Silas
10 CE · Jerusalem
Silas was a leader of the early Jerusalem church and a close co-worker of Paul. Acts calls him one of the 'chief men among the brothers' and a prophet. The Jerusalem church chose him to carry its letter about Gentile believers to Antioch (Acts 15:22-32). When Paul and Barnabas parted ways, Paul chose Silas as his partner for a second journey (Acts 15:40). At Philippi the two were beaten and jailed; Acts says they were Roman citizens (Acts 16:19-40). Silas went on with Paul to Thessalonica and Beroea and later rejoined him at Corinth (Acts 17:1-15; 18:5). Paul's letters name a co-worker 'Silvanus' (1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:19), and scholars commonly identify him with Silas. The name also appears in 1 Peter 5:12, a letter whose authorship is debated. Acts does not mention him after Corinth. Later lists of early disciples give him various roles, but these are late, and nothing reliable is known of his death.
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
Acts introduces Silas as one of the 'chief men among the brothers' in Jerusalem. The church chose him, with Judas Barsabbas, to carry its letter about Gentile believers to Antioch (Acts 15:22-29).
Jerusalem in this era
Under Roman rule Jerusalem was, according to the Gospels, where Jesus was crucified and, in Christian belief, rose from the dead; Acts places Pentecost and the first Christian community, led by the apostles and later by James, there. The Romans destroyed the city in 70 CE.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
Philip the Apostle, Matthias the Apostle, Bartholomew the Apostle, Barnabas, Andrew the Apostle, Paul the Apostle
Across the traditions, in Jerusalem at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Silas’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Silas’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.