Luke’s Use of the Διοπετης
How would a Greco-Roman have understood Luke's passing reference to the Ephesian
διοπετης in
19.35? Such a reader may have possibly related Acts 19.35 to the traditional
Judean polemic against idolatry (out of many examples: Isa. 40.18-20; 44.9-20;
Wis. 13.10-14.1). The city of Ephesus was νεωκορος,
'temple keeper' or 'guardian' of both Artemis' temple and the διοπετης (19.35). Therefore, though seemingly 'fallen from
Zeus', the διοπετης is
an object tended to by human hands and housed in a temple of human construction
(Acts 7.48-50; 17.24-25; 19.26); it is an idol.
More probably, a Greco-Roman reader, unfamiliar with the Hebrew
Scriptures, may have noted a subtle reference back to Luke's Gospel. I
speculatively suggest that such a reader may have seen an allusion to a Jesus
saying in Lk. 10.8, 'He said to them, "I saw Satan like lightning [ψς αστραπην]
falling from heaven [εκ
του ουρανου πεοντα]”’. This enigmatic and almost fragmentary logion has
spurred widely ranging interpretations. Whatever Luke’s use of this passage in
his gospel, there may be parallels and distant echoes of it in Acts 19.35
(Table 6)
Table 6. Parallels Between Luke 10.18 and Acts 19.35
|
Lk. 10.18 |
Acts 19.35 |
|
Reliance upon Judean apocalyptic traditions Satan ‘fell
from heaven [εκ του ουρανου
πεσοντα] |
Reliance upon Grego-Roman myth Artemis ‘image] [αγαλμα] was ‘fallen from Zeus’ or ‘fallen from the realm
of gods’ [διοπετης] |
|
Reliance upon Judean traditions in which Satan falls
‘like lightning’ [ως αστραπην] |
Background Greco-Roman mythological traditions associating
an αγαλμα, ‘image’, made of
wood with a lightning bolt (Pausanias 9.12.4) |
|
Logion occurs immediately after successful exorcisms
(Luke 10.1-17) |
Mention of the διοπετης occurs in Ephesus
after both successful and unsuccessful exorcisms in the same city (Acts
19.12-16) |
|
Logion is set in missionary context |
διοπετης set in missionary
context |
If Greco-Roman readers understood Luke to allude to his Gospel, they
would perhaps understand Luke as paralleling Satan and Artemis in their ability
to intervene in the world. In Lk. 18.10, Satan himself falls from heaven. In
Acts 19.35, Artemis' image and not Artemis herself "falls
from Zeus' realm.
The exorcism narratives in Luke-Acts, portray Satan as a living,
threatening entity who opposes both God and God's followers and seeks to
dominate them (e.g., Jesus' temptation, Lk. 4.1-13, or Simon Bar Jesus, Acts
13.6-12). Conversely, Artemis is just a 'handmade god' or a mere meteorite.
Satan poses a very real threat to the Christian community; Artemis does not;
only her misguided followers do.
The immediate literary contexts of both Luke 10.18 and Acts 19.23-41
involve both missionary outreach and the performance or attempted performance
of exorcisms. Jesus sends 70 (or 72?) disciples on an advance mission for his
ministry (Lk. 10.1-16). They return reporting that they had power over demons
(10.17); Jesus' responds that he saw Satan, 'falling like lightning from heaven'
(1.18). In some fashion Jesus has witnessed Satan's defeat. In Acts 19.11-20,
the 'seven sons of Sceva' attempt to exorcise evil spirits but instead are
attacked, wounded, and flee naked. As Garrett has pointed out, the seven
would-be exorcists do not have Jesus' authority and are therefore spectacularly
unsuccessful. Paul, however, is fully able to exorcise demons precisely because
he has the authority of Jesus. Satan's forces are active and dangerous during
Paul's mission, but those, like Paul, who have Jesus' authority can defeat the
demonic.
Acts 19.21-22 serves as a transitional unit between the seven sons of Sceva (19.11-20) and the near riot in Ephesus (19.23-41). By separating these two episodes, this brief transition contrasts the aborted exorcism and indication of demonic power in 19.11-20 with the impotence of the 'handmade god' Artemis in 19.23—41. A Greco-Roman reader (or any reader) would probably have noticed that Luke consistently depicts 'magical' practices as demonic and defeated by God's power through the early Christians. For Luke and these readers, the demons of 19.11-20 are real personal forces that contend with the Christians and must be exorcised.
In contrast, Demetrius and the citizens of Ephesus intervene to defend
Artemis' honor. God toppled Satan from heaven; Artemis' image merely fell. The
revered διοπετης is a mere meteorite, fallen to earth from the sky,
and created by the living God who 'created the universe and the earth and the
sea and everything in them’ (14.15). (Lynn Allan Kauppi, Foreign
But Familiar Gods: Greco-Romans Read Religion in Acts [Library of New
Testament Studies 277; London: T&T Clark, 2006], 103-5, emphasis in bold added)