A Faith That Makes A Difference
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
This familiar account of the conversion of the Philippian jailer begins with Paul and Silas curing the madness of a young woman of the city whose insanity had been used by some unscrupulous men for their own personal gain. There was the belief in those days that insanity was a strangely special gift from the gods, a tool they used to convey their messages to mere mortals; it was based on the idea that since the insane girl had no mind of her own, the gods could put their own divine thoughts out on earth through her.