Highly Respected
What voices are teaching you about courage, resistance, and faith?
Acts 17:12
Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.
Ah, Luke – we see what you did there. The women are listed first – this means something.
Wil Gafney offers us this translation “Thus many of them therefore believed, including highly respected Greek women and just a few [Jewish] men.” She indicates that the adjective of “highly respected” is feminine plural and was referring to the Greek women instead of all those gathered.
Paul and Silas encountered the Greco-Roman city of Beroea in which women were respected, listened to, learned from, and centered. They also encountered a willingness to listen, openness to the message of liberation, and a deep desire to dialogue. There’s little doubt these two things went hand in hand.
Like the people of Beroea, may we become people who listen deeply, who honor truth spoken from the margins, and who believe when liberation comes knocking.
What voices are teaching you about courage, resistance, and faith?
—Dax Franklin-Hicks