Local Officials
'Testing Luke' #11
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In the book of Acts, in the Bible, Luke records how Paul the apostle and his companions visited Thessaloniki. The local Jewish community reacted against Paul and started a riot.
They dragged some of Paul's supporters in front of the local officials. Luke calls these officials 'politarchs.'
No-one had heard of this title, and scholars thought that perhaps Luke had made it up. But then some inscriptions were discovered, which included the word Politarch.
All round the Mediterranean, local officials had different titles – and in Acts, Luke is careful to use the right titles: in Philippi, he calls them strategoi. In Ephesus, the local magistrate is a grammateus. In Malta, he talks about the 'First Man.'
Luke was careful and reliable, and he got the titles of local officials right.
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