70 Rick Strelan mavgoi. And Hananiah is a typical false prophet (Jer 35,1 [LXX]) because he stood in the Temple, but proclaimed falsely the intention of Yahweh. Bar Jesus has been proclaiming the word and will of God in Paphos, but from Luke’s perspective, he has interpreted the ways of God falsely. That is the point of this whole episode. The authoritative prophetic word of God comes to Cyprus, according to Luke, only through Paul and Barnabas, the true prophets (13,1). Only they have been validly commissioned by the holy spirit to announce the word of God (13,2-3). And so the ‘teaching of the Lord’ (13,12) is seen in its full power and authority only when it comes through prophets and teachers validated by the holy spirit (13,9). Without that validation, one is a son of the opponent, the slanderer (diavbolo", 13,10), not a son of Jesus, despite the man’s name. Secondly, while early Christian writers used the term ‘false prophet’ of those outside the Christian pale (presumably in Rev 16,13; 19,20; and 20,10, for example), they also used it quite clearly to refer to someone within the broad Christian tradition. Christian communities were warned to be on their guard against false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing (Matt 7,15; compare also 24,11; 24,24). Both 2 Pet 2,1 and 1 John 4,1 imply that the false teachers and prophets come from within the community. Paul does not refer specifically to false prophets, but he is well aware of false apostles (yeudapovstoloi, 2 Cor 11,13) and false brethren (yeudadevlfoi, 2 Cor 11,26; Gal 2,4), again, obviously internal to the communities concerned. The same is also true of the prophets in Rev 2,2, and of the false teachers of the Pastorals (e.g. 2 Tim 3,6-8). And when the term ‘false prophet’ is used in the Didache, it distinctly refers to those within the Christian communities (11,5-10; 16,3). The only other time Luke himself uses the word ‘false prophet’ is in his Gospel (6,26) where he refers to those prophets who are clearly ‘insiders’ to Israel, not outsiders. In Acts 13,8, the false prophet is said to have withstood (anqistato) Barnabas and Saul. It is precisely that verb that is used in jv 2 Tim 3,8 to describe the opposition of Jannes and Jambres to Moses, and that of the false teachers to the truth of the Pauline tradition. Those men are described as ‘men of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith’, a description not dissimilar to that given by the Lukan Paul of Bar Jesus (13,10). The same verb is used again in 2 Tim 4,15, where Alexander is said to have ‘strongly opposed our message’ (livan ajntevsth toi'" hJmetevroi" lovgoi"), and, as with other false teachers, ‘the Lord will requite him for his deeds’. In other words, the verb ajnqivsthmi is used