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7

The Journey from Pisidian Antioch/Iconium

to Troas and Beyond . . .

Here we look in detail at the Exodus/Conquest typology associated with the second half of Paul’s Journey from Syrian Antioch to Troas—namely from when Paul and Silas leave South Galatia and reach Troas. We also introduce the Conquest themes that occur once Paul and his associates cross into Macedonia.

Here, once again is Acts 16:6-8 (RSV):

v.6: “And they [Paul, Silas and Timothy] went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.”

v.7: “And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them;”

v.8: “so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.”

I would like to suggest that we are starting another typological “sequence” in Acts 16:6-8, corresponding to the new work that Paul and Silas are embarking upon in these verses. Later in this chapter, I hope to demonstrate that Paul’s crossing from Asia to Macedonia corresponds to Israel’s crossing of the Jordan under Joshua, and that events at Philippi correspond to the fall of Jericho—the first conquest event in the land of Canaan. If this is the case, it is natural to ask whether there are any events in the Exodus/Conquest narrative that might correspond to Acts 16:6-8.

I think there are! Before crossing the Jordan under Joshua, the Children of Israel did some preliminary conquering on the east side of Jordan under Moses. There is a truly remarkable similarity between these events and Acts 16:6-8.

The Old Testament events are described in Numbers chs. 20-22 and Deuteronomy chs. 2 and 3. Let’s concentrate on the Deuteronomy passages for now. We are introduced to four nations on the east side of Jordan. Two of them were the Moabites (including the Ammonites) and the Edomites (called Sons of Esau in the Deuteronomy account)—and they are described as relations of the Israelites—which is true as the Moabites/Ammonites were descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and the Edomites descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. The other two nations were both Amorites, so in a sense they were really one, but there were two separate kingdoms, ruled over by Sihon in the south of Amorite territory, and Og, a giant who ruled in the north. Og was the one who we are

told had a huge iron bedstead nine cubits by four cubits!

Now the children of Israel were refused permission by God to fight the Moabites and the Edomites on account of their family connection with the Israelites, and that He would not give them any of their territory as He had allocated it to these peoples. However, there was a difference: although Israel was not to be given any of this land, the matter is stated in a very emphatic way with respect to the sons of Esau:

“So take good heed; do not contend with them; for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of your foot to tread on because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession” (Deut. 2:5).

The injunction regarding Moab is similar, except that the part about the sole of the foot is omitted.

Does this sound familiar? It reminds me of God’s refusal to let Paul preach in Asia, but he was not to preach, and not even to enter Bithynia. It is widely recognised that the actual warfare of the Children of Israel corresponds to the spiritual warfare of the Christian, and so here we see the typological details of the earthly nation of Israel matched with an anti-typical fulfilment. Later, for example during Solomon’s reign, Israel did in fact rule Moabite and Edomite territory, and later, the Gospel came to Asia—and Bithynia (e.g. 1 Peter 1:1).

What about the Amorites—the “two nations in one”? Well, Israel was commanded to go and conquer them and occupy their land. This they did, and it became the territory of the two and a half tribes (Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh) who opted to live east of the Jordan. This corresponds I suggest to the “Phrygian and Galatian region”—two groups treated as a single unit—who were “defeated and killed” through the spiritual warfare of the preaching of the Gospel—rising again in newness of life in Christ.

Overall the pattern fits very well.

Well, what happens next in the history of the Children of Israel? After Moses’ death and his replacement by Joshua, there is a crossing of water (the Jordan) and the conquest of Jericho where everyone is imprisoned inside (“none went out and none came in”, Josh. 6:1), the walls fall down through a miracle and loud shouting and loud trumpet blasts from outside the city walls at the culmination of a significant time period (seven days), a believing woman associated with flax and red coloured thread is saved with all her house, and the king and everyone else are killed. Does this sound familiar? Yes, after the (presumed) preaching trip in the Phrygian and Galatian region, there is a crossing of water—Paul and his party cross the Aegean Sea (a reversal of “Helen of Troy”?) —and come to Philippi where Lydia, a believing (16:14-15) woman associated with textiles and the colour purple is saved and all her house on the seventh

day (the Sabbath) when Paul and his company were “outside the gate” (Acts 16:13). There is an earthquake in the prison at the end of a significant time period (around midnight) following the praising of God (symbolically corresponding to the trumpet blasts of the Joshua account) by Paul and Silas. None of the prisoners escape, and the jailer is prevented from killing himself as a result of Paul’s calling out with a loud voice (corresponding to the loud shout of Israel in Joshua) and he and all his house are converted. The theme of dying through actual warfare in the Old Covenant thus corresponds once again to dying and rising with Christ as a result of the spiritual and liturgical warfare of preaching and praising God in the New Covenant. An interesting feature of Luke’s account is the coupling of a man and a woman—the Philippian jailer and Lydia. This pattern is repeated many times in Acts e.g. Priscilla and Aquila at Corinth, Dionysius and Damaris at Athens, and the many times that Luke notes that women as well as men respond—or sometimes fail to respond—to the Gospel.

We will continue with our typological correspondences between Paul and Joshua in a moment, but first I wish to point out that Acts itself is approximately divided into two “halves” (Acts 1-12 and Acts 13-28) with repeated themes, including Exodus and Conquest themes, in each half—both of which parallel events in Luke, but with the emphasis on Peter in the first half and Paul in the second. (See for example, Charles Talbert’s book, mentioned in the bibliography) Furthermore, Luke-Acts as a whole is structured chiastically, and so themes and events in Acts will, to some extent anyway, correspond in reverse order with themes and events in the ministry of Jesus. (One example being Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem in the latter part of Luke corresponding to the progress of the Gospel away from Jerusalem in the first part of Acts.) As an example of the sorts of correspondence we find, we note that Paul is tried by the same three courts as Jesus was and he undergoes a symbolic death and resurrection.

This is a big topic! However, we can very quickly look at just one or two highlights. In particular, James Jordan has drawn attention to Exodus and Conquest themes and events in the early part of Acts—corresponding to the same themes and events later on in Acts that we have just been looking at. Here are some notes from a talk by James Jordan:

• The first ten or so chapters of Acts fulfill the first ten or so chapters of Joshua.

• Joshua: Moses has died and Joshua is called onto the scene and he leads in the conquest of Canaan.

• Acts: Jesus has died and the Holy Spirit has come and He is in charge of the conquest reported in the book of Acts.

• What we see is that the conquest of Canaan is a foreshadowing of the greater conquest of the world by the Gospel of the New Covenant.

• We can compare the conquering sword of iron in Joshua to the conquering

flaming sword over the heads of the disciples in Acts 2. Seeing the comparison,

we can see the similarities, and the differences, and learn from them both.

• The flaming sword is put upon the head of the people in Acts and they are now the cherubim. They go out and conquer with their flaming sword, which is their tongue of fire, that wars with words of proclamation and preaching.

• The following also happens in both books:

• God gives a command to His agents.

• They enter a new land through a baptism.

• They conquer the key / decisive city (Jericho / Jerusalem).

• Some people steal from God and are killed.

• There are further victories.

• We have a problem with some gentiles and it is resolved.

• The gentiles are attacked and have to be defended.

• The land is completely conquered.

• God gives a command to His agents:

• Joshua 1:1-8 – God says to Joshua, “Moses is gone, so now harken to my words and be strong and courageous”.

• Noting that Acts is just the second part of the Gospel of Luke.

- Acts 1:1-3 / Luke 24:44-47 – Just as the Lord told Joshua, Jesus tells them to

hearken to the words that He tells them.

- Acts 1:10-11 – Just as the leaders encouraged Joshua, so angels (described as

men) encouraged the disciples after Jesus’ departure.

• They enter a new land through a baptism:

• Joshua 3-6 – Israel has to cross the Jordan River, which is a baptism, and then they have to circumcise themselves. In the N.T., river crossings, washings and circumcisions are put together into baptism, so are shaving of the head and the nail paring of war brides – all the cuttings off & startings over again.)

• Act 2:15 – Parallel is the day of Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

• They conquer the key / decisive city (Jericho / Jerusalem):

• In Jericho, one family is spared (Rahab’s), but in Acts 3000 people are baptized in Jerusalem. (Acts 2:41)

• In Acts 2:43 Jerusalem was filled with fear. In Joshua 5:1, great fear comes

on the enemy and Rahab said later that great fear had come upon Jericho.

• Joshua 5 – Right after they circumcised (a) themselves, they kept the Passover (b). Acts 2:42 – says right after baptism (a) of the Holy Spirit and 3000 souls saved, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, “breaking of bread” (b) and prayer. (Breaking of bread is the “technical” term for the Lord’s Supper.)

• Jericho fell quickly and was destroyed first and was a sign of the conquest of the entire land. The conquest of Jerusalem took 40 years and wasn’t completed until AD 70 when Jerusalem was completely destroyed, but it has the same meaning. The salvation of people in Jerusalem symbolized the salvation of the whole world. After all, if God can save those who put His Son to death, He can save anybody.

• Joshua 6:20 – Jericho’s walls were shaken down by the shouts of the people and the trumpet blast corresponds to the heralding and preaching of the Gospel in Acts. (Acts is a series of sermons and is the same as shouting Yahweh’s name in the O.T.) Acts 4:31 – Jerusalem is shaken like Jericho.

• Some people steal from God and are killed:

• Joshua 7:16 – Achan steals some things devoted to the Lord and judgment came on the people until he had been selected by the casting of lots and he was killed by being stoned. In Acts 5:1-10, Ananias and Sapphira steal money devoted to God. Note that they had sold land to get this money and that property would soon be worthless anyway because Jerusalem was going to be destroyed completely in just a few years in a holy war type context. In the O.T., God required that the booty from such a war be completely devoted to the Lord by giving it to His special agents, the priests, for use in building up “God’s temple”. In this situation, it would have made the greatest sense for people to give their property to the apostles, but they didn’t have to, but if it was “devoted” already, it was then stealing from God not to give it to the Apostles.

• Acts 5:11 – There is a lot of fear in Acts. Apparently, it is a good evangelistic technique. The difference in Joshua is that there is no casting of lots. The last time the casting of lots is seen in the Bible is in Acts 1 in order to identify who God wanted to replace Judas. After the Holy Spirit is given, the lots are gone. In the O.T., it says the lot is cast into the lap and the disposing, thereof, is from the Lord. In Esther, Haman casts for 11 ½ months to determine a day to kill the Jews. (You would have thought that he would have gotten the message long before then!!) Finally, God said yes because the Jews deserved to die at that point, unless they repented. We don’t cast lots now because the Holy Spirit has been given to us to provide us with wisdom, understanding and discernment and the completed Bible. The reason that people start stealing at the points in history such as those here in Joshua and Acts is that the Kingdom is starting to look good and even bad people, such as Achan and

Ananias and Sapphira are attracted to it. It is for God’s wise, Holy Spirit filled, elders to bring these people to justice and hand them over to the Holy Spirit to execute God’s sentence upon them. [Note: I’m not sure about this last bit, but feel obliged to include it!! SF].

• There are further victories:

• Joshua 8 – Defeat of Ai after Joshua tells his people not to fear. Acts 5:11-16 – Great fear came upon the city here too and large numbers of people join the church.

• We have a problem with some Gentiles and it is resolved:

• Joshua 9 – The Gibeonites want to be added to the church, but were Canaanites and so were able to deceive Israel into making a covenant with them. (Note that Israel found out about the deception three days later.) Israel made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation, that is, they became servants of the tabernacle. They were particularly associated with the priests and, in effect, had a privileged position. (Note that, later on, Saul kills some priests and he also kills some Gibeonites. Because of this, God brings a plague on Israel and David had to execute Saul’s sons as a result.)

• The Gentiles are attacked and have to be defended.

• In Joshua 10, the Gibeonites are attacked as traitors by allied Amorite cities and Joshua has to protect them. The same thing happens in Acts 6. The problem was that some of the Greeks who had previously converted to Judaism and Greek speaking Jews had been brought into the church, not as servants like the Gibeonites, but on an equal basis. The response was to select seven Gentile deacons to take care of the Gentile church members. Immediately, a group of non-converted Hellenistic Jews from four nations attacks Stephen and had him put to death after a trial. Stephen is a true Gibeonite in that he is a servant of the true temple. (Look at the charge against him in Acts 6:14 – The place is the temple. Stephen is asserting the primacy of the New Temple over the old by serving the New Temple.)

• In Joshua, Joshua saves the Gibeonites, but, in contrast, Stephen is martyred in Acts. He is not protected. Rather, his death is sacrificial in that it results in Paul’s conversion. His death is an example of the blood of the martyrs becoming the seed of the church. (Comment by G. Kent Stiles – Because Stephen was a mature (fully at liberty) Christian, as confirmed by his appointment as a leader over the Gentile church members, he was “qualified” to become an acceptable sacrifice, whereas the Gibeonites were just servants (slaves, not at liberty) within God’s church and, therefore, were not yet acceptable to God as sacrifices and needed to be

protected like children were to be.) In the O.T., victories are the sign of the Kingdom, but after the Gospels, suffering and defeat are the sign of the Kingdom. This is true because they are signs that God’s people are now in union with Christ and His suffering and death. The result is that our deaths, like Christ’s, can mean life to some other people as well. (K.S. Comment – Note Col 1:24, amongst other N.T. passages on suffering.) As Stephen dies, he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God so we know that, in apparent defeat, there is true victory.

• The land is completely conquered.

• In Joshua 10, as soon as the five Amorite kings are defeated, in defence of the Gibeonites, Israel is shown going throughout the land conquering it and then it is divided up. In Acts 8, the church is scattered throughout Judea and Samaria by persecution, a seeming defeat, but they preach and many are converted, including the Ethiopian eunuch, and Paul and then the Gentile centurion is converted by Peter. All of this happens within one year in Acts.

Conclusion – Acts fulfills patterns in the O.T.

—————————————

There is much more to be said! James Jordan’s five talks on Acts are very helpful and can be purchased from Word., (as can many other helpful talks by this insightful theologian).

We have seen that the events involving Gibeon correspond to events in the first half of Acts. I would like to suggest too that there may be a connection with events involving Paul in the second half of Acts. Some of these ideas are those presented by Edward Carus Selwyn whose work has been mentioned previously.

When Paul is at Troas (Acts 16:8-10) he has a vision in which a Man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”.

Following E. C. Selwyn then I would like to suggest that this intriguing verse corresponds in some way to events involving the Gibeonites in Joshua, and also to the event at the start of Joshua where, before the commencement of the conquest of the land, the Lord, as the “Commander of the army of the Lord” stands before Joshua who falls and worships.

The “Gibeonite” aspect is found in the message of the beleagured Gibeonites to Joshua (Josh. 10:6),

“Do not relax your hand from your servants;come up to us quickly, and save us and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country are

gathered against us”.

Joshua and Israel rescue the Gibeonites—which corresponds to the spiritual warfare of preaching the Gospel the NT. The key location of the battle, where the five kings of the Amorites were slain was Makkedah. There is much more in this important OT account than we will be looking at here—it was the occasion when the sun stood still for about a whole day—and all this for the sake of non-Israelites who had tricked their way into a covenant arrangement as servants with Israel!!

At any rate, we note the strong similarity between the words of the Gibeonites, and those of the “man from Macedonia”. Paul presumably noted this as he and his companions acted quickly (“immediately” in Acts 16:10), even though this time element only occurred in the Gibeonites’ message and did not appear explicitly in Paul’s vision.

The vision was of a man of Macedonia who, together with his fellow countrymen (“Come and help us!”), was in need—and so this doesn’t clearly “match” the powerful and majestic Commander of the Lord’s army in Joshua. This is true. However, the connection is much clearer when the structure of the first 12 chapters of Joshua are analysed, and this has been done with great skill and insight in David Dorsey’s excellent book (see bibliography), from which I am reproducing one of the relevant diagrams (next page) where we note that the sections D and D` correspond.

There is so much to be said here, but one point I wish to emphasise is the fact that the appearance of the Commander of the Lord’s army corresponds structurally to the victory ceremony at Makkedah. Now, in the Septuagint, Makkedah is Makeda and so someone from “Makeda” would be a Makedan or a Makedon However, the vision that Paul had was of a man from Macedonia—he was, in the Greek text of Acts, a Makedon (Acts 16:9). Is that not remarkable!! No wonder Paul saw the connection and acted so quickly, and what an encouragement that his phase of his Gentile mission would be a success!

Before we leave this section of Acts, perhaps we should make one or two further comments:

1) Not only are the two sections of Joshua 1-12 arranged as parallel panels as shown in the diagram, they are also each arranged chiastically—and once again, Joshua’s meeting with the Commander of the Lord’s army and the ceremony at Makkedah correspond—this time by each being at the very centre of their respective chiasms. These chiasms can be found in David Dorsey’s book (highly recommended!)

2) The expression “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7) takes on a new significance when we note that Joshua is Jesus in Greek, and the book of Joshua in the Septuagint is “the Book of Jesus”.

3) Macedonia was a new departure. It was in Europe not Asia, and the first church formed, that at Philippi, did not result from preaching in a synagogue—it was a primarily Gentile church formed around influential Gentiles, like Lydia and the Philippian jailer. In common with all other churches in which Gentiles predominate, we have no mention, either in Acts or in the Epistles of elders in such churches (a result of the fact that the leadership structure in these churches would not have needed to be based around converted Jews who were elders in their own community.)

4) There is some irony in Luke’s account! Having been forbidden to preach in Asia, and having been summoned to Macedonia by a vision of a Macedonian man, the first convert in Macedonia is a woman from Thyatira in Asia!

5) E. C. Selwyn draws attention to another possible connection with Joshua—the unusual expression in Acts 16:12, where Philippi is described as “the first of the part of Macedonia”, (literally the first of the portion Macedonia) uses the Greek word meridos for part or portion. This word also means “lot” and is exactly the same word used in Joshua to describe the method employed for the division of the land (e.g. Joshua 18:6).

6) David Dorsey points out that the theme of standing or falling is very important in Joshua.

7) An important feature of the account of the events at Philippi is Paul’s encounter with the girl with a “spirit of divination” - in Greek, “a spirit, a python” (which sounds rather odd to us!) E. C Selwyn relates this aspect of Acts, together with some details concerning Lydia, to another Old Testament event—when Saul had an encounter with the witch at Endor in 1 Samuel 28. I haven’t looked into this closely, but suspect that a structural analysis of this part of Acts 16 may help link Lydia and the slave girl, and therefore perhaps set the stage for the proposed inter-textual link with the witch of Endor in 1 Samuel. Further details of this possible connection can be found in E. C. Selwyn’s book.

I hope that enough has been done in this chapter to show that preaching by Paul and Silas in the Phrygian and Galatian region fits really quite securely within the bigger picture of consistent inter-textual and typological links between this part of Acts and Exodus and conquest themes in the Hexateuch (i.e. the Pentateuch plus the book of Joshua.).

Summary

1) There are strong inter-textual and typological reasons for understanding “the Phrygian and Galatian region” (Acts 16:6) in its clear and straightforward sense—namely as referring to two separate geographical areas which are being considered together with regard to a particular aspect—in this case, they are places where Paul and Silas travelled and preached prior to crossing to Macedonia.

2) This is just one of a whole series of connections between the ministry of

Paul as described in Acts and Exodus and conquest themes in the Hexateuch.

3) The early chapters of Acts too are linked structurally and typologically with Exodus and Conquest themes, as shown for example by James Jordan, and Acts is linked structurally and typologically too with the ministry of Christ as described in Luke. For example, both Peter and Paul have “death and resurrection” experiences which correspond to the death and resurrection of Christ.

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57

Pisidian Antioch to Troas and Beyond . . .

57

Pisidian Antioch to Troas and Beyond . . .

57

Pisidian Antioch to Troas and Beyond . . .

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