Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 16:20

"and when they had brought them unto the magistrates, they said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city," — Acts 16:20 (ASV)

What Paul did for the slave girl was not appreciated by her masters. In exorcising the demon, he had exorcised their source of income. Because of interference with what they claimed as their property rights, and with callous disregard for the girl’s welfare, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the city’s authorities. The charge laid was that Paul and Silas were advocating a religio illicita and thus disturbing the Pax Romana. But the charge, spoken in terms that appealed to the latent anti-Semitism of the people (“these men are Jews”) and their racial pride (“us Romans”), ignited the flames of bigotry and prevented any dispassionate discussion of the issues.

Many have asked why only Paul and Silas were singled out for persecution, with Timothy and Luke left free. Of course, Paul and Silas were the leaders of the missionary party and therefore most open to attack. But we must also remember that Paul and Silas were Jews and probably looked very much like Jews. Timothy and Luke, however, being respectively half-Jewish and fully Gentile (cf. Colossians 4:14, where Luke is grouped by Paul with his Gentile friends), probably looked Greek in both their features and their dress and therefore were left alone. Anti-Semitism lay very near the surface throughout the Roman Empire. Here it seems to have taken over not only in laying the charge but also in identifying the defendants.