Paul and the eunuch: a tale of two roadside conversions

Homily on the Book of Acts, John contextualizes Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 by first recounting another traveler’s conversion, that of the

Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Through his interpretation of the eunuch’s response to scripture and to Philip’s teaching, John depicts the eunuch as an ideal student and an exemplary soul. He first draws attention to the eunuch’s earnest reading of the scriptures,2 noting that such a sincere commitment to biblical study demonstrates the eunuch’s piety (εὐλάβειαν).3

The eunuch’s confession of ignorance concerning the scriptures (8:31), John contends, shows further that he was aware of his need for treatment– “He shows his hurt (τὸ τραῦμα) to the physician.”4

For John, the eunuch’s confession of his ailment and his request for a remedy reveals that his soul was free from pride (τὸ ἄτυφον) and is

appropriation and repudiation.” Jacobs, “A Jew’s Jew: Paul and the Early Christian Problem of Jewish Origins” Journal of Religion 86 (2006), 263.

2

On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:149.42). 3

On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:149.49). 4

On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:151.25-26). According to John, recognizing one has an ailment is a vital step towards correction “Well then, in the first place, if you persuade yourself that this disorder is a baneful one, you will have made a very good beginning towards correcting it. For when a man is sick, he speedily sends for the physician, if he be first made acquainted with the fact that he is sick.”On Rom. hom. 17 (PG 60:569.23-29). In this regard, John reflects a long-standing therapeutic approach to healing the soul. Christopher Gill identifies the recognition that one’s soul is sick as one of the four key elements in ancient medico-philosophical therapeutics broadly. Christopher Gill,

“Philosophical therapy as preventive psychological medicine” in Mental Disorders in the Classical World (ed. William Harris; Boston: Brill, 2013).

therefore primed for correction.5

Indeed, once Philip responded to the eunuch’s request for illumination, the eunuch easily received the apostle’s teaching and immediately requested baptism.6

John depicts the eunuch’s conversion as an ideal pedagogical encounter, elevating the eunuch as a passionless soul and model student who readily received Philip’s

teaching.7 _{Such a characterization sets up what immediately follows in John’s homily: an} introduction to Paul’s encounter with a message of resurrection during his travels. John draws explicit and implicit comparisons between these two roadside conversions, similarly describing Paul as a student of the psychagogic process. Unlike the gentile eunuch, however, Paul’s Jewish soul required drastic intervention in order to prepare it for correction.

Having extolled the receptive soul of the eunuch, John then calls attention to a significant difference between the eunuch and Paul: whereas the eunuch required minimal intervention for his conversion, Paul required the appearance of the resurrected Christ himself. As John recounts, “Both this man is on the road, and Paul is on the road;

5

On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:151.27-32). The eunuch’s readiness for correction is indicated by his eagerness and longing desire to give heed to the teacher’s words (PG 60:151.31- 32: Εἶδες τὴν σπουδήν; εἶδες τὸν πόθον). Even his selection of scripture is

demonstrative for John of the eunuch’s elevated mind (PG 60:151.41: Καὶ τοῦτο αὐτοῦ δεῖγμα τῆς φιλομαθείας, τὸ τὸν προφήτην τοῦτον μετὰ χεῖρας ἔχειντῶν ἄλλων ὄντα ὑψηλότερον).

6

The immediacy of the eunuch’s acceptance of Philip’s teaching earns John’s explicit praise - “Mark the eager desire (προθυμίαν), mark the exact knowledge (ἀκρίβειαν).” On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:150.28-29).

7

John explicitly exhorts his own congregants to imitate the eunuch, particularly his eager study of scripture and urgent pursuit of baptism. On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:154.29-36).

the latter no man draws, but Christ alone. This was too great a work for the Apostles.”8 John notes with admiration that the eunuch believed Philip even though he did not see the miracle of Christ’s appearance,9

whereas Paul needed to see Christ himself because of the “hardness” (τὸ σκληρὸν) of his soul.10

Unlike the eunuch’s soul, says John, Paul’s soul required intervention before it was in a condition to be transformed by the gospel.

The light that blinded Paul on the road to Damascus, John explains, served as one such intervention, instilling fear in Paul in order to extinguish his passions.11

Furthermore, John emphasizes that Paul was neither given much information nor told to

8

On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:155.36-38). 9

On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:154.39-40): “No need he had of signs, no need of miracles: from the Prophet merely, he believed.” Also (PG 60:154.45-46): “He did not see Christ, he saw no miracle…he believed Philip. How came he to behave thus? His soul was earnest. Yet the thief had seen miracles: the wise men had seen a star: but this man, nothing of the kind.”

10

On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:155.7-8) John’s characterization of the “hardness” (τὸ σκληρὸν) of Paul’s soul reflects John’s broader use of this language to describe Jewish souls more universally and likely echoes Paul’s use of the term in Romans 9:18. See Chapter 4 for a fuller discussion of such a characterization.

11

On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:153.4). καὶ ἔσβεσεν αὐτοῦ τὸν θυμὸν τῷ φόβῳ, ὥστε αὐτὸν ἀκοῦσαι τὰ λεγόμενα. John frequently depicts impassioned souls with the imagery of disease, madness or beastliness, and this is true for his characterization of Paul’s soul prior to his encounter with Christ. See for example, On Acts hom. 52 (PG 60:360.13-15): “And he lays the ground for this by (other) arguments relating accurately his former madness (μανίαν).” Also, On 1 Cor hom. 22 (PG 61:185.62-65). “He [Paul] entered the houses like a wild beast and no otherwise did he rush in, hauling, tearing men and women, filling all things with tumult and confusion and innumerable conflicts.” John suggests that Paul’s untamed soul was so notorious that even following his

transformation the apostles were afraid to join him, and it took the “the ardor of Paul’s character” to demonstrate to them that “he was no longer a wild beast, but man mild and gentle!”On Acts hom. 21 (PG 60:164.31-32). Notably, the manuscript tradition is varied with respect to this text. Various traditions suggest Barnabas as the subject, rather than Paul. See Schaff, 135, n.1 for a fuller discussion. For our purposes, it is not in question that John perceived Paul as beastly prior to his call, and his depiction of Paul as gentle and mild following his conversion will be addressed in Chapter 3 of this project.

believe, in order to allow time for the softening of his mind.12

Whereas even prior to his conversion the eunuch was a “philosophic man,” free of haughtiness and full of piety, Paul’s soul, roiled by passions and hardened against hearing, could not easily receive the message of the gospel.

According to John, Paul’s unphilosophic soul also prevented him from

recognizing his own need for correction. Whereas the eunuch immediately “shows his hurt to the physician,” Paul required urgent intervention before he could recognize his more severe ailment: “Like a consummate physician, when the fever was at its height, Christ brought help to him [Paul]; for it was needful that he should be quelled in the midst of his frenzy.”13

While Acts itself is silent on whether Paul experienced a moment of self condemnation and repentance like that of the eunuch, John constructs such a scene by interpreting Paul’s fasting (Acts 9:9) as a form of penitent confession, declaring “he [Paul] condemned himself for the past, he confessed, prayed, besought God.”14

For Paul to so suddenly transform from “the very height of his madness” to “complete sanity,” John contends, is evidence that it is the Risen Christ who serves as his psychagogue.15

Paul remained unconverted by his own learned reading of scriptures,16 12 On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:153.20-21). 13 On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:155.43-46). Καθάπερ ἰατρὸς ἄριστος, ἀκμάζοντος ἔτι τοῦ πυρετοῦ, τὸ βοήθημα αὐτῷ ἐπήγαγεν ὁ Χριστός μαινόμενον κατασχεθῆναι. 14 On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:154.7-9). Τίνος δὲ ἕνεκεν οὐκ ἔφαγεν, οὐδὲ ἔπιε; Κατεγίνωσκεν ἑαυτοῦ ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις, ἐξωμολογεῖτο, ηὔχετο, παρεκάλει τὸν Θεόν. 15

John uses this langague in recounting Paul’s conversion in his homily on Galatians 1. “And if he were asked for his proof that God himself thus immediately revealed to him these ineffable mysteries, he would instance his former manner of life, arguing that his conversion would not have been so sudden had it not been by Divine Revelation. For when men have been vehement and eager on the contrary side, their conviction, if it is

and by so many other earlier signs, because it was only the divine power of the resurrected Christ that could finally persuade him.17

Yet John is careful to balance his demonstration of Christ’s powerful intervention with an emphasis on Paul’s willing and zealous response to Christ’s teaching and correction. John interprets the same events that demonstrate the power of Christ’s resurrection, such as the earthquake at the Resurrection (Matt 28:2), the report of the soldiers regarding the empty tomb, and encounters with the risen Christ, as pedagogical tools designed not to compel belief but to “teach it.”18

The student’s willing response to such efforts is therefore vital. John makes Paul’s own zealous response explicit both with his construction of Paul’s self-condemnation and repentance, noted above, and his description of Paul’s baptism, when, according to John, Paul brought grace upon himself “by his zeal and exceeding earnestness” (τοῦ ζήλου καὶ τῆς προθυμίας τῆς πολλῆς).19

In John’s construction, while Paul’s soul was hardened and impassioned prior to his encounter with Christ, his zeal ultimately enabled complete healing and transformation. It is this exemplary zeal that distinguishes Paul

effected by human means, requires much time and ingenuity (τῆς μηχανῆς). It is clear therefore, that he whose conversion is sudden (ὁ δὲ οὕτως ἀθρόον μεταστὰς), and who has been sobered in the very height of his madness (καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ τῆς μανίας ἀκμῇ καθαρῶς νήψας), must have been vouchsafed a Divine revelation and teaching and so have at once arrived at complete sanity (ἀθρόον πρὸς τὴν καθαρὰν ἐπανῆλθεν ὑγείαν).” Commentary on Galatians 1 (PG 61:625.30-41). For similar depiction of how Paul’s severe ailment and radical correction indicates Divine revelation, see On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:153.40-49). 16 On Acts hom.19 (PG 60:154.52). 17 On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:23-29). 18 _{On Acts hom. 19 (PG 60:154.9-16). Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα ἀναγκαστικὰ, ἀλλὰ} διδακτικά. 19 On Acts hom. 20 (PG 60:157.44-46).

from apathetic Jews of “duller mind” 20

and establishes him as a model of psychic transformation for all such ailing Jewish souls.