely as the kingdom power of God present in Jesus, now manifest in him on
account of his being a legitimate envoy of Jesus himself. The kingdom power present in Jesus makes him
the possessor of supreme spiritual power and hence one whose power is greater
than that of the demonic realm. Hence,
Paul is in this way also presented as vindicated since Jesus’ defeat of the
demonic vindicates both Jesus and his message and Paul is his envoy. Hence, again, we have an instance of the
thesis presented at the beginning of this paper.
In addition to
what has been shown in the previous section, Paul’s own displays of spiritual
power and their contrast with the failed exorcism of the sons of Sceva also
(re-)enact Jesus’ defeat of the demonic realm as discussed in Luke.
As seen in the first section of this paper,
in Luke 3:16 John the Baptist, who
prepares for the coming of Jesus, speaks of Jesus as the one who is coming (as
discussed above).
In the same verse,
however, he also speaks of Jesus as “the stronger one” (
ὁ ἰσχυρότερος).
In
other words, Jesus is not simply the coming one but also one with spiritual
power beyond John, one who can grant the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11:21-22, the notion of
ὁ ἰσχυρότερος once again shows up, this
time in the context of the defeat of a demonic tyrant, a strong one or strong
man (
ὁ ἰσχυρός); like the Exodus
pattern found in Isaiah 49:24-26 (and 59:16-18), God’s people are rescued from
an oppressive tyrant by the even more powerful divine warrior.
Jesus, as the stronger one foretold and
prepared for by John, is the one who defeats the powers of darkness by his more
superior power – their spiritual power is no match for his, for his power is
none other than that of the eschatological reign of God, God’s own kingdom.
Additionally, Luke
11:21-22 here seems to look back not only to Luke 3:16 but also to Luke
10:17-19 – the spiritual power of Jesus is available to his envoys, whose
casting out of demons by that power and in Jesus’ name amounts to the defeat of
the demonic realm.
Read together with 11:21-22, the effect is that Jesus not only
directly defeats the demonic with God’s power but also does so through his own
chosen, legitimate envoys.
Having argued in the previous verses that his
defeat of the demonic is not through demonic power, Jesus affirms that it is in
fact through God’s own power, which makes Jesus stronger than the demonic, that
the demonic realm suffers defeat in every exorcism accomplished by him or his
disciples, thus again vindicating Jesus’ message of the coming of the kingdom
and its presence in him.
By contrast with
Jesus and his envoys in Luke, what we have in Acts 19:13-16, as Richard I.
Pervo notices, is a kind of exorcism in reverse.
In a normal exorcism the one possessed by the
demon could be naked (Luke 8:27),
exorcists were expected to win, and the demons were supposed to flee and the
exorcists were left standing.
Instead,
the exorcists are the ones left naked and fleeing and the demon is the one who
wins and is left standing.
The word used for the demon’s overpowering of
these would-be exorcists is a verbal form of
ἰσχυρός
(the verb
ἰσχύω), thus emphasizing
that here we have one who is
stronger
than the sons of Sceva.
Now, Paul is
already being portrayed as following after Apollos just as Jesus followed after
John and the connection has already been established between the broader
passage and Luke 3:16.
And Luke 3:16, as we have seen, itself
connects us with Luke 11, thus strengthening the link between Luke 3, Luke 11,
and Acts 19.
Hence, the effect seems to
be that the sons of Sceva suffer from one who is stronger than
them, not being disciples of the
even stronger Jesus (truly
ὁ ἰσχυρότερος), whose spiritual power is
capable of defeating the demon but to which these sons do not have access as
they are not legitimate envoys of Jesus – even though, as sons of a Jewish
“chief priest” they might otherwise seem entitled to spiritual power and
authority.
In this contrast,
Paul emerges as like one of the disciples from Luke 10:17-19, a disciple of the
truly stronger one foretold by John the Baptist, a legitimate envoy of Jesus
with access to the eschatological power of God which belongs to Jesus. That kingdom power at work in Jesus,
vindicating him and enabling him to defeat evil and hence to transfer that
power and authority to his apostles, is now with Paul. And Jesus’ vindication is once again, we see,
now Paul’s own. Jesus, in other words,
is vindicated as the stronger one than the demon in this passage and Paul is
thereby vindicated as his approved envoy and disciple – Jesus brings the
message and power of God’s kingdom through Paul and Paul is able to bestow the
Holy Spirit, do miracles, and defeat the demonic world through him, unlike the
sons of Sceva. Jesus, successor to John
and stronger than demons, has sent Paul, successor to Apollos in Ephesus
and servant of Jesus the stronger one.
Conclusion
As we have seen so
far, Paul has re-enacted Jesus’ vindication by displaying the same power as
Jesus and preaching the kingdom message as Jesus did, bestowing the same Spirit,
being the subject of testimony by demons, comparing favorably versus other
users of spiritual power, and displaying that kingdom power as supreme over all
other power.
All other spiritual power
is impotent in the face of the kingdom power of God present in Jesus and now
manifested through Paul.
In Acts
19:17-20, in direct response to the incident with the sons of Sceva, others
seem to acknowledge this greater power of Jesus (and of Paul as his envoy),
burning magical texts which might otherwise be thought to be sources of
spiritual power for their users.
Next to Paul’s Jesus, these other sources are
worthless and illegitimate.
The Word of the
Lord in 19:20 is said to be
strong (again, a form of
ἰσχύω), emphasizing again that true
spiritual power is found in Jesus’ message and hence in Jesus.
And since Paul is his legitimate envoy, it is
also present in Paul’s message and in Paul as well.
Jesus is vindicated and so is Paul.
What we see in 18:18-19:20
as a whole (and as it is condensed down into 19:11-20
in particular) is that Paul does and preaches as Jesus, re-enacting Jesus’
vindication through his kingdom ministry and hence that Paul is a legitimate
envoy of Jesus and thus Jesus’ vindication transfers to Paul as well.
As a culmination of Paul’s ministry prior to
his final “mission” to Rome, this
passage arguably thus sets the stage in Acts for the trials and questions
concerning Paul and his message that will follow.
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