Chapter
1
First Stage of
the Apostolic Church
The
early Church of God that was founded in Jerusalem in Acts
chapter 2 was in the beginning made up of strictly Torah observant
Messianic Jews, numbering upwards past 3,000 the very first
day of its birth at Pentecost (some say 31AD, some say 32AD). They held many of the same beliefs and religious
worship practices of the Jews in Judea-weekly Sabbath, annual
Sabbaths [Holy Days commanded in Leviticus 23], Jewish dietary
laws [again commanded in the OT Torah, in Leviticus 11]-and
all this was coupled to proclaiming the resurrection of the
dead. In these early
times, as well as the times during the apostle Paul's gospel
missions, their customs of worship provided a vital link between
them and the Jewish population of the land, or the synagogues
they visited and preached in throughout the Diaspora (Middle
East and Asia Minor). They
appeared to be just another sect of the Jews to the Romans,
and even the Jews themselves up to the time of the conversion
of Cornelius. This view of them just being another sect of
the Jews actually brought early Christians protection under
the religio licita or legal religion status
of Rome. Upwards past
50AD the members of the Jerusalem Church of God continued
to ritualistically circumcise their male children on the 8th
day, in order to protect the Church from undo persecution
from the Jews. Acts
21:17-26 shows that Paul was indeed teaching Jews (Jewish
believers, Judeo-Christians) in the Hellenistic Diaspora that
ritual circumcision wasn't necessary anymore.
But the continued observance of seventh day Sabbath
[Saturday] and Holy Day observance [Leviticus 23] by Judeo-Christians,
both in Judea and the Hellenistic Diaspora is clearly shown
in the literature of the Greco-Roman church (i.e. Nicene,
Post, and Anti-Nicene Fathers).
In 35AD, Acts 10:14 through 11:8 clearly shows the
apostle Peter, and thus the whole Church of God in Jerusalem,
following the dietary laws of Leviticus 11.
They kept the Sabbath (4th Commandment of
Exodus 20), and the Holy Days of Leviticus 23 as well. During the next 40 years the Church grew rapidly
under the apostles. When
God caused Peter and the Church to understand that uncircumcised
Gentiles were eligible for salvation as well, this very act
in itself drove a huge wedge between Judaism and the early
Church of God (around 35AD, Acts 10:1-11 and Acts 11:19-21).
The Pharisees and the Jews, all somewhat Hellenized
now, had nothing against seeing Gentiles converted to Judaism.
But to admit uncircumcised, ritualistically "unclean"
Gentiles into the early Church (which was still regarded as
a sect of Judaism even by the Jews) served only to increase
the divide between orthodox and Pharisaic Jews and the early
Church of God, and later the Judeo-Christians in Asia Minor.
As time went on (50AD) the early Church of God came
to understand that animal sacrifices were no longer necessary
because Jesus had been the ultimate sacrifice for sin, the
sins of the whole world. Hebrews
10:1-10, shows this, and Hebrews 8:6-13 shows the Old Covenant
had ended for believers with the death of Jesus. Halley says, "It is more likely that it [Hebrews]
must have been written [by Paul] from Rome, A.D. 61-63." For some reason beyond me (I'm not a theologian)
the Old Testament law of God in the Torah is equated as one
and the same as the Old Covenant.
So the passing of the Old Covenant with the death of
Jesus would have included all the Mosaic laws in the Torah.
Instead, in the New Testament, we find believers commanded
to keep the 'Law of Christ', which basically is a command
to observe 9 out of the 10 Commandments, brought to their
lofty spiritual intent, as Matthew 5:17-48 shows. Others interpret the new covenant differently,
using the Biblically simplistic definition of it in Hebrews
8:6-13 and Jeremiah 31:31-34, that simply, in the new covenant,
God promises to write his laws in the believers' heart and
mind, no mention of which "set of laws, Old Testament or New",
and that the choice of which the believer wished to have God
write was up to the believer.
I personally am not sure which definition of the new
covenant is more accurate, but I tend to lean to the simple
Bible definition of it, which also seems to fit Romans 14.
But under the law of Christ, choice of "days of worship",
dietary laws, etc. was an optional matter for the believer.
As history will bear out, the early Church of God and
the Judeo-Christians of Asia Minor chose to continue to observe
seventh day Sabbath and the Holy Days of Leviticus 23. Now, naturally in the land of Judea, this choice
would be easy, to avoid persecution from the Jews, as we shall
see. But it would not account for the strong Judeo-Christian
observance of these days of worship up through the 300s AD
in Asia Minor. The
Jerusalem Church of God and those living in Judea continued
to circumcise their male children so as to not fall under
greater persecution from the Jews than they already were under. Paul, as Acts 21:17-26 shows, was teaching the
Hellenistic Judeo-Christians in the Diaspora that ritualistic
circumcision was no longer necessary.
Ritual or physical circumcision was merely a physical
symbol for what the Holy Spirit does in believers' hearts.
It even mentions this in the Old Testament.
For an in-depth picture of the early Church of God
in Jerusalem which faithfully follows the book of Acts, read
chapters 7 & 8, pp. 148-178 of Oskar Skarsaune's In the Shadow of the Temple.
Evangelism of Paul,
Let’s Take Another Look
Laying of the foundation: First
some background information. Due
to the radical Maccabee conquests and the tone they set,
of self-confidence—Judaism took on an aggressive form
of becoming evangelistic. They understood many of the Messianic
prophecies (2nd coming of Jesus for us), and they
saw Judaism as the soon-to-be central religion of the world. And
that’s not going to be too far from the truth when
Jesus returns (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/mkg1.htm ). Jewish
evangelism brought a few outright proselytes (Gentiles that
actually fully converted to Judaism), but attracted another
group called by the Jews “God-fearers”. These were Gentiles that accepted the
One True God of Israel over the multiple gods of the pagans. They attended the synagogues throughout
the Diaspora. At
this time I am unsure what percentage they made up in the
average synagogue population, but my guess would be that
it wouldn’t have been over 10 percent. Jews
had synagogues all over Asia Minor, especially along the
coast, and a good number in Greece, and in the area of Babylon
and Syria. You see, during the Babylonian captivity
the Jews were forced to create a temple-less Judaism, and
they did this by creating the synagogue, which kind of duplicated
two of the three main functions of the temple service, that
being a house of prayer and study of God’s Word, the
Torah. Obviously,
sacrifices were out, since God’s Law specified they
been done in a prescribed manner in the Temple, by the Levitical
Priesthood. How did the Diaspora Jews maintain their Jewish
identity as they spread and assimilated into the various
cultures? Most races when they migrate end up “melting”
into the indigenous population. The
answer lies within the Babylonian captivity. When
the Jews were deported to Babylon their temple had been destroyed
by Nebuchadnezzar. They
had to worship without a temple, without a Levitical Priesthood,
without sacrifices and Passover lamb. In
short, they had to develop a temple-less Judaism that maintained
their ability to live and worship as Jews, worshipping God
without a temple, and all that went with it. Also, even if the temple were still intact,
they were stuck in Babylon, captives. But
after the Diaspora from the Babylonian captivity onward,
synagogues spread throughout the region of Mesopotamia (around
Babylon), Asia Minor, Greece, and even in Rome. Only
after a while were synagogues built away from Jerusalem,
but in Galilee and areas of Judea far from Jerusalem. Finally
some were created in Jerusalem, but in no way did they supplant
second Temple worship and the religious system
set up around it. But prior to the destruction of the second
Temple in 70AD Judaism already had the system of worship
in place that would allow a Temple-less Jewish worship to
take place, allowing them to maintain their religion throughout
the world. And
don’t forget, aggressive Jewish evangelism during the
Maccabean period had perhaps added at least an estimated
10 percent of Gentile “God-fearers” to their
synagogue populations. As
Oskar Skarsaune says
“the synagogue originated as an answer to the needs of Jews who had no
access to the temple. It is therefore
no wonder that after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, the synagogue
emerged as the institution that could house a temple-less Judaism. It had done so for some time already…” [In The Shadow Of The Temple, p.79, par.
3] He goes on to say “The Jews of the Diaspora have been
called
“the forerunners of Paul.” The
idea is that the mission of the church was prepared for by the evangelistic
efforts of Diaspora Jews.” [ibid. p.79, par. 4] Paul going to out
to the Gentiles after his encounter with Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road
would not seem un-Jewish in the light of all the Jewish evangelism going out
to the known world during this Maccabean era. During the period of early Christianity
Jews were settled in two geographic locations, totally different from each
other. One was Israel, the other
the Diaspora. During the Babylonian
exile many of the Jews settled into Babylon and its environs and became wealthy. After the captivity ended a good many
remained, thriving and multiplying. Another
highly populated area of the Diaspora was Alexandria. Jews fleeing the invading Babylonians
moved south into Egypt, which under the Ptolemies was friendly to them. This group also prospered and multiplied
as well. The Hellenist period saw
many, many Jews settling in areas outside of the land of Israel. At the time of Christ Jews were settled
in large and small cities from the Persian Gulf, all around the Mediterranean
as far as Spain and Morocco. The
Roman historian Strabo (writing during the time of Augustus) wrote: “This
people has already made its way to every city, and it is not easy to find any
place in the habitable world which has not received this nation and in which
it has not made its power felt.” [Josephus, Antiquities, 14.115] The two Diaspora’s in Babylon and
Alexandria were merely the beginning. From
there, all on their own, the Jewish people spread all over the world—as
Strabo observed—into every community—large and small—around
the Mediterranean. And within those communities, they formed
their own communities, with their own synagogues. Asia Minor had many along the coast of
the Mediterranean as well as the coast of the Black Sea going inland into north-central
Asia Minor [modern Turkey now].
Paul’s evangelism targets the Jewish synagogues in the Roman Empire
Three points:
1. The main focus of Paul’s evangelism
took place in all the synagogues across Asia Minor and Greece. He only reached directly out to Gentiles
in Athens, when they approached him. Within
the synagogue service, any Jew (which Paul was) had the right
to stand up and preach and expound on the Word of God (which
back then was the Old Testament). Paul
had a perfect opportunity to witness to the Jews, using the
Old Testament prophecies he was very well acquainted with,
to prove the Messiahship of Jesus Christ.
2. The majority
of those attending Jewish synagogues were Jews, ethnically,
racially. A smaller percentage were “God-fearers” (my
guess, no more than 10 percent). Maybe
one percent were actual proselytes, full Gentile converts
to Judaism.
3. So it stands to reason that most of Paul’s
converts were Jewish, not Gentile. If God is no respecter
of persons, and God say used Paul’s powerful preaching
to draw 10 people in a synagogue of 100 to belief in Jesus,
9 would be Jewish, and 1 a “God-fearer Gentile”. Don’t forget, Paul’s evangelistic
preaching was so powerful that he was kicked out of many,
if not all the synagogues. But before that occurred, he may
have actually been emptying out the synagogues. And
realize, with no phones, no internet or email, when kicked
out of one, in one city, he could travel to the next city
before word got out, and preach there. There is a pattern here that we
will explore more thoroughly later.
Now
let me quote from Oskar Skarsaune’s In
the Shadow of the Temple. “…let
us visualize a typical Diaspora synagogue, as we meet it,
for example, in Acts 13:14-48. It
would have a dual attendance. First,
of course, were the loyal and observant Jews, coming each
Sabbath to hear the Word of God and to say their prayers. They
would have built or equipped the synagogue at their own expense,
and were naturally very devoted to it. Their
hope was that many outsiders might be attracted to the synagogue
and eventually convert to Judaism.
This
hope was embodied in the other group attending the synagogue:
Gentiles who had become convinced [through Jewish evangelism]
that the God of the Bible was the only true God. They
tried to fulfil his ethical precepts; they had a certain
familiarity with the Bible; and many of them were contemplating
full conversion to Judaism, though few actually took the
step. In the
New Testament and other ancient sources they are called the “God-fearers.” These groups of Gentile God-fearers, attached
to almost every Diaspora synagogue, are essential to our
understanding of the mission and expansion of the early church. When
the gospel message was first addressed to Gentiles, it was
addressed primarily to these groups, and among them it found
a wide hearing. This
would lead us to expect that the geographical spread of Christianity
would follow a route populated by Diaspora synagogues. As
we know, the Book of Acts testifies that this was true.” [ibid.
p. 82, par. 2-3]
On
pages 80 and 81 of his book he has two maps. One
is of the Jewish population and community centers in the
Roman Empire. The
other is the same projection for Christian churches up through
300 AD. If you
were to mentally overlay the two maps, you would see a heavy
concentration of early Christian churches in the same or
similar areas of Jewish population and community centers. But
since the second map goes to 300 AD it shows a massive spread
of early Christian churches. He
states “As you will observe, the Jewish colonies (and
synagogues) are not evenly distributed over the area; there
are some heavily populated regions, especially in Asia
Minor. You will notice clusters of Jewish
settlements around Alexandria and Rome, and
a strong Jewish presence in Syria and Greece. Now turn
to figure 3.2 [second map, p. 81], which shows the presence
of Christian communities ca. A.D. 100-300. One
is struck by the almost complete overlap; the two maps exhibit
essentially the same pattern. This tells us Paul’s practice was
not peculiar to him.” [ibid. p. 83, par. 1] What
Mr. Skarsaune is getting at, is that Paul was following a
pattern of Jewish evangelism, but was using it in and
on the Jewish synagogues. My contention is that the ratio of
“God-fearer” to actual Jews was not as high as Christian scholars
would like to make it out to be. How
many people in a pagan society, laced with pagan sexual practices that mirror
the immorality of this world—“Party on, dude”—are actually
going to be attracted to the God of Israel and the Jewish synagogue? Come
on now, be realistic. Why was Paul
kicked out of so many synagogues? He
was
“stealing” their stalwart members, and some of their “God-fearer” members
as well. That angered them to no
end. Another thing to consider which supports
this conclusion I’m drawing, Acts 24:5 shows a powerful Jewish reaction
to Paul’s evangelism in the Diaspora. The
Jewish leaders would not have been so stirred up against Paul if his evangelism
outside of Israel was mainly going to Gentiles, drawing them to Jesus Christ. But the wording of Acts 24:5 shows this
was a response to someone whose evangelism was threatening the very synagogue
system in the Diaspora. “For
we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among
all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the
Nazarenes…” Paul was preaching in all the synagogues
he could get to throughout Asia Minor, Greece and the coast of the Mediterranean
leading up to Asia Minor. Some
of the major congregations he founded were in Galatia, Ephesus (later the headquarters
of the apostle John), Philippi, Colossi and Thessalonica, all in Asia Minor
and Greece. Also the seven churches
in Revelation 2-3 were probably founded by Paul--Ephesus (already mentioned),
Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodocia). One of these is mentioned as being almost
entirely Gentile (Galatia), but the others probably didn’t have more
than a small number of Gentile “God-fearers”, the rest being ethnic
Jews. What else would explain the wrath of the
Jewish leaders, bringing a famous Jewish lawyer against Paul before Felix the
Roman governor? The synagogues
throughout Asia Minor felt the evangelistic presence of the apostle Paul, reared
and trained in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, and a student under
Gamaliel. (Some thought Saul may have been in the
process of being groomed to be high priest.)
Bible
scholar-critics have all fallen under the paradigm of believing
and then teaching that the Jerusalem church and community
of believers soon lost its significance and the church very
quickly turned into “a Gentile Christian church”.
Mr. Skarsaune says this, “The argument continues over
whether the early Jerusalem community of believers in Jesus
soon lost its significance, and whether the New Testament
writings reflect the beliefs of Hellenized Christians who
had only minimal contact with Jerusalem and the first believers.” That is a long-standing fallacy which
is now crumbling under the weight of evidence to the contrary. He goes on to say “In order to support
this theory, the Book of Acts has to be dismissed as a mostly
unhistorical record, and this was done by many New Testament
scholars of the past.” This is the trouble with Bible “scholars” who
spend their lives trying discredit or tear down parts of
the Bible that don’t fit the way they perceive Christianity
as having been. Oskar Skarsaune says about that, “But
in recent years the historical credibility of Acts has been
re-evaluated, and for good reasons.” [He
cites: C.K. Barret, Luke the Historian in Recent Study (London:
Epworth, 1961); Ian Howard Marshall, Luke:
Historian and Theologian, 2nd ed. (Exeter:
Paternoster, 1979); Jacob Jervell, Luke
and the People of God: A New Look at Luke-Acts (Minneapolis:
Augsburg, 1972…and the list goes on. If
interested, look at the bottom of p. 88 of In
The Shadow of the Temple for more references.] “The
centrality of the Jerusalem community and its position as
the “mother church” of all Christianity, as reported
in Acts, is also substantiated by important evidence in Paul’s
epistles. The
Christian church had its decisive beginning in Jerusalem;
its first doctrinal decisions were made there; its first
organizational patterns were developed there; its basic self-definition
was worked out there…” [ibid. p. 88, par. 1-3].
Jewish population figures for Israel
and the Diaspora
Skarsaune gives
a “generous estimate” of roughly 2.5 million
Jews living in the land of Israel, and 5 million Jews living
in the Diaspora. He
points out that the ratio is more important than the actual
figures (p. 91). A good number of those lived in Alexandria
and another group in Babylonia. But
major trade and commerce were in Greece and Asia Minor, making
it a lucrative place to live and work. Asia
Minor was the eastern half of the Roman Empire, and Greece
an important shipping land-bridge between east and west. Paul’s
evangelism was chewing into the Jewish population in Asia
Minor, and thus the churches that resulted must have been
more Judeo-Christian than anything else.
An emerging thought, leading to
a potential paradigm crash
I will quote
to you directly from Oskar Skarsaune, since he explains it
best. “In
New Testament studies the result was that when Jesus debated
with the Pharisees in the Gospels, he was thought to debate
with the representatives of Judaism as a whole. According
to this perspective, Jesus himself began the debate between
Christianity and Judaism; it was continued by all his followers
and disciples. Right from the beginning, Christianity
and Judaism were two clearly distinct entities, the one represented
by Jesus and his disciples, the other by the Pharisees. The
impact of this way of looking at first-century Jewish and
Christian history has been enormous, and is still felt in
New Testament scholarship. There is no doubt, however, that a basic
“change of paradigm” is taking place. For
one thing, Jewish scholars have argued with great conviction that Jesus should
not be placed outside Pharisaism,
but within it: when Jesus debates with Pharisees, his own positions can be
shown to agree with those of other Pharisaic authorities…” [ibid.
pp. 105-106, par. 4-5, and 1 resp.] He
continues the thought, “So, what we get in the contemporary first-century
sources is a picture of competing religious elites, competing for the position
as “teachers of Israel,” none of them having anything like a monopoly,
none of them being able to define other Jews as being outside of “Judaism” in
a way everyone would recognize. It
seems clear that Jesus and the early community of his believers fit into this
very picture; they take part in this contest from within, not from without. It is meaningless and grossly anachronistic
to picture Jesus, Peter or Paul as debating with “Judaism” or its
representatives, as if they themselves were outside and represented something
else, a non-Jewish position.” [ibid. p. 107, par. 3] Scary thought, true Judaism was God’s
true religion, where his people worshipped the one True God, Yahweh, Elohim,
El-Shadai, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Christianity
is the continuation of that true religion, but where God has revealed himself
in, by and through his pre-existent Son, who is also God the Son, part of the
ever-living one whom the Hebrew Scriptures name as Elohim. What
Oskar is bringing out is that there should be no separation between the true
Judaism of Moses and the Prophets and Christianity, one came from the other
and is truly a part of the other, and “will be reunited with the other
upon Jesus’ return—when
all Israel will look upon the one they’ve pierced,” and mourn in
recognition of who the true Messiah is, Jesus of Nazareth (Zechariah 12). An
evil and artificial line of separation has been drawn between Judaism and Christianity,
and as we shall read further on, the Greco-Roman church had a lot to do with
drawing that line of separation which should never have been drawn. At the pinnacle of Paul’s evangelism,
in 60AD, according to Rodney Stark’s figures, 94 percent of the Christian
church was racially Jewish, and only 6 percent were Gentiles (and most of those
probably Sabbath observing “God-fearers”). This
goes right along with what I postulated earlier in this article, that the majority
of those God called through Paul’s evangelistic preaching within the
synagogues were racially Jewish, and a far smaller percentage were the
“God-fearers”, Gentiles ethnically, but Jewish in worship practices
(i.e. Sabbath and Holy Day observing). What
we see is a Jewish Christian church that was in a very real way, a continuation
of Judaism, where Jesus Christ came and built on the foundation of his Old
Testament “Church in the Wilderness”, which was none other than
Judaism. In 90AD, an estimated five years before
John was given his vision from Jesus which became the book of Revelation, the
ratio of Jews to Gentiles within the Christian church was 87 percent Jewish
to 13 percent Gentile. Is our paradigm
of the Christian church crashing yet? I’m
not done yet.
How was Paul able to walk into
a synagogue and preach or teach?
The synagogue service: “The
oldest sources speak of the reading and expounding of the
Scriptures—some also of prayer—as the central
feature of the synagogue service. It must be stressed that the synagogue
was a layman’s institution. Whereas
in the temple everything was done by the priests, in the
synagogue everything depended on the lay congregation itself. The
central part of the service, the reading of the Scriptures,
was carried out by the members of the congregation in turn. If
a scribe was present, he would be asked to expound the text. But
if none were available, everyone was free to speak, and guests
would be asked to step forward and greet the congregation
with a “word of exhortation” (Acts 13:15). If
a priest happened to be there, his status was equal to that
of the other members of the congregation. All
these features clearly betray the synagogue’s Diaspora
origins.” [ibid. p. 124, par. 2] You can see from the bolded sentence where
Paul got his foot in the door to evangelize to the congregations
of all the synagogues he visited. He
was a Jew, trained under Gamaliel. Until
they realized what was up, they were all ears. After
he has proved the Messiahship of Yeshua through the Old Testament
prophecies, which they probably listened to, enthralled,
it was too late. God drew people to Jesus as a result of
Paul’s inspired preaching, and the rest got really
angry and kicked him out. He
roved from synagogue to synagogue, obviously, doing this. Gutsy
fellow, if you ask me. They
even stoned him once (some think, to death, and then God
resurrected him), and beat him with rods on repeated occasions. Mr.
Skarsaune continues, “Apart from the reading and expounding
of the Scriptures, the other main component of the synagogue
service was prayer. Here again it was the congregation who
prayed, not a priest or someone appointed to this task. Before the time of Jesus, fixed patterns
had already developed for both these components of the synagogue
service. The Scripture reading consisted of the
Torah, read each Sabbath according to a three-year or one-year
cycle [reading through a few chapters or more, depending
on which cycle was being used, of the Torah (Genesis through
Deuteronomy). I
attended a Messianic Jewish congregation for 2.5 years, going
through this cycle twice.] The
reading of the Prophets was called the haftarah (“ending”
or “completion”) of the Torah reading. Typical
of the availability of sources about the first century, it
is the New Testament that gives us the first reliable accounts
of haftarah reading in Israel and the Diaspora: Luke
4:17 and Acts 13:15. Some of the main prayers are still used
in the synagogue service today already existed in the first
century A.D.—and some may even be traced back to the
last two centuries B .C.” [ibid. p. 124, par. 3] As I said, I attended
a Messianic congregation for two and a half years, and their
service almost totally mirrored this synagogue service detailed
here. The only difference being that during
the Torah and haftarah readings, the rabbi-pastor would include passages that applied
from the New Testament. Their
personal daily Bible studies went through the whole Bible,
but the synagogue service was heavily weighted to the Old
Testament Torah and readings from the Prophets, a weakness
that seems to exist in this preaching style, as it does not
go through the entire Word of God in the “connective
expository” manner of the Calvary Chapels method of
preaching (whose sermon transcripts are featured on this
site). They really
get the 5 books of the Torah firmly planted in their mind,
but the rest of the Scripture is often neglected or de-emphasized
in the process of this ancient synagogue
“custom” which has been carried over into the Messianic congregations. But God has chosen to restore the Jewish
branch of the body of Christ in an amazingly short span of time—35 short
years, 1970 to 2005—where there are now an estimated 500,000 Messianic
Jewish believers in “Yeshua haMeshiach” [Hebrew for “Jesus
Christ”]. So, again, Paul used the pattern of the
synagogue service to heavily evangelize the Jewish synagogue population, along
with any “God-fearers” within that group.
“The Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem displays a picture from wartime
Germany. On
a fence we read the sign Juden verboten, “Jews
no admittance.” Inside the fence we see Jesus
hanging on the cross; a crucifix on an open-air altar. The
terrible irony of the situation is immediately seen by
most present-day visitors to the museum, but was probably
completely lost on the passers-by in wartime Germany. The
idea probably did not occur to them that they were in fact
looking at a Jew in a place where Jews were not allowed. They
quite simply did not think of Jesus as Jewish; to many
pious Christians the idea would have been shocking.” p.
135
Was Paul the
founder of modern Gentile Christianity, the way many scholars
think? Mr. Skarsaune says, “Some scholars
speak of Paul as the second, or sometimes even the only founder
of Christianity. They simply imply that Paul represents
a Christianity totally different from that of the early community
in Jerusalem. Paul
is said to be a product of Hellenistic Judaism and Hellenistic
Christianity, having minimal contact with the Aramaic-speaking
community in Jerusalem and disregarding its theology and
authority. Acts
provides no evidence to substantiate this theory. Paul
is brought to Antioch by a member of the Jerusalem church,
and he acts under the authority of Jerusalem and its teaching
ministry (Acts 11:22-26). The pupil of Gamaliel the Elder was no
peripheral figure to Judean Jews, whether believers or not. Paul’s own letters substantiate
the evidence in Acts.” [ibid. p. 167, par. 4-5, p.
168, par. 1]
Paul’s mission to the Gentiles
explained
Again, Oskar
Skarsaune does a superb job of explaining Paul’s “mission
to the Gentiles”. It is not what the Bible scholars and
critics have taught us. “On
reading Galatians 1:16; 2:7-9, one may get the impression
that Paul in his mission went exclusively to Gentiles. But
Romans and Acts clearly prove that such was not the case. On
the contrary, throughout his mission Paul acted on the principles
that the Gospel was “to the Jew first and also to the
Greek” (Rom. 1:16). In
every city, Paul went to the synagogue to preach and debate
(Acts 9:20-22; 13:5, 14-52; 14:1-43; 16:13; 17:1-5, 10, 17;
18:4). And
more often than not, some, even many, of the Jews attending
the synagogues became believers (see Acts 13:43; the
Jews and converts mentioned here are probably not included
among the Jews mentioned in v. 45; see also Acts 14:1; 17:4,
11-12; 18:4, 8; 19:9. Only
some were “stubborn and disbelieved” [Acts 28:24]).” [ibid.
p. 171, par. 2] What Mr. Skarsaune has told us is what
I’ve been saying all along here, that Paul’s
preaching in the synagogues was more or less universal wherever
he went, whatever city he went into, he visited the synagogue
and preached in it. And
more often than not a good crowd of Jews became believers. That’s what this scholar is saying,
and I didn’t put the words in his mouth. He
goes on to explain how we can know Paul’s evangelism
was effective, bringing a good number of Jews to Jesus. Let
him explain. “The
normal result of Paul’s preaching was a split among
the Jews: some believed, some not. The sometimes violent measures taken by
the latter are proof that they considered Paul a real threat
to their community. It
was only after this split had been established that Paul
turned to address the Gentiles (Acts 13:46-49; 18:6; 28:28).” And
scholars have assumed when Paul states that he turned now
to the Gentiles, that this was a statement that meant he
had permanently turned to the Gentiles. This was not the case, it just meant that
in that one situation, that one synagogue he had been preaching
in, they kicked him out, so he continued preaching to the
God-fearing Gentiles that were still interested in hearing
more. Then when
he moved on to the next city, he was back in the synagogue
of that new city, preaching up a new storm. This
was a repeated pattern. “It
seems to mean that Paul left the synagogue and ceased to
address the synagogue community as such. But
it did not mean that he was no longer willing to proclaim
the gospel to the Jews. Acts 19:8-10 shows he still did preach
to Jews, and it is very likely that Jews are included in
Acts 18:11 and 28:30.”
[ibid. p. 171, par 3.]
“Next,
it is important to notice what kind of Gentiles Paul was
addressing. Acts is very clear on this point: they
were not just any Gentiles, but “God-fearers,” that
is, Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel, lived according
to the moral precepts of the Torah and visited the synagogue. Very
often they are mentioned as being present in the synagogue
while Paul was still primarily addressing the Jewish community. In
Acts 13:16 Paul even makes special mention of this group
in his opening address in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia: “You
Israelites, and others who fear God, listen.” The
same double address appears in Acts 13:48 as having gladly
received the gospel. In several instances, many God-fearing
Gentiles are part of the synagogue audience and come to believe
before Paul leaves their congregation (Acts 14:1; 17:4, 12;
18:4). “Turning to the Gentiles” does
not therefore indicate a radical change in missionary procedure. It does not mean that Paul began to address
an entirely new audience. It
only means that, from now on, he focused on the God-fearers and established himself somewhere else than in the synagogue for the
rest of his stay in that city.” [ibid.
p. 172, par.1] As
I said, the term “going now to the Gentiles,” only
referred to that one city where his evangelizing had gotten
him kicked out of that particular synagogue. “It is a remarkable fact that almost
all Gentile converts whose names are given in Acts belong
to this category of God-fearing Gentiles. Cornelius
was “a devout man who…prayed constantly to God” (Acts
10:2). He even observed Jewish hours of prayer
(Acts 10:3, 30).” [ibid. p. 172, par. 3]
Only twice does Paul preach to
Gentiles who are not God-fearers
This will be
a real eye-opener. Jews
coming into the
“church” would still keep the Sabbath and Holy Days, and history
proves Judeo-Christians did indeed chose to keep God’s Sabbath and Holy
Days as their days of worship. God-fearing
Gentiles, spiritually brought up in the synagogues would be no different. People assume that Paul, apostle to the
Gentiles, was drawing in pagan Gentiles into the church in droves. Was this the case? Or was this the exception to the rule
in his evangelism? “Only
twice in the whole book of Acts does Paul address Gentiles who do not belong
to the God-fearers. The first time
is in Acts 14:8-18, where Paul is forced to address the Gentile crowd to prevent
them from sacrificing to Barnabas and himself, and the whole of his speech
is concerned with preventing this. He
does not proclaim the gospel to this crowd of “raw” Gentiles! The second time is in Athens (Acts 17:16-34). Here
Paul seems to have widened his outreach to include philosophically educated
Greeks, many of whom were no doubt theoretical monotheists who would agree
with Paul’s polemic against [pagan] temples and idols in Acts 17:22-31. But once again we see that the speech
on the Areopagus was not given on Paul’s initiative: “they took
him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what
this new teaching is that you are presenting?’” (Acts 17:19). [ibid.
p. 172, par. 4] “Thus we
find that the two apparent exceptions to the rule stated above substantiate
rather than contradict it. What does this mean? It means
that viewed from the outside, from the standpoint of the Roman authorities
or the average person on the street, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles was
still an essentially Jewish affair, affecting mainly the Jewish community. The Gentile God-fearers among whom Paul
found such a receptive hearing for his message were probably regarded as half-Jews
by their Gentile neighbors…” [ibid. p. 173, par. 1] Wow!
Did Paul tell the Jewish believers
to stop keeping the Torah?
“What about
the keeping of the commandments by Jewish believers?” i.e.
he means observing the 10 Commandment Law of God, Holy Days,
dietary laws of Leviticus 11, the Torah minus the sacrifices. “The
final accusation made against Paul by those in the Jerusalem
community who were still skeptical of him does not even mention
his mission to the Gentiles. His
accusers are concerned with what he has been teaching Jews throughout
the Diaspora. James
tells Paul:
You see, brother, how many
thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they
are all zealous for the law. They
have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living
among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that you tell
them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs
(Acts 21:20-21).
According
to Acts, these are false accusations. Paul
taught no such thing. There is no evidence in Paul’s
letters to indicate that Luke portrays Paul as being more
Jewish than he really was. The
author of Romans 9:4-5 and 11:1-6, to mention just two relevant
passages, could not possibly have told believing Jews to
stop being Jews (see also 1 Cor 7:18 and 9:20). [ibid.
p. 173, par. 2-4] Let’s
give one final statement to close this section, a statement
from Mr. Skarsaune which sums up this matter very well:
“What,
then, can we learn from the book of Acts about Paul’s
mission? We meet a very Jewish Paul, who conducted
his mission almost entirely within the bounds of the
synagogue, and the circle of God-fearing Gentiles attached
to it. This
was fundamental to Paul’s understanding of himself
as a missionary. Romans 11:13-14 clearly shows the historical
accuracy of the picture of Paul in Acts: in his mission
to the Gentiles, Paul never went far from the synagogue.” [ibid.
p. 174, par. 3]
Acts 13 through 20,
Relevant Passages
Acts 13:1-5, 14-16, 42-51, “Now in the church that was at Antioch
there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simon
who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had
been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As
they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit
said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the
work to which I have called them. Then
having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they
sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit,
they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed
to Cyprus. And when they arrived in Salamis, they
preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant…” Now
you will notice in verses 14-16, and 16-44 Luke includes
one example of what Paul preached when he visited the synagogues
as his method of evangelism. (Look up and read verses 17-41 for yourself.) Also
notice in verse 15 he’s following the pattern for
visiting Jews, who are asked to get up and speak on something
out of the Scriptures. Those
in the synagogue asked him to speak, as was the custom
in synagogues. In verse 45 you will notice the reaction
of the Jews who disbelieved Paul, and Paul’s reaction
for this one synagogue. You will notice this pattern repeating
itself all through Acts 13-19. Verses 14-16, “But when they departed
from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And
after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers
of the synagogue sent to them, saying, ‘Men and brethren,
if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say
on.’ Then Paul stood up, and motioning with
his hand said, ‘Men of Israel, and you who fear
God: [i.e. the Jewish synagogue members, and their “God-fearers” membership] ‘The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the
people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt,
and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it… Paul
goes on to give a long sermon which ends up explaining
that the Messiah had come, and he was Jesus of Nazareth
who was crucified and rose from the dead in three days,
and from the passages he goes into, which must be a synopsis
given by Luke, Paul proves Jesus’ Messiahship by
the prophecies in the Old Testament. After
the sermon the Jews were divided, some believing some not, verses
42-43, “So when the Jews went out of the synagogue,
the Gentiles [and these would be the God-fearers, who
also were attendees of the synagogue] begged that these words might be preached
to them the next Sabbath. Now
when the congregation had broken up, many of the
Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas,
who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the
grace of God.” Now
for the adverse reaction of the disbelieving Jews, who
were angry that Paul had essentially broken up the synagogue
through his powerful evangelism. Verses
44-45, “On the next Sabbath almost the whole city
came together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews [obviously not the same Jews who Luke
mentions in verse 43, the many believing Jews. These are the ones who did not believe
what Paul said, and were angry at what was happening to
the synagogue membership.] saw the multitudes, they were filled with
envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the
things spoken by Paul.” Now
Paul makes his famous statement about “now turning
to the Gentiles,” which has been misinterpreted by
the whole Gentile Christian church for millennia. We will see, he is only saying this to
this one particular synagogue, for he continues going to
synagogues, and is heard repeating this statement as he
is kicked out of the other synagogues. Verses
46-51, “Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It
was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to
you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I
have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should
be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’’ Now
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal
life believed. [And don’t forget, these Gentiles
first heard the truth of God in the synagogue, so they
were obviously “God-fearers”, who normally
attended the synagogue, and not ordinary pagan Gentiles. There may have been some pagan Gentile
with them, who were told about the gospel by their God-fearer
Gentile friends, as it says the whole city came together. But
most of the Gentile believers were more than likely God-fearers,
who already knew the OT Word of God, and were ready for
the gospel.] “And
the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the
region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and
prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up
persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them
from their region. But they shook off the dust from their
feet against them, and came to Iconium” (verses 49-51) Now in Iconium, repeat performance. Paul isn’t just going off now to
preach to the Gentiles, he’s back in the next synagogue,
preaching up a storm. Luke gave us a good picture of the type sermon Paul preached, out of the Prophets,
proving Jesus’ Messiahship, so he doesn’t need
to repeat all that, just the highlights.
Acts 14:1-2, “Now it happened in Iconium that they went together
to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great
multitude both of Jews and of the Greeks believed. [obviously
God-fearer Greeks, part of the synagogue again] But
the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned
their minds against the brethren…”
What was Paul’s day of worship? Get
ready for a surprise.
Acts 16:11-13, “Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight
coarse to Samothrace, and the next day came
to Neapolis. And
from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that
part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some
days. And
on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside,
where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down
and spoke to the women who met there.” Here is a clear example of Paul using
the Sabbath to rest and pray. But
he never passed up an opportunity to preach Christ, as
the next verses show he was doing with these ladies.
Acts 17:1-5, 16-17, “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis
and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there
was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went
in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them
from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that
the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead,
and saying, ‘This
Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ [Messiah].” And
some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of
the devout Greeks [i.e.
‘God-fearers’ is what ‘devout’ means], and not a few
of the leading women [probably leading women of the synagogue], joined Paul
and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming
envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob,
set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to
bring them out to the people…” We’re
seeing the same pattern of Paul going into the synagogues to evangelize, both
to the Jews of the synagogues, and also to the God-fearing Gentile worshippers
in the same synagogue. There’s
a split between believing Jews and non-believing Jews, and God seems to be
also calling a majority of the God-fearing Gentiles in each synagogue (which
could still have been less than the total number of Jews being called, because
they made up a smaller percentage of the synagogue population than that of
the Jewish population in the synagogue. Verses 16-17, “Therefore while Paul waited for them at Athens,
his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over
to idols. Therefore he reasoned
in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers,
and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” Notice, he first goes to the synagogue. But his spirit was so provoked by the
open idolatry in the city, that in this one instance he broadens his outreach,
which ends up reaching the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, who then inquire
of him about what he is preaching (verses 18-34).
Acts 18:1-6-8, “After these things Paul departed from Athens and
went to Corinth. And
he found a certain Jew name Aquila, born in Pontus, who
had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because
Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome); and
he came to them. So,
because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and
worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. And
he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia,
Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified to the
Jews that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah]. But
when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be upon your own heads;
I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’” And so it goes, this repeated pattern
of giving a thorough witness, preaching the gospel, proving
the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth in the local synagogue
until he is expelled, so he makes this statement, “Now
I go to the Gentiles”, that is, until he reaches
the next city or town, where he goes back into the synagogue
again and repeats his missionary pattern. We
have seen this pattern repeated from Acts 13 through 18
four separate times now as recorded by Luke. This
is historic biblical proof that “Now I go to the
Gentiles” was not a firm statement of change of missionary
practice. Rodney
Stark shows that ratio of Jews to Gentiles at this time
was over 90 percent Jews and under 10 percent Gentile at
this time. Verse 8, “Then Crispus, the ruler of
the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians, hearing,
believed and were baptized.” So
here we actually have the ruler of the synagogue with
his whole family becoming a believer. I
would say it would be a safe bet the whole Corinthian Church
of God which was forming right here was a Judeo-Christian
church which observed the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus
23 in a non-Torah observant manner, as did all the Churches
of God in Asia Minor.
Clear evidence the Holy Days were being observed by the apostle Paul
Acts 18:19-21, “And he came to Ephesus, and left them there;
but he entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, but
took leave of them, saying, ‘I must by all means
keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return
again to you, God willing.’ And he sailed from Ephesus.”
Acts 19:1, 8-10, “And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth,
that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came
to Ephesus…And he went into the synagogue and
spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading
concerning the things of the kingdom of God, but some
were hardened and did not believe, [notice, “some
where hardened”, not all] but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from
them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the
school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that
all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus,
both Jews and Greeks.”
Acts 20:5-6, 16, “These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas,
but we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened
Bread, and joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven
days.” Now why wait to sail from Philippi? Why? They
were observing the Days of Unleavened Bread at Philippi
(probably with the fledgling congregation at Philippi)! Paul
and the Philippians were observing the Days of Unleavened
Bread. Now verse 16, “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that
he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he
was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on
the Day of Pentecost.” Paul wanted to be at Jerusalem, undoubtedly
to observe the Day of Pentecost, another OT Holy Day, with
the Church of God in Jerusalem. So
we see recorded in Acts 20 the apostle Paul observing the
spring Holy Day season, and this is after Acts 15, when
the whole early church became non-Torah observant.
The affect of Paul’s evangelism
Acts 24:5, “‘For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the
world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes…’” This was an accusation made by Tertullus,
an orator the high priest had gotten to bring accusations
against Paul before Felix, the Roman governor. The
accusation wasn’t far from the truth. Paul
indeed had wreaked havoc with the Jewish synagogue community
throughout Asia Minor and Greece, and he was indeed the
chief missionary sent out by the Nazarenes at the behest
of the Holy Spirit.
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