I was trying to learn what I could about the Tyrannus that is mentioned in Acts 19.9. I came across a wonderful quote in Anchor Bible Dictionary that was worthy of a quick post.

Williams (Acts GNC, 495) comments: “Since it is difficult (except in certain bleak moments of parenthood) to think of any parent naming his or her child ‘Tyrant,’ the name must have been a nickname given by the man’s students or tenants.”1

I love my two daughters very much, but I also understand the parenthetical comment. I suppose that crusty scholars really DO have a capacity for humor.

  1. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996, c1992), 6:686. [↩]