12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
I noticed a curious cultural curveball in this text. I don’t remember reading that Jewish women came to faith in Christ. Notice that Jews are mentioned, and then Greek women and Greek men. It is also important to note that it is usually prominent Greek women who come to faith in Jesus. Perhaps Jewish women are included in the “many of the Jews believed” statement in our text. But the Greek women are mentioned separately. I don’t really know why that is. It has happened several times in the books of Luke and Acts, that women are specifically mentioned. Here in Acts the prominent Greek women are mentioned. Perhaps the changing of a culture starts with the prominent women. Perhaps Greek women had greater ability to be reached by this Jewish man named Paul. Perhaps Paul’s own heritage prevented him from directly addressing Jewish women. I don’t know. We can see this kind of gender difference when dealing with Muslim women in predominantly Muslim countries. Non-family men are not allowed to talk directly to women. From history we know that men and women were separated in the synagogues of that day. There is also some evidence that this practice continued in some of the early churches. But here in our text, Paul has no problem reaching prominent Greek women. Maybe the prominent women were the only ones who had time to listen to this visiting speaker. Maybe the non-prominent women had to do all the tasks of keeping house and tending children and couldn’t take time to listen. I don’t know. I do know that the author made note of it so it must be important.
The Arnold Journey 