CHAPTER 15
1. Then some people came down from Yehudah and taught the brothers, “If you are not circumcised according to the ‘custom of Moshe’, you will not attain to be delivered!”
Some people: probably the “men from Yaaqov” to whom Sha’ul referred in Galatians 2:12, in which case it would mean Kefa had been visiting for some time at Antiokhia as well while Sha’ul was there, just before they arrived. In this case, his second visit to the Delegates (9:26ff) must have occurred not long before this, probably just before his first journey into Asia (chapters 13-14), being 14 years after the visit in 9:26ff, which fits with Gal. 1:19. Down: Not just in altitude, but in the spiritual importance of the place. Custom: in the Hebrew translation, it is minhag—a tradition that, if practiced for a long enough time by a particular community, is considered by rabbinic Judaism to be “torah”--binding upon every member. (Nehemia Gordon) Moshe: the Hebrew translation from Aramaic actually says “Torah”, which is what “Moshe” often symbolizes, but this seems to have been a particular manner of circumcising that claimed to stem all the way from Moshe, since circumcision itself was first given as a command not to Moshe but to Avraham. Interestingly enough, Moshe himself was hesitant to circumcise his own sons, probably because it seemed repulsive to his wife. (Ex. 4;24ff) This “custom of Torah” correlates with the “works of the law” doctrine that Sha’ul spoke against. (Rom. 9:32; Gal. 2:16; 3:2-10) Delivered: not “saved” in the Christian sense, but rescued from exile. (See v. 11) In one sense they were absolutely right, because in order to return to the Land and participate in the Kingdom in the fullest sense, they indeed had to be circumcised, because this is a requirement for any who eat of the Passover lamb. (Ex. 12:48)
2. And there arose great confusion; Paulus and Bar-Naba’ had a dispute with them, and the outcome was that Paulus and Bar-Naba’, and others with them, went up to the delegates and elders who were in Yerushalayim on account of this controversy,
Confusion: tumult, noise, disturbance, consternation; Gk., dissension, insurrection, uproar. Dispute: Aramaic, mutual questioning. The book of Galatians was apparently written early in this time, since it does not fit with his attitude as expressed after this (apparently his third) trip to Yerushalayim to visit the Delegates—or theirs toward him. (v. 25) Thus the dispute must thus have lasted for some time. It appears that these men in v. 1 brought with them the epistle of Yaaqov (James), since it is a direct response to the letter of Galatians (a copy of which must also have had sufficient time to have made its way back to Yerushalayim prior to this). Note that it is the emissaries from Yerushalayim, not Paulus and Bar-Naba’, who initiate the plea for a ruling to end the debate.
3. and the congregation escorted and sent them off. And they traveled throughout all of Phoenikia and also among the Shomronites. When they told them about the return of the Gentiles, this brought great joy to all the brothers.
Congregation: Paulus and Bar-Naba’ had been sent out by the same congregation at Antiokhia, but they were not elders there; they needed the authorization of the leadership to go proclaim the message, and could be sent out by their mandate for other reasons, like this one. They had no direct routes in those days; they could not bypass the other established communities, so on their way they brought them up to date on YHWH’s latest move. Return: or repentance. Note the emphasis on coming back to what their ancestors had known; these were not “ordinary” Gentiles!
4. And when they arrived at Yerushalayim, they were received on the hands of the congregation, the delegates, and the elders, and they recounted to them all that Elohim had done with them.
5. But some men from the sect of the P’rushim who had come to the faith stood up and said, “It is up to you to circumcise them and command them to keep the Torah of Moshe!”
They, like Paulus, are not “former P’rushim”, but remain P’rushim still (23:6), though they have opposite views on the subject at hand. Circumcision was being seen not only as a sign of the covenant, but as an overall badge of approval, a status symbol in the arrogant sense rather than merely a part of obedience. (See note on 11:2.)
6. And the delegates and elders convened to consider this matter.
Convened: or concentrated themselves. Consider: literally, to eye.
7. And when there was a great difference of opinion, Shim’on stood up and said to them, “Men of our brothers, you know how since the first days Elohim decided that from my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the glad news and believe [it].
Difference of opinion: or, division. The first days: at least seventeen years prior to this time, and probably significantly more.
8. “And Elohim, who knows hearts, bore witness concerning them when He gave them, just like us, the spirit of being set-apart.
Even though they may not be familiar with every ramification, the Delegates could see evidence from their lives that they had the right motivation. Demons can make people “speak in tongues”; the real evidence that it is a HOLY spirit motivating them is that the Kingdom is their priority.
9. “And He did not distinguish at all between us and them, because He purified their hearts by means of the faith.
10. “So now, why are you putting Elohim to the test by putting a yoke on the necks of the disciples which neither we nor our ancestors nor have been able to bear?
Kefa was following the pattern Yeshua had laid out in Mat. 16:19—that Kefa could bind and loose on earth what was “[already] having been loosed” or bound in Heaven. It began from his mouth (v. 7) after YHWH made it clear that “Gentiles” could come into the Kingdom. And here again, Kefa is only confirming what YHWH has already made unmistakably evident. This yoke is not the Torah! Moshe himself said the Torah was not beyond our ability to keep (Deut. 30:11-14); that is a Christian “straw man” argument. And it is binding on Israel; it is not a question of if it must be obeyed, but the issue here is “how much, when?” Must the lost sheep of the House of Israel who are coming back to a recognition that they are Israel bear the sign of the covenant and be keeping every part of the Torah before they can join the community? Or should they come to an understanding of what they are doing first, and then carry it out? The only Torah teachers that exist at this point are from the House of Yehudah, and the only place the Torah scrolls are available is the synagogue. The only way to properly learn—and live--the Torah is in community. If they must already be observant before they can be permitted inside, they are put in an impossible position. That is the unbearable yoke he is talking about here. He and his ancestors had not had to become observant on their own, without a community to help. Every other context around them was pagan; there was no way to practice Torah there, since it must be carried out with one another. The Northern Kingdom tried to become connected to other nations and yet remain Israel, and the result was that the Torah fell by the wayside. It is as illogical to expect them to remain part of their pagan surroundings and learn to be Israel before they can become a part of us as it would be to expect someone to be able to wield weapons properly and skillfully before he could join the army, when the only place he could ever practice was in the army, since he was denied access to them anywhere else! Yeshua warned of the P’rushim laying a “heavy burden” on men’s shoulders without lifting a finger to help them. (Mat. 23:4) And now even the believing P’rushim are doing this. They expected these believers outside the Land to live as Israelites before they would allow any of them back into the Land.
11. “Rather, by the kindness of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, we have confidence that we, like them, may be rescued.”
The Jews from the Land were also nonetheless under Roman occupation, and not able to have a Torah-based kingdom yet. Though they might be much more adept at rowing the boat, they were still in the “same boat”. We have a hope and a promise of deliverance, but we are not yet in our Land (which is how Scripture defines salvation) and the king is not yet present. We do not yet have a kingdom, so why should we act as though we are already there and they are not?
12. And the whole congregation quieted down and gave ear to Paulus and Bar-Naba’ as they recounted everything that Elohim had done through them—signs and wonders among the Gentiles.
13. And after they had settled down, Yaaqov stood up and said, “Men of our brothers, listen to me!
Yaaqov: the brother of Yeshua.
14. “Shim’on has told you how Elohim has begun to select from the Gentiles a people for His Name.
Though certainly Sha’ul and Bar-Naba’s testimony is taken into account, it is never mentioned; Shim’on’s words are given much more weight, because he is one of their own elders. Sha’ul is “out there on his own”. He is not fully recognized as one of the Delegates, though at times he argues that he should be. (Gal. 1:1; 1 Cor. 9:1-2; 2 Cor. 12:12) He was very valuable to the Kingdom, but because Shim'on was with Yeshua from the beginning, he was considered of higher authority.
15. “And to this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written:
16. “‘“After this I will return and set up the falling sukkah of David and rebuild whatever [part] of it has fallen, and I will establish it…
The hearers would quickly make the connection between the feast of Sukkoth’s emphasis on the nations coming into the Kingdom and the throne of David being re-established through Yeshua. To rebuild the falling sukkah, writes Moshe Koniuchowsky, would entail using the same building materials as before—that is, the twelve tribes of Israel “living in harmony and unity under the new and greater David.”
17. “‘“in order that a remnant of the sons of Adam may [earnestly] seek YHWH along with all the Gentiles upon whom My Name is proclaimed”, declares YHWH, the One who is accomplishing this.’ [Amos 9:11, 12]
This follows the interpretive text of the Greek LXX. The original Hebrew says, “so they may dispossess the remnant of Edom”, but Edom and Adam are very similar, and there is only one letter difference in Hebrew between yiyrshu (they dispossess) and yidr’shu (they earnestly seek), and could easily have been mis-copied in some cases. The Greek text takes it in this direction, possibly to soften the intensity of the Hebrew concept in case less sympathetic foreigners should read it and consider such “unfair” treatment cause for persecution of the Jews.
18. “The things YHWH is doing have been known since ancient times!
19. “Therefore, I say [we should] not trouble those who are returning to YHWH from among the Gentiles.
I say: Gk., It is my ruling/judgment. Don’t the other elders get to share in the ruling? Kefa has been given the keys, yet Yaaqov has the right to rule after listening to those whose input he considers worthy. (See note on v. 22.) Returning: If they were merely Gentiles, they would only be “turning”, but since Yeshua was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, these include the alienated tribes who assimilated with the Gentiles, and lost their identity. But YHWH did not forget who they were. So He sent the envoys after them so He could begin reuniting the two houses of Israel. The Hebrew term used to translate the Aramaic text (shavim) clearly denotes coming back; if “turning” was the intent (as it is ambiguous in Greek), a different Hebrew word (sur as used in verse 20) would have been more appropriate. Yaaqov recognizes that those raised in a pagan context cannot be expected at first to understand everything the Jews have known. Note, though, that he does not say, “Tell them not to worry about it”, for if they are to call themselves Israel, they must act in a way that is recognizable as Israelite:
20. “Rather, we should send them [word] that they must turn from the defilement of what is slaughtered and from [various forms of] fornication and from what is strangled and from the blood.
What is slaughtered: the Greek version has “the defilement of idols”, thus stating the implication more directly. This undoubtedly refers to the meat offered to idols (as per the Greek version of v. 29 and 21:25) which Sha’ul deals with often. (1 Cor. 8:10; 10:19) This has many applications today—Christmas trees, steeples, crosses—anything that in any way has been dedicated to pagan elohim, even if it now has a Christian name. Even the English names of the days and months reflect their names. While we are not fully there until we are speaking purely Hebrew, he wants them to evidence a pattern of removing these things from their lives, for they are incompatible with Israel. Setting such boundaries in our lives will indeed make us uncomfortable since we cannot even speak the language of those around us without awkward circumlocutions. This demands that we become a tighter community while still in exile, for we will need support and reinforcement in all these lifestyle changes. What is strangled: deprived of life without shedding blood. Even a dull knife can strangle the animal on its own blood, and this would not then be kosher. The Greek term was actually used in the broader sense much as treif (torn) is used today to mean anything not killed in a kosher manner not only according to the Torah but even according to Jewish tradition, which in some cases is even stricter. The men in verse 1 have a valid point; some aspects of these former Gentiles’ lifestyle could never be palatable to the Jews, and it is a simple fact that the condition they are in is not acceptable to YHWH; it is not an easy message, for those who have lived this way can no longer do so. The disciples are asked to in this case follow Jewish custom in order to avoid any reason for both groups not to sit together at the same table. This way they will not be doing things that sicken the Jews and might get them expelled from the only place they can learn. The blood: Since non-kosher sacrifice, which in essence means meat without the blood drained at the time of slaughter, has already been listed, “blood” here most likely refers to intercourse during a woman’s time of niddah. They are all purity issues, and all are clearly commanded in Torah; without these one cannot be part of a community that holds them as its standard. Alternately, “blood” may refer to murder (bloodshed), in which case these seem to be derived from the four things YHWH singles out as Israel’s sins in Y’hezq’El (Ezek. 33:25-26) He will tell them clearly, “We will not exclude you because you are not yet fully-observant, but you must take these steps before you can expect us to welcome you.” Such wisdom! He keeps the landmarks in place, without overwhelming them with too many details, knowing that this would suffocate them in the same way that introducing solid food back to a starving man too quickly can kill him, as seen in the liberated concentration camps after World War II; though he certainly needs food, he must be acclimated to it gradually. So Yaaqov simply says, “Stay within these boundaries and you will not have a problem.” He thus does not alienate either side of the argument, yet stays within the boundaries of Torah.
21. “Because look, since generations of antiquity, Moshe has those who proclaim [him] in every city when they read him in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
Do not trouble them: I.e., do not lay on them too heavy a burden all at once. But if they are truly Israel, they are responsible to gradually come back into the fullness of Torah-observance insofar as it is possible outside the Land and with no Temple intact. By attending the synagogues, they would learn the rest little by little, and assimilate each aspect into their lives at a realistic pace by which it could sink in and really become part of them. They would know why they are doing it; it would not just be “jumping through hoops”. But on the other hand, we dare not stop at verse 20, because it is contrary to Torah to have one standard for the Jews and another for the other tribes—or even those who are guests among us. Equal weights and measures must be used for both. (Deut. 25:13-16; Lev. 24:22; Num. 15:16) Note that they had to be in the context where both houses of Israel could meet together to be able to learn properly, and they had to submit to the Sabbath (not decide on their own day of worship), which in essence adds two more requirements to the four in v. 20. These fenceposts define the boundaries, so that they can begin to discipline themselves and see the benefits of walking in Torah; they can “connect the dots” and fill in the gaps between them little by little.
22. Then the delegates and elders, along with the whole congregation, selected men from among them to send to Antiokhia with Paulus and Bar-Naba’: Yehudah who was called Bar-Saba and Shila, men who were leaders from the innermost circle of the brothers.
Why do the leaders not even discuss the matter before doing what Yaaqov suggests? Because by this time Yaaqov has risen to prominence among the believers, probably not because he is so much further along in knowledge, though his own faith has solidified and grown stronger since Yeshua’s meeting with him after the resurrection (Mat. 28:10). But though he came along at the “eleventh hour”, he has great authority because in Yeshua’s absence, being the next eldest brother, he is the one with the right to the throne of David, and those who believed in the restoration of the Kingdom gave him the dignity of this recognition. He receives much less attention in the text than Paulus or Kefa, but his historicity is much better documented outside the Bible (in Josephus and other sources) than any of the other delegates. He is called “Yaaqov the Just” and was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man alive. Paulus and Bar-Naba’ were never authorized by these leaders in particular, or trained by them (who indeed had been trained directly by Yeshua), so they cannot be certain that their message will be exactly the same. Yeshua had shown them how to present Him from the Scriptures. (Luke 24:27) They had the sense that Paulus might not keep the message of Torah in front of the Gentiles as strongly as he should. He was not adequately focusing people on the authority structure by which Israel is to operate, which emanates from Yerushalayim. The king of Israel ruled that all believers follow Yehudah’s standards in this case, so it is incumbent on us today as well. Bar-Saba: apparently the brother of the Yosef mentioned in 1:23. Shila: Gk., Silas, short for Silvanus (forest-dweller).
23. And they wrote a letter by their hands, thus: “The delegates, elders, and brothers to those who are in Antiokhia, Syria, and Kilikia, brothers who are from the Gentiles: Shalom!
24. “We have heard that men from among us have gone out and disturbed you with words and confused your souls by saying that it was upon you to be circumcised and keep the Torah—things we did not order them [to say].
Words: The particular Hebrew word is milim. The root word is malal, which is a homonym with the term for circumcision, so they are undoubtedly making a play on words. Confused your souls: Gk., unsettled your consciences, i.e., making you feel guilty where you cannot be reasonably held at fault due to the position another (in this case, your ancestor who turned from Torah) has put you in. We did not order: The men were “from among them”; what was not authorized was statements like that in verse 1 that added interpretations that went too far too soon. The leaders who sent them to bring a corrective to Paulus’ message did not intend for them to overwhelm his students by saying they had to meet all the standards in an impossibly short time.
25. “On account of this we all weighed [it] out when we were gathered together, then chose men and sent them to you with our beloved Paulus and Bar-Naba’--
Weighed out: pondered, reasoned, balanced—i.e., carefully took all the factors into consideration. Beloved: While Sha’ul is being corrected, the Delegated Envoys make it clear that it is in no way to be taken as hostile, and their position in the eyes of those whom they have taught is supported and validated as far as possible.
26. “men who have handed over their souls for the sake of our Master Yeshua the Messiah--
What an example and standard for us all to reach for!
27. “so we sent with them Yehudah and Shila in order that they could orally articulate to you their consent [to] the words,
Orally: Heb., b’al-peh—the same phraseology used of the “oral torah”, emphasizing that in Hebraic thought, what is spoken verbally reinforces and adds weight to what is merely written. This hints at the possibility that the requirement being promoted in vv. 1-5 included the keeping of the oral torah, not just the written, giving additional meaning to verse 10. In any case, they can “give the sense” by their tone of voice to clarify any ambiguities and elaborate if there are questions about exactly what is meant. They can also vouch for the fact that this letter is not a forgery and confirm that indeed there are no ways to get around the ruling.
28. “because the spirit of being set apart—and we too--were not inclined to put any further burden upon you except these necessary matters:
Necessary: pressing, urgent. Yet Christianity has come so far from the original intent of the delegates that even these most basic of principles seem foreign! Here the House of Yehudah made a reparation for Yeshua’s ancestor, King Shlomoh’s son, who placed too heavy a burden on the other tribes.
29. “that you distance yourselves from what is slaughtered and from blood and from what is strangled and from [various forms of] fornication. And when you guard your souls from these, you will do well. Be firm in our Master!”
What is slaughtered: or “sacrificed” as the term is specially used in a ritual sense. Verse 20, when Yaaqov is explaining what needed to be done, is more explicit: it is “the defilement of what is slaughtered.” But in any context outside of Yerushalayim, anything “sacrificed” would be in the context of idolatry. Firm: set up, stationed, mustered up. I.e., do not let yourselves be swayed by those who would make Yeshua’s yoke seem heavy or who would put Torah out of your reach. (Mat. 11:28-30; Deut. 30:11-14—note the reversal of numbers in these two verses with the same theme!)
30. So those who were sent came to Antiokhia, assembled all the people, and gave them the letter.
31. And when they read it, they were glad and took comfort.
32. And with many words they strengthened the brothers, and the fellowship of Yehudah and Shila confirmed them, being that they indeed were also prophets.
Confirmed: fulfilled the intent expressed in the last sentence of the letter. It confirmed to the young believers that they were not missing any of YHWH’s favor while they were still far from keeping the Torah perfectly, as long as they were taking respectable steps in the “spirit” of that intent—that is, already riding the current that was taking them in that direction. As long as they were headed home, the prodigal’s father would meet them before they reached home.
33. And after they had been there some time, the brothers released them in peace [to go back] to the delegates.
34. Paulus and Bar-Naba’ remained in Antiokhia, teaching and proclaiming the glad news (the word of Elohim) with many others.
35. Then after how many days Paulus said to Bar-Naba’, “Let’s go back and inspect the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of Elohim, and see how they are doing.”
How they are doing: or, what they are accomplishing. Since the elders have held him accountable, he realizes he must go back and make sure those he had established are also being held accountable, and that the elders he put in place over them will teach them these same standards. Yaaqov’s epistle showed how the things Paulus had taught could easily be misconstrued as libertine, though he certainly did not intend them to be taken that way. He wrote to people he had taught, and so did not state the parameters for interpretation in some cases, and Yaaqov’s concerns have proven true. As Kefa said (2 Kefa/Peter 3:16), his words have been wrested (literally, tortured) from their original context.
36. And Bar-Naba’ wanted to take along Yochanan who was called Marqos.
37. But Paulus did not want to take him with them, since he had abandoned them when they were in Pamfulia and did not go on with them.
38. On account of this disagreement, they separated from one another, and Bar-Naba’ took along Marqos, and they embarked by sea and traveled to Cyprus.
Bar-Naba’ was more patient with his nephew, but Sha’ul later expressed acceptance of Marqos. (See additional details on this relationship in 1 Cor. 9:6; 2 Tim. 4:11; Filemon 24.)
39. But Paulus selected Shila for himself, and went out after being entrusted by the hands of the brothers into Elohim’s [kind] mercy,
We would think from verse 33 that Shila was back in Yerushalayim by this time, but to be released does not force one to go; the Greek version adds an explanatory note after v. 33 that Shila thought it worthwhile to stay on in Antiokhia. (Therefore there is one more verse in the Greek version of this chapter than the Aramaic.)
40. and traveled throughout Syria and Kilikia and strengthened the congregations.
CHAPTER 16
1. When they reached the city of Derbi and Lüstra, there was a disciple there whose name was Timotheos, the son of a believing Jewish woman, though his father was Aramean.
Timotheos means “honoring to Elohim”. Aramean: in Greek it says “a Greek”, and this pattern of substitution is common; in both cases it undoubtedly can often simply mean “non-Jewish” without indicating a particular nationality.
2. And all the disciples from Lüstra and Iqanon were bearing witness concerning him.
3. Paulus wanted to take him with him, so he took and circumcised him on account of the Jews who were in the district, because they all knew that his father was Aramean.
Today Jews trace their “Jewishness” through their mothers, possibly based on the pattern seen in Ezra 10:2-3, in which children of foreign wives were considered foreign, probably because the mothers raise the children from the earliest age, and also because of how common rape by foreign conquerors became, in which cases it was difficult to determine who the father was. But this practice began much later than this; there are no matrilineal genealogies in the Renewed Covenant (except one of Yeshua’s, for a different reason). Timotheos’ mother Evnike had raised him in the Scriptures since he was a child (2 Tim. 3:15), yet apparently she was influenced by his father not to circumcise him. Yet we see in Timotheos’ correct choice a tikkun (reparation) for the other “son of an Israelite woman” with a Gentile father (Lev. 24:10-14), who had instead blasphemed YHWH. This verse is often taken to mean that he was only circumcised because he was half-Jewish, and otherwise it would not matter. But this contradicts chapter 15, which stipulates that non-Jewish believers take steps to make them palatable to Jews, so they could remain in an environment where they could learn the rest of the Torah, which includes circumcision. These Jews had to be some of those who believed in Yeshua, because why else would they care if this half-Gentile was circumcised? They were watching Paulus to make sure he was carrying out what he was sent to do. And if he was teaching what was intended to lead others to circumcision, he would not be considered credible if he brought along as a trainee someone who was not mature enough in Torah to even be circumcised yet:
4. And as they passed through the cities, they proclaimed and taught them to observe the orders that the Delegated Envoys and the elders in Yerushalayim had written,
5. and indeed the congregations were established in the faith and growing in number with each day.
Established: or consolidated. I.e., they were all brought to agreement on an important question.
6. Then they went through the regions of Früggia and Galatya [land of the Gauls], but the spirit of being set-apart restrained them from speaking the Word of Elohim in Asiya [“eastern”].
Galatya: the region where he had caused the most confusion by his emphasis on belief before circumcision through his letter to the Galatians, so it was especially important that he take this message there. Asiya: west of Früggia, an area that was nevertheless reached with the Gospel of the Kingdom, even by Paulus himself. The seven congregations in Revelation 2-3 are there. But this was the season for strengthening the existing congregations, as important as it would later be to establish new ones. Even the need of the lost sheep there had to wait until correctives were made to the message. They were thus to be kept set apart from something that was not kingdom priority at the time, as tempting as it was to break new ground. The light from the existing congregations would have to permeate into Asiya. Today we are at a similar stage of correcting mis-teachings before the largest influx of believers realize they are actually Israelite. As we do so, and as we gather into community, we will form a more intense “lighthouse” effect that will be much more potent than a single firefly in isolation.
7. And when they arrived in the region of Müsia [land of beech trees], they wanted to go from there to Bithünia [violent rushing], but the spirit of Yeshua did not allow them.
Now the time apparently had come to enter new territory, for Paulus had not visited this region on his first trip. Why did he “want to” go into Bithünia in particular? Jewish legend says (at least some of) the northern tribes of Israel had crossed over a river called the Sanbatyon, never to be heard from again. Yochanan Hevroni Ben-David has identified the Sanbatyon as the Bosporus Strait (near present-day Istanbul), which connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, and at times flowing back and forth between the two. In the language of that region, san meant “river”, and it is easy linguistically to trace batyon to Bithünia (the region of northern Turkey just south of the Black Sea). Thus the Bosporus would have been called “the river of Bithynia” (alternate spelling). It is the gateway from Asiya Minor into Europe—a natural “jumping-off place” for migration of a large number of them into Europe, according to Dell Griffin. As they assimilated with the nations, the Jews lost track of who they were—and so did they themselves. Bithünia had thus long been a place where the northern tribes of Israel were known to have settled, so naturally Sha’ul would think it logical to look for them there. But apparently by this time most had already moved on. Spirit of Yeshua” Aramaic; the Greek version simply says “the spirit”.
8. So when they left Müsia, they came to the area of Troas.
Troas is on the northwestern coast of Turkey, right where the Bosporus Strait meets the Aegean Sea.
9. And in a vision at night there appeared to Paulus one like a man from Maqedonia standing and begging him as he said, “Come over to Maqedonia and help me!”
Iyov (Job) 33:15-18 links dreams with instruction that keep us from going in the wrong direction. Help me: Greek, help us. Maqedonia is northwest of the Aegean Sea and north of Greece.
10. When Paulus saw this vision, we immediately wanted to leave for Maqedonia, because we discerned that our Master was calling us to tell them the glad news.
We: By this point, Luke has joined Paulus and begins to travel with him, possibly as a medical assistant (as Col. 4:14 identifies him as a physician), and thus much of his account is written from direct experience, with Paulus filling in most of the other details. Luke was with Paulus when he wrote the letter to the Colossians, 2 Timotheos (4:11), and Filemon (1:24).
11. So we embarked from Troas and headed straight for Samothraqeh, and from there the very next day we came to the city of Niapolis,
12. and from there to Filippos, which is the capital of Maqedonia, and it is a colony. And we were in this city on definite days.
13. And on the Sabbath day, we went out to the outside of the city gate to the riverbank, since we had seen a house of prayer there. And when we had sat ourselves down, we spoke with the women who were gathering there.
Sabbath: Greek, the day of the Sabbaths (plural), or weeks, hinting that the “definite” days referred to the counting of the omer, the seven weeks counted from the firstfruits of the barley harvest until Shavuoth. A house of prayer: or simply, a place of prayer. In a pagan city, it was common for Jews to meet outside of town by a river, where it would be easy to carry out ritual washings prior to praying. It would also be safe for men and women to interact there as seen here, since no one who was ritually defiled would be present for that reason. If the synagogue were in the city, they would be defiled again the moment they stepped out of the miqveh. Where are the men? Some sects of Judaism were by this time already segregating men and women, either by location or time of liturgy. But women are also more attuned to spiritual things, and it may be that Paulus and Shila wanted to convince the women, who would catch on more quickly,
14. And one woman, a seller of purple, who was a fearer of Elohim, whose name was Lüdia, from the city of Theatirah—our Master had opened the heart of this one to hear [and respond to] what Paulus was saying.
Purple: either the dye itself or products dyed purple, such as clothing. A fearer of Elohim: a special term for one considering conversion to Judaism and studying toward that end. Such a “Gentile” would be a prime “suspect” of being one of the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Lüdia, or Lydia, means “labor/travail of YHWH” in Hebrew. Theatirah (Thüatira in Greek) means “odor of affliction”. Since she was from there, she may have returned, and it may be that she was the one chosen to take the message back there, as that is one of the towns that had a key congregation by the time Yochanan sent a special message there from Yeshua as recorded in Revelation 2 some forty years later.
15. So she and the children of her household were immersed and begged us, saying, “If you are truly confident that I have trusted in our Master, [then] come, stay as guests in my house!” And she urged us very strongly.
A woman who had this much authority over a house was most likely to have been a widow, unless this particular city had a matriarchal society.
16. Then what took place as we were walking to the place of prayer, a young woman met us who had within her a spirit of divination, and she brought much commercial business to her master by the divination she practiced.
Divination: both the Greek and Hebrew terms are related to a word for a snake, and in Hebrew, hissing in particular. The Greek specifies a python, for Pütho was the region where the oracle of Delfi was located, so it suggests a territorial spirit of that region. This oracle was so consistently accurate that kings would consult her. She even prophesied the birth of Messiah at the right time. Her “logo” was the python, and this has been passed on to “fortune-tellers” to this day. But this connection goes back even further, to the symbol of the cobra on Pharaoh’s headdress. Prophecy was seen as providing control over the unpredictable unknown—and this desire goes all the way back to Eden. YHWH’s command that Moshe pick up his rod (symbol of authority) that had turned into a snake thus symbolized his taking up of a prophetic calling.
17. And she came behind Paulus and us, and she cried out while saying, “These men are the servants of El Most High, and are proclaiming to you the glad news of the path of life!”
El Most High: true, but still she dos not specify his Name; in a Greek context people would assume she was speaking about Zeus. Aside from having taken up the spirit of prophecy without authority and “casting pearls before swine” by giving this message to an audience different from the ones it was intended for, this became downright irritating to Paulus:
18. And she did this for many days, and Paulus became irritated and said to this spirit, “I am placing orders upon you in the name of Yeshua the Messiah, that you leave her!” And in but a moment, it came out.
19. And when her masters saw that their source of trade had left her, they seized Paulus and Shila and dragged them away and brought them to the public square.
This “serpent’s” head was crushed indeed. (Gen. 3:15) Source: literally, hope or expectation. Square: actually circle in Hebrew! In Greek, it is a marketplace.
20. And they had them approach the highest-of-rank and the heads of the city and said, “These men are disturbing our city, because they are Jews,
Highest-of-rank: Greek, magistrates.
21. “and are preaching to us customs that we are prohibited from receiving or practicing since we are Romans!”
Customs: the particular ones commanded in chapter 15: having nothing to do with idols (a prohibition which went against Roman law, which dictated on what days one was to sacrifice to which idol, some of which involved the eating of swine’s flesh) or fornication (often very particularly a part of the ceremony of worshipping pagan deities); circumcision (which offended the Greeks, who considered the human body, especially male, to be perfect in its natural state); and of course, the belief in only one Elohim (since the Romans constantly added to their already-huge pantheon whenever they conquered a new region. But modern Christians are also Romans at root, and they things we teach are also unlawful to them. Keeping the dietary laws? (“That would cramp my freedom in Christ!”) YHWH is one? (But what about the trinity?) Keep the Torah? (“But Christ is the end of the law!”) Not to mention how “politically incorrect” these customs are!
22. And a great mob formed against them. Then the highest-of-rank tore their cloaks and gave orders to whip them.
23. And after they had flogged them extensively, they sent them to the prison-house and gave orders that the prison warden keep a strict watch over them.
Watch: or guard.
24. And when he had received this summons, he brought them in and imprisoned them in the front wing of the “round-house” and shut their feet up in stocks.
Front wing: Greek, inner prison.
25. But in the middle of the night, Paulus and Shila were praying and praising Elohim, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26. Suddenly there was a huge earthquake, and it shook the foundations of the “round-house”, and right away all the doors opened, and everyone’s bonds sprung [releasing them].
27. And when the prison guard woke up and saw that the prison doors were open, he took a dagger and was about to kill himself, because he thought the prisoners had fled.
Was he, like a Samurai warrior, killing himself as a matter of honor for failing his duty? Probably not; he simply wanted to avoid a slow, tortuous death. We know from chapter 12 that it was common to execute a jailer who let his prisoner escape, even if it was not his fault.
28. But Paulus called to him in a loud voice, “Don’t do yourself any harm, because we are all here!”
29. So he kindled a lamp and got up and came trembling, and fell down at Paulus’ and Shila’s feet.
30. Then he took them outside and said to them, “My great ones, what is [it that is] on me to do in order to be rescued?”
Because of the honesty of these prisoners who did not run, he would be spared from being killed by the government with whom he had a contract to guard them. But he was at their mercy now, because he was certain they did not wish to stay in prison, yet surmised that they were innocent.
31. And they told him, “Trust our Master Yeshua the Messiah, and you will be rescued, along with your household.”
There was a way to survive, but it required joining a different kingdom. They were calling him to recognize Israel as his new citizenship, and its King as his new authority, who would somehow enable him to survive. If he is no longer a Roman, the Roman magistrates have no authority over him.
32. And they spoke the word of YHWH to him and to all the sons of his household.
33. And within the hour [that] night he took and washed their wounds, and right away he and all the sons of his household were immersed.
34. And he took them and brought them up to his house, set the table for them, and he and his whole household were rejoicing in the faithfulness of Elohim.
Or, …were joyful as they trusted in Elohim. His house: probably adjacent to, possibly even above, the jail he operated. Jails were not very large in general, so there would not have been a larger number of “other prisoners”.
35. And as the morning brightened up, the highest-of-rank sent bearers of the rods to tell the prison manager, “Set these men free!”
As in Yonah’s case, they probably recognized the earthquake as a sign that they had done the wrong thing in imprisoning these men, for there is no indication that the jailer had informed the authorities. Rods: probably those with which they had flogged them, though the Aramaic says “scepters”.
36. When the prison manager heard, he came in and said this to Paulus: “The highest-of-rank have sent to have you released, so get out now and go in peace!”
37. Paulus told them, “For no crime we were flogged in the sight of the whole world—us! Men who are Roman [citizen]s!—and thrown into prison. And now you are taking us out in secret? No! Only if they come let us out!”
He would not simply let an injustice go unnoticed. Having had no proper triual, they were never officially proven to be in the wrong.
38. So the bearers of the rods went and told the highest-of-rank these words that were spoken to them, and when they heard that they were Roman [citizen]s, they were frightened,
Why would he appeal to his being Roman when he is persuading men that they are truly not Greek, but Israelite? Possibly to discredit Rome’s pride in her justice system, which had failed here. Possibly to provide diplomatic immunity to those he taught who were living here. Many of those who had flogged them were probably not Roman citizens, for one generally had to be born in Rome or purchase citizenship at a high price.
39. and they came to them and begged them to leave and go from the city.
40. And when they left the prison-house, they came to Lüdia, and saw the brothers there, so they encouraged them and departed.
CHAPTER 17
1. And they passed near the cities of Amphipolis [surrounded city] and Apollonia [belonging to the destroyer], and came into Thessaloniki [victory of falsehood], a place where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Thessaloniki is a large, well-known city on the Thermaic Gulf, and was at that time capital of the second division of Maqedonia and the residence of a Roman governor and quaestor. It was founded after the triumph of Maqedonia to celebrate its new position in the world, and it quickly outgrew the older cities around it to become Maqedonia’s principal city. It is at the junction of two major axes of land routes, and remains an important city even today. The fact that the text points out that there was a synagogue here may mean that in this region they were few and far between.
2. And Paulus congregated with them as was his custom, and for three Sabbaths he spoke to them from within the Writings,
As was his custom: If the Sabbath had been supplanted by the first day, as Christians teach, why was Paulus still attending synagogues and keeping the Sabbath? In fact, he was commissioned to teach the Gentiles to do this very thing! (15:21) This was also Yeshua’s custom. (Luke 4:16) How is it that those who claim to follow them both do not do the same? Writings: possibly the Scriptures in their entirety, but possibly the specialized meaning of those other than the Torah and prophets, such as the Psalms, wisdom literature, and historical books.
3. as he explained and showed that the Messiah had been ready to undergo suffering and to rise from the house of the dead, “And he is this Yeshua the Messiah about whom I am proclaiming to you this glad news!”
Explained: or commented on; Aramaic, clarified.
4. And several of them concurred and joined themselves to Paulus and Shila, both eminent ones among the Greeks who feared Elohim and not a few of the well-known women.
5. But the Jews were jealous and gathered to themselves malicious people from the streets of the city, convened a huge mob, and got the city in an uproar. They came and assaulted the house of Yason and were seeking to take them from there to hand them over to the mob.
From the streets: Greek, from the loafers in the marketplace. Got the city in an uproar: or, stormed the city. Hand them over: or, inform against them. Yason: possibly a relative of Paulus. (Rom. 16:21)
6. And when they did not find them there, they dragged away Yason and the brothers who were there, and brought them to the heads of the city while they shouted, “These are the ones who have been disturbing the whole earth, and look! Now they have come here!
Disturbing the whole earth: Greek, turning the whole world upside down.
7. And this Yason has been their host, and they have all risen up in opposition to the commands of Caesar by saying that there is another king—Yeshua!”
Commands: Greek, dogmas. We, too, by proclaiming the coming Kingdom of Yeshua are still going against what is now ruling the world. Having a true king at all even goes against the principles of democracy—which is, incidentally, a Greek concept.
8. And the hair of the heads of the city and all the people stood on end when they heard this.
9. So they took pledges from Yason and also from the brothers, and then they released them.
These local believers posted their bail.
10. And as soon as night came, the brothers sent Paulus and Shila to the city of Bero’ah, and when they arrived there, they congregated in the synagogues of the Jews,
Paulus wrote two (extant) letters back to Thessaloniki out of concern “to conserve his gains from rival teachers and from disillusionment in the face of further agitation.” (E.A. Judge, Professor of History, Macquarie Univ., N,S.W.) Bero’ah: Beroya in Greek, commonly known as Berea. They were still in Maqedonia. The city is situated 50 miles (80 km.) from Thessaloniki, at the foot of Mt. Bermius, near Pella, and was probably founded four to five centuries B.C.E. By this time it was prosperous. Today it is called Verria. It is not to be confused wit the Greek name for the eastern city of Aleppo as in 2 Maccabees 13.
11. because the Jews who were there were more hospitable than the Jews who were in Thessaloniki, and every day they eagerly listened to the word, as they investigated from the Scriptures whether these things were so.
Hospitable: or liberal, free; Greek, noble-minded, of better breeding (from the same root word as “eugenics”). They did not simply react emotionally, as in Thessaloniki, but politely gave his message a fair hearing, and let the facts in Scripture speak for themselves. Investigated: tested, found evidence, clarified, made sure, had it explained. They had access to Torah scrolls in the synagogues where they met.
12. And many of them concurred, and indeed, even some of the Greeks--eminent men and well-known women.
13. And when the Jews—those who were from Thessaloniki—found out that the word of Elohim was being proclaimed on the hands of Paulus in the city of Bero’ah, they came there and did not stop objecting to and disturbing the men.
Objecting to: or contesting.
14. So the brothers sent Paulus to go down to the sea, while Shila and Timotheos were left within the city.
15. And those who accompanied Paulus came with him as far as the city of Athenoi, and when they parted from him, they received from him a letter to Shila and Timotheos [telling them] that they should come to him quickly.
Accompanied: Greek, conducted or arranged for; his administrators—probably those sent along by the Yerushalayim Council (chapter 15) to ensure that he was following instructions, and apparently even setting his itinerary to some extent. Athenoi: Athens, the capital, at the far end of Greece from Bero’ah.
16. And Paulus himself, while he was waiting in Athenoi, became embittered in his spirit as he saw that the city was completely filled with idols.
Embittered: Gk., pained within him. Idols: the Hebrew word means “nothingnesses”, i.e., empty, vain things.
17. So he spoke in the synagogue with the Jews and those who were fearers of Elohim, and in the marketplace all day long with anyone who might be there.
Yeshua had instructed His witnesses not to go in the ways of the Gentiles; possibly those he was targeting in the marketplace were Hellenistic Jews, as they are missing from the list of those he spoke with in the synagogues, as compared to those mentioned earlier in the chapter.
18. Even philosophers from the system of Epicurus and others who were called Stoics, disputed with him. And some of them said, “What does this gatherer of words want?” And others said, “He is heralding foreign [spiritual] powers”, because he had indeed been proclaiming Yeshua and His resurrection to them.
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E): Born on the isle of Samos, he studied under a disciple of Democritus, and adopted the view that the world was the result of random motion and a combination of atomic particles. There was thus no purpose to existence, so they aimed at materialistic gratification, whether gross and sordid or aesthetic and refined, but without any pursuit of higher moral or spiritual interests and mocked the popular pagan myths. (D. Stern) By 306 he had established a school in Athenoi. The goal of his philosophy was peace through serene detachment, disbelief in divine punishment or an afterlife, the limitation of desire, and the joys and consolations of friendship. Later Epicureans became known for extravagant pursuit of pleasure, which is what they are best known for today. (M.H. Cressey, Principal, Westminster College, Cambridge) His best-known disciple was Lucretius. Stoics: The sect derived its name from the Stoa Poikile, a portico here in Athenoi where its founder, Zeno of Citium (335-263 B.C.E.) first taught. His teaching was codified and carried forward by Chrysippus (280-207 B.C.E.), but by this time the philosophy had been modified by elements of Platonism. They “sought salvation in aligning the will with the inherent reason of the universe”, i.e., find the laws of nature and “go with the flow”, not wanting anything to be different than it is, and fulfill one’s role with disinterested recognition that serving one’s fellow man is natural; love or desire would only bring about suffering. (Cressey) They were pantheists who worshipped a blurry “god” into which everything, including the human soul at death, is absorbed, rather than a creator who ruled independently of human ideas. They had a higher moral view than the Epicureans, but regarded austere apathy as superior to passion. They used reason as a guide, but this did not prevent the first two leaders from committing suicide. It is a philosophy very similar to Buddhism; it viewed the Greek “gods” more as symbolic than literal. We could compare them today to those who spend all their time in internet “chat rooms”, discussing the newest fads and insights, but with no permanent improvement because of them. Gatherer of words: or piler-up of words; colloquially, “blabberer”; Greek, chatterer, dilettante, or, literally, “seed-picker”—one who eclectically picked from a variety of sources. This was too hasty a classification.
19. So they took hold of him and brought him to the judgment-hall that was called Areos Pagos, while saying to him, “Can we know what this new teaching that you proclaim is?
Areos Pagos: a rocky height opposite the western end of the Acropolis to the northwest, called Mars’ Hill because, Mars (Ares), having slain Halirrhothius, son of Neptune, for the attempted violation of his daughter Alikippe, was supposedly tried here for the murder before a jury of twelve of the gods. This was where the judges convened who, by appointment of Solon, had jurisdiction of capital offences such as willful murder, arson, poisoning, malicious wounding, and breach of established religious usages. The court itself was called Areopagus because of its location, also "Areum judicium" and "curia". Dating from “legendary” times, the Areos Pagos was the most revered institution in Athenoi, though by this time it was more of a figurehead in terms of actual power. Nonetheless, its prestige remained, and it did have special jurisdiction over matters of morals and religion, which is why Paulus was brought to this forum. Except for homicide cases, the council met by this time at the “royal porch” in the marketplace. (F.F. Bruce, University of Manchester) Pagos is the term from which the word “pagan” (“those who worship on hilltops”) is derived.
20. “Because you are sowing strange words into our ears, and we want to know what they are.”
Strange words: Gk., startling things.
21. (All of the Athenians and the foreigners who came there were interested in nothing but to say and hear something new.)
Were interested in: or, occupied themselves with; Gk., had leisure for or cared about. They wanted only to have their ears tickled with novelties, not to do anything with the ideas they were discussing.
22. So when Paulus stood on the Areos Pagos, he said, “Athenian men, I perceive you as being in every way very much into the worship of demons!
Into the worship of demons: Greek, extravagant in your religiousness. Though he is setting them up for a shocking statement, he begins by flattering them, from their point of view.
23. “However, when I was walking around and looking at one of your temples, I found a one cultic platform on which was written, ‘Belonging to the hidden El’. So therefore, what you stand in awe of without being familiar with, about this I proclaim glad news to you,
Hidden: or, mysterious; Gk., unknown. Now he tantalizes them with a statement bound to hold their attention. The history behind this altar is that it was one of many set up by prophet-philosopher Epimenides of Crete when Solon or Nikias invited him to Athenoi in 596 B.C.E. to purify the city after it was visited by a pestilence for the murder of Cylon. He instructed the men of the city to follow a flock of sheep around and mark the places where they might lie down. They did this in the morning when they were the hungriest, assuming that if any of them lay down then it would be a supernatural sign. Wherever they lay down, an altar was built to an elohim whose name they did not know—one that would accept them as a sacrifice in order to stop the plague. (Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosophers) This was the one remaining altar of many that bore this inscription.
24. “because the El who made the universe and everything that is in it—and He Himself is the Master of the heavens and the earth—He has no dwelling in temples made by [pairs of] hands,
Undoubtedly Paulus gave a broad sweep with his hand, as he was surrounded by such temples on every side.
25. “nor is He served by human hands, nor does He have need of anything, since indeed, He [is the one who] gives every man life and breath.
Narrowing his scope from universal to particular was his way of structuring his message according to forms familiar to the Greek mind, but his conclusions are far from those these philosophers were drawing.
26. “And from one blood He had made the whole world of the sons of Adam, in order that they might inhabit the whole surface of the earth, and by His assignment times were delimited, as well as where the boundaries of the dwelling of the sons of Adam [would be],
27. “so that they might long for and search for Elohim, and from His creations might find Him, because He really is not far from any one of us,
28. “since ‘in Him we live and are motivated and continue to exist’, and also, as some of the wise men who are with you have said, ‘From Him we originated’.
The first quote is from the very Epimenides who had built the altar which he used as his point of departure. He wrote it in a poem addressed to Zeus, whom he proposed was immortal, going against the general opinion in Crete at that time. Paul quotes another part of the same poem in Titus 1:12. Epimenides was one of the founders of Orphism, a philosophy very similar to Hinduism which had a great influence on Greek cultureand later Western mysticism. The second quote is from either Aratus or Cleanthes. (Stern) From Him we originated: Gk., we are His offspring. Paulus’ ability to quote Greek poets so freely did not come from his teacher Gamliel! He evidenced a strong background of study not only in the Torah but also a wide-ranging knowledge of the Greek mind and ability to adapt to their discursive style, having grown up outside Israel. This may be why those who arranged Paulus’ itinerary (see note on v. 15) chose him to be the one to speak to the Athenians, since the more conservative leaders in Yerushalayim did not have this background, but were trained by direct experience with Yeshua and encounters with the Torah. He may have carried his identification with their concepts a little too far, for Epimenides’ ideas bear many resemblances to what Christianity became—a reincarnation of the righteous, evil punished in the nether world, the body as the prison of the soul, a divine child, and a strong emphasis on self-denial. Paulus’ seeming endorsement of Epimenides may have made it too easy for later believers to twist his statements (2 Kefa 3:16) by identifying them with a Greek understanding of similar ideas, for most seminarians today have a much more Hellenistic than Hebraic approach to Scripture.
29. “Therefore, O ‘men who have originated from Elohim’, we are not under obligation to imagine that the deity is comparable to gold or to silver or to stone chiseled by human art or skill!
Gold: The above-mentioned philosophy of Orphism spawned a strong interest in alchemy, in which men tried to turn lesser-quality materials into gold. This was considered a scientific pursuit, and as carried on by the Arabs later, did result in much knowledge about chemistry through their trial and error. Paulus parallels this concept by saying that YHWH is not made from lesser things like stone, no matter how precious, but transcends all of these and men’s minds as well. He made us; we do not create Him!
30. “Behold, Elohim has passed over the times of wandering in error, but at this time he is ordering all the sons of Adam—each one in every place—to repent,
Passed over the times of wandering in error: or, caused the times of ignorance to pass.
31. “because indeed He has fixed a day in which He is preparing to judge the whole earth correctly by the hands of a man that He has appointed, and He will cause all of humanity to turn to trusting Him by raising Him from the house of the dead.”
Departing from his typical appeal to lost sheep of the House of Israel, Paulus on this one occasion preaches a universal message, possibly based on the assumption that the fullness of the Kingdom was just around the corner and so all nations, which would soon be influenced by the Torah and responsible to pay tribute to the King of Israel, should be preparing for the changes that would mean for them. It should be noted that he did not choose this audience of his own free will, but he was apprehended and taken there.
32. But when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, many of them ridiculed, but many of them said, “We will listen to you concerning this at a later time.”
The Epicureans, who believed in no afterlife, would indeed find the resurrection and judgment to be uncomfortable subjects.
33. With that, Paulus went out from among them,
34. and several of them attached themselves to him and had confidence; one of them was Dionüsios, from among the judges of the Arios Pagos, and one woman whose name was Damaris, as well as others along with them.
Despite his unlikely audience, he did succeed in convincing some. Dionüsios is named after the divine child fathered by Zeus when he supplanted Cronus, who formed the universe, according to Greek mythology. Paulus may have caught this judge’s attention when he spoke of YHWH’s impending judgment of the whole world.
CHAPTER 18
1. And after Paulus left Athenoi, he came to Korinthos.
Korinthos is on the western end of the isthmus between Akhaya and the Peloponnesus, some 40 miles (65 km.) west of Athenoi. Much trade was taken across this isthmus rather than around the stormy southern promontories, so Korinthos became a flourishing center of trade, especially in ceramics, as within a few miles there were also two major harbors (Qankre’os on the southeast and Lekhaium one the west). Its name means “satiated”, and it was known for its high level of immorality due to a temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. There is a huge acropolis towering some 1,600 feet above the rest of the city. According to Prof. J.H. Harrop, it had been a Maqedonian then an Akhayan-league city opposed to Rome until in 146 B.C.E., Rome razed it and sold all its inhabitants into slavery; Caesar rebuilt it in 46 B.C.E., and Augustus made it the capital of the new province of Akhaya, which was ruled separately from Maqedonia.
2. And there he met one Jewish man whose name was Aküla, from the region of Pontos, who had recently come from the land of Italia—he and his wife Priskillah, since Caesar Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Roma. So he approached them.
Suetonius (75-160 C.E.) wrote that Claudius expelled the Jews because they “were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus. Stern thinks Suetonius was mispronouncing “Christos” (the Greek word for Messiah or anointed one), thinking this was one of the disputes between Messianic and other Jews such as seen in this very chapter and throughout the book in other cities. This event is dated at 49 C.E., and it is not certain whether there were Messianic believers in Rome yet at that time.
3. Since he was a son of their [same] craft, he stayed with them and worked with them. (By their craft, they were saddle-makers.)
Craft: or art; Greek, trade. Saddle-makers: though this is not the term used in the Scriptures for saddles; others interpret the Aramaic word to mean canvas-makers; the Greek says tent-makers, and some interpret it to mean they made talitoth (prayer shawls). A tent-maker would be an excellent picture, since “living in tents” is figurative in Scripture of being taught in the ways of Shem (that is, the knowledge of YHWH). At a time when most people lived in houses, who would use tents? Those who came up to Yerushalayim for the pilgrim festivals—and shepherds. Since Paulus was training shepherds for the congregations he started, his spiritual ministry would thus strongly parallel his means of livelihood. It is not stated whether or not this couple were believers in Messiah prior to this; Paulus may simply have been looking for a way to earn income, and since they were Jewish, he knew he could eat what they ate with no problem, since he did not allow those he taught to support him financially, at least while in Korinthos. (2 Kor. 10:9) They would have plenty of occasions to talk with them about the Messiah as they worked together.
4. And he would speak in the synagogue on every Sabbath, and would convince Jews and pagans.
Pagans: Heb., servants of elilim (idols or vanities); the Greek text calls them Greeks or possibly Hellenists.
5. And when Shila and Timotheos arrived from Maqedonia, he (Paulus) was hard-pressed with speaking,
Greek, was pressed by the Spirit, earnestly testifying.
6. because of the presence of those Jews who rose up in opposition to him, and they insulted [him] whenever he bore witness that Yeshua was the Messiah. So he shook out his garments and told them, “From now on, I am innocent; I am going to the Gentiles!”
Insulted: or, blasphemed. Shook out his garments: an act Nekhemyah had performed (Nkh. 5:7-13) to show what YHWH would do to those who would not keep their promise to stop charging interest to their fellow Jews, who had been redeemed from slavery to Gentiles. Innocent: or clean. He is no longer attached to those who have heard the truth but will not accept it. The Greek term for “Gentiles” here can also mean “tribes”, which was his actual target audience. Just three years prior to this, the doubled sentence of 780 years of “no mercy” (compare Hos. 1:6; Y’hezq’El/Ezek. 4:9, and Yirmeyahu/Jer. 16:18) had expired, and Yeshua had been preparing his emissaries to go to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat. 15:24 based on Yirmeyaho 50:6). Now Paulus turns his full attention in that direction, having fulfilled his obligation to try to bring the Glad News to Yehudah first. (13:46; Rom. 1:16) The Greek adds the phrase, “Your blood be upon your own heads!”, which is not in the Aramaic. This would remind these learned Jews of Y’hezq’el 33:2-9, but also of 2 Shmu’el 9:16 in which David kills the one who says he has killed King Sha’ul—“YHWH’s Anointed” (the same word as “Messiah”). The very ones who did kill the Messiah called this same judgment down on themselves. (Mat. 27:25) We still do see Paulus going to many synagogues and talking to the Jews after this, so he was saying this mainly to insult them back in hopes of jarring them to action (provoking them to jealousy, Romans 11;11). They were meant to be a light to the Gentiles, but since they seem not to understand what this means, he says he will do it himself. He has shown them the only effective way to do something about all the paganism that surrounds them, so if they lament the fact that it remains, they have no excuse, since they would not listen to the solution. (Compare 28:25-28.)
7. And he left there and entered into the house of a man who was named Titus, who was a fearer of Elohim, and his house was near the synagogue.
Titus: the Greek has Iustus (“the just one”, probably a nickname) Near: Greek, beside. He was not a Jew, and yet possibly wanted to live as close as possible to the place where he had discovered there was truth. He was one of these Gentiles to whom the Jews were meant to be a light. It was common for a “beadle” (care-taker, the only paid employee of a synagogue) to live next door. They may have chosen a non-Jew for this post so that they could ask him to do the work they could not do on the Sabbath. He must have nonetheless learned much in the process. This Titus is mentioned on numerous occasions in Paulus’ second letter back to this city, as apparently (according to Guthrie) he had been acting as Paulus’ representative there during the year prior to its writing. (8:16) It seems anachronistic to identify this man with the Titus mentioned in Gal. 2:1-3, as apparently he was not yet a believer in Yeshua at that time. (Titus was a very common name, including that of the Roman general who sacked the Temple in 70 C.E.) He does appear to be the same man to whom Paulus wrote the epistle that bears this name, in which case he later became a pivotal leader of the believers in Crete.
8. And Krispos, the rabbi of the synagogue, believed in our Master—he and all the sons of his household. And many of the Korinthians listened and believed in Elohim and were immersed.
Paulus’ ploy in v. 6 worked for someone too learned not to admit he was right. Krispos means “curled”—possibly a nickname also, based on his pe’oth. He was one of the very few whom Sha’ul (Paulus) immersed personally. (1 Kor. 1:14)
9. Then the Master said to Paulus in a vision, “Don’t be afraid, but rather speak and do not be silent,
It is ambiguous whether “the Master” refers to YHWH or Yeshua, but it could be the third vision in which Yeshua spoke directly to Paulus.
10. “because I am with you, and not a man can do you harm, and I have a large [group of] people in this city.”
The last thing one would expect anyone to tell Paulus was to keep talking! So there must have been some perceived danger that made him wonder if he should “lay low”. He may have thought that since he had “landed such a big fish”, too much trouble would come to Krispos if he kept speaking, as verse 17 (especially in Greek) suggests that Krispos had quickly been replaced by Sosthenes once he admitted Paulus was right. In any case, this was not the time to lay low, for there were more people who were ready to hear him. But another meaning of this vision is that YHWH already had people positioned in strategic places to keep Paulus from being harmed, as we will see below. Note that He did not say He would work miracles to protect him; rather, he used people with leverage to his advantage. The verse immediately after “YHWH is for me. I will not fear; what can man do to me?” says, “YHWH is on my side through those who help me.” (Psalm 118:6-7)
11. So he stayed one year and six months in Korinthos, and taught them the word of Elohim.
Apparently he no longer taught in the synagogue, but had established a new congregation of those expelled from it because of their belief in Yeshua as Messiah. He gave them a firm foundation by teaching them directly for such a long time.
12. But when Gallion became commissioner of Akhaia, the Jews congregated together on account of Paulus, and made him come before the seat of judgment,
Akhaia: one of the principal sections of Greece, northwest of Athenoi. An inscription at Delphi (also in Akhaia) places the date when Gallion (whose name means “one who lives on milk”) was proconsul between 51 and 53 C.E. He was brother to Jucius Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher. Jerome, in the Chronicle of Eusebius, says that he committed suicide in 65 A.D. Winer thinks he was put to death by Nero. Seat of judgment: Greek, bema, a tribunal, a raised platform often with a throne on it.
13. while they said, “This is one who persuades sons of Adam to be fearers of Elohim without Torah!”
Without Torah: Paulus’ earlier reputation for not insisting that those returning from among the Gentiles did not need to keep the whole Torah yet, though this had since been clarified and remedied elsewhere, apparently had preceded him. The Greek text says “contrary to Torah”; since those who merely heard the Torah read in the synagogues did not have their own copies of the Scriptures to read along, they could not distinguish between what was Scripture and what was commentary interjected between it by the reader, as was commonly done. Oral tradition came to be indistinguishable from what was actually written, and today it has gotten to the point that the Talmud (which is merely interpretive opinion) is considered an integral part of the Torah itself in the minds of many Jews. Therefore they imagined that the ban on the verbalization of YHWH’s name was something Moshe himself had commanded. Since Paulus went against this custom, in their eyes he was contradicting the Torah itself. Paulus had actually consented to the stoning of Stefanos for the very same reason. (See note on 7:57.)
14. But when Paulus sought to open his mouth and speak, Gallion said to the Jews, “O Jews! If only you were bringing accusation about something evil or what was fraudulent or loathsome, I would have accepted you as appropriate.
Greek: according to reason I would endure you. Note that YHWH used the circumstance of his not being able to “get a word in edgewise” to save him from getting into further trouble through words that might anger them even more.
15. “But if the problems are concerning a word or names or about your Torah, you are acquainted [with the distinctions] between them, because I have no desire to be a judge in these affairs.”
Names: probably indicative of the fact that he was using the true Name of YHWH, which angered those who had adopted the custom of not voicing YHWH’s Name at all out of an unhealthy fear of upsetting Him—a tradition learned from Babylon and revived after a respite in which the Maccabees restored its usage but people had carried it too far in the other direction and became careless about discarding documents with His Name written on it. Those who were jealous of Paulus would use any detail they disagreed with to try to discredit him. You are acquainted: Greek, you see to it yourself.
16. And he expelled them from the seat of judgment.
17. When all the servants of idols seized Sosthenes, an elder of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment hall, Gallion was unmoved by such things.
Servants of idols: the Greek text says “the Greeks”. This may have been a separate event to highlight his attitude of aloofness from all religious disputes, or it may be an immediate result of the foregoing dispute. Unmoved by: or ruthless about; Aramaic, neglectful of; Greek, none of this mattered to him I. Howard Marshall says the Greeks took advantage of Gallion’s policy of non-interference as a license to indulge their anti-Semitic sentiments. In any case, both they and Gallion (v. 16) were some of those people YHWH had put in place in this city to protect Paulus (v. 10). YHWH had already hardened men’s hearts to oppose those Jews who refused to listen to that which the Torah had been so clearly demonstrated to be pointing toward.
18. Now after Paulus was there for many days, he blessed the brothers with peace and set sail to travel to Syria by sea, and Priskillah and Aküla came with him after he shaved his head at Qankre’os on account of a vow he had taken.
The only type of vow for which the Torah specifies that the heads is to be shaved (before beginning and when it is fulfilled) is a Nazir’s vow. (Num. 6:2, 18) It may be that Paulus had not cut his hair since he was first sent on this journey. But one must only cut off the hair of his separation in the presence of the priests at the sanctuary when it is standing (Num. 6:18-19), so apparently Paulus had broken his vow. He may have inadvertently touched a dead body, or an enemy may have even maliciously sneaked a grape product into his food (as Amos 2:12 said some had made a practice of doing to Nazirites). Since he had been away from Yerushalayim for two years at the very least and Jews did not normally grow their hair so long for other reasons, it would be obvious to all that he was under a Nazirite vow, and this might have been the only “pot shot” those who were unable to discredit him in any other way felt they could use to trip him up.
19. And when they arrived at Efesos, Paulus entered into the synagogue and spoke with the Jews.
Spoke: Greek, reasoned.
20. And they begged him to stay with them [longer], but he did not consent,
21. as he said, “I must by all means do the coming feast in Yerushalayim, and if Elohim wills, I will come back to you.”
By all means: literally, “on every face”. Compare his eagerness to arrive there again in time for Shavuoth in 20:16. The Mishnah says that the a Nazirite vow undertaken outside the Land of Israel is invalid, so if he had to begin his vow over again (as per ) he would need to get back to Yerushalayim as quickly as he could to do so, and since the command is for every anyone who is able to be there for the three pilgrim festivals, he might as well fulfill both duties at the same time.
22. And he left Aküla and Priskillah in Efesos, and he set sail by sea and came to Caesarea, then went up and greeted the sons of the congregation, then walked to Antiokhia himself.
Caesarea: the closest major port to Yerushalayim. Went up: an idiom for traveling to Yerushalayim in particular. Greeted: literally, asked for the peace—a Hebrew idiom. Thus begins Paulus’ third such “missionary journey” (which continues through 21:16). He may have written his first letter back to Korinthos before he left them behind, since he tells the Korinthian believers in 1 Kor. 16:19 that this couple wished to send their greetings along with his.
23. And after he had been there many days, he left and went around from place to place in the regions of Fruggia and Galatya while strengthening the disciples.
This would be his third visit to that region, possibly again to be sure they were clear about the things he had taught somewhat carelessly the first time, being corrected by the Yerushalayim Council.
24. And one man whose name was Appawllo, a Jew whose origin was from Alexandria and was a capable orator and competent in the Scriptures, came to Efesos.
Alexandria: near the mouth of the Nile River in Egypt, and the chief center of Hellenistic Judaism, where the Jewish intellectual Philo lived, and possibly was still alive at this time. It had its own style of “reform Judaism” which made accommodations to Greek culture, and even had its own temple. (Stern) Some 250 years earlier the Septuagint (LXX) had been translated here. Competent: erudite, skilled.
25. This one was well-taught in the way of the Master and had become enthusiastic in spirit, and he spoke and taught about Yeshua in a full manner, except that he did not know any immersion but Yochanan’s.
Enthusiastic: or fervent; literally, flaming. In a full manner: Greek, accurately. Yochanan had taught repentance because the King was coming soon. Yochanan’s teaching must have gotten as far as Alexandria, at least in some record that found its way to its library, which was the world’s largest. But being away from the Land of Israel, it may have taken time for news that the King had already come and twenty years earlier begun to establish His Kingdom to reach Appawllo either in Alexandria, Efesos, or en route between them. Now immersion was not merely into the preparatory repentance, but into the Kingdom itself. He needed to be taken a step further:
26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, and when Aküla and Priskillah heard him, they brought him into the house and taught him the way of the Master [more] completely.
27. And when he wanted to go to Akhaia, the brothers held him back [until] they wrote to the disciples that they should receive him. So when he went, he helped all the believers very much through the hands of mercy,
28. because he argued forcefully against the Jews in front of the congregation by showing them about Yeshua from the Scriptures—that he is the Messiah.
Showing them: Greek, proving. Forcefully: or firmly; Aramaic, prevailingly. He was such an effective teacher that in some people’s eyes, especially in Korinthos (19:1), he began to rival even Paulus and Kefa. Paulus did not like the insinuation that there were substantial distinctions between their messages (1 Kor. 1:12ff), for their gifts supplemented one another (1 Kor. 3:6), and he later looked to Paulus for direction to some extent (1 Kor. 16:12; Titus 3:13), probably because those who taught him had been directly taught by Paulus.
CHAPTER 19
1. Now during the time Appawllo was in Korinthos, Paulus was going around in the higher districts and came to Efesos and was asking the disciples whom he found there,
Higher: in altitude—that is, mountainous or plateau regions. Efesos: An Anatolian settlement colonized by Ionians around the time of David and Shlomo, it was conquered by Croesus around 560 B.C.E., and he glorified it with great artistry. 16 years later it fell to the Persians and became part of the Kingdom of Pergamum, which Attalus III bequeathed to Roma in 133 B.C.E. It was now the principal city in the Roman province of Asiya on the west coast of what is now Turkey. Situated at the mouth of the Caÿster River between the Coressus Mountains and the sea and at the end of a major land trade route, it was an important export center. It would later become the headquarters of Yochanan the Envoy, and by a generation after his time, the congregation here was still well-known and faithful, according to Ignatius, a contemporary writer. The shoreline has since been silted in and the city is 10 miles from the coast. Its ruins are still plentiful and well-preserved. Paulus fulfilled his promise to try to return after his trip to Yerushalayim. (18:21) The disciples: This time he found some who had already been partially taught, so the bar is raised. He no longer spends much time reasoning with those who have no knowledge, but teaches those who have responded, in great depth. There comes a time when we no longer need to deal with those who have not repented.
2. “Did you receive the spirit of being set-apart after you believed?” They answered and told him, “We hadn’t even heard that there is a spirit of being set-apart!”
They would have certainly had a concept of the spirit of which even David had written. But they did not know the King had already arrived, so how could they have His kingdom as their priority? Today many Jews ask returning Efrayim why we keep the Torah when we don’t “have to”, as they do. This shows that they lack true Hebraic perspective—the spirit of holiness--which is meant to move us closer to the Kingdom.
3. And he said to them, “Then into what were you immersed?” They said, “Into Yochanan’s immersion.”
This shows how far Yochanan’s disciples had carried his message of repentance. But though Yochanan did not leave Yeshua out of his message, this shows that his main emphasis was on the repentance prerequisite to the Kingdom. These people had been taught that they needed to return to the Torah, so they are called “taught ones”. But they have heard very little about what Yeshua accomplished, though they certainly would have heard a little about Him. News traveled much more slowly in these days.
4. Paulus told them, “Yochanan immersed the people with an immersion of repentance, as he said that they should put confidence in this one who was coming after him—that it was Yeshua the Messiah.”
Aküla and Priskillah had just been teaching Appawllo something similar in the same city. (18:25) But he had apparently gone on to Korinthos without teaching others here this same thing. (A prophet is not appreciated in his own city, as Yeshua said.)
5. And when they heard these words, they were immersed into the name of our Master, Yeshua the Messiah.
Into the name: that is, into the reality of everything He represents—His accomplishments, His personality, power, and reputatiuon. (Stern) Note that they responded with no questions asked; Yochanan’s teaching had laid the groundwork well and they were ready to receive the next step.
6. Then Paulus laid his hands on them, and the spirit of being set-apart came over them, and they spoke with different languages and were prophesying.
Different languages: a word play in Hebrew, in which it is pronounced, bilshonoth shonoth, though these are based on two different root words. This was a phenomenon seen at strategic junctures (2:4; 8:17; 9:17; 10:44-48) but by no means on every occasion where people put confidence in Yeshau. They were in a cosmopolitan city where (as in chapter 2) many languages were spoken, and for each to understand the full impact of the message, some had to hear it in their native tongues.
7. Altogether there were twelve men.
Why would Luke tell us this unless there was a significance to the number? It is clearly a reminder of the twelve whom Yeshua taught intensely in the same way, indicating that one person instructing learners with the undercurrent of “imitate me” was a process that was meant to be repeated. The Greek version says “about twelve”, so the number itself, while reminiscent of the twelve tribes of Israel, is not the main point, but the relative smallness of the group is.
8. And Paulus entered the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, and taught intensely about the Kingdom of Elohim.
9. But some people from among them were twisting and arguing and reviling the way of Elohim in front of the assembly of the Gentiles. Then Paulus left and distanced the disciples from them, and every day he spoke with them in the school belonging to a man named Türannos.
School: literally, interpretation-house. In Hebrew it is beyth-midrash, a common title for a private school run by a rabbi—somewhat of a private synagogue where in-depth study could take place in an environment more secure from public annoyance. (Meyer) Türannos means “tyrant” and may have even been a reference to Paulus himself ruling it with an iron grip rather than to another man, though it may be that the owner of the school was a prominent Jew like Yason (17:4-8) and Krispos (18:8), who had responded to the message. In any case, once Paulus saw that many were hardened to the message, he could not stay in a ccontext where he would have to keep fighting them and still get anywhere with his students. (We face the same situation with churches today once they recognize that while we have some things in common, we cannot remain under their authority.) Now his message was not available to those who “had something to say” about it, and possibly not even to inquirers. It was removed from the atmosphere where someone could optionally “take it or leave it” (though no one seemed to respond in a neutral manner!) into one where teaching was by invitation only. Yeshua did the same; He taught crowds but only let his inner circle of 12 ask him what he meant. Yet look at the result:
10. And this stretched on for two years until all who inhabited Asiya, Jews as well as Arameans, had heard the word of YHWH.
An emotional “come one-come all” approach does not work; removing ourselves from old attachments and having those who have proven to be truly committed be grilled even further had a much more effective result. There was not a person in the whole region who was not aware of the issues anymore. During these two years, the Kolossian congregation was established (Kol. 1:6-7; 2:1) and Paulus wrote his extant letters to Korinthos. (1 Kor. 16:8-9)
11. And Elohim accomplished great heroism through the hands of Paulus,
Great heroism: Gk., powerful works, not by mere chance/not common/hitting the mark. As he became less selfish and more focused on what the real task was, he “hit the nail on the head” more often.
12. to the point that they even brought some of the clothes that were on his body—shawls or pieces of cloth—and placed them on the sick, and the diseases departed from them and demons came out as well.
Paulus himself was not touching them; others were taking things that pertained to him, and miracles were occurring. (Compare the account of Kefa in 5:15-16.) This might seem like magic at first, but notice what objects were being used. In the Greek version, t“shawls (not prayer shawls, which did not exist as such at that time) and pieces of cloth” are described as handkerchiefs (as used for wiping off sweat or clearing the nose) and aprons (a covering for half the body such as a workman would use). These are not religious relics or amulets! They are simply things he would use every day on his physical job. They are objects any ordinary man who worked for his food would use. Paulus did not put himself on a pedestal or make money off the “mantle of holiness” like so many other “religious” workers who surrounded him:
13. Jewish people were also going around and adjuring over the demons, running to cause them to swear in the name of our Master Yeshua over those in whom there were defiled spirits, as they said, “We adjure you in the name of Yeshua whom Paulus proclaims!”
Defiled spirits: not just demons, but also unclean attitudes, faulty motivations. Demons as such are rarely mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, and never exorcisms; people were normally credited or blamed for what they did. But Josephus mentions that King Shlomo had learned to expel demons by using herbal roots, and that he composed such incantations for others to use. (Antiquities of the Jews 8:2:5) This may have been a pagan influence from his foreign wives. But many incantations have been found at places which were the centers of rabbinic rule after Yerushayalim was destroyed (Tsippori and Teverya). By this era more focus was being placed on unseen causes, and exorcism is a major theme in the Talmud and medieval Jewish literature. Exorcism was also common in this region, as shown by the fact that a magic formula has been unearthed that bore the name “Ephesia grammata” (Efesian letter). An amulet with Paleo Hebrew (showing it was of Jewish origin) containing an incantation to drive out a demon of sickness was found in Asiya Minor dated to this same time period. Such incantations are forbidden by Torah (Deut. 18:10-12), but some of this found its way into kabbalistic teachings as well. People like the Shim’on of chapter 8 would collect any incantation they saw work, and it was often a source of income for them. And these people were only using Yeshua’s name as one more such magical formula, knowing nothing of who He was, but only having seen it work on the hands of those who, unlike them, had true authority to use it.
14. And there were seven sons of one Jewish man, a high priest named Skeva, who did these things.
High priest: So what were they doing so far from Yerushalayim? During the 107 years from Herodos the Great until the Temple was destroyed (about 16 years after these events), there were 28 men who held the office of high priest in Yerushalayim since, contrary to Torah, the position was held not by the rightful heir to Aharon, but by the highest bidder when Roma put the position up for sale. So this Skeva may have been a former high priest, now using his fame to keep from having to work for his living as Paulus did. The fact that he would buy the priesthood should have been enough to show that he was a charlatan, but now his sons were also itinerant vagabonds who would go from place to place like modern faith healers, capitalizing on the power of a contrived atmosphere and an emotional experience to make people feel cured long enough to get to the next town and leave it before word spread to that town that the people in the previous stop on their tour had gone back to their previous state when the euphoria wore off.
15. But the malicious demon answered them, “Yeshua I am acquainted with, and Paulus I know, but you—who are you?”
Malicious: or bad, harmful. What Paul did brought healing; these men had no life to back up their words. To them it was just a profession or money-making scam.
16. And the man in which the evil spirit was jumped on them and prevailed over them and subdued them, and when they were stripped naked and wounded [with bruises], they fled from that house.
These men were playing with something a little bit too big for them, like those today who assume that whatever they add “in the name of Jesus” to must come to pass. So they left more than humiliated.
17. And this became known to all the Jews and Arameans who were living in Efesos, and [dreadful] awe fell upon them all, and the name of our Master Yeshua the Messiah was magnified.
Magnified: raised up, given great dignity, praised, grew.
18. And many of those who concurred came and recounted [the things of which] they were guilty and confessed what they had done,
19. and even many sorcerers gathered up their books and brought and burned them in the sight of everyone, and they calculated the value, and it surpassed 5 [pieces] of silver [worth] 10,000 [each].
Many sorcerers: Probably those referred to in verse 13. Some estimate the value as about $2 million in today’s currency. The Kingdom of Heaven was obviously worth far more to them than worldly wealth, and another “demon”, Security, was vanquished and a great door opened:
20. So with great power the faith of Elohim took hold firmly and grew.
21. When these things were completed, Paulus set his heart on traversing all of Maqedonia and Akhaya then going to Yerushalayim, and he said, “After I go from here, I would even like to go up and see Roma.”
22. So he sent two of the men who waited on him—Timotheos and Aristos—into Maqedonia, though he [himself] remained in Asiya for some time.
23. At that time there was much rioting over the Way of Elohim.
The firm refusal to compromise with paganism had affected the magic cults and was now affecting the trade in idolatrous cult objects:
24. There was one silversmith there and his name was Dematrios, who made sanctuaries of silver for Artemis and attained great profit for the sons of his guild.
Artemis: the Greek version of the Roman Diana, supposedly a daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo, the moon goddess as well as the mistress and protectress of wildlife. She was considered the “virgin goddess”, averse to marriage because of the pain her mother went through at her own birth. Many silver coins have been found in widespread places bearing the inscription “Diana Ephesia”, and even in later times she was a many-breasted figure (to which Easter eggs can be traced). But earlier there had been an Anatolian fertility goddess to whom this site was sacred, also with the Persian name Artemis, which made it easy for Alexander the Great to dedicate her temple to the Greek goddess with the same name. Such changes in the orientation of a pre-existing deity were rampant as Roman Christianity spread throughout the world.
25. This one gathered all the sons of his guild and those who worked with them, and said to them, “Men, you know that all of our commerce is from this trade.
Transfer the context to how dependent most retailers today are to people feeling obligated to celebrate Christmas, and you will be able to foresee the results when more people turn to the truth. Such religiously-oriented merchandising with civic pride as its excuse nevertheless ultimately has income as its main purpose.
26. “You also hear and see that not only the sons of Efesos, but also the majority of Asiya—all of it--this Paulus has convinced and turned away by saying that none of the things made by the hands of a human being are elim.
27. “And not only will this business be exposed to derision and cease, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be considered as nothing, and even she, the goddess to whom all of Asiya and all the nations bow down, will become a mockery!”
28. And when they heard these words, they will filled with rage and shouted and said, “She is great—Artemis of the Efesians!”
If one wants to sway people, he can do so very easily with a slogan, and they will stand behind an icon which simplifies things in their eyes. Those who promoted Christmas among the weak-minded did not care about the “Christ child” at all, but only the bottom line, yet they turned Santa Claus from an impish creature to a jolly one and even seemed to give the Church’s stamp of approval by connecting it to St. Nicholas, who actually was a very upright, honorable leader. By rolling all thee separate concepts into a single one, they were able to draw income from many unrelated circles. In Hebrew, the very recording of this incident was an insult to those who were being described, because the word for Efesians (efesim), spelled the same way, means “worthless nothings”or “zeros” in Hebrew!
29. And the whole city became agitated and ran together and came into the theater, and they snatched and carried with them Gaios and Arestarkhos, Maqedonian men, sons of Paulus’ escort.
This theatre is at the end of the main market arcade in Efesos and built directly into Mount Pion. Constructed in the Hellenistic period and altered under Roman emperors Claudius and Nero, it had a seating capacity of about 25,000.
30. And Paulus wanted to enter the theater, but the disciples held him back.
31. And the heads of Asiya, since they were his friends, also sent and begged him not to endanger his life to enter the theater.
These “Asiarchs” as they were called in Greek, were officers of the “commune” of greater Asiya, and their primary function was to foster the imperial cult, of which Efesos was called the “temple-warden” just as it was called the guardian of Artemis (v. 35).
32. And the crowds that were in the theater became very agitated and shouted, these one thing and those another. Most of them really did not know for what purpose they were assembled.
How typical of a “lynch mob”, where most just get caught up in the fervor of the moment, without really having a strong opinion to back up their zeal, but go along with those who are most vocal. These leaders were sharp enough to put out the message that would best suit their purpose: “They wantto take Artemis from our great city and make us a godless people!” Compare the accusation that would be leveled against those of us who “want to take away your heritage and the times you spent with your parents around the Christmas tree!”
33. And the crowd of Jews who were there had a Jewish man whose name was Alexandros stand up. And when he rose up, he waved his hand and wanted to say something in response in front of the people.
34. When they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted with one voice for about two hours, “She is great—Artemis of the Efesians!”
There was a large colony of Jews in Efesos and for a long time they enjoyed a privileged position under Roman rule. (Josephus, Antiquities, 14:10:12, 25) But religious freedom is always threatened when people sense that their source of income will be removed if an opposing philosophy becomes too influential. The mere fact that he was a Jew identified him with Paulus in their minds and thus an enemy and a threat.
35. Then the mayor quieted them as he said, “Efesian men, who among the sons of Adam does not know that the city of Efesos is the one that is the priestess of the great Artemis and to the female image that came down from the heavens?
Mayor: Greek, town clerk (grammateus), the leading civil official who was directly responsible to Roma for breaches of the peace due to illicit assemblies such as this, explaining his eagerness to quell the riot. Came down from the heavens: Possibly a meteorite or shrapnel from an astronomical event by which this “daughter of Zeus” was supposedly “born” from an alleged explosion of Zeus’ head. (The Greek term for heaven here is Dios, an alternate form of “Zeus” which we recognize more easily in Spanish and Latin.) The partly-humanlike shape of this “sacred stone” may well be how the idea of her many breasts was founded.
36. “Therefore, since there is no man who can refute this, it is up to us to be quiet and not do something hasty,
37. “because you have brought these men, though they have not even plundered temples or cursed our goddess!
Temples: Artemis’ temple was 2 km. northeast of the city center, where the marketplace, library, theater, baths, stadium, and gymnasiums were located. After it was burned in 356 B.C.E., Alexander the Great rebuilt it. Supported by 100 massive columns, it was the largest building in the Greek world and one of the seven wonders of the world until it was destroyed by the Goths in 263 C.E. After many years of searching, it was uncovered in a marsh by J.T. Wood in 1870. There were two other official temples here, to Serapis and the emperor Domitianus.
38. “But if this Dematrios or the sons of his guild has a quarrel with a man, here is the city commissioner! They are guild-members; let them approach and judge this one with that one.
City commissioner: the Greek has “Proconsul” in the plural form. This could pinpoint the date here very precisely, because normally there was only one proconsul of Asiya, but when Junius Silvanus was poisoned by his subordinates at the time of Nero’s accession (in 54 C.E.), Helius and Celer, they both took over his position in a shared role until his justly-appointed successor arrived.
39. “And if you are searching for something else, be diligent in the place that is appointed for gathering according to the statutes,
40. “because even now we are standing in danger that we will be accused of being those who uncover a disturbance, since indeed we are not able to justify the assembly that we have assembled this day undeservedly and had ourselves an [unruly] riot for no reason!”
Disturbance: or, confusion.
41. And after he said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
YHWH had people in this city as well, to work things out without any need for compromise by Paulus. Apparently the Nikolaitans (who later operated in Efesos according to Revelation 2:6, 15) advocated compromise with the power of paganism when under pressure in situations similar to this one.
CHAPTER 20
1. And after the rioting had quieted down, Paulus summoned the disciples and encouraged them, then kissed them, left, and went to Maqedonia.
Kissed: or, equipped with weapons; Greek, greeted with an embrace. The kiss would be more common in a middle eastern or even Mediterranean setting like this.
2. And after going around and encouraging those [people] with many words, he came into the land of Greece.
3. And he was there for three months. However, [some] Jews were conspiring against him as he was starting out to go to Syria, so he considered going back to Maqedonia.
4. Sopatros (who was from the city of Bero’a), Arestarkhos and Sekundos (who were from Thessaloniki), Gaios (who was from the city of Derbi), and Timotheos (who was from Lüstra) went out with him as far as Asiya.
5. They went on ahead of us and waited for us at Troas.
Us: Luke again includes himself in the entourage.
6. And we departed from Filippos (a Maqedonian city) after [the] days of Unleavened Bread and traveled by sea, and when five days had passed we came [to them] in Troas, where we spent seven days.
This may have been nearly a year after they left Efesos (based on Paulus’ plans expressed in 1 Kor. 16:8, where he said he planned to stay there until Shavuoth—six to seven weeks after the prior feast of Unleavened Bread) This would place the date at 55 C.E.
7. On the first day of the week, the disciples having gathered to break bread, Paulus was speaking to them, since he was getting ready to leave the next day, so he continued the discussion until the middle of the night.
First day of the week: the Greek is ambivalent, as it could also read “the first of the Sabbaths”; Aramaic, On the day of First Sabbath—suggesting the seventh day of the Counting of the Omer (the seven weeks from the firstfruits of the barley harvest until Shavuoth), when we focus on the maturity of the Body through each one’s gift functioning together in unity with the others. (Eph. 4) It is clearly within that time frame, but cannot be the first Sabbath since twelve days are mentioned “after the days of Unleavened Bread”, and the Counting must begin on the day after the Sabbath following Passover (the same day Yeshua rose from the dead); he would have had to arrive on the first day of the counting, which is still within the feast of Unleavened Bread. Heb., on the day one on the Sabbath—that is, the overlapping transition between the Sabbath and the evening that begins the first day of the week, as per Gen. 1:5). That is critical for understanding the next piece of data:
8. (Now there were plenty of fire-torches in the upper chamber where we were assembled.)
Plenty of torches: or the right number of torches, so it is clearly the ceremony of havdallah, which closes and sets the Sabbath apart from the rest of the week. Six candles, representing the uniting of six days to form the seventh, or the completeness (hence, “plenty”), are traditionally used, and this ensemble is called “torches”. Fires may not be lit during the Sabbath itself (Ex. 35:3), so by tradition they are lit as soon as the sun is all the way down. The middle of the night on the first day of the week is what is called “Saturday night”, so this verse cannot be used, as many try, to prove that believers had already started meeting on “Sunday” instead of the Sabbath. The faithfulness of the Delegates to all the other festivals shown in this passage immediately precludes such a thought, which would have been unimaginable to them.
9. And a certain young man named Eutükhos, sitting in the window and listening, was overcome by a deep sleep, since Paul had spoken for a very long time. And, having sunk into the deep sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was dead [when he] was picked up.
Third story: literally, third loft or level. Stern speculates that the smoke from the oily torches was adding to his fatigue, and he sat in the window to get some fresh air.
10. But Paul went down and crouched over him, and, putting his arms all the way around him, said, “Don’t be alarmed, because his life is in him.”
Life: literally, soul. Eliyahu operated in a similar manner when raising the son of the widow of Tzarfath (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha was involved in a similar miracle. (2 Kings 4:34)
11. And, going [back] up, he broke and partook of bread, and extending his conversation until daylight, and at that point he left to go by land.
What he was teaching was clearly crucial, for he takes the whole incident in stride, takes some additional sustenance and gets back to the matter at hand, equipping them with as much truth as possible.
12. And they brought the lad away alive, and rejoiced over him to a great extent!
Rejoiced…to a great extent: Greek, were not moderately encouraged. Another resurrection took place during the Counting of the Omer (as with Yeshua’s, which occurred on the first day, the day of Firstfruits of Barley).
13. But we went down onto a ship and sailed in the direction of Thessos, because we were planning to pick Paulus up there, since that is indeed the order he had placed on us, while he went by land.
It seems Luke is bringing out a parallel with the life of Yeshua in Markos 8, in which, after a miracle, Yeshua entered into a boat and his disciples realize they have only one loaf of bread. Luke may have been one of those sent by the Yerushalayim Council to make sure Paulus’ doctrines remained sound, and since he sees that Paulus is staying on track, he presents him favorably in his report to those who may still be somewhat hesitant to fully accept him. He does this subtly through small anecdotes that mirror events in Yeshua’s life. Thessos: Greek, Asson. It is only about twenty miles south of Troas. The order: Greek, the arrangement.
14. When we had picked him up from Thessos, we took him by ship and came to Mitülini.
Mitülini is on the landward side of the island of Lesbos.
15. And from there we took a ship the next day toward the island of Kiyos, and again on the next day we arrived at Samos, and stayed at Trogülliyon, then the next day we came to Miletos,
16. since Paulus had decided to bypass Efesos, so as not to be delayed there, because he was hurrying to—if possible—do Shavuoth in Yerushalayim.
There: the Greek text adds, “in Asiya”. In ancient times the silt around the harbor at Efesos had to be dredged often, which may be another reason Paulus stopped at Miletus instead of Efesos. Again we see Sha’ul trying hard to get to the feasts that YHWH had commanded whenever possible, even if he was far from the Land and one might think he had a reasonable excuse not to go.
17. But from Miletos he did send to have the elders of the congregation at Efesos come.
He still could not bear to bypass them completely, but chose the most efficient way to have a final visit with them.
18. And when they had come to him, he told the, “You know how from the first day that I entered Asiya, I was with you all the time
19. “as I served Elohim with great affliction and with tears and with tests that came over me through the craftiness of the Jews,
20. “but I did not neglect to proclaim to you anything that would benefit your souls when teaching you in the streets or I houses
21. “as I bore witness to the Jews and the Arameans about the repentance toward Elohim and the confidence in our Master, Yeshua the Messiah.
22. “And now I am obligated by the Spirit and I am going to Yerushalayim, and I have no idea what may befall me therein,
23. “because the spirit of being set-apart bears witness to me in every city and says, ‘Chains and distresses are the plans for you.’
Despite this he kept going in the direction he knew he must. This is clearly part of “taking up his execution stake and following Messiah”, but 9:16 and the simple principle of reaping what one sows suggest that he is still bearing the consequences of his responsibility in the death of Stefanos and others whom he persecuted. His willingness to suffer may in some way be the tikkun (sewing up of what he had torn) for his past actions. An undercurrent of guilt comes through in his letters, and he was very aware of his need to run to Messiah as his city of refuge after having been struck with blindness to reveal how blind he had actually been up to that point. (Compare Numbers 35:23, where mercy is extended to the manslayer who does not notice what he is doing—literally saying, dos not see. Since Paulus had been blind, thinking he was doing the right thing, he is not judged by the “elders” of the city of refuge to be worthy of turning over to the avenger, but must still stay where he is obliged to stay, as we see in v. 22.)
24. “But my life is not important to me at all, in order that I might finish my course, and the service that I received from our Master Yeshua—to bear witness concerning the glad news of the kindness of Elohim.
Part of the glad news is that He has allowed the tribes He once banished to come close to Him again.
25. “Now I perceive that you will not see my face again, all of you among whom I went about and announced to you the Kingdom
Knowing he might have no occasion to influence them again, he makes sure he leaves out nothing important. Pay attention to the kind of things that are most on his heart to leave with them when he has so little time left.
26. “So therefore I bear witness to you this day that I am innocent of of the blood of you all,
He was a watchman who had faithfully fulfilled his duty to warn them of pitfalls, and would do so yet once more on this occasion. (Y’hezq’el 33:1-6)
27. “because I did not hold back from making the whole will of Elohim known to you.
28. “So then guard yourselves and the whole flock in which the spirit of set-apartness has established you as overseers so that you might shepherd the congregation of the Messiah—she that he acquired [by purchasing] with his own blood.
Here the Aramaic text does away with a problem in the Greek text, which substitutes “Theos” (Elohim) for “the Messiah” here, making it appear that Elohim was the one that bled. YHWH allowed the Aramaic text to be spared from this apparent tampering with the text, probably for the purpose of upholding the doctrine of the trinity, for which there was not enough evidence in the original text as it stood first.
29. “For I know that after I go, strong wolves will come in among you that will not have compassion on the flock.
30. “And also from among your own selves men will arise who say perverse things to entice the disciples away to follow after themselves.
Perverse: literally, crooked.
31. “On account of this, be alert and remember that three years, day and night, I did not cease to admonish each of you with tears.
Alert: literally, awake or aroused. In Hebrew there is a homonym that means “enemy”, and this context suggests that there is a connection between the two words. Admonish: combines the ideas of chiding, arguing, proving, rebuking, and warning. Three years: Again Luke subtly brings out a parallel in the life of Yeshua, who taught His disciples for this length of time. Again, in Markos 8, Yeshua’s disciples did not recognize the significance of His warnings about the leaven of the P’rushim and Herodos, so He had to jar them with the reprimand that they had eyes and ears but could not see or hear. Here Paulus reminds his disciples to be alert to the dangers that may not yet be obvious, and take measures to preclude the worst effects from them.
32. “So now I entrust you to Elohim and to the word of His kindness which is able to build you up and provide you with an inheritance along with all the set-apart ones.
Entrust: with the same sense as depositing money in a bank for safe-keeping. An inheritance: an allusion to the place in Israel that our ancestors, the set-apart people, were originally given by the first Y’hoshua.
33. “I did not desire [anyone’s] silver, gold, or clothing,
Jewish tradition says the “sin that crouches at the door” is given power through our desires. Paulus kept this door shut and thereby evaded the evils that come even to many ministers through the love of wealth. (Compare 1 Korinthians 9:1-14) He did not live off the tithes collected from those he was teaching:
34. “and you yourselves know that these hands of mine served for the sake of what I needed and for the sake of those [who are] with me.
35. “I showed you all about how we need to labor and to be concerned for the weak, and to remember the words of our Master Yeshua since He said, ‘Those who give are more favored than those who are the receivers.’”
Favored: or blessed, have more joy. This saying of Yeshua does not appear exactly in this form in any of the other extant historical accounts of His life, so we do not know its context, but as Yochanan wrote, Yeshua did so many things that the world could not contain all the accounts of them if they were written down. So undoubtedly this saying had passed to Paulus through oral tradition, possibly when he was with the Delegated Envoys who had spent three years with Yeshua, or from Luke, who must have collected many more sayings of Yeshua and edited them down to keep his account from being too long. One saying of Yeshua that he did include says nearly the same thing in different terms (Luke 14:12-14; compare Matthew 10:8-10.) As Yeshua told the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to have the fullness of the kingdom (Luke 18:22), Paulus encourages these students who have taken his words to heart better than most to give themselves away to the fullest extent so they can be even more effective.
36. And after saying these things, he got down on his knees and prayed along with all the men who were with him.
37. And they all wept great tears, and they embraced him and kissed him,
38. but they were most sorrowful about the thing he had said, that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him as far as the ship.
CHAPTER 21
1. When we had parted from them, we sailed straight to the isle of Qo, and on the next day we came to Rhodos, and from there to Patara.
Parted: Greek, torn ourselves away. Qo: Greek, Koos.
2. And there we found a ship that was traveling to Phoenikia, so we got onto it and sailed.
3. When we got [within sight of] the island of Cyprus, we bypassed it from the left side and came to Syria and from there we put in at Tzur, because there the ship had to unload its cargo.
4. And when we found disciples there, we remained with them seven days. And every day they told Paulus through the Spirit that he should not go to Yerushalayim.
Compare the paradoxical constraint he felt in 20:22-24. These men received “words of knowledge” (1 Kor. 12:8) through the Spirit as to what would befall him there, but it was their own inference that he should therefore not go there. (Stern) He knew from the beginning that doing YHWH’s will would mean suffering for him personally. (9:16)
5. And after those days, we went out to walk on the road, and they all accompanied us—they and their wives and children—as far as the outside of the city, then got down on their knees on the seashore and prayed.
6. Then each kissed his brother and we got on the ship, while they went back to their homes.
Akko harbor; Mt. Carmel
at left
7. And we set sail from Tzur and arrived at the city of Akko. We greeted the brothers who were there with “Shalom”, and delayed one day with them.
Akko: the modern Hebrew name again, and it is thus in the Aramaic text, but theGreek calls it Ptolemais. This is within the Land of Israel, and is known as the most oriental city in the Land.
8. The next day we left and came into Caesarea, and met with and stayed in the house of Filippos the bearer of glad news, who was one of the seven.
The seven: those described in chapter 6 who were assigned to ensure that the Hellenistic widows were cared for, of whom Stefanos had been another. That he lives in Caesarea and has left Yerushalayim does not mean he has broken rank, because he is still called “one of the seven”. Instead, it shows us that in the years that have passed since he was chosen for this job, he has been able to train others to do what he had been doing. He has earned the trust of the council, and they have assigned him to progress to other cities with the message they know will be accurate, for he has proven faithful in the things on which he “cut his teeth” as a leader. He has proven he could love his neighbor, and he knows how to care for the poor, who were the majority of Yeshua’s audience. He has gained administrative skills for fair distribution. Since he is a Greek-speaker, he is sent to a cosmopolitan city where that would be the common language. Caesarea was the capital of Judea at this time, built by Herodos to showcase his architectural and engineering prowess, as it boasted a fully man-made harbor and aqueduct which can still be seen today.
9. And he had four virgin daughters who were prophesying.
10. And when we had been there many days, a prophet whose name was Khagav came down from Judea
Khagav: Greek, Agavos; seen earlier in 11:28. All the prophecies recorded of him are of negative circumstances. But he was probably the teacher of these four prophetesses, in the tradition of the “schools of the prophets” such as King Sha’uyl knew (1 Shmu’el 10:11; 19:20) and Elisha oversaw (2 Kings 2, 4), coming to ensure that his students were accountable, using their gift appropriately, and not operating unduly in emotion or letting their fleshly inclinations direct them like those we saw in verse 4.
11. and came in to us, and he took up Paulus’ [leather] waist-belt and tied up his own legs and hands, and said, “This is what the spirit of being set-apart is saying: ‘The man who owns this belt will be tied up like this by the Jews in Yerushalayim and they will hand him over to the Gentiles.’
That which girds or supports him is what ends up binding him up. The fact that he is so well-trained in Judaism and Torah as well as being versed in the cultures of neighboring lands is exactly why he wa sbeing hunted.
12. And when we heard these words, we and the people of that place begged him not to go to Yerushalayim.
13. Then Paulus answered and said, “What are you doing? Because you are crying and breaking my heart! I myself am prepared not only to be bound but also to die in Yerushalayim on behalf of the name of our Master, Yeshua the Messiah!”
Compare Yeshua’s response when Kefa tried to dissuade Him from going to Yerushalayim. (Mat. 16:21ff) Again, Luke is drawing parallels with Yeshua to place Sha’ul (Paulus) in a favorable light for those he is reporting back to.
14. And when he would not listen to us, we stopped [our begging] and said, “May the will of our Master be done.”
15. And after those days, we prepared ourselves and went up to Yerushalayim.
16. And several disciples from from Caesarea came with us, and they brought with them a brother—one of the first disciples, whose name was M’nason, and he was from Cyprus, who had received us into his house.
17. And when we arrived at Yerushalayim, the brothers received us with joy.
18. And the next day we went in with Paulus to Yaaqov at a time when all of the elders were with him.
The Greek text makes it appear more like Luke and the others who had arranged Paulus’ itinerary were the ones who had an audience with the elders, and Paulus was only allowed in when accompanied by them.
19. And we greeted them with “Shalom”, and Paulus recounted to them in order all that Elohim had done through the hands of his ministry.
20. And as they heard, they praised Elohim, and told him, “See for yourselves, our brothers, how many tens of thousands [there are] among the Jews who believe, and all of them are zealous for the Torah!
Tens of thousands: Koniuchowsky sees in this an allusion to Deut. 33:17, which says, “[Yosef’s] majesty is like the firstborn of his ox, and his horns are like the horns of a re'em [an extinct wild ox]. With them he shall push the peoples together [from the] edges of the Lnd, and they are the myriads of Efrayim and the thousands of Menashe.” The apostles, recognizing that Paulus’ work is bringing about the return of these “myriads”, counterposes with what YHWH is doing among the “myriads” at home in the land still indwelt by Yehudah, emphasizing that Yeshua was bringing both houses of Israel back to Himself in a parallel way. Stern notes that this count discredits the common non-Messianic Jewish argument that the Jewish believers in Messiah were a “negligible proportion of first-century Jewry”. He cites a census taken by Emperor Claudius in 48 C.E.—fewer than ten years prior to this—which found nearly seven million Jews within the Roman Empire, of which not more than two and a half million lived in the Land of Israel. (Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. “Population”) The maximum population of Yerushalayim at that time is thought to have been 400,000. A minimalist reading of “tens of thousands”, then, would place the believers at 5% of the Jewish population in Yerushalayim. But Magen Broshi, curator of the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book, estimates the city’s population only at 80,000 by the time the Temple was destroyed some 14 or 15 years after this.(Biblical Archaeological Review, 4:2, 1978) In that case, the believers constituted at least 25% of the city! The swollen population for Shavuoth (noted by Josephus) may also account for some of these believers, since this was the time Paulus was aiming to reach the city. (20:16) I.e., they may not have all been from Yerushalayim itself. These Jewish believers both held to Yeshua on one hand and did not let go of the Torah on the other. For seventeen centuries, people have been compelled to fall only into one camp or the other, but now again, praise be to YHWH, it is becoming clear that this is the norm for both Jews and the other tribes of Israel. They did not consider themselves “ex-Jews” like so many believers of Jewish descent today based on misinterpretation of Galatians 3:28. (Would one, based on that verse, also consider himself an “ex-male”?) Zealous: also means “jealous” in Hebrew. This is a bit of a rebuke to Paulus as well, since here in Yerushalayim there is no question but that the believers are keeping the Torah, but the reports they have received about Paulus from correspondents in other cities still sound like the people he has taught are somewhat lawless:
21. “But they have been told about you that you are teaching that all the Jews who are among the Gentiles should turn away from Moshe—that you said they should not circumcise their sons, nor should they walk in the traditions of the Torah!
They have been told: i.e., it was rumored. Circumcising their sons is what made Israelites physically distinct at that time. (Stern) Though Paulus emphasized that those who had not grown up in the context of Israel should know what they were doing before they were circumcised, these people ignored the fact that he himself did perform at least one circumcision. (16:3) But their use of the term “traditions” (practices or customs) is important, for that is wherein lies the problem the council is addressing with Paulus. As long as he is teaching the Torah, why is it a problem if he leaves out the customs added by men? It is because these are what builds a “hedge” around the Torah. The fence itself is not part of Torah, but if it is taken down, it leaves valuable treasures vulnerable to being stolen as they were for the Northern Kingdom. Yes, some were indeed inconsistent with the Torah itself, and Yeshua addressed these; they must indeed be weighed against the actual commandments, but He did not “throw out the baby with the bathwater” as Paulus was appearing to do. He was not obligated to teach any of these customs to the Gentiles, for each tribe or clan or household has a right to determine how to walk out the general commands of the Torah where it is not specific. But once a ruling has been made within that realm of authority, it is binding on those within that community. Yaaqov had chosen a high standard for the believing Jews who were under his authority. As long as the particular practice did not conflict with another Torah command, Yeshua’s Jewish followers were expected to abide by the standards recognized by all Jews. So he wanted to make sure Paulus was not undermining what these believers had been taught previously; otherwise there would be difficulty in keeping order in the Kingdom, which they fully expected to be coming to fruition within their lifetimes. While he could allow the returning Gentiles different ways of living out the Torah, he must not get in the Delegates’ way when teaching Jews. Most of the time, after so many centuries of Yehudah being the only tribe that cared about Torah, their ways are more effective than anything we could do to “reinvent the wheel”. In 1 Kor. 11:2 and 2 Thess. 2:15 (which came after Galatians) we do indeed see Paulus end up reminding the believers to keep the traditions as he had taught them—i.e., in the form in which the Delegated Envoys under Yaaqov had told him he must.
22. “And so, since they have heard that you have come here,
The Greek version adds, “What is it then? In any case, a multitude must come together…” at the beginning of this verse; this is not in the Aramaic text.
23. “do what we tell you: We have four men who have made a vow to purify themselves.
They give him the benefit of the doubt, as they do not really believe the rumors they are hearing about him, but they know that he can be a bit careless in how he states things, leaving the door open for many to misunderstand him (cf. 1 Kefa 3:16) and thus level accusations such as this, so their directive is also not an option for him. When Paulus said, “faith, not works” he was using a Hebraic idiom for “this is the weightier of the two”, but unlike the Hebrew listeners, the Greek mindset would tend to hear this as “the former only and the other not at all”. Yaaqov had to clarify this in his letter, and Yeshua stated the contrast better when He said, “You pay tithe of mint, dill, and cumin, but have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Mat. 23:23)
24. “Take them and go purify [yourself] along with them, and pay the expenses on their behalf in regard to shaving their heads, and show to all men that what they have been told about you is a lie, and you validate and keep the Torah.
Only a Nazirite vow involved the shaving of the head. At that time such a vow was usually taken for one to three months when voluntary, as described in the Mishnah. Purification is how the ending of the vow is described where the regulations for it are given in Number s chapter 6. It may have been difficult for them to pay their own expenses, which could be quite high, as they include the offering of a year-old male lamb and a year-old ewe, a ram, a basket of matzah, and other grain and wine offerings, as well as whatever else one could afford. (Num. 6:13-21). If so, this may be an example of Paulus’ statement in Gal. 2:9-10 that the delegated envoys had asked him to remember the poor as he went out among the Gentiles, and this was the very thing he was eager to do. It may have been out of concern for the poor and their inability at present to perform aspects of the Torah like this one that he tended to underemphasize the need to keep the whole Torah when teaching believers outside the Land. This is also a test to see whether he will object to one of the seemingly-trivial aspects of the Torah and so prove his accusers in some sense right. Instead, he shows all men for all time that he not only kept the Torah, but taught it (compare Mat. 5:19), and that he only objected to the way the P’rushim demanded that he keep the Torah. (Koniuchowsky) He would have to provide 15 animals, which probably cost over an average year’s wages. This would certainly demonstrate that he “meant business”. He had been sent to collect “tz’daqah” (charitable contributions) for those at Yerushalayim (1 Kor. 16:1); now they are telling him to use these to pay these expenses. Such contributions are what has preserved Jewish identity through the ages, preventing the Jewish poor from having to g o outside the community for assistance and thereby putting themselves in danger of feeling obligated to the agendas of whomever might help them. This is one of the “traditions” in verse 21, for apart from caring for the widow and fatherless with specific tithes the Torah only commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves; the custom of using money to do so was one of the methods chosen by the Jewish authorities to walk this commandment out. They recognize that YHWH chose Paulus for a particular mission to non-Jews, but he must also remember who he is, and recognize that what is incumbent on all Jews because of legitimate rulings on how to carry out the Torah is also his responsibility. Show to all men: It again needs to be demonstrated to the Jews today that he “did nothing against the Torah” (25:8), since they have heard the same things to a much stronger degree for centuries. And may they rejoice to have their “prodigal rabbi” back! A lie: Greek, that there is nothing to (these rumors).
25. “And concerning those from the nations who have believed, we wrote that they should guard their souls from what is slaughtered, from the prostitutes, from what is strangled, and from the blood.”
26. Then Paulus took those men on the next day and had them purified, and they came in and walked to the Temple as he had notified them of the fulfillment of the days of purification until the drawing-near [offering] of each of them could be brought near.
27. But when the seventh day arrived, Jews from Asiya saw him in the Temple and had all the people surround him and laid their hands on him,
Had all the people surround them: or, object to them; Greek, stirred up all the crowd.
28. while they cried out and said, “Men, sons of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching against our people in every place, against the Torah, and against this place. And he has even brought Arameans into the Temple and defiled this holy place.”
Arameans: in typical fashion, the Greek text says “Greeks” here. The point is that they did not recognize that these were in fact “former Gentiles” (compare Efesians 2:11; 4:17-22)—an issue that had apparently come up in the very hometown of the man whom Paulus had indeed brought with him (20:5):
29. (Because previously they had seen Trofimos the Efesian with him in the city, and thought he had entered the Temple with Paulus.)
Again, there was no truth to the words they used to incite the people, though they chose the things most likely to anger the crowd. Because of the incident with Antiokhus Epiphanes, commemorated at Hanukkah, the original 500-cubit square on which Shlomo’s Temple complex stood was walled off from the rest of Herod’s complex and signs all along it in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin notified non-Jews that if they trespassed beyond this line, they would be responsible for their own death, which was certain to follow. Some such plaques have been unearthed by archaeologists. This soreg, as the wall was called, is the “middle wall of partition” that Sha’ul/Paulus wrote about in Efesians 2:14—one which was not only contrary to Shlomo’s wish that this Temple be “ahouse of prayer for all peoples” but now barred non-Jewish Israelites as well from returning there. While it served an important purpose for other uses, it now stood in the way of the reunification of the two Kingdoms of Israel.
30. And the whole city became agitated, and all the people assembled themselves and seized Paulus, and dragged him outside the Temple, and immediately the doors were bolted.
Agitated: literally, terrified with their hair standing on end.
31. And when they were earnestly begging the assembly to kill him, the captain of a unit of a thousand heard the whole city in an uproar.
Captain of a unit of a thousand: Greek, chiliarch of the cohort.
32. Right away he fetched a centurion and many soldiers and ran toward them. And when they saw the captain of a thousand and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paulus.
33. Then the captain of a thousand approached him and seized him, and gave orders that they should bind him with two chains, and inquired about him: “Who is he? What has he done?”
34. And people here and there in the crowd shouted [things] out about him, but on account of their shouting, he was not able to understand anything properly, so he ordered that they should lead him to the [army] camp.
Camp: the Greek and Aramaic terms can also mean “barracks” or even headquarters—probably referring to the Fortress of Antonia, which was built immediately against the northern wall of the Temple complex and raised above it so the Roman army could keep an eye on what went on inside, precisely for situations like this one.
35. And when Paulus had reached the stairs, the soldiers carried him [away] on account of the violence of the people,
Carried him away: or, hoisted him up.
36. since many people came after him, and they were shouting and saying, “Away with him!”
37. And when Paulus had approached and entered the camp, he said to the captain of a thousand, “Will you permit me to have a word with you?” And he said to him, “You know Greek?
38. “Aren’t you the Egyptian who before these days incited and brought four thousand men, sons of worthlessness, into the wilderness?”
With his shaved head, he would look like an Egyptian! But this is probably a tongue-in-cheek question. Anywhere else one would think it would take a major criminal to cause such a reaction. How could this little man with no hair or eyebrows cause so much trouble? Sons of worthlessness: or unprofitable sons, Heb., belial—used for scoundrels or villains in modern Hebrew; the Greek uses the term for assassins who carried a short dagger: sicarii, which is probably the basis for Iscariot, the nickname for “Judas”. The reference is to a man who, around 54 C.E. (during the procuratorship of Felix, when robbers had made a habit of entering the Temple during festivals and murdering their enemies there or luring people into the wilderness to see miracles, but were punished by Felix for following the impostors), claimed to be a prophet and advised masses of common people to follow him to the Mount of Olives to watch him knock the walls of Yerushalayim down from a distance. He promised he would make a way for them to enter the city afterwards. Felix sent out a large number of soldiers and horsemen and killed 400 and took another 200 captive, but the Egyptian man escaped and never showed up again. The robbers thereafter stirred up the people against Rome and burned and plundered the villages of those who would not go along with them. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20:8:6) It seems this captain was confusing the Egyptian man with several of the others who had come before him doing similar things.
39. Paulus told him, “I am a Jewish man from Tarsos, which is in Kilikia—a well-known city in which I was born. I beg of you, permit me to speak to the people!”
40. And when he gave him authorization, Paulus stood on the steps and motioned to them with his hand. And when they had quieted down, he addressed them in Hebrew and said to them:
Addressing them in Hebrew was very wise, considering the accusations against him.
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE
Delegated Envoys
INTRODUCTION: This is a sequel to the Gospel of Luke, written by the same author. Reading the history of the course Y’shua’s first followers took immediately after he left should help us recover his agenda as they saw it. Both Greek and Aramaic texts, as well as a back-translation from Aramaic into modern Hebrew, were considered in the process of this translation, with the latter two being given the heavier weight where they differed.
