Serving God or Serving Self?

Serving God or Serving Self? Commentary by Rebecca Dean Cite Share Show Bible Passage This work was commissioned by Henry VIII in the 1530s, and is the only surviving tapestry from a set of nine designed by Flemish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst. It is roughly twenty feet long and twelve feet high, and uses metal wrapped threads, wool, and silk within the design. The work depicts three scenes from Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, as described in Acts 19 and 20: the laying of hands upon the disciples in Ephesus (top left), the miraculous revival of Eutychus (top right) and the burning of the magic books (centre). The delivery of the Life of St Paul tapestries in 1538–39 coincided with the dissolution of the English monasteries. This entailed the forced sale of religious properties and land, and the destruction of monastic libraries and manuscripts, as well as the execution of non-compliant monks and nuns. The choice of subject matter for these tapestries was likely to have been highly significant. It was perhaps intended to align the events of the English Reformation with the actions of Paul in Ephesus, delivering ‘correct’ Christian teaching and overseeing the destruction of heretical or allegedly irreligious texts. Such destruction is immediately visible within the tapestry, with the smoke from the pile of burning books dominating much of the upper section of the piece and blocking some of the human figures from full view. While the precise nature of these books and their possible magical content is debated by scholars, their monetary value is underlined within the Acts narrative (19:19). The key point, however, is that the people of Ephesus were voluntarily choosing to destroy their own possessions, not forcibly destroying texts belonging to others, a nuance that appears to have been rather overlooked during the Reformation. References Cleland, Elizabeth A. H. 2014. Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art) Keener, Craig S. 2014. Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, vol 3 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic) Shauf, Scott. 2012. ‘Theology as History, History as Theology: Paul in Ephesus in Acts 19’, in Theology as History, History as Theology (Berlin: De Gruyter)