WHO WERE THEY?

  1. The Sons of Belial.
    This phrase occurs often in the Old Testament; and we also read of the "children of Belial", the "men of Belial", and the "daughter of Belial." There is no such personage in the Bible, however, as Belial, and the term is a general one that is used to brand someone as "worthless", or "wicked", or "base". In 2 Corinthians 6:15 the Apostle Paul uses the phrase as a synonym for Satan; "And what concord hath Christ with Belial?", he asks. Thus, in the Old Testament the term is used to denote a low person in one degree or another; while in the New it has developed into a title for Satan or Antichrist.

  2. The Money Changers.
    One of the first things that our Lord did when He "went up to Jerusalem" in John 2:13-16 was to drive the "changers of money" out of the Temple. Under Jewish law (Exodus 30:13), a "half shekel" was payable as a "temple tax" once a year. As the normal Roman coinage had heathen embellishments, the tax could only be paid in Jewish silver money. Those worshippers who had to come from a distance, therefore, to pay their tax, or to purchase an animal for sacrifice were forced to resort to these "money changers" in order to have their "foreign" currency exchanged for Jewish coins. This state of affairs had let to many malpractices, and the rate of exchange had become exorbitant. The "money changers" had set up their stalls in the "outer court" of the Temple, and it was this whole scent of vicious competition and exploitation that enraged the Saviour and caused him to drive them out, because they had made His Father's House a "den of robbers".

  3. Augustus' Band.
    In Acts 27:1 we read of the apostle Paul being given into the hands of one "Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band". The army of Imperial Rome was divided into "bands" or "cohorts" which consisted of one thousand men; and these cohorts were, in turn, divided into ten "centuries" of one hundred men. The commanders of these centuries were knows as "Centurions", so that Julius mentioned was the Commander of one tenth of the Augustan Cohort - "a centurion of Augustus's band". It seems to have been customary to give epithets to these cohorts, e.g. the "Italian band" of which Cornelius was Centurion. This "Augustus' band" seems to have been a "crack" division named after the Emperor, Augustus.

  4. The Barbarous People of Melita.
    In Acts chapter 28, we read of Paul and his companions being shipwrecked on the island of "Melita", where, Luke informs us, "the barbarous people showed us no little kindness". Melita is our modern Malta, and the term "barbarous people" is a technical term of Luke's day. The people of Melita were "barbarous" only in so far as they did not speak the Greek language; so, we are not to imagine Paul and his companions marooned among cannibals, or any such thing. The people of Melita were, of course, pagan in that they did not worship the one True God, and verse 4 of the chapter may be a reference to one of the gods that they did worship - a god of the sea, perhaps. When the "venomous beast" fastened itself upon Paul's arm, "they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet VENGEANCE suffereth not to live". The Greek word for "vengeance" is DIKE and may refer to their god.


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This Page Title – Who Were They?
The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness".
Internet Edition number 47 – placed on line March 2004
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