Apollo Versus Jesus in Philippi
Author: Stan Guthrie
September 02, 2026
This article continues our series on the founding of the church in Philippi, during Paul’s Second Missionary Journey. This information, I hope, will help prepare us for the Adult Sunday School, beginning on September 13: Discover the Greatest Life You’ll Ever Live: A Journey Through Philippians. Earlier installments will be found in the blog.
When I was a boy—well before I came to know Jesus—I was fascinated by Greek mythology. The classic stories of all-too-human gods such as Zeus, Apollo, and Athena made for fun reading. Perhaps reflecting the inchoate beginnings of my own spiritual search, I remember wondering what it would be like to live in a world where people believed that the Greek myths were true.
Welcome to Philippi.
By the time Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke arrived, this Roman colony on Greek soil had believed in the old gods for at least four hundred years, beginning when Philip of Macedon conquered the city in 356 B.C. And the demons that animated this pagan worldview were not sleeping. Thank God, the Spirit who had called the missionaries to cross the Aegean into Macedonia wasn’t sleeping, either.
Fresh off the spiritual triumph of businesswoman Lydia’s conversion as the first Christian in Europe, Paul and company were returning (perhaps from her house) to the riverside place of prayer. Along the way, Luke says, “we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16).
The Greek translated here as “a spirit of divination” can be rendered as “a spirit of python” (πνευμα πυθωνα). The term reflects Apollo’s famed oracle at Delphi, some 220 miles from Philippi, where the supposed archer god defeated a great snake. As a result, a Pythian spirit was believed to speak through a human medium—often an enslaved girl. Plutarch (a priest at Apollo’s temple at Delphi) and Lucian report that slave girls were used as “Pythones” to pronounce prophecies for a price. They were especially in demand because of the high view of Apollo held by the masses.
The Pythian business of ecstatic prophecies was quite lucrative for the owners. According to Lucian, one named Alexander charged extravagant fees. Plutarch says that the Pythia were hired by magistrates, ambassadors, and the wealthy. Strabo says they could bring in considerable profits for their owners. This would have been necessary, since it cost between 1,500 and 4,000 denarii—five to thirteen years of wages for a laborer—to acquire a Pythian slave with this supposed ability.
Then Luke reports, “She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’ And this she kept doing for many days” (Acts 16:17–18a). As in the earthly ministry of Jesus, Satan’s minions often recognized the spread of the kingdom of God before people did. While what the girl said was true enough—salvation was coming to Philippi—her words were unwelcome. First, they were ambiguous, with “the Most High God” possibly referring to Zeus in the popular mind. Second, Paul and company needed no demonic endorsement, which would only dilute the message and confuse the hearers.
So Paul, “having become greatly annoyed,” finally ended the spiritual harassment. He was not merely irritated by the interruptions but deeply grieved and distressed. This girl was a pawn, both of Satan and her greedy and exploitative masters. She was under their complete control, doing their grim bidding without any hope of deliverance. This kind of slavery had gone on, unchallenged, for centuries. Such darkness, not a fun film romp through Homer’s Odyssey, is what a society under the grip of demonic, pagan religion looked like.
Then Paul spoke a word to the demon far more powerful than anything a “python spirit” could conjure: “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (Acts 16:18b). Luke, the physician, reports the miraculous result: “And it came out that very hour” (18c). Other English translations render it “instantly,” “at that moment,” or “at once.” The demon was gone. The Pythian spirit was vanquished. Apollo—the god of the sun and light, prophecy and protection, music and poetry, healing and plague—was humiliated. The girl was delivered. Jesus Christ was exalted.
Once the girl’s owners discovered their financial gravy train had crashed (19), I suspect they would have abandoned her. Why pay for her cost of upkeep? Luke doesn’t tell us—nor does church history—the newly freed girl’s name, nor whether she joined the small but growing church in Philippi. Tradition says that many who were delivered of occult involvement in the early centuries of Christianity became believers.
I suspect that this slave girl did, too. So did many in Philippi, who saw the difference between pagan mysticism and the awesome power of God. May we, who face similar (but perhaps more hidden) spiritual opposition in our day, avail ourselves of that same power to the glory of the one true God.
Next week: Freedom Comes to a Jailer.
Stan Guthrie is Director of Outreach and Mobilization for New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois.
Image: The Temple of Apollo at Delphi, athensbylocals.com.
BACK