He gets a large chunk of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul obviously thought highly of him. But if there were a quiz inviting names of the ten most interesting people mentioned in ‘Acts’, he would probably be overlooked. His name was Epaphroditus. Like Silas, he was a player in Paul’s team. Like Barnabas, he disappears from Luke’s account and we are left to guess at where he went and what he did thereafter.
This is not an uncommon feature of ‘Acts’. Prominent activists take their part and are lost to view. ‘Acts’ is a short account and there is much ground to cover. We don’t know if anything came of Paul’s plans to visit Spain. The governor of Cyprus, Sergius Paulus, was a thoughtful man who was deeply impressed by Paul but we know nothing of his subsequent activity. Did he influence his fellow-Cypriots or did they dismiss him as a crank? We don’t know. There is a brief reference to Dionysius and Damaris responding to Paul’s speech in Athens. Apollos is another who might have had a telling influence on the citizens of Ephesus and other cities.
In all these examples we are apprised of the need to be wary. There are great gaps in our knowledge of what happened in the early days of the new Christian faith and its agents. We also have to recognise that our ranking of those agents may be failing to take account of all that Paul and his team knew about the tumultuous activities of the early believers. Paul looked on Epaphroditus as a man deserving to be honoured. He had been seriously ill but the Lord had mercy on him.
As with other historical accounts, we should be careful about assuming that the amount of space or air-time an individual gets is an accurate measure of his or her worth. At the same time it is noticeable how many energetic and go-getting individuals of faith appeared in those early days.
BUSY CRYPT
Sine 1930 St George’s crypt, Leeds has been an active parish church with a large part of its programme going on underground. Last year it provided 10,920 bed places, 65,700 hot meals, 12,000 showers in its provision for the homeless. Care, compassion and hope are on offer 365 days a year. The Rector is Lizzy Woolf. The crypt is now a separate charity working in close co-operation with the parish church.
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