The politarchs of Thessalonica
The unusual civic title Acts uses for Thessalonica's magistrates is the title the city's own inscriptions use.
Fakapapau'i 'e he keliTohi tongi maka1st century BC – 2nd century AD
Acts says Paul's accusers dragged Jason before the "politarchs" of the city — a title found in no classical literary text, and once treated as Luke's mistake. Inscriptions from Macedonia have since produced dozens of examples of exactly that office, in exactly that region.
…they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Thessalonica and Macedonia, Greece — Recorded from the nineteenth century onward; dozens now known
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and others
- Lea
- Greek
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e keli hake, pe 'oku kei tu'u 'i he potu na'e langa ai.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
This confirms the terminology and the local setting, not the episode.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
A standard example in classical epigraphy of inscriptions supplying an office absent from literary sources.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Horsley, "The Politarchs", in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting (1994)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.