Acts 17:6

"When they did not find them" Paul and Silas were actually somewhere else. "They began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities" "Someone usually suffers the wrath of. mob like this; and since they did not find Paul and Silas, they pick on Jason and some Christians who happened to be there when the mob arrived" (Reese pp. 614-615). Of course, the word "drag" indicates violence and rough treatment. "City authorities" The Greek term here is politarchs and is. very usual term that occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. For. long time critics of the Bible had accused Luke of inaccuracy here because this term was also unknown in secular sources as well. Yet the existence and accuracy of this term has been confirmed from. number of contemporary Macedonian inscriptions. "From five inscriptions referring to Thessalonica, it appears that. body of five politiarchs ruled the city during the first century A.D." (Stott p. 272). Was usual, Luke is right and the critics are wrong---again. "These men who have upset the world have come here also" The accusation is that Christians are disturbers of the peace and now they have come to this city. More specific accusations will be noted in the next verse. Yet, Christianity is supposed to "upset" the world, because the world is in the grasp of Satan and needs to be made uncomfortable (1 John 5:19).