86 Dimensions of Baptism
Evidently, the good news is effective within the household context in
Phillipi, but is not yet transformative in the public square. This is not to
deny that Paul and his companions have a prophetic role in the latter
context, but rather to appreciate what Franfois Bovon calls the 'important
mediatory role' of the home: 'The disciples or apostles have it as their
mission to reach the city; but if the city is to believe, the home must be
converted'.^39 This is true for two reasons: (1) as we have already noted,
the household is the 'seed-bed' for the larger world, so that the transfor-
mative values that take root in the household will propagate transforma-
tion beyond its boundaries; and (2) perhaps more pragmatically speaking,
apparently Lydia's home provides a base for the community and for mis-
sionary sending-forth.
Read against this backdrop, the Lukan recounting of the household
baptisms of Lydia and the jailor play significant, strategic roles. Luke goes
to great lengths to characterize Lydia—first so as to underscore the ambi-
guity of her status in this Roman colony. Commentators have generally
assumed that her position as head of a Philippian household is due to thea synagogue' ['God-Fearers in Synagogues', n.p (cited 15 June 2000); online:
http.//www.smu.edu/~dbmder/god-fearers.html]; cf., e.g., Martin Hengel, 'Prosueche
und Synagoge: Jiidische Gemeinde, Gotteshaus und Gottesdienst in der Diaspora und
in Palastina', in Joseph Gutmann [ed.], The Synagogue: Studies in Origins, Archae-
ology and Architecture [New York: Ktav, 1975], pp. 27-54; cf. Levinskaya's discus-
sion of 'The Meaning of TTPOZEYXH', in Irina Levinskaya, The Book of Acts in Its
Diaspora Setting [AICS, 5; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996], pp. 207-25; Ivoni Richter
Reimer, Women in the Acts of the Apostles: A Feminist Liberation Perspective
[Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995], pp. 78-92). However, Luke elsewhere uses
ouvaycoyr) (34x), so a linguistic shift at this point would be unprecedented and
inexplicable. The absence of any mention of Jewish men—or, indeed, of further evi-
dence of a Jewish presence—in this context also speaks against regarding this
occurrence of TipoaeuxTi as a reference to a synagogue. On the basis of his survey of
the relevant evidence, Peter Pilhofer concludes, 'Im ersten Jahrhundert bestand in
Philippi allenfalls eine kleine jiidische Gemeinde' (Philippi, I: Die erste christliche
Gemeinde Europas WUNT, 87; Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1995], pp. 231 -
34). I. Howard Marshall proposes that a house is in view (The Acts of the Apostles
TNTQ Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980], p. 267); similarly, Bradley Blue, 'Acts and the
House Church', in David W.J. Gill and Conrad Gempf (eds.), The Book of Acts in Its
Graeco-Roman Setting (AICS, 2; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994], pp. 119-222 [pp.
152-53]).
- Francois Bovon, 'The Importance of Mediations in Luke's Theological Plan',
in his New Testament Traditions and Apocryphal Narratives (PTMS, 36; Allison Park,
PA: Pickwick, 1995), pp. 51-66 (55).