GREEN 'She and her household were baptized' 85
hold relations was both a model for and the basis of order within the empire
(with persons 'assigned a precise place in a vast system of orders, classes,
tribes, and centuries');^37 and that Rome regarded itself as a household with
the emperor as paterfamilias. That is, the center of the Roman world was,
first, the home, from whence the world took shape; by extension, Rome
performed this function, ordering life, setting boundaries: everyone with a
place, everyone in their place. Importantly, then, with Paul and Silas's entry
into Philippi, order is disestablished and a new order is baptized, figura-
tively and literally.
An important key to Luke's strategy here is the careful movement
from public to household space in 16.11-40, and indeed the contrast setup between the two.
Public Space/City Private Space/Household
16.12: summary statement, without event. 16.13-15: Paul and his companions
depart the city to locate a 'place of
prayer', possibly a house,^38 where they
are heard eagerly and the Lord opens
Lydia's heart. Lydia and her household
are baptized. Paul and companions share
the hospitality of Lydia's household.
16.16-30: on the roadway, then in the 16.31-34: Paul and Silas receive care for
ayopa, Luke paints scenes of power- their wounds and hospitality within the
encounters—first with a demonized jailor's house, and the jailor and his
slave girl, then before the magistrates. household believe, rejoice, and are
Although the demon is exorcized, the baptized,
consequence for Paul and Silas is the
abuse and humiliation of being stripped,
beaten, and imprisoned.16.35-39: in communication with the 16.40: Lydia's house is portrayed as a
magistrates, Paul and Silas seek to center of gathering for Jesus' followers,
recover their honor, but are nonetheless a place of encouragement, and a center
asked to depart the city. from which Paul and Silas are sent
forth.(eds.), The Roman Household: A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 2.
- Claude Nicolet, 'The Citizen: The Political Man', in Andrea Giardina (ed.), The
Romans (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 16-54 (26). - The referent of Trpooeuxri is debated. Some take its appearance in 16.13, 16,
as a referent to 'the synagogue'—a reading for which there is some evidence outside
of Luke-Acts (thus Donald D. Binder's translation, 'where we supposed there was