88 Dimensions of Baptism
status, she is described as a God-fearer (oe(3o|j£vr] TOV 0e6v; 16.14)—i.e.
as a sympathizer who was nonetheless marginal to the Jewish community.
If Luke emphasizes Lydia's ambiguous status, he also presents her as
the first and model convert on European soil, and this accentuates her
crucial role in the Christian mission. Her transformation is deep-rooted
and multifaceted, a transference of orientation and allegiance represented
in the metaphor of the Lord's 'opening her heart' (16.14), manifest in
practices appropriate to that new allegiance (receiving baptism and offer-
ing hospitality), and confirmed by Paul and his companions (who incorpo-
rate her into the multi-ethnic community of God's people through baptism
and accept her offer of hospitality).^43 What is more, the introduction of the
response of her household marks Lydia's response as representative,
metonymic of the others. In a narrative sequence where issues of civic
pride, honor and shame, and Roman custom and order are so much empha-
sized, it is surely extraordinary that Lydia, together with her household,
who in no way exemplify these Roman values, serve as exemplars.
The introduction of the jailer is so abrupt that it provides us with little
by way of interpretive help. Told to confine Paul and Silas securely
(16.23), he imprisoned them 'in the innermost cell and fastened their feet
in stocks' (16.24)—that is, with maximum discomfort, as though they were
'dangerous low class felons'.^44 Clearly, then, the jailor is numbered among
the enemy,^45 one who acts, however, not on his own accord but who fills a
('Purple', in ABD, V, pp. 557-60 [558]). For Luke's purposes, it remains important that
(1) elsewhere in the Lukan narrative Trop4>upa signifies wealth (Lk. 16.19) and (2) the
mission of Paul elsewhere in this section of Acts is effective among prominent women
(cf. 17.4, 12, 34).
- Cf. Lk. 10.1 -9. Nothing sinister should be read into Lydia's urging Paul and his
companions to accept her hospitality, as though Lydia's faith were in doubt—contra
Luise Schottroff, Lydia's Impatient Sisters: A Feminist Social History of Early
Christianity (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995), p. 110. Rather, the
terminology Luke uses here invites comparison with the Emmaus-episode narrated in
Lk. 24.13-32. Hospitality is an important indicator of authentic faith in Luke-Acts, as
is the (closely related) appropriate use of money; note the contrast with the collocation
of economic concerns with charlatanism in the next scene, 16.16-19 (cf. 8.18-24;
20.33-35). - Rapske, Paul in Roman Custody, pp. 126-27.
- Cf. Lk. 6.22: 'Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude
you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.' This point is well-
made by Robert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpre-
tation. II. The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1990), p. 204.