As Paul continues his outreach to Jews and God-fearers, he is accosted by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future (literally, "a spirit, Python"; see note). She is twice bound, spiritually and economically, for her masters are making quite a profit by exploiting her occult powers. Yet what engages Paul with her is her spiritual opposition to his mission. Day after day she follows Paul and his team, shouting (literally, "crying out repeatedly"), "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved" (literally, "a way of salvation"). This announcement both helps and hinders the mission. To Jewish ears it rings of truth, using terminology ("Most High God," el-selyon) that they considered the Gentile way of referring to the one true God (Gen 14:18-20; Num 24:16; Dan 3:26; 4:32; 5:18, 21). But to polytheistic pagans, who were henotheists as opposed to monotheists, there were many "highest gods"; the title had been attached to Zeus, Isis the mother-goddess of the kingdom of Lydia in Asia, and Baal. A pagan hearer would understand the term to refer to whatever deity he or she considered supreme (Trebilco 1989:60; contrast Levinskaya 1993:125-28). And "a way of salvation"? For the pagan it was release from the powers governing the fate of humankind and the material world (Longenecker 1981:462). So though initially this declaration may seem a help to Paul as it attracts crowds and provides a good starting point for discussing the gospel with pagans, it has to be corrected each time and thus soon becomes an annoyance (compare Acts 4:2). That a demon-possessed girl is the source of this true but potentially ambiguous statement is another difficulty (compare Lk 4:34, 41; 8:28). Such Satanic tactics have not changed in two thousand years. To counter them the message of salvation must always be proclaimed in clarity and fullness, with its divine source unambiguously credited.

The exorcism occurs via direct confrontation. He turned around and said to the spirit (authoritative command), "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" The results are immediate: at that moment the spirit left (literally, "came out," compare the command). As at Jerusalem and Judea (Acts 5:16) and in Samaria (8:7), so now in a move across the sea toward the end of the earth, the advance of the gospel means the extension of the kingdom of God through a liberation of those under Satan's authority (26:18). What must I do to be saved? Experience the liberating power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only opens but also cleanses hearts (15:9).

This exorcism is both similar to and different from Jesus' ministry of exorcism. Christians confronting the forces of evil today can find guidance here. Persons who were certifiably demon-possessed, as indicated by their talk and action, attacked Jesus and Paul in order to hinder the preaching of the kingdom of God. Both Jesus and Paul dealt authoritatively with the demon-possessed using the simple command "Come out!" and the results were immediate (Lk 4:35; 8:29; 9:42; 11:14). There the similarities end. Jesus' authority is personal and direct. The demons fear Jesus and what he can do to them, though they still seem to taunt (Lk 8:28 and parallels). He rebukes them. Paul's authority and ours is christocentric and derived. In the name of Jesus Christ . . . come out of her (Acts 16:18; compare 19:13, 17). Exorcism must be approached today, then, with much care, humility and prayer. But there must also be bold confidence that Jesus is still bringing release to the captives (Lk 4:18).

Whenever the gospel threatens vested interests, especially economic interests, it is bound to meet opposition (compare 19:25-27). So the slave girl's handlers, far from being pleased with her liberation, can think only of their loss of revenue. They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities (compare 21:30). The four large stone steps that led up to the bema, "speaker's platform or judgment seat" where the authorities held court, at the midpoint on the north side of the marketplace forum, are still there today (Finegan 1981:102). Roman local administration of civil and criminal cases was the responsibility of the duoviri. Luke terms them strategoi (16:20), the equivalent of the honorable title praetor by which they often preferred to be called. Each was assigned two lictors, police escorts who carried the fasces et secures, the symbol of their authority, a bundle of rods bound together with thongs and often accompanied by an ax.

Paul and Silas are brought before these magistrates and charged with disturbing the peace and introducing customs unlawful for Roman citizens to accept. The handlers appeal to law-and-order nationalism, anti-Semitic prejudice and ethnic traditionalism. At the same time there is actually a kernel of truth in their words. In the Roman Republic a cult of Apollo centered on healing and prophecy, and under Augustus a magnificent temple to Apollo was erected on the Palatine. "Apollo Palatinus was in some sort the equal of Jupiter Optimus Maximus" (Rose and Robertson 1970:82). Preaching the way of salvation in the Lord Jesus, in whose name the "spirit Python," inspired by Apollo, was cast out, might certainly be viewed as advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

The crowd rises up against the missionaries, and the magistrates seem to apply rough summary justice by having the lictors use their rods to beat them (compare 2 Cor 11:25; 1 Thess 2:2). Such punishment was certainly within the magistrates' rightful power, though it was not to be used on a Roman citizen (see below, vv. 35-40). Since prisons functioned in ancient times more as places of detention for those awaiting trial than as places of punishment, the praetors' consignment of Paul and Silas to the jailer for safekeeping is not part of the summary justice (contrast Marshall 1980:271) but precedes handing them over for trial before the proconsul (Sherwin-White 1963:82). Security seems to have been of the utmost concern, for these pagan minds must have wondered, If they can cast out a soothsaying spirit, what will prevent them from using their magical powers to escape incarceration?

So delivered into the keeping of a jailer (probably a retired military man), placed in the innermost part of the prison (archaeology has identified a probable site adjacent to the forum; Finegan 1981:105) and with feet fastened in wooden stocks (there is no indication that it was for torture, as Bruce [1988:315] contends; compare Polhill 1992:353), the missionaries are left for the night. As Christians have found throughout history, the state is often an instrument of persecution.