11 WITNESSING TWO TWO ACTS APOSTLES BY IN THE OF THE into account the provenance of each of the Seven: Beroea and Thessalonica (Macedonia), Derbe (Lycaonia) and the Roman pro- vince of Asia. Other authors consider significant the number of Paul’s companions: “Since in Luke they are only companions, Luke can limit this retinue to the sacred number seven” 18. “ Number ‘seven’ is the number of the fullness of the people who bring their gifts to the Mother-Church” 19. Whatever the ecclesial function of the Seven of Corinth may be, it remains clear that only two of these Seven are once again p r o t a g o n i s t s of the narration that follows. The format of witnessing two by two, then, recurs here again, surprisingly for the fourth time. The first to reappear is Trophimus, who enters the scene when at Jerusalem Paul is accused of defiling the temple by introducing a person uncircumcised into the court of the sacrifices: “The Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, crying out: ‘He has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place’. They had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus with Paul in the city, and they assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple” (21,27-31). The second is Aristarcus who sets sail from Caesarea M a r i t i m a for Rome together with Paul who is in chains: “ Embarking on a ship of Adramyttium that was about to set sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica” (27,1-3). At the end of the book, Trophimus and Aristarcus are certainly minor protagonists, but they possibly reflect the circumstances to which the entire story of Acts moves. Trophimus, as the figure pro- voking the accusations levelled at Paul by the Jews at Jerusalem, serves to remind the reader of the difficult relationship between Paul, his Churches and the Jewish world, while Aristarcus, who embarks together with Paul for Rome, represents for the reader the pauline evangelisation of the Greek-Roman world. It is not inci- HAENCHEN, The Acts of the Apostles, 583. 18 W. SCHMITHALS, Die Apostelgeschichte des Lukas (Zürich 1982) 184: 19 “ ( . . . ) ist Paulus tatsächlich mit sieben Begleitern gefahren, die als solche die ‘ Fülle der Heiden’ (Röm. 11,25) repräsentieren, die von der Jerusalemer Christenheit ‘geistliche Gaben’ empfing und sich dafür mit ‘fleischlichen Gaben ’ bedankt (Röm. 15,25ff)”.