Acts 14
1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. 4 But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. 5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel. 8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. 19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. 24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples. (Acts 14, ESV Bible)
1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. (Acts 14:1, ESV Bible)
Ikanyon
Paul and Barnabas shook the dust from their feet as they left the city of Pisidian Antioch. They left behind them a community of new believers and new adversaries as well. They set out on the Via Sebaste, a broad, well-paved Roman road built to accommodate wheeled vehicles. It wove through the ninety-five mountainous miles between Antioch and the city of Iconium. They wanted to take their message to Iconium because they knew the city hosted a significant Jewish population, similar to the situation they left behind in Pisidian Antioch.
Iconium is modern Konya, Turkey. According to legend, Iconium is one of the oldest cities in the world, the first city built after the great flood of Greek mythology. Perseus founded Iconium after vanquishing the local population with an icon (image) of Medusa's head. In the Apostolic Era, Rome had not yet designated Iconium as a colony, but the city occupied a strategic location on a crossroad and a prominent position in the province of Galatia.
Paul and Barnabas entered one of the synagogues of Iconium. The synagogue leadership offered them the opportunity to address the community. As in Antioch, the apostles found Jews and God-fearing Greeks attending the synagogue, and they addressed their teachings to both. The community initially received both the apostles and their message. Just as at Pisidian Antioch, "A large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks."
Not everyone in the community received the good news with enthusiasm. Concerned members of the Jewish community complained to the civic authorities about the apostles and their disciples: They stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren" (Acts 14:2). They only needed to point out to the local social leaders that Paul and Barnabas called on Gentiles to forsake idolatry and to live according to Jewish convictions and custom. The Roman government sanctioned Judaism as a legal religion for Jews, and the Jews of Iconium had been part of the community for several centuries already. Gentiles, however, did not enjoy those same liberties.
Paul's God-fearing Galatian converts previously participated in the imperial cult, worshiping the locally venerated gods, the Greco-Roman pantheon, and the emperors as required by Roman law and custom. Civic duty and social expectations required their participation in the idolatrous cults. To abstain from participation in these civic religious functions disrupted relationships with family, friends, business associates, and civic authorities. It also placed a person in jeopardy of persecution, arrest, and possibly execution for the crime of atheism.
Roman law exempted Jews from participation in the cult, but the Jewish community did not recognize Paul's Galatian God-fearers as converts to Judaism. They were merely guests in the synagogue. This left the God-fearing believers in a state of social limbo: not fully accepted by Judaism and, at the same time, in conflict with the authorities, their extended families, and all of society around them.
The opposition to Paul and Barnabas exploited that weakness, turning the idolatrous majority establishment of Iconium against the God-fearing minority. In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul scolded Galatian God-fearers for succumbing to external, social pressure and backsliding into the "weak and worthless elemental things of idolatry, including the observance of the pagan calendar and its idolatrous observance of certain days, months, seasons, and years, the payment of vows, celebrations, and sacrifices:
When you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. (Galatians 4:8-11)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
3 So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (Acts 14:3, ESV Bible)
Many Days in Ikanyon
Paul and Barnabas saw the heavy social pressure that the pagan establishment exerted on the God-fearing believers. They realized that, unless the new believers were nurtured, their social situation would quickly choke them off like seed sown among thorns. "Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord." They taught daily and encouraged the new disciples in the Scriptures. In many cases, they needed to conduct a crash course in biblical literacy and Judaism.
The Spirit of God testified to the truth by providing miraculous signs and wonders through the hands of the apostles. Paul and Barnabas performed the signs of true apostles "with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles" (2 Corinthians 12:12). The miracles helped offset the social pressure and validate the apostles' claims. In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul recalled the miracles of those days. He asked, "Does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law [i.e., circumcision and conversion to become Jewish], or by hearing with faith?" (Galatians 3:5).
The people of the city were divided over the teaching of the apostles. Some saw no harm in it. What did it matter if a few people grew fond of Jewish ways and adopted some Jewish beliefs and customs? Others felt less tolerant and multi-cultural. Jewish community leaders denounced the teaching as a new innovation and warned that Judaism is for Jews-not Gentiles. Anti-Semites (who looked askance at Jews and Jewish practice) and social conservatives from the synagogue (who defended the status quo separating Jews from Gentiles) found common ground. As this tension grew in the Jewish community and the wider city of Iconium, Paul and Barnabas continued to instruct the new believers in the paths of discipleship.
Notice that the main point of controversy did not involve questions about Yeshua. The Jewish leadership did not raise objections to His candidacy for the position of Messiah. Whether or not Yeshua of Nazareth had risen from the dead or could be the Messiah remained primarily a matter of individual speculation and opinion. Those personal beliefs made a Jew no more or less Jewish, and they had little relevance to the social or ceremonial functions of the synagogues. The involvement of multitudes of Gentiles, however, disrupted both social and ceremonial functions.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, (Acts 14:5-6, ESV Bible)
Plot Against the Apostles
During their extended stay in Iconium, a disciple came to Paul and Barnabas, warning them about a dangerous plot. He reported that an alliance had formed between the leadership of the Jewish opposition and some prominent men of Iconium. The plan involved inciting a Gentile mob on the basis that Paul and Barnabas spread atheism and blasphemy of the gods. The people were saying that Paul and Barnabas invited divine disfavor on Iconium. Once they got the people to start shouting in defense of the gods, stones would start flying.
For their part, the Jewish leadership could assure the Iconians that they would not make any appeal or complaint to the Roman authorities over the civil unrest and the death of a few Jews. So long as they confined the assault to the two men spreading the problem, they need not fear repercussions.
When Paul and Barnabas heard the details of the plot, they realized that they could no longer remain. With the assistance of the disciples they had raised up in that city, they escaped and fled to the cities of Lycaonia.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
7 and there they continued to preach the gospel. Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. (Acts 14:7, ESV Bible)
Timotiyos of Lustra
The apostles fled nineteen miles south on the Via Sebaste to nearby Lystra, a Roman colony in Lycaonia.
The territory of Lycaonia lay north of the Taurus range, bordered on the west by Phrygia, on the east by Cappadocia, and on the north by ethnic Galatia from where the apostles had just come. Lycaonia controlled the strategic main road from the west-central coast through the Cilician Gates to the broad plain of Cilicia.
The Romans included Lystra in the province of Galatia. Lystra does not appear to have hosted a significant Jewish community. Luke makes no mention of a synagogue in that city. Nevertheless, the apostles found some Jews living there. The Jewish believers of Iconium must have recommended a safe place for Paul and Barnabas to stay in Lystra. Through those connections, they encountered Lois and Eunice, mother and daughter, respectively. Both names are Greek: Εὐνίκη ("Victory," Εὐνίκη) and Λωΐς ("More Desired," Λωΐς).
To the sorrow of the pious Λωΐς, her daughter Εὐνίκη married a Gentile. The girl gave birth to a son named Τιμόθεος (Τιμόθεος), which means "Honoring God." As the son of a Jewish mother, Timothy was legally Jewish. Jewishness is reckoned matrilineally, that is, through the mother. A child with a Jewish mother is considered Jewish even if the father is not. A child with a Jewish father and Gentile mother, however, is not considered Jewish. Even though Timothy was legally Jewish, his Gentile father apparently objected to circumcising the child. Nevertheless, mother and grandmother raised Timothy according to his name, teaching him the Scriptures and his responsibilities as a Jew. Paul later wrote to Timothy, "From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in the Messiah Yeshua" (2 'Timothy 3:15).
The women gladly heard the message of the apostles. They availed themselves of the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness of sins in Yeshua. They became disciples. Timothy was, at the time, a young man, perhaps a teenager. Through the influence of his mother and grandmother, he became a disciple, too: "For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well" (2 Timothy 1:5).
Young Timothy impressed Paul. The boy devoted himself to Paul's teaching, observed his conduct, and witnessed the persecutions he endured in the cities of Galatia:
Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! (2 Timothy 3:10-I)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. (Acts 14:8-10, ESV Bible)
A Healing in Lustra
Without a firm Jewish community and synagogue drawing men to the knowledge of God, Lystra had few, if any, God-fearing Gentiles. For the first time, Paul and Barnabas attempted to bring the gospel directly to the non-Jewish, idolatrous world.
They set up shop in the public square inside the city gates and began to tell the story of the Master to anyone willing to listen. It was Paul's idea. He did all the talking. Barnabas listened silently, masking his discomfort and uncertainty behind a solemn face.
This was new territory. God-fearers assembling in synagogues already understood monotheism and possessed a basic biblical literacy. The average Gentile in the marketplace had no preparation for the message of the apostles. A language barrier further hampered the apostles' efforts. Lystra contained a mixed population with only a small number of Greek speakers. The native Anatolians spoke Lycaonian. Most did not understand anything Paul was saying. Those who did dismissed him as a philosopher or lunatic.
As Paul attempted to proclaim repentance and the kingdom, one Greek speaker seemed to be taking in the whole message. The marketplace beggar, a man lame from birth, listened intently. "He was struck with awe" at the message he heard (Western Text on Acts I4:11). Paul looked intently into the man's face and perceived that he had faith to believe. With a loud, dramatic flourish (a public gesture intended to hook the crowd), Paul commanded, "Stand upright on your feet." The man leaped up and began to walk as if he had never been crippled.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. (Acts 14:11-13, ESV Bible)
Mistaken Identity
The crowd concluded that the strangers must be divine. An excited murmur arose as Paul continued with his discourse and the healed man strutted about the market. The apostles did not understand the Lycaonian dialect, so they did not realize that people in the crowd acclaimed them as Zeus and Hermes, traveling in mortal guise.
Students of Greek mythology are familiar with the story of Philemon and Baucis, an elderly couple of Phrygia who provided hospitality to two unknown travelers. The travelers subsequently revealed themselves as Zeus and Hermes in disguise. A second legend, even more pertinent to the geography, describes Zeus taking on the guise of human form to visit King Lycaon. According to the mythology, King Lycaon expressed skepticism about the divinity of his guest. "I gave them signs that a god had come, and the people began to worship me," the Olympian god complained, but King Lycaon did not worship him. Instead, he attempted to disprove Zeus' divinity by means of a gruesome test. He served him a meal of human flesh, cooked to appear as the meat of a sacrificial animal. Zeus punished the wicked king by turning him into a wolf. Like the word lycanthrope (werewolf), the name Lycaonia derives from the name of King Lycaon. That local legend helps explain why the people of Lycaonia were on the lookout for gods masquerading as men.
Greco-Roman depictions of Zeus imagine him as a noble-faced, middle-aged man with long, swept-back hair and a full, twisting beard. Barnabas had the more fatherly-looking figure of the two apostles. The Lystrans decided he must be Zeus.
Pictures of Hermes depict him as a young, athletic man. In Roman art, Hermes ordinarily appears clean-shaven, but Greek artists sometimes depicted Hermes with a shapely, trimmed beard. In either case, the high-strung, athletic Paul, who did all the talking, fit the profile for the messenger of the pantheon.
A buzz of excitement filled the market. People crowded in closely around the two Jews. Paul and Barnabas did not realize what was happening until a Greek speaker informed them that the priest of Zeus had brought oxen, decked with garlands, to the city gates and stood ready to offer sacrifice to them.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. (Acts 14:14-15, ESV Bible)
Gospel For Pagans
When the apostles realized that the crowd was about to worship them, they tore their clothes, disavowed divinity, and began making an impassioned plea for monotheism. In the midst of the confused crowd, complete with baffled and disgruntled priests still intent on making a sacrifice out of an equally bewildered and impatient pair of oxen, Paul attempted to explain monotheism and faith in God in one hundred words or less. Without the testimony of a common scripture, he could only point to the natural revelation of the created order.
The gospel message to the pagan world needed to start with basic mono-theism. Paul said, "Friends, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach God to you that you should turn to him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and all that is in them" (Western Text on Acts 14:15). Until the Gentiles renounced polytheism and turned to the one God-the God of Israel-they could scarcely be expected to learn the nuanced gospel concepts of repentance, redemption, atonement through the suffering of the righteous, forgiveness, final judgment, resurrection, spiritual regeneration, and the kingdom of heaven.
Paul was trying to start from zero. He explained that one God had made sky, earth, sea, and all that exists. In the previous generations of human history, this One God had not revealed Himself to the people of the nations (as He had done for the Jewish people).
At the same time, God had left evidence by which men could infer His existence: "He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). Paul further developed the same line of theological reflection in his epistle to the Romans:
Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Romans I:19-21)
Despite their best efforts to communicate Jewish monotheism, the priesthood of Zeus seemed intent on going through with the sacrifice. The whole crowd had been anticipating a sacrifice and, along with that, a share in the meal. Paul and Barnabas "scarcely persuaded the crowds not to sacrifice to them, but to make their way, each one to his own home" (Acts I4:I8, Western Text).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:19-22, ESV Bible)
The Stoning of Polos
The narrative in Acts 14 makes the action sound continuous. Jewish opposition from Antioch and Iconium suddenly appeared and incited the crowd to turn on the men that they had, moments before, regarded as divine. A textual variant on Acts 14:19 offers a more likely recounting of events. After the fiasco in the market, Paul and Barnabas remained in Lystra for some length of time, teaching a small community of disciples, both Jews and Gentiles. Eunice, Lois, and Timothy learned among the disciples. While they tarried among the disciples they had raised, word of their work in Lystra traveled back to the Jewish community in nearby Iconium. The leadership agreed to send a few delegates to Lystra to warn the Jews living in the region and denounce the apostles. They arrived in Lystra not long after the incident in the marketplace and began to publicly condemn Paul and Barnabas as deceivers: "Nothing they say is true! It is all lies!"
As they spent some time there and taught, certain Jews came from Iconium and Antioch, and while they [the apostles] were discoursing with boldness, these persuaded the crowds to revolt against them, saying, "Nothing that they say is true; it is all lies." So, having stirred up the crowds and having stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city. (Acts I4:19 Western 'Text)
The invectives against the apostles easily swayed the people of Lystra. Disappointed that Paul and Barnabas turned out to be human beings, the locals already viewed them with uncertain suspicion as magicians and tricksters. They also feared the displeasure of the gods, the worship of whom the two tricksters seemed so eager to rob. The excited mob seized Paul, the chief "liar," dragged him into the open, and pelted him with stones.
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul recollected, "Once I was stoned." The stoning was not a Jewish stoning imposed by a Torah court of law; the pagans of Lystra hurled the stones. As the rocks struck him, he sank to his knees. A blow to the head dropped him into unconsciousness. Assuming the man was already dead, the crowd dragged his body through the city streets and abandoned his corpse outside the walls. Paul's disciples-Lystrans who had become convinced of the message he and Barnabas had been teaching in their town-went out to attend to the apostle. Barnabas stayed out of the public lest he share the same fate as his colleague. The disciples gathered around Paul's bloodied form and entreated God. The LORD was merciful. Paul "got up with difficulty" (Acts 14:20, Western Text). Many years later, when recalling the persecutions and sufferings he endured in the cities of Galatia, Paul remarked to Timothy, "Out of them all, the Lord rescued me!" (2 Timothy 3:1).
The bruised apostle went back into the city from which his body had just recently been dragged. He did not renter the city to flaunt his miraculous recovery or to defy the crowd; they would have surely just stoned him again. He needed a bed and dressing for his wounds. A manuscript variant on the episode recalls that his disciples brought him in under the cover of darkness: "In the evening they led him into the town of Lystra." Despite what appears to be a miraculous healing, the stoning left permanent scars. In his epistle to the Galatians, Paul reminded the believers of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, "I bear on my body the brand-marks of Yeshua" (Galatians 6:17).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Derbi
Paul's enemies from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium believed that Paul was dead. They returned home. Paul and Barnabas decided to leave Lystra as well (in the opposite direction). By morning Paul had sufficiently recovered to travel, so he and Barnabas set out at once for the distant city of Derbe, the last city of Galatia before the mountain pass through the Cilician Gates. They walked nearly sixty miles, but the trip proved worth the effort. Luke reports that they won a large number of disciples in Derbe.
Ancient sources have left us little information about the city of Derbe, and scholars even debate its precise location. Luke's brief summary does not help fill in much detail: The apostles preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples. They also taught in "the surrounding region" (Acts 14:6). The apostles probably found a small Jewish community in Derbe and launched their teaching from within the synagogues there. Among the many disciples they acquired in that place was a certain Gaius of Derbe, who later became one of Paul's traveling companions (Acts 20:4).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Return Trip
Derbe profited from the regular flow of traffic and trade that passed through the Cilician Gates. The apostles could have quickly concluded their journey by leaving Derbe and passing through the mountain gates themselves. The Cilician Gates follow the narrow gorge of the Gökoluk River as it cuts through the Taurus Mountains, connecting the low plains of Cilicia to the higher elevations of the Anatolian Plateau. In a few days, Paul and Barnabas would have arrived in Tarsus, Paul's hometown. From Tarsus, they could have easily traveled home to Syrian Antioch. They did not take the easy path home.
Instead, they elected to turn back and retrace their steps along the entire arduous trek through Galatia and back to Pamphylia. They journeyed back to Lystra, where Paul had been nearly stoned to death; they returned to Iconium, where a conspiracy had driven them from town; they walked back to Pisidian Antioch, where the city officials had banished them from town. In each place, they strengthened the new disciples and encouraged them to remain steadfast in the faith.
To explain their own personal hardships and to encourage the new disciples to stand firm in the face of social pressure and persecution, they told the disciples, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Those words sound like an otherwise unattested saying of the Master, similar to the beatitude, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. (Acts 14:23, ESV Bible)
Appointing Elders
In each location, the apostles appointed elders over the assembly of disciples that had formed. The appointment of leadership indicates the formation of faith communities that identified themselves independently of the local synagogues, but it does not necessarily indicate a complete break with those synagogues. Whenever possible, the small, nascent assemblies of believers continued to use the local synagogues as places of prayer where they could hear the Scriptures, learn Torah, and participate in the worship of God on the Sabbath and the holy days. They augmented that public worship with private gatherings in homes, breaking bread together and sharing a common fellowship under the teaching and leadership of the appointed community elders. This model followed the pattern established by the Jerusalem community of disciples. Just as the disciples in Jerusalem attended various synagogues on Sabbaths and worshiped with the nation at the times of prayer in the Temple, the assemblies in the Diaspora continued to engage in the local houses of worship as well.
Rather than building a church to compete with the local synagogue, the believers attempted to maintain their participation in the local Jewish community. They were too small and too few to isolate themselves against both the pagan and Jewish world. They functioned independently in the same way that a small group Bible study might learn and fellowship independently under a teacher, while all the members of the study group also attend the same church. Ideal as such a situation might have been, it could not have lasted long. Local synagogue leadership would not long tolerate a distinct community with its own independent elders operating inside the same walls. In some cases, the synagogue leadership might ban believers (especially Gentiles) from attending. Alternatively, the number of disciples might increase to a point that merited the formation of a distinctly Messianic synagogue, as in Syrian Antioch. In those cases, separate venues for assembly began to form, but even then, they remained part of the larger Jewish community. According to Jewish custom, Paul and Barnabas appointed not less than three elders in each congregation. The elders provided teaching and leadership, and they presided over legal disputes and doctrinal issues. "They have charge over you in the Master and give you instruction" (I Thessalonians 5:12). The elders shouldered the burdens of leadership together. Paul listed his criteria for choosing such men in his second epistle to Timothy:
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (I Timothy 3:2-7)
Whenever possible, Paul and Barnabas appointed Jewish believers to the leadership of the assemblies. Some God-fearing Gentile believers knew the Scriptures well, but most were "new converts" and could not be considered "able to teach."
When they had selected candidates best conforming to the criteria above, Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted over the decision. Following what they believed to be the leading of the Holy Spirit, they made their choices. They invested the elders with the station through the laying on of hands. Then, they commended their choices to the care and protection of the Master.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
What They Left Behind
The closing salutations and personal greetings in Paul's letters testify to a string of relationships separated by hundreds of miles. Each time Paul and Barnabas left a community, they left behind brothers and sisters, Jewish and Gentile, with whom they had shared adventures, miracles, and a spiritual bond in the Master. They left the homes of families who had extended themselves to grant the apostles hospitality. They left new, untrained leaders to shepherd communities of disciples. As yet, the apostles did not even have a written gospel they could leave in the hands of new believers. They entrusted them with the teachings of the Master and the stories of His deeds as best they could during the course of a few weeks. As they left each community with tears and farewells, they promised to pray for those they left behind and beseeched their disciples to uphold them in prayer as they continued to labor for the message.
Still retracing their steps, the apostles left the cities of Galatia behind and descended to the coast. They arrived in Perga, where John Mark had abandoned them. On their last visit, they had not stopped to teach in Perga, but this time, they "spoke the word." Luke does not indicate to whom they spoke or where they spoke. Most likely, they followed their established pattern and brought the message to the local synagogue.
From Perga, they took a boat down the river to the seaport town of Attalia on the southern coast of Asia Minor. In Attalia they obtained passage on a ship that could take them along the coast to Syria.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. (Acts 14:26-27, ESV Bible)
News from Galatya
After an absence of at least a year, they returned to Antioch and the synagogue that had sent them out. They told the stories of their journeys, recounting many adventures, hazards, miracles, and deliverances. They explained how they experienced their greatest successes among the Gentiles of Galatia. They exclaimed, "God has opened a door of faith to the Gentiles!" (Acts 14:27). The community in Antioch could take pride in the new congregations of disciples that they had birthed in Cyprus and Galatia.
Paul and Barnabas arrived back in Antioch not later than 48 CE, and they spent a long time with the disciples in Antioch. During the next several months, their thoughts often returned to the communities that they had left behind. Whenever a brother from those parts arrived in Antioch, they eagerly plied him for news.
At some point, they received distressing word from the communities in Galatia in the form of a visitor or a letter. In their absence, teachers in Galatia had begun to propagate a "different gospel" that called on the God-fearing Gentile believers to become full proselytes under the law through circumcision and legal conversion. Influential voices among the assemblies of Galatia championed the majority view of Jewish believers in Jerusalem and elsewhere. They admitted that Paul and Barnabas had done well to bring the good news to Galatia, but they lamented that the two apostles had not brought the matter to its conclusion. They explained that the other apostles from Jerusalem taught both the gospel and circumcision for Gentiles. They argued that the uncircumcised cannot be numbered among Abraham's household. They persuasively reasoned that full conversion would offer the believers protection under Roman law and eliminate friction with the rest of the Jewish community. Finally, they insisted, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved" (Acts I5:1).
Many of the God-fearing believers needed very little encouragement. They eagerly underwent the conversion. In those days, becoming Jewish did not require the convert to renounce allegiance to Yeshua of Nazareth or belief in Him. Those who converted enjoyed full acceptance within the Jewish community and legal exemptions from civic duties and obligations involving the Roman cult. They encouraged other Gentile believers to join them.
From Paul's perspective, each conversion hampered the expansion of the kingdom. So long as faith in Yeshua remained confined to Jewish people, the universal prophecies about all nations blessed in Abraham and serving Messiah would remain unfulfilled.
The situation in Galatia raised another serious theological problem for Paul. According to the gospel taught by Paul's theological opponents, Gentiles could not be saved. That meant that salvation depended on the specific "works of the Law that marked Jewish identity, primarily circumcision. Paul found that type of narrow-mindedness unacceptable. As he said to the Romans, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one" (Romans 3:28-30).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Misunderstood Epistle
Rather than hurrying back to the cities of Galatia to correct the problem, Paul elected to compose a letter. Bible readers generally misunderstand Galatians as Paul's dissertation against the Torah and against Judaism. The Epistle to the Galatians provides replacement theology with its best argument against the Torah and Judaism in general. When studied in the context of Paul's battle on behalf of the viability of God-fearing Gentile believers, the true intention of the epistle becomes clear. Far from the anti-Torah dissertation most readers assume it to be, Galatians presents a long argument that Gentile believers need not become Jewish to attain salvation in Messiah. Paul believed that the gospel message had universal implications for all human beings, but if all Gentile believers underwent conversion and became Jewish (albeit Jewish believers in Yeshua), no Gentile believers would remain to fulfill that universal destiny. As he saw Gentile believers receiving circumcision and undergoing conversion, he began to protect the Gentile believers as if they were an endangered species.
In the days of the apostles, letter writers composed their letters on parchment made from finely worked leather or paper-like papyrus. Sheets were usually ten inches wide, much like today's standard sheet of 8½ × 11 inch paper. Scribes used split reeds or goose quills for ink pens, and the ink was a mixture of carbon and adhesives. The uneven surface of the sheets of papyrus and the primitive inks made letter writing a chore best left to professional scribes.
Like most other writers of the day, Paul used scribes to compose his letters. He dictated while a secretary wrote. For example, Romans 16:22 includes a closing greeting from the scribe to whom Paul dictated the epistle: "I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord."
Paul began all his letters with a salutation at the beginning and a subscription at the end in his own hand. Scholars refer to his personalized subscriptions as his "autograph." In the subscriptions to his epistles, he ordinarily offered a few summary comments, personal greetings to people he knew, perhaps a doxology or word of thanksgiving or request for prayer, and then a closing blessing of grace and peace:
The greeting is in my own hand -Paul. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. The grace of the Master Yeshua be with you. My love be with you all in the Messiah Yeshua. Amen. (I Corinthians 16:21-24)
1, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you. (Colossians 4:18)
1, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. (Philemon 19)
1, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write. The grace of our Master Yeshua the Messiah be with you all. (2 Thessalonians 3:17-18)
Paul used his "autograph" as his sign of authenticity in every letter he sent. People could know that the letter came from Paul and was not a forgery of some type (as mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:2) if the subscription was written in his own distinct handwriting.
The autograph in the epistle to the Galatians begins in 6:11, "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand." Paul's large letters call for careful attention to his closing remarks. He did not want the Galatians to miss his central point:
Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Yeshua. The grace of our Master Yeshua the Messiah be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. (Galatians 6:11-18)
Paul rolled the pages of the finished letter together, wrapped them in another sheet of papyrus, then tied the parcel with a small cord and sealed it with wax. He wrote the words "To the Assemblies of Galatia" on the exterior and placed the letter into the hands of a trusted messenger. So far as we know, it was the first of his epistles to the communities of Messiah.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.