Lover of YHWH: possibly a proper name, Theophilus. James Trimm writes, “Theophilus… served as High Priest from 37 to 42 C.E. Theophilus was both a priest and a Sadducee. It would appear that the Gospel was intended to be used by others as well and was likely targeted at Sadducee [Tzaduqim] readers. Theophilus was the son of Annas and the brother-in-law of Caiaphas; as a result he grew up in the Temple.” Apparently he was very interested in knowing the history of Yeshua and His disciples. I: Luqa, or Luke. Authored the first: or, began by writing. Account: the Gospel of Luqa. Began: He said He finished the work the Father had given Him (Yoch. 17:4), so the continuation is up to us (see v. 8), just as the first Y’hoshua, his namesake, finished Moshe’s work. There are thus many parallels between this book and Y’hoshua. Both speak of the next step in the preparation of the people of Israel to function as a people.

Holiness: literally, being set apart. Why should we, who are called to be set apart, even expect to be a part of the “in groups” anywhere else? But we are not only set apart from the rest of the world; we are set apart to the Kingdom:

4. And, meeting together with them, He gave them orders not to leave Yerushalayim, but to wait around for [what] the Father had promised, “which you have learned about from Me,

5. “because Yochanan indeed immersed in water; you will also be immersed by the Spirit of Holiness after not many of these days.”

These days: the Counting of the Omer between the Firstfruits of the Barley Harvest and Shavuoth. (See note on v. 26.) Spirit of Holiness: Heb., Ruakh haQodesh. HaQodesh is the proper name for the outer sanctuary in the Temple. It contained the menorah (a picture of Yeshua and His disciples, the vine and the branches), the Table of the Bread of the Faces (a picture of the twelve tribes of Israel in unity), and the altar of incense (a picture of prayers rising as a refreshment to YHWH). The priest would go there for the purpose of trimming the wicks, maintaining the coals on the altar, or changing out the old bread for the new. In short, it was a place for working. The overall picture is of Israel back in unity again, tending to the things of YHWH in His presence, with a Mediator interceding where needed. It is a picture of the Kingdom that Yeshua was discussing with His disciples. The word for spirit, in both Greek and Hebrew, also means “breath” or “wind”. Yeshua went on ahead of us to establish the Kingdom, and sent a wind back to draw us toward the Kingdom. We need to ride it into the Kingdom by taking the steps He reveals to us each day:

Why would they ask this? They knew this was one of the tasks Messiah had to fulfill. Indeed, one reason today's Jews by and large have rejected Yeshua is because he did not bring the Lost Tribes back. Or did He?? He had just spent 40 days teaching them, and this was the foremost question in their minds. Almost every time He mentioned the Gospel, He associated it with the Kingdom. Some say the Kingdom simply means "YHWH's rule in the hearts and minds of men." While it is certainly that, there is much more to it than that. Who is the Israel spoken of here? The Jews? Not directly. YHWH said He would choose one place in the Land of Israel to establish such a "habitation". (Deut. 12:5) When King Shlomo built the Temple, He recognized that this is what YHWH had promised. (2 Chron. 6:2) His reign was a foretaste of the Kingdom! But Solomon allowed his foreign wives to bring idolatry into Israel. YHWH split Israel into two kingdoms. David's throne remained with Judah, but the name "Israel" stayed with the ten tribes given to Jeroboam, who had tried to persuade Solomon's son Rehoboam to lighten their burdens. But Jeroboam took the liberty of setting up alternatives to the dwelling place YHWH had selected. The Northern Kingdom also kept mixing religions, and walked more and more "in the laws of the Gentiles" (2 Kings 17:8; Hos. 7:8; 8:8). They wanted to be just like the others, so they were taken from the Land and BECAME Gentiles! Remember the prodigal's father, who had one son still at home, looking expectantly for his other son to return? At this time, Judah was still at home, safe in the sheepfold, and though YHWH had forsaken Efrayim "for a moment", His heart longed to have His firstborn back! "How can I give up you up, my son?" (Hos. 11:8) Despite a long estrangement, Israel's calling was still irrevocable. (Rom. 11:29) Now that Messiah’s work of being a Kinsman-Redeemer was completed, the Kingdom was indeed to be restored to Israel. He was the one who had set them thinking this way. (v. 3) But it had to all be done in the right order:

Established: We cannot alter the fact that they are going to take place. However, if He had told them there were some 2,000 years left, it might have drained their motivation and tended to sidetrack them, as indeed took place when it became evident that the Master had “delayed”. (Compare Luqa 12:45; Ex. 32:1) But notice that there are plural epochs; it may be that He established that these events had to take place on a particular feast day that He had appointed in the Torah, but left it up to us to determine which year they would come about. It will not take place by magic or instantaneously. The Kingdom is “at hand”; we have to do something to bring it about. If we had retained the focus they had, though, it might not have taken so long. Like a bridegroom awaiting his father’s approval, even Yeshua did not know when it would be ready (Mat. 11:27); it depends on how well we carry out our part:

You: They had asked Him in v. 6 if He would bring about the Kingdom; He shifts the burden to us. He essentially said, “Yes, I have come to restore the Kingdom; now go do it.” Shomron: Samaria, the nearest area where there was a substantial number of "Lost Sheep of the House of Israel" (Yochanan 4), and the former capital of the Northern Kingdom, and thus a “shorthand” for all the House of Yoseyf. Farthest extremity: He told His disciples to do what YHWH had said: “Declare it to the far-off coastlands that He who scattered Israel will regather him and keep watch over him like a shepherd." (Yirmiyahu 31:10) An integral part of restoring the Kingdom is to provide a population for the King to rule over, and their job was to make them into citizens worthy of His Kingdom. (Compare Mat. 28:19-20.) As Y’hoshua and Kalev, having seen the Land, gave a favorable report and said it could be taken, those who saw a Man succeed in loving YHWH and his brothers perfectly could with confidence testify that someone had already arrived in the Kingdom and that the rest of us could attain it as well. But being a witness is not so much about being a missionary or preaching to crowds, although each of these methods can be seen in this book in a certain sense. But what Yeshua said would be the greatest witness that we belong to Him is our love for one another. (Yochanan 13:35) For that to work there has to be an “us”. We are separated unto one another. People will not so much see Yeshua in you or me as in the combining of people who have scattered into so many different cultures and lifestyles, yet are all returning with the same goal—of restoring the Kingdom of Israel. We do so by becoming the Kingdom, and that begins by living as Israelites where we are. Some—those descendants of Israel whose innate hunger for who we were has finally come to maturity—will be powerfully drawn to wanting to be part of this. Others—who are steeped in self—will be repulsed by the fruit of the Kingdom, because it is bitter to them. All they can see is what we are separated from, and think only of what they would lose, not what they would gain.

Lifted up: taken up, hoisted, elevated. The Most High is above the clouds, for haSatan wanted to ascend there to take His place. (Yeshayahu 14:14) Yeshua did not presume to try to do this (Phil. 2:6), but YHWH exalted Him above every other man. (Phil. 2:9; contrast Gen. 11:4 with 12:2) Took Him out of their sight: literally, separated Him from their eyes.

11. who also said, “Galilean men, why are you standing [there] with your eyes turned toward the sky? This [same] Yeshua, who is being taken up away from you into Heaven, will likewise come in the same way you have seen Him being transferred into Heaven.”

Will come the same way: with clouds (v. 9), an allusion to Daniel 7:13. One of the titles the Messiah is known by is “the Master of Clouds”. Clouds are often an idiom for large crowds of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) or an army with which He will return. (Yirmeyahu 4:13; Y’hezq’el 38:9, 16; Rev. 1:7) But if we are looking up, we will not see one another, and we will be “so heavenly-minded” that we will not bring the Kingdom “on earth as it is in Heaven”.

The Mount of Olives from Yerushalayim. Sabbath’s holding: by tradition, if someone feels he needs to be in a different location from his home on the Sabbath, he establishes a temporary “base” within a short distance of that location, staying there so he can consider it his “home” during that Sabbath and avoid breaking the Sabbath by going further, which would constitute work. A Sabbath day’s journey outside a walled city, according to rabbinical regulations (which follow those of the Prushim), was 2,000 cubits (about .57 mile, a little less than one kilometer) from the Temple, which counted as the center of the city. This allowed one to walk far enough from the city to eliminate waste in compliance with Deut. 23:12-14 but not violate Ex. 16:29, which forbids leaving one’s “place” on the Sabbath. These measurements are based on the regulations for the Levitical cities (Num. 35:2-5), which specified a band of 2,000 cubits from the city’s center as the zone in which animals (which also are not permitted to work on the Sabbath) are kept. The next zone was for crops; we do not go out that far lest we be tempted to tend to any problems we might see with them. Yet while we are in exile, if we have to travel miles to be in community and light the fire of our automobile ignition in order to join with others from Israel on the Sabbath, that is the lesser of two evils, so that we can bring the day closer when we are no longer forced to make such a choice.

Upper-story room: probably the royal stoa in the Temple, based on the events in the next chapter.

One mind: Heb., one heart. The women: possibly the wives of the disciples, or simply those who had come to Yeshua’s tomb on the day of His resurrection. His brothers: one of whom was Yaaqov, who in Yeshua’s absence inherited the position of king of Yehudah. This is why he rose to prominence so quickly after being among Yeshua’s mockers only a few months or years prior to this. (Yochanan 7:3-5)

How did one who had failed Yeshua so miserably less than two months before come to be a leader? Partly because Yeshua had foreordained this (Mat. 16:18), and allotted him three occasions to repent (Yoch. 21:15-17), but also possibly because one who had been through the fearful experience of being out of favor and the deep regret of having seen the other side would be better able to direct others away from it. “He who is forgiven much loves much” (Luqa 7:47) and those who are lifted from the heaps of broken pottery (see note on v. 18) and seated with nobles (Psalm 113:7) are often appreciative than those who were always nobles.

This Yehudah was the man often known as “Judas”. There may be a prophetic sense in which the whole tribe of Yehudah is spoken of in v. 20—for a season. (Compare to Mat. 21:43.)

18. “This one purchased a field with the recompense of sin, and fell on his face upon the earth, he split in half and all his intestines poured out,

Z’kharyah 11:12-13 prophesies that the Potter’s Field would be purchased in the Temple of YHWH, and the following verse speaks of the dividing of Yehudah from Israel. This man by the name of Yehudah cut himself off from Israel by executing himself in this manner (by hanging). Interestingly, the Potter’s Field was the place where broken potsherds that had already been through the fire and had burst, being thus no longer able to be reworked into something useful were discarded. (Compare Heb. 10:26-31) Yehudah apparently put himself in this category of having no hope of repentance, unlike Kefa, who went out and wept bitterly for his sin on the same night.

20. “since it was written in the scroll of the psalms, ‘Let his encampment be made desolate; let no one inhabit his tents’ [Ps. 69:26], and ‘let another take his office’. [Ps. 109:8]

His: in the first-cited verse, the original Hebrew says “their”. Kefa numbered Yehudah as one example of this curse, which is spoken in the context of the enemies of David, Yeshua’s own ancestor. One need not be maliciously-motivated to function in the role of enemy. (Compare Mat. 16:23.) It seems Yehudah was not (but as a zealot was simply trying force Yeshua to stand up and defeat the Romans and take His place as King). The end result was the same.

22. “[from] back at the immersing of Yochanan up to the day He was taken up in Himself from among us—[who] was a witness to His resurrection along with us.”

He had to be someone who had known Yeshua prior to His death and seen Him after His resurrection to be a valid witness verifying that He was the same person.

Bar-saba: an Aramaic name, probably “Son of His will”, but possibly from the Hebrew “son of Sh’va (the ancestor of the Sabeans). Mathiyah means “man of YHWH”.

Note that though they had only recently been with Yeshua, yet did not pray to Him as some do today. They never got this idea from what He taught.

26. When they hurled lots, it came up for Mathiyah, so he was counted [in] with the eleven Delegates.

As Yeshua had risen up to fill the void that Adam had left, it was important symbolically to have twelve again since their task was to restore all the tribes of Israel. (vv. 6-8) Delegates: specifically those “sent” by Yeshua as the Father had sent Him. (Yoch. 20:21) Counted in: This took place during the “Counting of the Omer”—a word play that ties in well with the next verse.

Completely filled up: Shavuoth is the “feast of weeks”, the day after the counting of a “week of weeks” (49 days) reaches its culmination, not at evening as the day begins, but in the morning when it has fully arrived. It is the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and so symbolizes a completion of the maturing process of a crop that is used for many of the secondary sacrifices in the Temple. On this feast alone, leavened loaves are brought to the Temple as an offering. For this reason, it is only waved before the altar, not burned thereon. And indeed we see a harvest on this day. (v. 41) There is another festival of firstfruits—that of the barley harvest. It is the day in which Pharaoh was killed in the Red Sea and the Israelites escaped on the other side. It is also the day Yeshua rose from the dead. He was called the "firstfruits of those who rise from the dead." (I Cor. 15:23) Starting that day, we are instructed to count the days (the omer: the measure) until Shavuoth. (Lev. 23) With one passion: according to Strong, “a compound of two words meaning to ‘rush along’ and ‘in unison’. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master”, all their gifts (see Eph. 4) were working together to bring the entire Body to readiness. Such agreement cannot take place if everyone’s opinion is given equal weight; the 12 had to rule according to Torah. It is noteworthy that those with the “keys to the kingdom” are keeping the Feast. When they were in such agreement, YHWH acted:

Suddenly: yet not totally unexpectedly. Most Christians believe that this was the first Pentecost, and that the church was born on that day. Actually, this was not as unique as it would seem; the first Shavuoth (of which Pentecost is loosely a Greek translation, meaning “50th”) was at Mt. Sinai. Jewish tradition says it was on this day that YHWH gave the Ten Commandments. Scripture does not state this explicitly, but we know from contextual clues that it had to be very close to this date. The story is in Exodus 19:14ff, and we will see many parallels here that lend credibility to this tradition. Like Moshe, the disciples had just come down off a mountain to be together with all Israel. The ram's horn grew louder and louder, like the sound mentioned here. The mountain was set ablaze. Everything that was done historically had a fulfillment in Yeshua's day. As they sat in the Temple on Pentecost, there was a rushing, roaring wind, like that ram’s horn, and again there were tongues of flame. The Hertz Authorized Prayer Book says, in a section on Shavuoth (p. 790), that the desert of Sinai (now in northwestern Saudi Arabia near the eastern fork of the Reed Sea) belonged to no one nation exclusively. The shofar blast was heard, not by Israel alone, but by the inhabitants of all the earth. When Yeshua said to wait until they were endowed with power from above, they would have recognize that it would most likely be on Shavuoth, which was only ten days away. House: Since there were 120 of them, it was probably The House, i.e., an upper room at the Temple (reminiscent of Yeshayahu 6), where they continued to meet thereafter. (v. 46) It may have been the Royal Stoa, which Herod had added on and which was visible from both the courtyards within and easily accessible from outside the Temple complex. (See photo.) But they had also been built together into one house of living stones as a dwelling place fit for YHWH’s Spirit. Sitting: another allusion to Psalm 133: “Behold, how appropriate and how pleasant it is when brothers sit together in unity.”

They were able to see these tongues as if they were of fire. Their ancestors at Sinai "saw no form, but only a voice". (Deut. 4:11) They saw the voice! This one fire was distributed among them all, instead of on the mountain this time. The first time, the people feared it; this time they were waiting for it.

Yeshua prophesied this in a general sense in Mark 16:17. The tongues of flame and the gift of tongues here were the fulfillment of that initial outpouring at Sinai. History repeated itself. Ecclesiastes says, "That which took place before will take place again." By tradition, the voice of YHWH at Sinai divided itself into the 70 tongues then spoken on earth, so that all of mankind might understand the Torah’s redemptive message, but only Israel responded. As Yeshua’s students were counting the days leading up to Shavuoth, the liturgy included a blessing each day, then Psalm 67 is read: "YHWH, be merciful to us and bless us. Cause Your face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O YHWH; let all the peoples praise You, and let the nations be glad, for You shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on the earth...Then the earth shall yield her increase. YHWH, our own Elohim, shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." This was the goal being aimed at during the Counting of the Omer. To be eloquent: Heb., what the Spirit gave them to say. These were not “tongues of angels”, but, as we will see, real languages spoken by the hearers. (v. 6, ,8)

Jews: The Gospel is “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16; 2:10), partly because for YHWH to bless them, there had to be a repentance (vv. 38-39) so that the blessing that would then extend to every nation could come upon them and start this process. (Psalm 67; see note on v. 4.) Devout men: Heb., fearers of Elohim. Out of every nation: that is, living abroad They were in Yerushalayim for this second of the pilgrimage festivals to which every able-bodied Israelite was commanded to come.

7. And they were all thrown into wonderment and expressed admiration, saying to each other, “Aren’t all of these who are speaking indeed Galileans?

Galileans: considered uneducated by Judean standards (though largely because they generally followed the simple Torah rather than the embellishments many rabbis had added to it), yet here they were fluently speaking numerous foreign languages. YHWH uses the foolish to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27), since it was obvious that these men were not capable of bringing this forth themselves. It clearly had to be YHWH’s doing.

9. “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, both Yehudah and Kappadokia, Pontos and Asia,

Steve Collins has filled a whole book with documentation of how the Parthians originated from a mingling of a few of the “lost” tribes of Israel, so Jews would have been welcome there.

Parts of Libya: certain enclaves in which these Jews lived, not every part of Libya.

Our own: though they were Jews, they had assimilated to their places of residence and no longer knew Hebrew. But YHWH graciously clarified the message for them through this event. The “tongues” were spread out in order to call them all back to the Torah. Excellencies: great deeds or works. The message was the same as that given at Mt. Sinai—the Torah (Ex. 20), now heard clearly no matter where its recipients lived. Of course, Yahshua was the “great work” (masterpiece) that they were emphasizing on this occasion.

13. Others said jeeringly, “They are full of sweet wine!"

14. But standing up with the eleven [delegates], Shim’on Kefa lifted up his voice and said to them, “Jewish men and all those staying in Yerushalayim, let this be known to you, and pay attention to what I am going to speak [about]!

15. “Because these [people] are not drunk, as you [have voiced your] supposition, since it is [only] the third hour!

The third hour: halfway between sunrise and noon. Many devout Jews at that time did not even eat until they were finished with morning prayers, which would often extend well beyond this, especially on a high day.

17. “‘And what will take place in the latter days,’ declares Elohim, ‘is that I will pour out My spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your choice young men will see ecstatic visions, and your old men will dream dreams;

18. “‘and I will even pour out My spirit on the slaves and maid-servants in those days’, and they will prophesy.

19. “‘and I will appoint conspicuous signs in the skies and on the land—blood and fire and columns of smoke.

This would remind them of the thick clouds and fire that accompanied the giving of the Torah the first time at Sinai, also on Shavuoth by ttradition, and since what most people studied at that time was man-made doctrine that had accumulated over it, and were more concerned about following the doctrines of their sects than with actually studying the Torah, it was as if He was offering it again for the first time. What Yahshua called us to do was to return to it and build our traditions for the sake of loving YHWH and loving our fellows as ourselves.

20. “‘The sun will be transformed into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and terrifying Day of YHWH arrives.

21. “‘And what will take place [is that] any who may call on the name of YHWH will be rescued.’

Call on the name of YHWH: Not just a magical formula for salvation. In the context of Shavuoth, which on its first occurrence was a betrothal ceremony, YHWH is offering a renewal of vows. Calling on His name (especially as used in Yeshayahu 64:7) is to say “I do”, to eagerly take what He is offering and express a strong desire for Him. We must not understand this outside of a Shavuoth context. If we change the context, we change the entire message. Rescued: At that time, this would be understood as from Rome or from not having a king of their own. The more specific context in the disciples’ minds, as taught by Yeshua in the last fifty days, is the return of the scattered captives of Yehudah and Israel. The quote is from nearly the whole of chapter 3 of Yoel in Hebrew (the end of chapter 2 in English). He stops the quote in mid-verse of the original. What follows (and what it would remind them of) says, “for in Mt. Tzion and Yerushalayim, there will be deliverance, as YHWH has said, as well as in the remnant whom YHWH will call.” That is where this did take place, so this event is the foreshadowing of that larger one that is yet to come. The context is Israel, not some new entity called the “church”. The point of this event is not to encourage others to “speak in tongues”; it is about restoring Israel, most of whom are now held captive in the church, which has made this feast or the day’s events into sometimes entirely different. Yoel says YHWH will judge all nations for this. (3:2; 4:2) There is no such thing as a spiritual-only salvation. If Iusrael accepts the Torah again, YHWH will bring us home. We must not wait for miracles; the miracles are waiting until we act on His word and take all the steps we can first.

Listen, Israel: This is how the “Sh’ma”, the cornerstone of Hebraic faith, begins. (Deut. 6:4ff) This would have caught their attention. It continues by saying that “YHWH is one”. Kefa’s description of Yeshua is “a man from Elohim”. He has an audience of probably a million people at this feast. If he wanted to tell them that Yeshua was Elohim in the flesh, and that they had killed YHWH, this would certainly have been the time to do it! By this would conflict with the Sh’ma. That is not the Gospel. It is that Yeshua has come as a very unique, chosen vessel to restore the lost Kingdom to Israel. He begins with scattered Yehudah, because they are the easiest to recognize, having preserved the knowledge of their identity and heritage better than the rest of Israel. Pointed out: literally, made seen; Greek, exhibited, shown, proven, demonstrated.

24. “But Elohim raised Him up and spared Him from the pangs of the grave, because the grave came to be without the opening to [have power to] retain Him.

25. “Indeed, David said about Him, ‘I have set YHWH constantly before me; since [He is not far] from my right hand, I will not be overthrown.

David is saying that Yeshua has set YHWH before Him at all times. Because He never sinned, He had a special unbroken connection with YHWH, but if He were YHWH, why would He have to keep YHWH in mind?

27. “‘because you will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you permit Your pious one to gaze at the pit [of destruction],

The pit: Greek, decay.

29. “Men of our brothers! By your leave I will say unreservedly concerning David, head of the patriarchs, that he is both dead and buried, and the place of his tomb can be found with us to this day.

By your leave: a common Jewish introduction to an important utterance. Unreservedly: boldly, freely, without ambiguity. By tradition, Shavuoth was actually the anniversary (jahrzeit in Yiddish) of David’s death! David’s flesh did see corruption, but through David’s seed—His descendant Yeshua, who continued his line and thus “kept him alive”, this does indirectly apply to David as well. In one sense YHWH does not distinguish descendants from ancestors, unless the ancestors hate Him and a descendant breaks away from that and begins to follow Him. He looks on us as Avraham, so the promises to him apply to us. The promises to David’s son (e.g., 1 Chron. 17:11-12; Psalm 2; Psalm 110) could apply to Shlomo if he met the conditions; if not, they had to wait for a later descendant. But what Yeshua accomplished for David’s household then applied to anyone in that household either before or after Him.

Compare 2 Shmu’el 7:12-13. The Messiah: this explanatory remark is in the Greek text, but not the Aramaic, but it is a correct inference that is upheld by verse 31, though it has wider applications as well:

Yeshua’s time in the grave (Heb., She’ol) was only so that the leaven collected on the wooden stake on which He died (as in the Passover ritual) might be burned up. Not see decay: He was dead only three days, while tradition said one’s soul remained near his body for three and a half days before finally departing, and we see in the account of El’azar that one would certainly begin to decay by the fourth day. (Yochanan 11:39) So the chosen One had to die in order to prove He was the one who would not undergo decay. Even the Romans recognized that if He was the one, there would be a resurrection, so they posted guards, assumedly to kill Him again if He should rise from the dead!

33. “It is He who is raised up at the right hand of Elohim, and having received from the Father the promise concerning the Spirit of Holiness, and has poured out this gift that you, lo and behold, [both] see and hear!

At the right hand: or, by the right hand. This gift: the sign of the tongues of fire and the sound of the wind.

35. “‘until I put Your enemies in place as a footstool for Your feet.’ [Psalm 110:1]

36. “Therefore let the whole House of Israel know with assurance that Elohim has made this [same] Yeshua whom you crucified, both Master and Messiah!”

Whole House: while Yehudah was responsible for killing Him, and the House of David needed someone to restore it to its lost estate, it was also because the Northern Kingdom needed redemption that He had to die. Now the promise had been fulfilled that if a man from David’s lineage would walk before YHWH in truth and with His whole heart, the Kingdom would continue on (1 Kings 2:4), so the Kingdom had now been restored!

Grieved: or distressed.

Be immersed: a ritual statement of intention and commitment to follow not only YHWH but also the King that He has established. (Psalm 2:6)

Who are far off: a specific allusion to Daniel’s prayer (in 9:7) for the part of Israel that was driven into other lands by YHWH because of their sins—i.e., the Northern Kingdom, as well as these Jews who were not living in their proper Land. The idiom also shows up in Yeshayahu 66:19 and Yirmeyahu 31:10; 46:27; 51:50. “Whom Elohim may call”: Here Shim’on resumes his quote from Yoel 3:5 (2:32).

41. Then, indeed, those who were gladly receiving his teaching were immersed, and that same day there were added [to their company] about three thousand souls,

About three thousand: the same number as those who fell in the wilderness on one day (during the golden calf incident, Ex. 32:28) This was a tikkun, or reparation, for what had been broken or torn on that day. The firstfruits of the what harvest was on Shavuoth, with the remainder of the harvest to follow. (v. 47) These people were the firstfruits of the harvest that continued in v. 47.

Those who had come up for the Feast stayed on in Yerushalayim! They did not go back to their other homes (the places mentioned in verses 9-11), but remained where YHWH was moving.

44. And those who believed were together and had all things that they owned in common.

Believers: or, faithful ones. They all moved in together, a picture again of all Israel being reunited in Yerushalayim—a foreshadowing of the Messianic Kingdom. In common: collectively or in partnership.

46. And every day they continued in the Temple with one heart, and at home they were breaking bread and eating food with joy and with integrity of heart.

At home: Greek, from house to house, i.e., in a different person’s home each time. This is not a basis for “house churches”, because their teaching was received in the Temple. But eating together strengthens the ties of covenant. Integrity: Gk., simplicity or singleness; in Hebrew, the same word used to describe Yaaqov in Gen. 25:27—complete, plain (straightforward), pure, innocent, lacking nothing.

Witness-group: assembly, company, congregation, or even family.

Together: Gk., on the same—i.e., either at the same time or for the same purpose. They did not just accidentally meet up with each other there. Ninth hour: that is, 3:00 p.m. by the sun, one of the three prayer times that come at three-hour intervals during the day. It is halfway between noon and sunset and coincides with the first evening oblation, an offering of an animal that is fully consumed. This was tradition, but one that was honored by YHWH. Daniel based his three prayer times per day on this Temple convention. Luqa does not explain such things because he assumes his reader is familiar with the “comings and goings” of the Temple. (Y’hezq’el 43:11) This is necessary to avoid twisting the meaning of any part of the Renewed Covenant. This was not like a pagan temple.

Beautiful: flourishing or blooming, but from a word meaning timely, belonging to the right hour, or in season. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, literally, that there is a time for everything to be a delight unto heaven. There are even proper seasons within the same day. He was at the right place at the right time, as were these two apostles. If either he or they had been late, he would not have been healed. Begging alms is a delight when done at the right time, for it affords the worshipper in YHWH’s house the privilege of doing a deed of righteousness (the same word in Hebrew which is still used for charitable giving of this type). The last vestige of the Temple, the Western (Wailing) Wall, is still a commonly haunt of those in Yerushalayim who need to beg alms. The smell of cooking lamb would have made the man all the hungrier. Since he could not stand, he could not enter the Temple courts, where no one but the king was permitted to sit. But he got as close as he could to gathering with the rest of Israel to honor YHWH.

4. And Shim’on and Yochanan, fixing their eyes intently on him, said to him, “Look at us!”

5. So he paid them attention, expecting to receive something from them.

6. [But] Shim’on said to him, “I don’t even have the beginnings of gold or silver, but what I [do] have I will give you: In the name of our Master Yeshua the Notzri, the Messiah, get up and walk!”

This was a much more valuable gift—a permanent one, if he would accept the open door. Though he was eager to do so (v. 8), he may have hesitated because he thought it impossible, so Kefa encouraged him further:

8. And he was willing [to do so] and stood up and walked, and started going into the Temple, walking and springing up, and praising Elohim.

Was willing: or delighted; Greek, leaping up. He had waited all his life for this, and now he was able, so it was the right time, and the first place he went was the Temple.

10. they recognized that he was the beggar who had been sitting every day and asking for alms near the gate that is called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at how it had turned out for him.

Beggar: Heb., collector.

He embraced his healers as his brothers. Shlomo’s Portico is still the common area of the Temple, not the holiest area.

Why are you amazed? Had they not heard of YHWH doing the same kind of thing through many of His prophets throughout history? This was nothing unique. Everything Yeshua did had been done by others before Him, only not on as grand a scale. Ability: from a word meaning to support, uphold, or sustain. He may be suggesting that they thought he was commanding magical forces and suspending them in balance until the operation was complete. But it was not everyone’s time to be healed, so, like Yeshua on many occasions, they took people’s focus off the instruments YHWH had used and back onto YHWH Himself:

Glorified: adorned, vaunted, beautified, made to shine, enriched. Son: the Greek interprets this with a word for “child” that has the sense of a young attendant or servant—his “errand-boy”, so to speak, as Y’hoshua was to Moshe until Moshe’s death.

He did not try to flatter his audience into listening to him!

Leader: author (in the sense of an absolute expert—the one who “wrote the book” on the way life is to be lived), pioneer (one who goes before us, making a way for us to walk where He walked), example (showing us what it means to be an overcomer); Heb., prince.

Robustness: from a word for fatness or richness and related to the word for newness or (re-) creation; Greek, complete soundness, unimpaired health. It was as if he had been created again!

By mistake: They thought they were punishing someone who had overstepped His rights. But this had to take place, so YHWH let their ignorance remain until this time.

Bear: or be burdened or laden with. The great news is that the King they had killed was not dead anymore. They could now change their views about Him and acknowledge His authority, which the prophets had foretold. This is how YHWH did what He had said He would do. He points them back to the prophets who had all taught about who Yeshua would be. They did not have a “New Testament” to teach anything about Him, but the Hebraic context told them enough: the prophets say a king will come who will bring the whole nation back to the Torah, resurrecting the part of it that had died. We today are witnesses to the fact that the next stage of this accomplishment is in progress!

Chisel: dig, hollow, scrape as an engraving scribe does. Turn back: reverse, restore, refresh, in the same imagery of the engraver obliterating his mistake and going back over it to fill it in with new mortar so it can be re-wrtitten correctly:

21. “whom it is necessary that the heavens receive until the fulfilling of the times of all the words that Elohim said through His set-apart prophets that have been since antiquity.

22. “Indeed, as Moshe said, ‘A prophet will YHWH raise up for you from the midst of your brothers like myself; to him you must listen in everything that he may tell you,

The word order of Deut. 18:15 is changed here, but the components are all the same. Again, He is not trying to present Yeshua as being Elohim.

This is a paraphrased summary of Deut. 18:18-20.

25. “You are those who are the sons of the prophets and sons of the covenant which Elohim appointed for our ancestors when He said to Avraham, ‘In your seed will all the families of the ground be blessed.’

Or, into your seed will all the families of the earth be grafted. Sons: i.e., beneficiaries.

CHAPTER 4

2. full of anger at them over [the fact] that they were teaching the people and making proclamation about resurrection from among the dead in the Messiah.

Anger: heat, excitement, or poison; Greek, being worked up, displeased, offended, troubled, distressed. This was because some of the Tz’doqim (the Boethusians) did not believe in the resurrection (Mat. 22:23), or anything else supernatural, for that matter, which would include this type of healing. Therefore this event was proving their doctrine wrong. It was also the job of the priests to teach Israel (Mal. 2:7), and the delegates (apostles) were doing the job that they had been failing to do well.

They could not legally make a ruling, especially a death sentence (which they were probably contemplating) anywhere but on the Temple Mount, where their council-chamber was located, and the gates to the Temple would be closed at sundown. The Temple was an extremely divided politically-charged place during this time. The P’rushim knew that those in authority at the Temple were the wrong ones. (More about this below.) Those in power still felt themselves in a very precarious position. There were many divisions even among the P’rushim and Tz’doqim, and all were vying for the support of the people, to the point of hating one another. On the national level, they had nearly reached the state the earth was in just before the Deluge in Noakh’s day. They were ruled by a pagan power, and governed by those who were either crooked or compromised. People did the math based on Daniel’s prophecies of when the Messiah would come, and expectations were high. All the factionalism made it quite obvious to the people that none of the major options had the answer. Yeshua is called the “sprout” (Yeshayahu 11:1), and all this ferment acted like fertilizer. Indeed, Y’hoshua brought Israel across the Yarden when the river looked most impossible to cross.

This would represent the increase of nearly 2,000 in one day. (2:41, 47)

Drivers: possibly those who evicted from the Temple precincts any whom they thought should not be there. Greek, rulers or leaders.

Though these men bore the name Tz’doqim, these were not the properly-constituted Tzadoqite priesthood, but illegal usurpers who bought their office from Rome as the highest bidders. From the Temple Scroll (found at Qumran) we know that the true Tzadoqite priests had left Yerushalayim to protest the fact that those holding the priesthood were illegitimate. They were legitimately priests, but not of the true high priestly family, which probably was actually that of Z’kharyah and Yochanan the Immerser, both of whom had been murdered. (Phrases Yochanan used, such as “brood of vipers”, correlate well with those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they placed a great deal of emphasis on the one who was coming, whom they called the Teacher of Righteousness.) By waiting until the next day, the council also had time to call together their most skilled minds so they could better manipulate the trial to their advantage.

They knew that it could not be simply their own. The Talmud is full of things said in the name of another rabbi, and this is a valid concept. YHWH looks favorably on the names and of the righteous, and upholds those who are associated with them as worthy of the same merit. But it goes both ways; if we do not walk the same walk as the one whose authority we claim, the name we use means nothing. (19:12-17)

Keyfa had been known for his bravery, even daring to try to cut off the head of the priest’s servant. But his denial of Yeshua sobered him immensely, and made him realize that only Yeshua was worth living for, and this was part of his repentance.

10. “know this, for yourselves and for all the people of Israel, that in the name of Yeshua the Messiah, the Notzri, whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from among the dead—take note! Through Him, this man stands before you, restored to health!

11. “He is ‘the stone that’ you, ‘the builders rejected’, and He ‘has become the head of the corner’.

This is a quote from Psalm 118:22, personalized to Keyfa’s audience. That Psalm is used at Passover, when the epitome of Yeshua’s rejection took place, and also in the liturgy for the New Moon, a time that is tied to the healing of the tribes. (Rev. 22:2) His use of the psalms, which in this day were popularly seen as prophetic, he is again mocking those who do not believe in miraculous prophecy.

The heavens: often a Hebraic euphemism for YHWH’s Name. Thus he is reminding us that Yeshua’s name, though higher than any other (Phil. 2:9), is still lower than YHWH’s. Delivered: or saved, another allusion to Psalm 118 (verses 14 and 15).

Boldly: being uncovered, by revelation, without protection. Clear: proven by trial or investigation, the same Hebrew term used for the “tried cornerstone” of Yeshayahu 28:16, which also alludes to Psalm 118. They apparently thought they would have an easy time discrediting these Galileans, known by their accent which was known for dropping the last vowels in most words. They had not studied rabbinic arguments in a yeshiva, so they were considered as illiterate, though nearly any Jew at that time would have been raised to be able to read the Torah, and Keyfa is known to have come from a wealthy family. Because these men had now “tied them in knots” so easily, they recognized Yeshua’s teaching method in them, and realized that Keyfa had been lying when he told the same group that he did not know Him. They learned Yeshua’s method by sitting around campfires with Him and watching Him interact with His enemies. When one immerses himself in Torah, he learns how to argue a case like a lawyer, and will be considered very wise by those who observe. (Deut. 4:6) There is enough ambiguity in the text to read this as also saying these rulers recognized that they were the ones who really knew nothing, once they saw the resurrection which proved their doctrines wrong and the skill with which these men from whom they anticipated no challenge ended up making them look like fools.

A tree is known by its fruit; how could they argue with this? And Keyfa had stated things carefully with the art that a trained P’rush would use, setting these men up to have to admit that they had said and done nothing that contradicted the Scriptures that they claimed as their authority.

Gathering: Greek, Sanhedrin. They used a bullying technique of excluding them and whispering privately, probably casting glances in their direction, with the intent of striking fear in them.

Conceal: Greek, refute.

18. And they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach in Yeshua’s name at all.

They did not forbid them from teaching, but only that they not attribute the ideas to their master. But to thus steal credit from the one who had taught them this path was unthinkable:

Such wisdom! Psalm 118 also gave him the background to say this: “It is better to trust in YHWH than to put your confidence in nobles.” (vv. 8-9) More than: Greek, rather than.

When Efrayimites are asked why we are more orthodox than most of Yehudah, we should not only say, “Because we are simply obeying the Torah”, but unequivocally give credit to Yeshua, who alone taught us how and why.

All they could do was try to intimidate them by making themselves look more fearsome than they really were. Their obsession with remaining in power was leverage for the delegates, because they knew that Rome would remove their position from them if they failed to prevent an uprising among the people. But the delegates no longer feared these men, having been eyewitnesses of the resurrection. What did it matter now if they were killed? The context of Psalm 118, quoted above, also says, “YHWH is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (v. 6) Punished: or constrained.

Or possibly, was more than forty years old. In either case, he was well-known and unmistakable, and this in itself begged an explanation. The people who saw him beg so many times were glad for him now that he no longer needed to do so. Forty is the number of transition in Scripture, and what a change came over this man!

24. And they, when they heard, lifted their voices together to Elohim, and said, “Adonai, You are the one [who is] the Elohim who made the heavens and the earth and the seas and everything that is in them!

Adonai: majestic plural of “Master”; Aramaic, Marya’, undoubtedly substituted for YHWH in the later written versions. This is the way a traditional Jewish prayer begins. Jews who knew Yeshua did not forsake the way they had learned to pray corporately.

26. “‘The kings of the earth take their stations, and the heavily-honored ones sit together in conclave in regard to YHWH and in regard to His Anointed One.’ [Psalm 2:1-2]

Sit in conclave: or take counsel, from a root meaning to lay a foundation, appoint, ordain, or establish. In other words, they were trying to found a different “house” than the one YHWH was building. Today we see different ideas of how peace on earth will be established: through humanism, which accepts every way as equally valid, though they all contradict one another, or through a rod of iron. The cornerstone YHWH lays is in Tzion (Yeshayahu/Isa. 28:16); His foundation must include the cornerstone, or the building cannot stand. (1 Cor. 3:11)

Herodos and Pilatus: representatives of the “kings of the earth” in his quote from Psalm 2.

Again they quote the psalms as their authority to ask YHWH to deal with the crux of issue at hand: the fact that they need boldness to keep dealing with the same type of threats. They do not ask to be spared from further persecution, but they have made bold claims, and ask YHWH not to let their words fall to the ground:

30. “when extending Your hand for healings and wonders and signs that will be done in the name of Your set-apart Son Yeshua.”

31. And when they had prayed and sought [His] favor, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the spirit of holiness, and boldly spoke the word of Elohim.

They had been filled once; now they were being filled again, so this was clearly not a one-time event. They had a new task to fulfill. It was much easier to be a witness for Yeshua than to be part of a community. “Spirit” is the same term as “breath”, so it was as if they needed a larger dose of oxygen to get them accustomed to the next level where the air was thinner.

Partnership: i.e., in common, as owned by the entire community. This was never directly commanded, but was the natural outflow of the need to assimilate so many from out of the country and confirmed by the fact that they had seen so much miraculous provision. They were already living the Kingdom as already present, never imagining the awful setback on these gains that would take place later and last so long. But we have another open door to pick up where they left off. In fact, Yirmeyahu 31 does prophesy, in the context of asking why we backslide (v. 22), that one day the land of Efrayim (Shomron) will be planted with vines that we will count as common. As we still see today in the stock-vines of Italy, they are prized possessions, very important to those who plant them. Priceless strains are even brought across oceans to start new vineyards with. And wine in Scripture is symbolic of joy. So a sign of the Kingdom is when what we treasure most and what brings us the most joy is held as common. In the Torah, we are told to leave the corners of our vineyards for the stranger (Ex. 23:11), but now the whole vineyard was for whomever needed it, though many of them had only known each other for a few days.

In whatever way they could, each added to the well-being and joy of the whole community. Note that the main thrust of their message here was not personal salvation, but the fact of Yeshua’s having overcome death. Thus they were all able to overcome the type of fears Gentiles cringe before (Mat. 6:31-32):

35. and laying it at the delegates’ feet, and they bestowed on each according to the mouth of his need.

They submitted it to those who knew where the greatest priorities lay, and who could also screen out any who might be tagging along just for the sake of a handout, determining with their wisdom who was most worthy of assistance. Mouth: a Hebraic idiom, but it highlights that the pooling of resources was mainly for the sake of all having enough to eat. The same type of terminology is used here as of the manna in the wilderness (“according to his eating”): what was gathered was pooled and then distributed to each. No one ate until they had prepared for everyone to eat. (Ex. 16:17-18) Those who gathered more did not eat more than they needed, and those who could not gather much still had enough.

Bar-naba’ is an Aramaic name. Consolation: comfort or encouragement; in Hebrew naba’ means “to be moved by prophetic impulse”. Levite: one who would be honored as nobility in a Hebraic context. He is mentioned here as background to his later role and as a stark contrast to the events in chapter 5.

Proceeds: literally, exchange. In this we see a new authority established right under the noses of those who thought they had the right to stop it. Yeshua had prophesied this to those very authorities when He said that YHWH would take the Kingdom from them and give it to a nation that would bring forth its fruit. (Mat. 21:43) This nation—none other than the revival of the true Israel—was being brought right out of that which was then called Israel. Those who did not bear the fruit by caring for one another, YHWH would no longer consider to be Israel. At this point it was still only comprised of Yehudah, but would soon encompass those called out from the other tribes as well.

CHAPTER 5

His name means “YHWH has shown favor” or “to whom YHWH has given graciously”; one would expect that he would give freely in return. (Mat. 10:8) Her name means “sapphire”, and tradition says this is the stone that the Torah was carved on. One would expect people with such names to enhance the community.

Feet: an idiom for placing it at their disposal. All control over what is done with it is surrendered to them. Took: The Greek version means kept back, withdrew privately, appropriated for one’s own use, embezzled.

He was assuring his own security at the expense of the community’s. This is one of the things that separates the sheep from the goats. In contrast with the end of the previous chapter, these are the type of people who would be called least in the Kingdom. They were trying to create a nest egg in the other society in case this new community should fall through. They could no longer say, “We’re all in this together.”

Notice that in v. 3 this perverse idea was credited to haSatan, and here it is credited to Chananyah himself. This is because in Hebrew satan simply means “adversary”. Self is the greatest enemy of the one who wants to rise higher and be part of Israel. It was not in itself a sin to not give them all his money. No one said he had to give anything. But the standard for those who did give had already been set; it was to give all. If it is not whole-hearted, YHWH does not want any of it. Lukewarm is only acceptable if that is the only option. Otherwise it only makes Him sick. (Rev. 3:16) He deserves better. Chananyah might as well have gone and lived for self in a more obvious way; why waste anyone’s time? He only stood in the way of those who would be fully committed. So YHWH took him out of the way:

6. and the youngest who were among them got up and picked him up, took him out, and buried him.

Youngest: or, smallest, lowest, least valued. They were people who could become ritually defiled by a dead body without as much consequence to the rest of the group, because they were not the ones teaching. It would not affect the others as much if they could not come back into the Temple for seven days. (Num. 19:11)

8. Shim’on said to her, “Tell me if you sold the field for this price.” And she said, “Yes, for this price.”

They presented a portion of the price as if it were the full price of the sale, probably in order to elevate their reputation and get in on the esteem other donors were receiving. They pretended to be one of the great ones who gave all, on the same level as Bar-Naba’ (4:36-37), when they were not. YHWH gave her the option of making reparation for what her husband had done, but she proved that they had agreed to give the same lie. Lev. 19:11 forbids lying to one another, and Colossians 3:9 reiterates this, saying this is an aspect of the “old self” that we are to take off like a discarded garment.

YHWH did not need their money; total commitment was what He was looking for. Clearly, none of us is all the way “there” yet in every area, but the choices we make with what we can do will set the pattern for the direction our lives take. What we trust is what we will serve, and we cannot serve both YHWH and wealth. (Mat. 6:24)

These are the same people seen in verse 6, so apparently the “hoisting” was done in such a way as to avoid contact with the corpse.

The fear of YHWH is clean. (Psalm 19:9) This demonstration early on showed the direction YHWH did not want His grace to take, and was a deterrent to anyone else who was not whole-hearted. In Psalm 52, lying is contrasted directly with speaking righteously, and says YHWH would remove those who love this lifestyle from the land of the living, causing the righteous, who remain in the House of Elohim, to fear. Their response would be to point out that this was the consequence of trusting wealth rather than YHWH. Could anything better summarize this chapter thus far?

Shlomo’s Portico: The easternmost part of Shlomo’s original Temple complex, which had been left intact by the Babylonians and lasted until the time of Agrippa. When the rest of the Temple was deconstructed and rebuilt, it was left as it was due to its antiquity. So it represented the pristine purity of the Temple as the most ancient remaining symbol of the continuity of YHWH’s sanctuary, much like the Western wall of today. Yeshua identified the Temple that was standing in His day with His body, for its physical aspects teach about what His mystical Body is meant to be. So this was the main place His disciples taught. What better place could there be to teach what the Body of Messiah—which the community was becoming—was meant to be like? All the pictures were right there; they did not have to make charts or drawings to explain the structure as we do today. They could point right to them and say, “See that? That is what we are to be like.”

People recognized what YHWH was doing through them, but recognized that they themselves were not ready for such a level of commitment, and so they admired them from a distance.

15. to the point that they brought the infirm out into the streets when they laid them on their sleeping-mats as Shim’on was coming so that even just his shadow might fall on them.

Yeshua said His followers would do greater works than He. (Yoch. 14:12) People had to touch His tzitziyoth to be healed (Mat. 14:36), but here they only had to cross the path of his shadow!

17. Then the high priest was filled with jealousy, and all those who were with him who were from the party of the Tz’doqim,

Jealousy: because their “clientele” were all leaving them behind for something better. They were teaching a different “life” (v. 20).

Round-house: a fortified prison, as in Gen. 39:20.

Messenger: Like Lot (Gen. 19), they were delivered from an impossible situation by angels.

Nothing could stop these people, not even locked prison doors, if YHWH did not want them to. He “set a table for them” in the presence of their enemies. (Psalm 23:5)

Daybreak: when the gates of the Temple complex would first open.

Deputies: those “from the decree/edict”.

This was very similar to Yeshua’s resurrection from a guarded tomb, and must have painfully reminded these people who tried not to believe in a resurrection of that event. They were really becoming nervous now:

25. And a man came and made it known to them, “The men who you confined to the round-house—look! They’re standing in the Temple and teaching the people!”

26. Then the overseers went with the magistrates to bring them—without force, because they were afraid the people might stone them!

Magistrates: literally, writers or engravers.

28. “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach a man in this name? Yet, lo and behold, you are filling Yerushalayim with your teaching, and you want to bring this Man’s blood upon us!”

They wanted them silenced, because their own guilt would be too obvious when people knew the facts.

Obey: Aramaic, be persuaded by. This time they do not say, “You be the judge of whether it is right”; by virtue of their bringing up the subject again, they showed that they had already judged their own commands to take precedence over YHWH’s. Compare Psalm 118:8-9, which was quoted in the Temple on numerous liturgical occasions

Hung up: the term implies a slow process of executing someone through exposure.

Israel: not just the Jews, but the Northern Kingdom as well. Note how they describe Him: not as the Creator who had been killed and who resurrected Himself, but rather as one who did not get to His present position on His own, but because YHWH put Him there.

They were essentially saying to these people, “Israel has a king; why are you still making rulings?” As enough people speak of the King who is returning to set up a physical throne, the Kingdom will again run headlong into politics once those in power realize that there position is at stake and try to hold onto it.

Were inflamed: or, heated, boiling, in ferment.

Gamli’el means “El is my recompense” or “He is my El also”. He was the grandson of Hillel, one of the two greatest teachers among the P’rushim of all time, whose views become more dominant than those of the other, Shammai, who was much stricter in his interpretation. So when he stood up to speak, the whole room would have gone silent. People said that Hillel’s views were for this age, while Shammai’s were for the age to come, when the Messiah would rule with a rod of iron.

36. “because prior to this time Thoda arose and said in regard to himself that he was somebody great, and something like 400 men went after him, but he was murdered, and those who followed him were dispersed and became as if they had never been anything.

37. “After him there arose Yehudah the Galilean, in the days when the people were mustered for the tribute per head, and he persuaded many to people to follow him, but he died and all who walked after him were dispersed.

Tribute per head: i.e., the census.

39. “But if this is from Elohim, there is nothing you can put your hand to that can hinder it, lest you be found rising up against Elohim.”

He was not necessarily on their side, for we know that Paul (Sha’ul), who was his student, became one of the Way’s greatest persecutors. But anyone teaching resurrection would tip the scales to the advantage of the P’rushim over the Tz’doqim, so YHWH utilized the political situation to take the heat off his people. But being a teacher of the Torah, Gamli’el would remember Moshe’s response when the people rioted: to fall on their faces and let YHWH’s wrath “blow over”, since it was not him they were really taking issue with, but YHWH.

The Tz’doqim would not publicly speak against this respected teacher, though he was of the rival party, because the people respected him so highly. Flogged: or whipped; Greek, beat. They still got their “pot shot” in just to let them know that they were still in charge and so they would feel a taste pf the pain they really wanted to inflict on them.

Worthy: or suitable. In their eyes, the very fact that it took place was evidence that they were doing things rightly. They did not even consider another interpretation, possibly because Yeshua had said this would take place, and that it was a mark of being blessed. (Mat. 5:11)

This first persecution did not even make them miss a step.

CHAPTER 6

1. But in those days, while the disciples were increasing [in number], the Hellenistic disciples grumbled about the Hebrews, because their widows were being neglected in the day-to-day support.

Hebrews: either those who spoke Hebrew as opposed to Greek as their first language, owing to having been born in the Land, or those more in line with Hebraic culture. We know that thus far they were all Jews, but that many spoke the native languages of the places to which they had moved (chapter 2). Though they were not pagans, their lifestyle would undoubtedly have assimilated to some extent to that of the rest of the Mediterranean world, where the lingua franca was Greek, and where Greek culture had permeated much more fully than in Judea, which deliberately tried harder to avoid such influence. Those who had managed to keep their language and culture purer may have been guilty of unintentionally despising these disadvantaged believers, and so the latter may have been looking for any excuse to find a complaint against them. Support: or aid; Greek, serving. At least part of what the delegates used the money laid at their feet for was to support those who had no means of supporting themselves. This was a legitimate concern; every time YHWH addresses justice, He seems to begin with the widows and orphans—those who are truly needy, having no covering of a household. They were carrying on the Torah’s requirement that provision be made for them. This involved the equivalent of “soup kitchens”:

All of the burdens should not fall on a few. The original twelve could not stop teaching—a job only they were qualified to do at this point—to take on a task it would seem anyone could do—that this was a case of “the dead burying their dead”. Yet this was not exactly accurate either:

Yourselves: that is, from among the Hellenists, so their particular issues would be properly understood. Also, those who raised the issue were given the responsibility of doing something about it. They would have actually been overseeing the table service rather than carrying it out themselves, but turning someone from a complainer into a servant does the entire community a service. As we likewise return from being assimilated among the nations, we will be less likely to “worship” the Jews (bowing to their authority in areas where they have exalted tradition over Scripture) if we take up the responsibility to provide for the needy among Efrayim rather than considering ourselves to still be of lower status when YHWH has made promises to us as well.

Prayer: not hiding away in their own closets like monks, because the Greek term actually means leading a prayer service, i.e., presiding over a liturgical prayer, and teaching others to pray as Yeshua had. (See 4:24ff for an example. Yeshua had told them to teach repentance, so they used the Torah to do so rather than the traditions of men.)

Stefanos: This Greek name means crown or garland such as worn by emperors or winners of athletic contests. It also encompasses the crown of thorns made for Yeshua at His crucifixion. Filippos means “one who likes horses”. Prokhoros means “(leader) over the dance”. Nikanor means “conqueror”. Timona means “honorable”. Parmena means “remaining near”. Nikolaos means “who vanquishes the people” or “the people’s victor”.

Laid their hands on: “conferring the duties and privileges of their office”. (Stern)

Yehudim: thus in the Aramaic Peshitta, but the Greek text has “priests”. If that is the correct reading, it may be that they had been moved to jealousy by these Greek-speaking Jews who were doing their job of providing for widows. It may be that the Tz’doqim were not interested in allowing Greek-speakers to partake of the Levitical storehouses. Firmness: or faith, trust, faithfulness. Those who did not believe in the resurrection were now changing their minds, for while they may not have seen directly someone rise from the dead, they were witnessing a resurrection of what Israel used to be, as these believers set aside their own agendas and served one another. When we keep kosher and follow Torah, the Jews today also take notice and ask us why we are doing what we do not need to do. But the Torah does not say that; their tradition does. When we live by the standards YHWH set, it provokes them to jealousy, and is meant to be a catalyst to unite the two Houses of Israel under one King. Christians also will be moved to jealousy as we become what these ancient people were, and the Torah is lived out in front of them instead of just being about “those people back then”, and they may find their true calling as Israel rather than an extra-scriptural entity called the “church”.

“The people” here mainly seem to be limited to those who spoke Greek, who could not properly understand everything in Hebrew, and thus the apostles had translated for them in chapter 2. Now Stefanos seems to be carrying what he has learned from them in the Temple out into the streets. Teaching in Greek would not have been tolerated in the Temple. The events that followed suggest that he might have prematurely gone out into the lions’ den where the apostles, who were more respected by the people than these “outsiders”, could not defend him. But he kept the fresh teaching flowing and gave what he had; no one could accuse him saying, “You should have been a teacher by now” as Paul later said of some. But we could speculate that he might have fared better if the Greek-speaking community of believers had not remained a separate subgroup, though they did need some time to transition into full use of Hebrew, and the enemy took advantage of this lag time:

Libertines: or, freedmen. Philo explains that they were Jews who had been captured and enslaved by the Romans, then freed, as Pompey later did in 63 C.E. to a greater degree. But they were already in existence in substantial numbers. Stern speculates that some may have been proselytes, whose zeal often exceeds that of those born with the same position they have entered by means of many sacrifices. Kurenes: inhabitants of the large and flourishing city of Libya Kurenaika (also called Pentapolitana), about 11 miles (17 km) from the sea in north Africa west of Egypt. Ptolemy I had brought a large number of Jews there, and invested them with the right of citizens. Alexandrians: from the most important city of Egypt in that period, which again had a large expatriate Jewish population. Kilikia: a maritime province in the southeast of Asia Minor, bordering on Pamphylia in the west, Lukaonia and Kappadokia to the north, and Syria on the east. Its capital, Tarsus, was the birthplace of Paul. Asiya: or Asia, but this was then the name for western Turkey, not the huge continent to the east of Israel. The Libertines walked according to Torah, but, like the Hellenistic believers in Yeshua, were still considered of lower status than those born and raised in Israel. Therefore, they were in a sense competing for the same audience as Stefanos—the Greek-speaking Jews who wanted to live by the Torah.

11. At that time they sent [some] men and secretly induced them to say, “We heard him saying insulting things about Moshe and about Elohim!”

12. And they stirred up the people as well as the elders and scribes, and they came in and rose up against him and seized him and brought him to the midst of the assembly,

The Libertines were looking for a way to raise their status in the Torah-observant community. Since the Temple leaders were already looking for a weak link by which to attack the believers in Yeshua, they found it in one who was not as well-respected by the Jewish community at large, which in fact would be glad to see one of these outsiders discredited in order to strengthen their advantage. His weaker position in society gave them their excuse to persecute. HaSatan prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour. (1 Keyfa 5:8) Lions, like Amaleq, pick out the weakest prey. (Deut. 25:17-18) The very one who had been fortifying the weak spot (the widows, keeping them attached to Yeshua’s community where they could be strong), was now a scapegoat because those who might stand up for the delegates were not going to stick their necks out for him. The fickle will of the people, which had served to their advantage during the initial season, now tilted to the other side as the delicate political situation wavered under a new factor. Yeshua had said they would drag us before courts (Luqa 21:12ff), for the powers that be will never be friendly toward those who walk in belief in YHWH’s true power; they will only temporarily tolerate them when it is to their advantage. Thus Yeshua told us to look beyond the cross he promised we would have to carry, to the Kingdom that lies beyond it.

How ironic that it is the Torah itself that forbids bringing false witness against one of the same flock! This is exactly what Yizevel did to Naboth. (1 Kings 21)

Transmitted: delivered, handed over; Greek, handed down. To you: they appeal to the people’s sense of ownership of these practices, but ironically do not include themselves as among the owners! They misquote something Yeshua had said, for He had said “this temple” in reference to His body, not the buildings they were among (Yoch. 2:19-22). They then jump to a false conclusion. Yes, the believers in Yeshua would change some customs, but not the ones Moshe had given; they wrongly credited some of their own traditions to Moshe—a common practice still today among Rabbinic scholars. When Yeshua said, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…” (Mat. 5-7), He did not contradict anything in the Torah, but put it on firmer footing, and this is all Stefanos was doing, as he would prove by his forthcoming answer. To you: the Levites, from whom the priests and scribes would come. But were they thus excluding themselves from obligation?

Angel: or simply, messenger, for which of them had seen an angel? His face may have shone like the messenger Moshe’s had (though he may not have known it), giving a vivid indication of his innocence.

CHAPTER 7

1. And the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?”

2. So he said, “Men! Our brothers and our fathers, listen! The Elohim of authority was manifested to our ancestor Avraham while he was in Aram of the Two Rivers before he came into Charan to sojourn,

Aram of the Two Rivers: that is, Mesopotamia. Stefanos is answering the charges brought in 6:13-14, and will address most of their accusations directly and one indirectly.

4. “Then Avraham went out from the land of the Khasdim and came and sojourned in Charan, and from there, after the death of his father, Elohim had him cross over to this Land in which you dwell today.

Dwell: the same root word as sojourn, hinting at the fact that though it was their own Land, they still lived there as outsiders since another nation was occupying it. After the death of his father: According to Genesis 11:26-32, Avram was born when his father Terakh was 70 years of age, and his father did not die until he was 205, that is, when Avram was 135 years old--well after he entered Kanaan at age 75 years old (Gen. 12:4). David Stern points out that the Samaritan text of the Torah says Terakh died at the age of 145. Philo, an Alexandrian Jew who was Stefanos’ contemporary, in De Migratione Abrahami, also says Avraham left Charan after his father’s death. Stefanos may be alluding to this partly to show his familiarity with the various versions to demonstrate that he, too, was a learned scholar, or making the point that his audience has changed the Torah just as the copyist of one of these versions had to have done.

6. “And Elohim spoke to him by telling him, ‘Your seed will become a sojourner in a foreign land (and they will enslave and mistreat them) four hundred years.

The four hundred years of being foreigners in a land not their own would include the time of slavery, but the slavery would not last the entire time.

I will judge: Heb., adon, a homophone with the word for “Master” which is often applied to YHWH.

9. “And they, our ancestors, were jealous of Yoseyf, and sold him to Egypt, but Elohim was with him

He is drawing a subtle parallel with those to whom he is speaking, who treated Yeshua in a similar way.

11. “Then there was a famine and great distress in all of Egypt and in the Land of Kanaan, and our ancestors had no satisfying food.

12. “So when Yaaqov heard that there was produce in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first [time],

13. “and when they went for the second time, Yoseyf made himself known to his brothers, and Yoseyf’s lineage became known to Pharaoh.

14. “Then Yoseyf sent and had his father Yaaqov and his whole family come, and they were seventy-five souls by count.

Seventy-five: Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5 say there were seventy. But the Greek Septuagint (LXX), with which Stefanos, being a Greek-speaker, was probably more conversant, does say 75, and in Gen. 46:20 names three grandsons and two great-grandsons of Yoseyf which the more commonly-used Masoretic text does not include. So though Stefanos may not have chosen the most accurate record, he is not simply forgetful of details. It should be noted that some details were deliberately changed in the LXX so that Alexander the Great, who desired all the knowledge of the nations he conquered, could not have the fullness of the Torah in a language other than Hebrew.

Down: that is, away from the Land of Israel, which is always described as higher than any place one could go from there.

Sh’khem: another apparent inaccuracy on Stefanos’ part, for the grave where Yaaqov was buried and which Avraham purchased was at Hevron. (Gen. 23:19) He may be alluding to the extra “portion” of land (Heb.,shakhem) that Yaaqov had deeded to Yoseyf. (Gen. 48:22) Yaaqov is the one who had bought land in Sh’khem from the sons of Chamor. (Gen. 33:19) Yoseyf was the one buried in Sh’khem. (Y’hoshua 24:32) But again, the Samaritan text of the Torah places the patriarchs’ burial site in Sh’khem, which is where Sanballat had built a replica of the Temple in Yerushalayim and emplaced his own son-in-law (mentioned in Nekhemyah 13:28) as high priest there. It became the center of Samaritan worship thereafter, explaining why they would alter this text in their tradition, why Sanballat opposed the reconstruction of the Yerushalayim Temple, and why Jews hated Samaritans (Shomronites) as alluded to in Yochanan chapter 4. By this time also, Herod had already built the great edifice that still stands over the Cave of Makhpelah and is the best extant example of the type of architecture he utilized in his additions to the Temple complex. Many of those to whom Stefanos was speaking would probably have visited this site. Stefanos may be deliberately bringing up points of contention because the whole reason for their argument was contention over the way things are viewed.

Guaranteed: literally, caused to trust, secured.

He would have been from another dynasty that conquered and took over Egypt.

20. “At that time Moshe was born, and he was loved by Elohim, and he grew up for three months in his father’s household,

21. “but when he was sent away upon his mother’s hands, Pharaoh’s daughter found him, and she raised him for herself as a son.

22. “And Moshe was well-taught in all the wisdom of Egypt, and he became established in his words as well as his deeds.

23. “And when he had reached forty years of age, it ascended upon his heart to visit his relatives, the descendants of Israel.

24. “But when he saw one of the sons of his people being driven by force, he avenged him and carried out justice and killed the Egyptian assailant.

Avenged: Greek, defended.

Stefanos again subtly makes the point that those before whom he was speaking had treated Yeshua in exactly the same way, and that he was surprised by their inability to recognize what to him was obvious. Moshe thought his high position would automatically fit him to be the liberator of his people, and he apparently had a strong sense of calling already, but he had to be trained as a shepherd for forty years before he could effectively lead this particular people. It was not until his second appearance that his kinsmen would recognize his authority—again, a picture of Yeshua.

27. “But the one who had struck his associate pushed him away and said to him, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?

28. “‘Are you who are speaking [going] to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?!’

29. “So Moshe fled in haste since this word had gotten around, and he sojourned in the land of Midyan, and had two sons [there].

30. “Then when he had completed forty years there, the messenger of YHWH appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a fire that burned in the [thorn] bush.

The Torah does not specifically state that an angel was involved here as a mediator between YHWH and Moshe, but the apocryphal Book of Jubilees (1:27, 29; 2:1) does say “the angel of the Presence” was the one who spoke to Moshe at Sinai.

This was not a commonplace thing, even in his day!

33. “Then YHWH said to him, ‘Take your shoes off your feet, because the ground on which you are standing is set apart.

34. “‘I have indeed seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and I have hear their groaning, and I have come down to take them out. And now I am sending you to Egypt!’

35. “This Moshe, whom they denied, saying, ‘Who made you ruler or judge over us?’—Elohim sent him as ruler and redeemer through the hands of the messenger that appeared to him in the bush.

36. “He was the one who brought them out through deeds, signs, miracles, and wonders in the land of Egypt, at the Reed Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

37. “This is the Moshe who said to the descendants of Israel, ‘YHWH Elohim will raise up for you a prophet like me from the innermost part of your brothers; you must listen to him [and obey]!’

The earlier generation had refused to honor the one YHWH had sent, and Stefanos is making this point about his audience, who had refused to honor Yeshua.

Living words: This should leave no question in the hearers’ minds about his position on Moshe or the Torah. (Refer to 6:13-14.)

40. “when they said to Aharon, ‘Make us elohim that can walk in front of us, because this Moshe, who brought us out of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him!’

41. “So he made them a calf in these days, and slaughtered sacrifices to things that were nothing, and celebrated the work of their own hands.

42. “But Elohim turned and handed them over to serve the armies of the heavens, as [it is] written in the scroll of the prophets: ‘Is it true that for forty years in the wilderness you brought drawing-near offerings or slaughters to me, O sons of Israel?

Scroll of the prophets: The twelve “minor prophets” comprise one book in Jewish thought. The particular passage he refers to is in Amos 5:25-27, and in the Greek version of this chapter he follows the text of the LXX except for a few changes in word order.

Milkom means “their king” and Refan (Rhaifan in Greek and Rhemphan in the LXX) means “the great healer”. The Hebrew text has Kiyyun (”the firmly-established pillar”). The LXX says “made for yourselves to worship”. Bavel: as per the Aramaic text; Greek, Babylon. The LXX has Damascus (Damasek), following the Masoretic text in Hebrew. “Beyond Damasek” is where Bavel lies. Stern suggests that Stefanos is using a midrash here to make the point that if his present listeners continue to resist what YHWH has done through Yeshua, they will be carried even further into exile than the last time, which indeed turned out to be the case.

45. “And as for this dwelling place, our ancestors indeed brought it in with Y’hoshua to the Land which Elohim had given them as an inheritance [to take] from the nations that He would drive out from before their faces, and it was led about until the days of David,

46. “who found favor in the eyes of Elohim and sought to find a dwelling place for the Elohim of Yaaqov,

47. “but Shlomo built Him a house.

48. “Now for the Most High there is no dwelling in works of hands, as the prophets said,

49. “‘The heavens are My throne, and the earth is a footstool beneath My feet; what kind of house could you build for Me?,’ declares YHWH. ‘Or in what kind of place would I rest?’ [Yesh. 46:1-2]

50. “‘Hasn’t My hand made all these [things]?’

Stefanos answers the charge that he is saying things against the Temple by saying, “This is what I really said.” But he may not have chosen his words very wisely. He quotes Shlomoh, but by insinuating that the Temple was not really YHWH’s idea (while the Tabernacle was), it almost sounds like he is doing exactly what they accused him of in 6:13. He may be ignoring the fact that YHWH honored David’s wish to have a fixed house built for His worship, so the existence of a Temple is not in opposition to the Torah. In fact, He even gave David the pattern and David built a model of it for Shlomoh to work from. But the highest leaders of Israel were trying to maintain their position, which rests in the institution of the Temple, and thus they were over-emphasizing something YHWH had never actually commanded. By reminding them that it was not Moshe who commanded that there should be a Temple, he exposes the fact that they were wrongly appealing to Moshe’s name to protect their own interests. They knew he was right, but was this battle really necessary at this time in history? Was it worth endangering his life?

Stiff-necked: a term YHWH and Moshe used for Israel when conversing back and forth about them. (Ex. 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut. 9:6, 13)

53. “Though you received the Torah through the oversight of messengers, you did not guard it!”

Messengers: Stern points out that the phrase eshdat lamo (“a fiery law for them”) in Deut. 33:2 is translated in the LXX as “His angels”, and Rashi says the “holy myriads” referred to in the same verse were angels. You did not guard it: This is what insults them the most and turns their hearts fully against Stefanos. They know the Torah, he says, but have neglected its true meaning by forcing it to say whatever they want it to say. What difference should it make to them that Yeshua should change the customs (which were not actually handed down all the way from Moshe, but from more recent interpreters), if they themselves were changing the Torah itself?

Filled with rage: Aramaic; the Greek says “cut to the hearts” or “sawn asunder”, a similar phrase used in 2:37, where the effect was completely the opposite. While those Keyfa had spoken to were not the perpetrators of the murder of Yeshua, these men were, and Psalm 69:26-27 prophesies that those who continue to mistreat the one YHWH has wounded (Yeshayahu 53:10) are to have iniquity added to their iniquity so they will never be able to repent. Ground (or gnashed) their teeth: Yeshua said this would be done by evil servants (Mat. 22:48-51) who offend and practice lawlessness (Mat. 13:41-42, 49-50), while they watched many whom they considered “outsiders” enjoying the very same privileges in the age to come that they had expected to enjoy. (Luqa 13:28; Mat. 8:12)

56. and he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Adam standing at the right hand of Elohim!”

This is an allusion to Dani’el 7:13. Standing: In Ephesians 1:20, He is described as having sat down at YHWH’s right hand after being raised from the dead, emphasizing the position of authority given to Him as under-regent. But now He stands, as if to honor His martyr and encourage him to remain faithful to the end. In Psalm 110, Yeshua is told to sit at YHWH’s right hand until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. That He now stands suggests that some aspect of this promise has already been fulfilled through Stefanos’ actions and words. Standing at one’s right hand also denotes assistance. (Psalm 109:6. 31) In any case, he is seeing ahead into the Kingdom and sees that the one whom they rejected is indeed the king, so they are wrong!

Loud: Aramaic, resounding. Stopped their ears: He may have actually said “YHWH Elohim”, for using the sacred Name was the only “crime” that the Romans allowed the Jews to execute someone for, and appears to have been the turning point in Yeshua’s trial, where Yeshua makes a very similar statement and the text uses a euphemism for the Name. (Luqa 22:67-70)

Stoned: one of the most common Hebrew forms of execution. The usual process was to throw him off a cliff at least the height of two men to knock one unconscious, and if he did not die, they would drop a stone on his chest, then, if still necessary, continue to pelt him with stones until he was dead and buried under them. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:4 on Deut. 17:7) Tradition says it was the very hill of Gulgol’thah, in front of which Yeshua was crucified, from which they threw Stefanos. The outer garment is where one is to put his tzitziyoth as a reminder to keep YHWH’s commandments. (Num. 15:38-39) Since he had said nothing worthy of death , it is significant that they laid aside these garments, for it symbolized the fact that they had to abandon the commandments to carry out this decision made during a fit of rage. The Hebrew term for “outer garment” also denotes a cloak of deceit, and indeed these honored men who appeared dignified above all others showed their true colors when pressed to acknowledge the truth. Stern brings out another interesting possibility: The Talmud (Sanhedrin 42b) says that the common practice was for a man to stand at the entrance to the court within sight of the stoning site with a sudarin to signal them to stop the stoning if someone still had something to say in his favor. Joseph Shulam noted that sudar in later Hebrew can also mean “coat”, and speculates that the Greek translator from an original Hebrew text that might have used this term, not understanding the context, said “laid their coats” when in fact it might have been meant to indicate that they had appointed Sha’ul to this post as the one who held the sudar. Verse 60 and 26:10 strongly suggest that Sha’ul was a member of the Sanhedrin at this time. It seems the main reason for including the story of Stefanos is to introduce us to Sha’ul.

This is nearly the same as what Yeshua had said to His Father when He was about to die (Luqa 23:46), and now Stefanos sees Yeshua as the mediator, the first step in the Father’s receiving his spirit.

Again he echoes what Yeshua said at the time of His death. (Luqa 23:34) Luqa, who recorded both of these sayings of Yeshua, would have been especially attentive to this parallel.

Shomronites: better known today as the Samaritans. The Delegates remained in contact with those who had been scattered. (v. 14) But they had a calling to fulfill in Yerushalayim, so YHWH gave them enough favor in the eyes of the other Yehudim to allow them to stay there. This was a political, not religious, persecution. The balance of power was upset, and if they did not keep the peace, the Romans, who had given them their positions, would rescind them. So they try to get rid of the political liability.

Confident: or faithful, believing, devout.

Snatching: or, dragging; the Hebrew word, garar, is onomatopoetic for such a grating sound as being dragged away. Round-house: again, a fortified prison. Though he was a P’rush, Sha’ul would ingratiate himself to the Tzadoqim who were in power if he were to carry out this “dirty work” that would achieve their very goals.

Thus they were hurled rather suddenly into the second and third stages of the plan Yeshua had laid out in 1:8—from Yerushalayim to “all Yehudah and Shomron”. YHWH made it abundantly clear that it was time to get on with this part of the task. He used a man who was zealous for the faith as he had been taught it and who also had political ambition to give them a push as Pharaoh had driven Israel out of Egypt, since it is Israel’s tendency not to move until we have to. But they did not hide; they took Stefanos’ murder as a challenge and only stepped up their activity, saying in essence, “You pushed us out, so we will take the message everywhere we go! We will not shut up. If you kill us, we will only become stronger!” Unlike the last time part of Israel was scattered, these believers were not willing to forget about the Kingdom just because of some opposition.

Filippos: one of the Hellenistic Jewish counterparts of Stefanos (6:5). This was not as large a step for him as it would have been for one of the native-born Jews. (Yoch. 4:9)

Were attentive: literally, pricked up (their ears). They, too, were a people awaiting the Messiah. They were a “special case” in that they were Gentiles (having been brought in by Assyria to replace the exiled Israelites after 722 B.C.E.) but were Torah-observant to some extent, though they had some points of doctrine wrong. (They had been threatened by wild beasts, and, assuming they had offended the local deity, requested that priests be sent back to teach them His ways, as told in 2 Kings 17:24-35.) YHWH honored their misguided attempts by sending them the fuller truth at this point.

Paralyzed: from a word meaning “held still”, as rendered in Hebrew.

Aramaic, and there was great cheering in that city. Was this the same city Yeshua had gone to in Yochanan 4, preparing the way for these messengers? He’d told them it was time to worship not just in spirit but in truth, or, better rendered, what is firm and real. The Kingdom is still hidden, but it is not just a spiritual belief we can hold without it affecting our practical lives; since His visit, the groundwork had been laid for that kingdom to become physically tangible as well.

Sim’on: Even in the Aramaic and Hebrew versions where Shim’on Keyfa’s name is spelled according to the original Hebrew pronunciation (v. 14ff), his name is spelled with a different initial letter, indicating that this may have been the Samaritan pronunciation as well as the Greek. Exalted: in a fraudulent and pretentious manner. I am great: Aramaic, I am the rabbi; Greek, claiming himself to be some great one.

Great force: Stern suggests that this was one of the levels in a spiritual hierarchy in their version of Gnosticism. He was crediting his power to Elohim, not to himself, yet was a charlatan like many “faith-healers” today.

12. But when they believed Filippos who brought the glad news of the Kingdom of Elohim in the name of our master Yeshua the Messiah, men and women were being immersed.

Immersed: An extra-biblical practice (for the Torah only specifies that those who are ritually unclean need to “wash” themselves with water) but one that was widely practice by many stripes of Jews from the P’rushim to the Essenes, and approved by Yeshua (most notably in Mat. 3:15) and even practiced by Him. It is a ritual that makes the statement, “I wish to ascend to the next level of being set apart.” It is as much a witness to oneself as to those around him, for self is what makes us unclean. It is a vivid picture of dying to self and being “born again”, awakened by the water to a heightened sense of being fresh and new. They were not contradicting the Torah, so what was the “news” in their message? That the Messiah had conquered death and the Davidic throne again had a rightful heir after 600 years of vacancy. This “baptism” was a declaration that they recognized this king and were now His subjects, and that they would honor no other king as their own. “We are that kingdom, and we will do what it takes to bring it about. We have no allegiance to Rome or anyone it places in power; there is a real king now!” This is why others were concerned enough to persecute them, because they realized that their own illegitimate power was now on shaky ground. Now the Shomronites, too, were recognizing the cracks in their own system, and despite their long-time animosity with the Jews, were saying, “We now recognize the Davidic throne and will be loyal to it.”

The one who amazed others with his tricks (v. 11) knew that the power this man walked in was more real than the sources he had tapped into. Filippos was not exalting himself, but putting everyone’s focus on the Kingdom that his signs were merely meant to herald. Why do we not see such powerful signs now? Partly because we are not yet as committed as they, and partly because it is not the season for them yet. When we have burned all bridges of dependency on other things besides Him, we will see His power.

15. When they came down, they prayed over them that they might receive the spirit of holiness,

Spirit of holiness: can also be rendered “wind [from] the Holy Place” in the Temple, that is, a breath sent back from the Kingdom that it represents as a place of laboring for YHWH.

They had changed citizenship, but still did not have the power to follow through; they have the firm truth but not the spirit. So YHWH now gives them something that can rewire our inclinations from selfish to selfless in a way that the other kingdom of which they had been a part had no power to do, despite its superior military strength.

18. Now when Sim’on saw that [it was] by the laying on of hands [that] the Delegates delivered the spirit of being set apart, he offered them silver,

19. and said, “Give me this leaning too, so that whoever I lean hands on will receive the spirit of being set apart!”

20. But Shim’on Keyfa said to him, “May your money go with you to the great destruction, because you thought that the gift of Elohim could be bought with the product of the earth!

Bought: or acquired; the word for product here is a related term.

Sincere: straight, unbent, level, direct, upright. Portion: the idea may be “not even a chance” (like the casting of the lot), as anti-YHWH as the concept of chance is. Faith: or firm reality, i.e., “you have no part in this Kingdom”.

Mischief: or, lewdness, crime, apostasy.

He had been bound by the poison that comes from holding onto a hurt suffered even though the perpetrator has refused to repent and no more can be done about it. That obsession keeps our eyes on self and prevents us from fully receiving the Kingdom. We cannot give ourselves completely if we keep part hidden behind a tough callous. Even if we have been burned by authorities in the past, it does not mean we can refuse the authority YHWH is setting in place once again in Israel. If we nurture the grudge, we are the ones that lose. This brother to depression is the ultimate selfishness. Filippos saw it, for it shows up in the light of YHWH’s presence. When Filippos began to correct Sim’on, it was the last thing he wanted, for we tend to take comfort in feeling sorry for ourselves if we have been hurt. This would have shown up on his face. YHWH apparently did give him that open door to repent, whatever that would require of him, for though he wanted to have whatever it would take to make him a be a “star”, he very quickly lowers himself and recognizes that he is not even worthy to speak, let alone garner a following.

25. And after they had given witness before them and taught the Word of Elohim, Shim’on and Yochanan headed back for Yerushalayim, and announced the glad news to many villages of the Shomronites.

26. But a messenger of YHWH spoke with Filippos and told him, “Get up [and change your course]; walk southward along the wilderness highway that goes down from Yerushalayim to ‘Azzah.

‘Azzah: called Gaza today because of the Greek rendering of the guttural beginning of the word. Wilderness: Greek, deserted. He had an important appointment:

Officer of the court: often rendered “eunuch”, and sometimes validly so in both Hebrew and Greek, but eunuchs were not allowed to worship in the Temple. (Deut. 23:1) Quite often court officers, especially those in charge of watching over the king’s harems, were indeed made eunuchs, and thus the word came to be a synonym for any court officer. To worship: or to do homage. By tradition, King Shlomo (Solomon) married the Queen of Sheba and their son became the patriarch of the royal Ethiopian dynasty, which continued to do homage to Yerushalayim even after there was no longer an earthly king there. This dynasty, which was already quite ancient in Filippos’ day, lasted until 1974—nearly 3,000 years! So this man either had Jewish lineage or was a proselyte.

29. And the Spirit told Filippos, “Approach and join yourself to this chariot.”

Join yourself to: Greek, keep company with.

When he had approached: Greek, running to it. Do we understand what we are reading? The things that seem straightforward at face value in the “New Testament” end up contradicting the Torah until we have enough intimate knowledge of the Torah to look at it from a Hebraic perspective. When we know enough about the history and the layout of the Temple to know what it meant to go to Yerushalayim to worship, the pieces fall into place much better than when we approach it from a 21st-century perspective strongly colored by Greek thought. The more we live like our ancestors did, the more we can approach the text as Hebrews.

32, 33. The section of Scripture in which he was reading was this:

“He was conducted along like a lamb to the slaughter, and just as a ewe is put to silence before her shearers, He too will not open His mouth”

when he is laid low. “He was taken away from restraint and from due process, and who can tell of His generation? Because they took His life from the earth.” [Yeshayahu 53:7-8]

When he is laid low: Greek, in his humiliation. This explanatory phrase does not appear in the Masoretic text, but is present in the Greek LXX instead of the phrase “from restraint”, but the Aramaic Peshitta includes all three phrases here. Who can tell of: the Masoretic text has “who can ponder…?” His generation: The Aramaic has “his struggle” (as translated by Lamsa). He had no progeny, being killed before he could have children, but verse 11 of the same chapter says, “He will see his seed” and will be satisfied. They took His life from the earth: the Heb. Masoretic text reads, He was severed from the land of life.

Note his courtly manner of speaking.

Began: or, let loose. The message flowed out freely. The great news is that another descendant of David is back to claim His throne, and He is the “other man” it is speaking of.

He is saying that he wants to join the new Kingdom, no matter whether this would allow him to ever go back to Ethiopia or not. As a highly-placed official, he knew the significance of loyalty to a sovereign.

Verse 37 does not appear in the Aramaic, so no teaching that depends on this verse alone can be counted on. But “Son of Elohim” is an ancient title for the king who sits on the throne of David and Shlomo. (Psalm 2:7)

Immersed: not pushing him under the water in the Mithraic fashion so common today, but acting as witness while the officer immersed himself, to verify that his entire body and all his hair went under the water. If even a hair or a fingertip is left in the other kingdom, it will come back to haunt us and will harm those with whom we are associated. Filippos himself did not necessarily go into the water.

Spirit: or wind. Filippos ended up about ten miles off the road he had been traveling on:

Was found: Stern renders it, showed up. Ashdod: one of the principal coastal cities in the ancient Philistine territory. Caesarea (Herod’s capital, where the Roman procurators resided, with one of the world’s finest harbors at that time) is some 45 miles north of Ashdod. Some of the cities he would have passed through were Yamnia (later the main center for Rabbinic study), Yafo (Joppa), and Apollonia (apparently a Gentile or Hellenistic colony) on his way. Much of this area was again in the territory of the Shomronites, but riots between Jews and Gentiles here would begin the Great Revolt against Rome in 66 C.E., so there were substantial Jewish communities in each as well.

The well-preserved outdoor theatre at Caesarea (pronounced "Kye-SAR-ya")

CHAPTER 9

Full of threat (or menace): Greek, breathing out threats—a colorful description by Luqa. Why was Sha’ul so angry? Probably because he has heard the truth many times, but does not want to accept it, yet he knows he cannot win the argument. He did not even take his teacher Gamli’el’s advice to let the movement die out on its own. He knows that if he were to admit the truth, he would lose the position and power that he had spent his entire lifetime earning. He therefore tries to win a fight instead. The number of believers in Yeshua is growing so fast and he cannot counter the teachings, so he resorts to intimidation and violence.

Letters: Stern points out that Sha’ul would have to cross two borders to extradite them, and that though he had no real political power, the high priest was well-enough respected by Jews living outside the Land to grant him cooperation from the Jewish community in Dameseq. Women: Apparently they too were having a significant enough impact on Jewish society to warrant Sha’ul’s attention. This Way: Yeshua called Himself “the Way” in Yochanan 14:6; the term also simply means “lifestyle” or “path”.

4. and he fell to the ground and heard a voice speaking to him: “Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why are you persecuting Me?

Sha’ul’s own accounts of this incident (22:5-16 and 26:13-18) add several details, but none of them mentions him falling off a horse, a tradition that probably stems from popular illustrations alone! This is the only recorded time that Yeshua takes anyone by storm rather than persuading him by logic and testimony, but it has occurred in other extra-biblical cases.

Kicking against the cattle-prods: in Greek the term specifies ones made of iron. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for “teach” means to prod or goad with a pointed stick. Yeshua will rule with a rod of iron. (Psalm 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15) But this is also an idiom for futile resistance. Difficulty: it will require a harsh, punishing, heavy, laborious effort, and even then it cannot be successful. Yeshua’s reign will come no matter what Sha’ul does, so he might as well surrender and be part of it. My master: in Greek it could be read simply as “sir”, which, when compared with the response in verse 10 by one who recognized the Shepherd’s voice, could be somewhat less respectful. He had done nothing personally against Yeshua, whom he might never have even seen in the flesh, but by treating Yeshua’s “Body” this way, he had to be affecting its Head.

The Greek adds: “Master, what do You want me to do?” before the first phrase. Why would YHWH not just kill him and get him out of the way, as He did with Chananyah and Shapira? Because Sha’ul’s zeal, determination, and Torah expertise were useful to Him. He has proven he is someone who will respond with fervor beyond his contemporaries; he is just listening to the wrong voice. Being on the counsil, he had to have been aware of all the miracles and signs that were proving Yeshua’s disciples right, but he was still running from reality. Since he would not choose the right way, YHWH took the choice away from him. He loved him enough to push him onto the right path.

Walking with him: It was dangerous to travel alone in those days, as seen in the parable of the Samaritan. Yeshua sent His disciples out at least in pairs. (Compare Qoheleth/Eccles. 4:9.) Sound: Sha’ul says in 26:14-15 that the voice was in Hebrew, which is probably why they heard a sound, but not an intelligible voice (22:9), if they were Greek-speakers accompanying him (suggested by v. 29 below).

9. And he could not see for three days, and he did not eat or drink [anything].

Esther fasted for three days to prepare for a dangerous approach to the king. There were three days of darkness in Egypt. Yonah was in the darkness of the fish’s belly for three days, and Yeshua was in the dark grave for three days. Israel had to purify themselves for three days prior to receiving the Torah at Sinai. Y’hoshua told Israel to do the same three days before crossing the Yarden River. The butler and baker in prison with Yoseyf had to wait three days for their dreams to be fulfilled. So three days seems to be the right amount of time to wait while preparing for something dreadfully momentous, as a time of cleansing for body, mind, and spirit. This “Way” interrupts, divides, and sets us apart from whatever holds us in bondage. He was stopped in his tracks; he could not do anything toward his goals. Being unable to see, he would inevitably have time to think about times the Torah uses sight and blindness figuratively. Deut. 16:19 speaks about how a bribe blinds the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. Sha’ul was benefiting financially from his religious zeal, and this had to have been his reason for resisting. Deut. 27:18 also warns us not to make the blind wander off the path, and by resisting Yeshua’s followers, he would keep the Northern Kingdom blind and prevent them from returning to Torah—a realization he makes clear in Rom. 11:25, where he speaks of another temporary blinding tha he himself was instrumental in bringing to an end. Part of maturing is getting to the point where we do not need to be blinded, but surrender much more quickly to the obvious truth.

11. Then our Master told him, “Get up! Go to a street that is called the straight one, and look in the house of Yehudah for a Sha’ul who is from the city of Tarsos, because look, while he was praying,

House of Yehudah: probably an idiom for a synagogue—a natural place to go to fast and pray and study the torah scrolls to see what YHWH was trying to tell him. Straight: or level. Tarsos: a port of about half a million along the Kydnos River on the Kilikian plain, 10 miles (16 km.) from the southern coast of what is today Turkey, not far from where the coast bends southward to form the Levant. A highway went north from there to an important pass through the Taurus Mountains, some 50 miles north of the city. Dr. E.M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics at the University of Auckland, notes that the city was colonized by Greeks after having been ruled by the Persians. The region of Kilikia bordered on Syria but was largely autonomous by this time, and possibly since the time of the Maccabees a large and tight Jewish enclave had formed there, though since the time Pompey settled there, they often enjoyed Roman citizenship, as was the case for Sha’ul. Both Roman and Greek influence were strong but somewhat repelled by more oriental leanings the century before this, though the Romans used the area to patrol the coast for pirates to protect their inland interests here. Growing up in this context shaped who Sha’ul was. Playing his Roman citizen “card” seemed a matter of pride and dignity to him, but would end up getting him in more trouble than was necessary.

13. But Chananyah said, “Master, I have heard about this Sha’ul from many [people]—how many evils he is bringing upon your set-apart ones in Yerushalayim!

14. “And look! Now he even has support from the head priests to restrain any who proclaim Your Name!”

15. The Master said to him, “Get up; go, because he is a chosen vessel for Me, to lift up My Name for Gentiles and for kings and among the descendants of Israel--

Descendants of Israel: specifically those who were not Yehudah, having kept this name after the kingdom divided and Yehudah became a separate realm.

Sha’ul was apparently proud of his zeal and how much he was willing to suffer for YHWH’s sake. Well, now this would be tested to the limit. On the other hand, YHWH was showing him how beneficial his Torah knowledge really was beneficial, though the burden (the way of walking out one’s interpretation of the Torah) he had chosen was not as light as Yeshua’s. (Mat. 11:28-30) A burden is also the Torah’s way of describing the duties of those who serve YHWH full-time in the Temple. (Num. 4:15, 31, 32, 47, 49)

18. And in him, in an instant, something like scales fell from his eyes, and his eyes received sight, and he got up and he was immersed.

19. And he accepted food and was strengthened, but for some days he was apart from the disciples who were at Dameseq.

20. Then immediately he was proclaiming in the synagogues of the Jews about Yeshua, that He is the son of Elohim!

Son of Elohim: a particular title for the king of all Israel who sits on David’s throne. (Psalm 2:7 et al)

22. “However, Sha’ul has again strengthened himself further, and shaken the Jewish expatriates in Dameseq when he has proven that he is the Messiah!”

Strengthened himself: or, tightened his grip—i.e., distinguished himself.

24. But the plot that they were seeking to perpetrate against him became known to Sha’ul. While in vain they watched the gates of the city day and night to kill him,

25. at that time the disciples put him in a basket and lowered him from the [city] wall by night!

They got this idea from what Rahav did for the two spies in Y’rikho. (Y’hoshua 2:15)

When he went: according to Sha’ul’s own account in Galatians 1 and 2, he did not go there until he had spent three years in Arabia. Join: Aramaic, follow along; the Hebrew word used is based on the word for “tear away”, and since it is reflexive, it would suggest separating from what he used to be in order to be separated unto them. They obviously had reason to be suspicious, considering how recently he had been trying to kill them, but there was a brave soul willing to believe that YHWH had done a miracle yet again:

Sha’ul says he only met (at least to any significant degree) with Shim’on Keyfa and Yaaqov, the brother of Yeshua (who had risen to prominence by that time), and that for only about two weeks (Gal. 1:18-19) Butthey approved the message he planned to take to the Gentiles. (Gal. 2:9).

29. And he argued with the Jews who knew Greek, despite the fact that they wanted to kill him.

Who knew Greek: Apparently either his Hebrew was poor or this was simply the only community of Jews in Yerushalayim who would give him a hearing, other than the Delegates of Yeshua.

They apparently recognized better than he the danger he was getting himself into. They let Bar-Naba’ accompany him (Gal. 2:9). Paul refers to this time in Kilikia in Gal. 1:21. He did not return to Yerushalayim again for fourteen years. (Gal. 2:1)

Stern suggests that it was because wherever Sha’ul went he tended to stir up trouble, no matter which side he was on, and they thought it best for him to go back to his hometown (v. 11) so that his spiritual life could grow to match his zeal. No one was persecuting them now, and we know that the emperors Nero and Claudius included the believers in Yeshua in the same protection they offered to Judaism as a “legitimate religion”.

Lod: A few miles inland from coastal Yafo, very close to where the Ben-Guryon Airport is located today. He was teaching those who were dispersed from Yerushalayim, assuring that things were being done in the proper order. It was not a new religion that was being established, as apopular misinterpretation says, but the much more ancient rule of Torah that was being restored after so many centuries in which those who knew the Torah walked in tradition instead.

A possible meaning for the name Aniyas (Aineas in Greek) is “laudable”. Stretcher: a litter or simply a pad.

35. And all those sojourning in Lod and the Sharon saw him and turned to Elohim.

The Sharon: the whole coastal plain.

Yafo: the seacoast city from which Yonah had embarked on his voyage to avoid Nin’weh and through which the Ayalon River used to flow, allowing the cedars of Levanon to be taken by ship much closer to Yerushalayim. Today it is an artists’ colony on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. The Greek version adds that Tavitha’s name translates as “gazelle”. The fact that this appears only in Greek and not in Aramaic, in which it is unnecessary, points to the fact that the Semitic version(s) predated the Greek.

38. When the disciples heard that Shim’on could be found in the city of Lod, which is near Yafo, they sent three men to him to plead with him that he would not refuse to come to them.

39. So Shim’on got up and went with them, and when he arrived, he went up to the upper room, and all the widows gathered and stood around him, and they cried and showed him the shirts and upper garments that T’vitha had given them while she was alive.

40. But Shim’on took all the people outside, then bent down on his knees and prayed. Then he turned toward the corpse and said, “T’vitha, get up!” And she opened her eyes and when she saw Shim’on, she sat up.

41. And he extended his hand and raised her up, and called to the holy ones and the widows and delivered her to them alive.

42. And this matter became known throughout the whole city, and and many put their confidence in our Master.

43. And he was in Yafo not a few days, as he stayed in the home of Shim’on the [leather] tanner.

He may have been there, in an undesirable place, to get away for some rest and refreshment.

Caesarea (pronounced Kaisaria): King Herod’s showcase city on the Mediterranean coast, the Roman capital of the province of Judea. It boasted a deep, dredged harbor with a lighthouse, a hippodrome, and a theatre that was so well-preserved that with minimal restoration has again become acoustically fit for outdoor concerts. Kornelios’ name in Latin means “of a horn”. Interestingly, Rome, for which he works, is related to the “horn” by which Dani’el (7:20) describes the counterfeit Messiah of the latter days. It is actually related to the Hebrew word for horn, keren, as well! Centurion: a leader of a company of 100 soldiers. In the Hebrew translation from Aramaic, he is referred to as a “ruler of a hundred”, which is one of the levels of leadership mandated for Israel. (Ex. 18:21) So he has the right idea but is working for the wrong nation. He is a picture of the Northern Kingdom today—having some authority but in the wrong context. Detachment: specifically, one part of a legion.

Devout: or dedicated. This is the first characteristic by which he is introduced. He prays when it is time to pray (v. 3), and is faithful to what he knows, but is still looking for something more. A fearer of Elohim: a particular designation for a non-Jew who attached himself to Judaism but chose not to undergo formal conversion. They are known in Judaism as “proselytes of the gate”, i.e., they were inside (worshipping one Elohim) but stayed “at the gates” rather than coming all the way into circumcision and public immersion. (Stern) The People: a specialized usage understood to refer to the Jews. He is showing kindness to “the least of these [Yeshua’s] brothers”. He is thus already serving Yeshua without realizing it, and so is rewarded (v. 4) with further light:

Ninth hour: halfway between noon (the sixth hour) and dusk (the twelfth), one of the three daily times of prayer practiced by many, based on the times of oblation in the Temple. Note that the time is not as precise as in western thought. But he is lining his life up with the ebb and flow of YHWH’s sanctuary. Plainly: Aramaic, in sight as a face, openly.

Risen up: mounted or stacked up, perhaps due to their large quantity as well as sincerity. He has been storing up treasures in heaven (Mat. 6:20) Just as the cup of sin can reach its fullness (Gen. 15:16), one’s cup of righteousness can fill up. Kornelios had filled up a storehouse, and will receive heavenly dividends—not financial, but he is blessed with a message that brought him closer to YHWH, which was his goal anyway. He is already seeking first the Kingdom, so now the Kingdom seeks him out.

Yafo: a Mediterranean coast city just south of present-day Tel Aviv, from which the prophet Yonah sailed when trying to escape YHWH’s order to call Nin’veh to repentance. Thus the city was already tied to YHWH’s concern for the nations. It is about 30 miles south of Caesarea. Keyfa: Petros in Greek; both mean “a small stone”.

The phrase in brackets appears in the Greek text, but not the Aramaic. The house was by the sea for a breeze because of the stench of dog manure used for tannic acid in the tanning process. Tanners would have been the only Israelites who owned dogs.

Waiting on him: Aramaic, obeying him. They are former pagans who now worship YHWH, not Zeus, etc., but have not embraced the Torah in its fullness.

9. Now the next day, as they were traveling and getting close to the city, Shim’on went up onto the housetop to offer prayers near the sixth hour.

Sixth hour: noon, the second time of daily prayer.

Trance: a waking glimpse into another dimension; literally, an ecstasy; Aramaic, an amazement or astonishment.

Sky split open: compare Yeshayahu 64:1. Container: This term is often used in Greek as a metaphor for the human body; Aramaic, garment. Sheet: The term is also used for a fine linen shirt or undergarment, which hints at the priestly garments (2 Chron. 5:12 et al) and the white garment of Messiah’s righteous bride. (Rev. 3:4-5; 7:13) Tied at the four corners: as with tzitziyoth, the fringes prescribed in Numbers 15:38-39 to remind us to keep YHWH’s commandments. It symbolizes the descendants of Israel that were scattered to the four corners of the earth now being brought back as promised (Yeshayahu 11:12), again to be bearers of His Torah. The ground: alt., the earth, or, especially, the Land (a bordered country)—a bride in white linen and tzitziyoth (symbolizing that she keeps the commandments) being brought back to the Land of Israel.

These symbolize Gentiles, who love to make images of all these creatures, and become like what they worship. (Psalm 115:1-8; 135:15-18; Rom. 1:18ff. The latter speaks of those who suppress the truth, indicating that they once knew it, i.e., departed from the covenant. Indeed, Hoshea 2:18, in the very context of their return from living like Gentiles to being His people again, says YHWH would place the Northern Kingdom in particular in the position of a covenant with these very types of animals. Since they then intermingled, these “Gentiles” would actually include descendants of the Northern Kingdom.)

14. But Shim’on said, “By no means, sir, because I have never eaten anything that is defiled or unclean!”

Defiled or unclean: according to the kosher laws (regarding what is acceptable to eat) laid out in Leviticus 11.

16. This occurred three times, then the container was taken back up into the sky.

17. Then as Shim’on was perplexed within himself, [at a loss] as to what this vision that he had seen might mean, just then the men who had been sent by Kornelios (having asked around for Shim’on’s house), were standing at the gate of the courtyard

Perplexed: The meaning was not self-evident, contrary to the popular interpretation that this vision gave blanket permission to literally eat beasts that YHWH had told Israel were not to be considered food for us. Keyfa is undoubtedly hearing and smelling the tanner’s dogs all around him when three men come to the door who seem to fit in the same category figuratively:

19. Now as Shim’on was deliberating [in himself] about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Look! Three men are looking for you,

Men: Avi Ben Mordechai points out that in first-century Jewish usage, this would refer only to Israelites; others were known as the kinds of animals seen in Keyfa’s vision. (See v. 28.) The Talmud says those who do not keep Torah are animals. “Dogs” was a particular epithet used of Gentiles (compare Mat. 15:22-28)—an extreme measure because it was also a term for male homosexual prostitutes in pagan temples, so the two were counted as equivalent. Y’hezq’el 34:30-31 in particular identifies this term “men” with the House of Israel, the Northern Kingdom that was now beginning to return, in part through these very men!

Hesitation: Aramaic, doubt.

23. So calling them inside, he provided them with lodging, then the next day Keyfa went with them, and some of the brothers from Yafo accompanied him.

24. The following day, they arrived in Caesarea, and Kornelios was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and closest associates.

Closest associates: literally, friends he could not do without. Clearly his messengers beat the apostle back to Caesarea, because he had time to gather everyone who mattered most to him and was prepared to receive him. He was already an evangelist!

How did he know which of the men was Shim’on? He may have been the same centurion whose son Yeshua healed in Kfar Nahum. (Mat. 8:5-13) He would have seen him with Yeshua there in Shim’on’s home town. Other hints to this effect are that he is familiar with the taboo on Jews entering Gentiles’ houses (v. 28; the centurion in Kfar Nahum knew he was not worthy to have Yeshua enter his home), he was familiar with Yeshua’s ministry in Galil (v. 37), and he may have been included in the “we” of v. 39. At that time, Yeshua did not tell him He was the Messiah, because it was not the right season. But he started serving Israel because this Jew helped him, and Keyfa undoubtedly brightened up when he recognized who had sent for him.

Shim’on was not used to being bowed down to, and thought he was worshipping him. He may have been echoing Kornelios’ own words, “I, too, am a man under authority.” (Mat. 8:9)

28. So he told them, “You are aware of how it is taboo for a man—a Jew—to be associated with or [even] come close to someone from another race. However, YHWH has shown me that I should never affirm a person [as] defiled or unclean.

Taboo: contrary to established custom, against standard practice, not considered proper, contrary to cultural norms (Stern); this was not contrary to YHWH’s actual instruction, but was an added fence built to keep one from even coming close to breaking a commandment. It began with noble intentions (prohibiting a repeat of the humiliation by Antiochus Epiphanes (as written in 1 Maccabees) , but ended up going beyond YHWH’s intent, and thus had to be corrected. (Eph. 2:14.) But this type of added distinctions persisted in rabbinic Judaism, constituting much of the Mishnah’s tractate Avodah Zarah, which details the ways one must limit contact with Gentiles—not eating their bread or drinking their wine or milk, not doing business with them when they are on the way to an idolatrous festival, etc. Ohalot 18:7 specifically states that “the dwelling-places of Gentiles (literally, Kanaanites, i.e., the Gentiles living in the Land of Israel) are ritually unclean.” The “18 Edicts” also supported this viewpoint. It was therefore “against the law” in that day, though not against Torah, and one could be hauled before the council for doing so. Another race: just as accurately, “a different tribe”. Undoubtedly most of the “proselytes of the gate” were actually returnees from the “lost tribes”, who, like those today who are returning in the same way, realized that they were not meant to become Yehudah, yet knew they had to be connected to Israel. Affirm: i.e., assume by prejudicial means, and speak of him as such. YHWH has shown me: What follows is the only point the vision was intended to make. It cannot be misconstrued to mean YHWH was rescinding His eternal commandments.

30. So Kornelios said, “Since four days ago until this [very] hour I have been fasting. When, at the ninth hour I was offering prayers in my house, then, lo and behold, a man in brilliant, transparent clothing stood in front of me

Brilliant, transparent clothing: Aramaic, wearing white.

32. “‘So send [men] into Yafo, and summon Shim’on, who is [also] known as Keyfa; this [man] is a guest in the home of Shim’on, a tanner, by the sea. After he comes, he will tell you [what he has to say].’

33. “So I sent for you immediately, and you have been so beneficent as to show up. So now, here we all are—ready in the sight of Elohim to hear everything that is being assigned to you by Elohim.”

34. Shim’on therefore opened his mouth and said, “I am truly catching for myself [the point] that Elohim is not one who accepts outward appearances,

Not one who accepts outward appearances: Aramaic, does not reject by the face. Contrary to later Christian assumption which overlooked this verse, the point Keyfa got from the vision and what followed on its heels was not that it was now acceptable to eat what is not kosher (a contradiction in terms, since kosher means “acceptable”!), but that in order to determine who the lost sheep of the House of Israel (the target audience to whom he had been sent) are, there has to be more interaction with Gentiles than the rabbinic authorities would allow for. (Compare 15:20ff.) This became Keyfa’s practice. (Gal. 2:12) Keyfa realized he could not recognize who was an Israelite by their clothing or haircut, for these men undoubtedly looked very Roman. The fence had been built because Jews had usually been dragged down by such interaction, but because of the factor of Yeshua, they now had the upper hand spiritually so they could pull others out of the quicksand.

Ethnicity: also just as accurate to translate “tribe”, i.e., any of the twelve tribes of Israel, though others who have no genetic connection have always been permitted to join the people of Israel and may not be reminded that they were ever anything else. Carries out what is right: that is, does acts of righteousness.

Peace: includes the idea of national unity; Aramaic, shalom (total well-being) and quiet.

38. “Yeshua, the one from Natzereth—how Elohim anointed Him with the Spirit of Holiness and with capability, who passed through, bestowing benefits and making whole all who were subjugated by the Slanderer, because Elohim was with Him.

With Him: or, behind Him (i.e., empowering what He was doing). Subjugated by the Slanderer: Aramaic, oppressed (or harmed) by evil.

40. “Elohim recalled that one [to life] on the third day and allowed Him to be seen openly in public [as evidence],

41. “not to the whole populace, but to witnesses who were hand-picked in advance by Elohim—to us, the ones who ate and drank with Him after He rose from [being] dead.

42. “He also gave us orders to proclaim to the populace and to earnestly testify [to the fact] that He is the one who was appointed under Elohim to be the judge of the living and the dead.

Note Yeshua’s position under the authority of the One who had raised Him (v. 40); he did not derive this authority from Himself. (Yoch. 5:30, 43)

What the prophets give testimony to is a descendant of David reigning over both Houses of Israel again. The penalty of wandering: One had to be on the right path once to wander off it. Hebrews 9:15 makes it clear that those the renewed covenant chiefly addresses are those who transgressed the earlier covenant, that is, the descendants of Israel. (v. 36)

They were counted as clean vessels ready to pour through. Holiness: being set apart unto YHWH and Israel—i.e., making the Kingdom a priority, a very unnatural action especially for one with much worldly prestige. Keyfa was sent to tell him how to come the rest of the way—by recognizing Yeshua as king. This would, of course, affect his loyalty to Rome and probably the high esteem in which many Jews held him as well.

Everyone who was lost to Israel can come back if they make the Kingdom a priority, even if they were not yet circumcised. Acceptance into the community of Yeshua before circumcision became an issue later, as seen in this book and in Galatians, but YHWH placed His seal of approval on this order rather than the opposite, though of course they would not be permitted certain privileges such as partaking in the Passover lamb until they were circumcised.

Heard: Apparently they understood enough of them to know these were real human languages, not the “tongues of angels”. These men were already proclaiming the same glad news to others.

48. So He ordered them to be immersed in the Name of Yeshua the Messiah. Then they begged him to remain [for] a few days.

In the Name: not a proselyte immersion of conversion to Judaism, but they were indeed changing their citizenship from Rome to Israel and therefore could not continue in Rome’s orbit very long. For a few days: Aramaic, toward day (i.e., until the next day). They wanted more insight into how to stop living like Romans and how to live like the Israelite subjects of Yeshua they had now publicly proclaimed that they were.

Gentiles: or “nations”, but this did not mean entire nations were coming into Covenant with YHWH. These are descendants of the House of Efrayim, which mixed itself with the nations. (Hos. 7:8) YHWH used this means to bring salvation to the many nations where they were still exiled.

The circumcision: Sometimes a description of the Jews in general, and later used by Sha’ul while he was still somewhat of an independent maverick who did not have adequate respect for the authorities Yeshua had set in place (Gal. 2:12; Titus 1:10) to designate a particular party that insisted that Gentiles joining the Messianic community had to be circumcised before being fully welcomed, rather than first understanding “what they were signing” before they received the sign of the covenant. (15:5; 21:20) The group he discusses was led by Yaaqov, so it is clearly the same group led by the apostles here. They should not be taken as arrogant as Christians often do, because they were simply the ones who already had the sign of the covenant on them. According to the Mishnah, this was an issue that had long been a matter of debate among the P’rushim, and the latter school was the one that won out, as is seen by common practice in rabbinic Judaism today. Never at issue was whether converts would be circumcised (that is Torah), only when they would be circumcised. The issue had never come up among the believers in Messiah until this event. Y’hezq’el (Ezek.) 44:9 tells us that no son of a foreigner who was not circumcised both in heart and flesh may enter YHWH’s sanctuary. While it is allowable to be circumcised in heart before being circumcised in flesh (which was the case with these men), this does not cancel the command as to the latter. We are not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. (Ex. 34:26) Since the term for “boil” also means “raise to maturity”, this is also symbolic of pressuring a newcomer to grow too quickly too soon. However, they could not wait very long; any foreigner who wishes to eat of the Passover sacrifice must be circumcised. (Ex. 12:48) That is Torah.

They could not believe that someone of his caliber was violating such an ingrained taboo. But this in itself was not a Torah commandment, but a human law. It was a step that legislated holiness by building a fence around the Torah which at one time made perfect sense. The Torah does not change, but the heads of households and tribes in Israel are permitted to make such rulings for those under their jurisdiction if they do not violate Torah. Now that it was time for the rest of Israel to be brought back into covenant, this taboo stood in the way of what YHWH was doing in the world. It also collided with YHWH’s wish, which Yeshua upheld, that His sanctuary be a “house of prayer for all peoples”. (Yeshayahu 56:7)

5. “As I was praying in Yafo, [in a trance] I saw a vision—a certain container coming down, like a big sheet being let down out of the sky by four corners, and it came all the way [down] to me.

6. “When I gazed into it, I was paying close attention to it, and I saw the four-footed creatures of the earth, and the wild animals, the reptiles, and the birds of the air.

Four-footed creatures of the earth: animals, yet “from the Land”, that is, having once been Israelites, but having turned away from the covenant. The term used in verse 3 for having foreskins is also used in 1 Makkabees 1:15 of persons who were once circumcised but had an operation to reverse their circumcision so they would look just like Gentiles, undoing what had been done as a mark of belonging to YHWH. These particular people had probably not had that surgery performed on them, but by virtue of their ancestors having forgotten who they were, the end result was the same; they were no longer being circumcised on the eighth day.

Slaughter: If this is really only talking about people, why the command to kill? Avi Ben Mordechai points out that (other than the Passover lamb, which is also specially identified with Yeshua is also called in 1 Cor. 5:7), the only type of sacrificial offering with which the Hebrew term for “slaughter” is directly connected in the Torah is the peace offering (shelem), upon which the offerer was required to share the meat in a communal meal. One invited family, friends, and acquaintances and gave special praise to YHWH for a particular benevolent act He had done. (Lev. 7:11ff; 19:5; Deut. 27:7; 1 Shmu’el 11:15; 1 Kings 3:15) It often bespoke a hearty reconciliation and covenant of unity between the parties sharing the meal, mending a past division. (Gen. 31:54) Thus the point being made to Keyfa is the reunion between the two formerly-estranged Houses of Israel. All parties who share in it must be ritually pure, since it was eaten in YHWH’s presence (at the Temple). And eating with these now-cleansed men is precisely what he ended up doing. (v. 3) These Israelite souls being gathered from among the Gentiles are no longer strangers, though they still appeared unclean, but were now the Jewish believers’ friends, restored to the same covenant. "He is our peace [offering], who has broken down the wall of division." (Eph. 2:14)

Unclean: Aramaic, what abominates. Why are there two different categories? Because even clean meats (those that are considered food for Israel) can be defiled (or “made common”) if the blood is not removed from them properly at the time of slaughter. Both standards are important. But Keyfa may also be emphasizing that his own practice is as “kosher” as any of those who emphasize the need for converts to be circumcised.

10. “Now this occurred three times, then everything was pulled back up into the sky.

11. “Then, lo and behold, three men already stood by the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea.

Already: Aramaic, within the hour.

Six brothers: counting Keyfa and the three men who had sent for him, there was thus a minyan (quorum) of ten to form a representative “congregation” made up of those from both Yehudah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

14. “‘who will speak to you [about] matters by which you and all of your household can be restored.’

Restored: made well again, saved, rescued from danger of destruction, delivered from the penalty of judgment. Thus though they themselves were devout, they carried a sentence upon them that had to be removed. Hebrews 9:15 reveals that the message was that Messiah’s death had covered the sins of their ancestors, committed under the first covenant, “so those who had been called out might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.” If we combine the prophecy that the punishment for the Northern Kingdom was to last 390 years (Y’hezq’el 4:5) and the fact that YHWH would double the sentence before bringing them back (Yirmeyahu 16:18), for a total of 780 years of exile, we arrive at the date 46 C.E., which was within no more than five years of this time. (See note on v. 28.) YHWH was therefore beginning to open the door for this. So why are we having to return to covenant in the same way again today? Because Hoshea 1 specifies two curses: that of “no mercy” (which was rescinded here, allowing those from the nations to filter into the kingdom ever since then) and that of “not being a people” for Him (that is, not a unified political nation); another threat to multiply the sentence seven times if we would not respond applies here. (Lev. 26:18) It extends to either 1996 or 2008 C.E., depending on which deportation we count from (734 or 722 B.C.E.)

They spoke in other languages as the initial disciples had done (chapter 2) in order to gather those for whom Hebrew was no longer a native language; that the event repeated itself showed that these returnees from among the Gentiles were also meant to gather others who did not speak Hebrew back into Israel.

17. “So if YHWH had given them the [very] same gift He also [gave] to us [who] trust in the Master, Yeshua the Messiah, who was I to be able to stand in the way of Elohim?”

18. When they heard these things, they quieted down and gave honor to YHWH, saying, “We see that Elohim has also extended to the Gentiles a repentance [leading] to life!”

To the Gentiles: How the tables have turned, and the Gentiles are by far the majority of believers in Yeshua. But that we still think of ourselves as Gentiles is to our shame, for we should have all been living as Israelites again for two thousand years now. Repentance: return from a particular guiltiness. (See note on v. 14) To life: Deut. 32:47 defines the Torah as the life of those called into covenant with YHWH. Though they had marveled at this and accepted the fact of what Keyfa had experienced, they did not make it a practice to fraternize with the uncircumcised; they just recognized that in the process of the task Yeshua had given us, we sometimes have to do things that are outside our normal practice. But part of their marveling may have also had to do with the fact that they were now realizing that the task ahead of them would be more difficult than they had imagined, for if the P’rushim and Tzadoqim had been angry with them over speaking in Yeshua’s name, how much more would they oppose them for appearing to be hobnobbing with Gentiles? But they were simply living out a preliminary fulfillment of the prophecy that Yehudah would not vex Efrayim. (Yesh. 11:13)

Those: the Hellenistic Jews were the ones driven out. Pressure: oppression, or, literally, tight spot. We as Israelites tend not to do all we are supposed to be doing until we are under pressure. We did not even give up our slavery in Egypt until YHWH had Pharaoh drive us out! We need to do better this time, not waiting to come back into Israelite community until we have nowhere else to turn, but rather come back together voluntarily as we now have a right under covenant to do. Phoenikia: the region north of Israel which is known as Levanon today. Kupros: Cyprus.

Kurinia: Cyrene, a flourishing city in Libya to which Ptolemy I had brought a large number of Jews and given them the rights of citizenship.

22. When this was heard in the ears of the sons of the congregation that was in Yerushalayim, they sent Bar-Naba to Antiokhia,

23. and when he came there and saw the lovingkindness of Elohim, he was overjoyed and strongly urged them to stick close to our Master with their whole hearts.

24. Since he was indeed a pleasant man and filled with the spirit of being set apart and trustworthy, many people were being added to the Master.

25. He then went out to Tarsos to seek out Sha’ul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antiokhia.

26. And extending their stay for a whole year, they were joining themselves together with the congregation and teaching many people, and from that time the disciples were first called “Messianic”.

Extending their stay: or, delaying. Messianic: the term “Christian” was derived from the Greek form of this word, and if it had not taken on many “barnacles” of pagan accoutrements, it might have been an innocent term, though “Christos” (the greek form of “Messiah”) was an eponym applied to many pagan deities as well, and thus is hardly unique or definitive. Since the term has come to connote on the popular level a set of doctrines which are far from Scriptural, it is not a name with which those faithful to the Torah and Yeshua’s true Hebraic ethos should be associated. But Stern points out that here and in 1 Keyfa 4:16, the term appears to be a derogatory epithet placed on them by those who were persecuting them, much like applying the slang term “Moonies” to followers of Sun Myung Moon, not a term they used of themselves.

28. and one of them, whose name was Khagav, rose and made known to them by the Spirit that a great famine was coming on the whole land, and this famine came in the days of Caesar Claudius.

Khagav: He shows up again in 21:10, but it is interesting that the name of the one predicting the famine means “locust” in Hebrew, reminiscent of a plague that is often the cause of famine! Claudius (whose name means “lame”) ruled the Roman Empire from A.D. 41 through 54, so by this point we are at least 11 years after Messiah’s resurrection (in 30 C.E., according to the record that the red cord placed on the scapegoat at Yom Kippur stopped turning white 40 years before the Temple’s destruction). His most infamous act would be to expel the Jews from Rome (18:2).

30. and sent it to the elders there by the hands of Bar-Naba and Sha’ul.

CHAPTER 12

1. At that time Herodos the king, who had the honorific surname Agrippas, put his hands on men of the congregation in order to harm them.

Herodos: A dynastic title, much like Pharaoh’s. It means “heroic”. This one was the grandson of Herod the Great (who was part-Jewish and part-Edomite or Idumean as it was called by this time), and the son of Aristobulus and Berenike. He reigned from 41 to 44 C.E. after Emperor Claudius extended his dominions to include all of the Levant and Syria, though he had ruled over Judea for four additional years prior to that. The events in this chapter are at the very end of his reign, in the 54th year of his life, according to contemporary historian Flavius Josephus. His son, Agrippas II, will appear in chapters 25 and 26. Herodos had gained such favor with Caligula and Claudius that he was able to make such a decision on his own without having to consult Roman governors as his predecessor had to confer with Pontius Pilatus for permission on such matters.

This is Yaaqov the son of Zavdi. He is the first of the twelve delegated envoys to suffer martyrdom. Tradition says that of the twelve, only the Yochanan mentioned here died a natural death.

The Jews: not the people in general, but those with enough political clout to matter to him. Like his grandfather, he was a master politician, skilled at playing everyone to his own advantage. His consistent policy was to conciliate the majority. (Stern) As was Rome’s custom, he used the times of the festivals to reach out generously to the Jews (as seen in Mat. 27:15). As more and more Jews followed Yeshua’s disciples, the movement must have been becoming uncomfortably large for Herodos (reminiscent of Pharaoh in Moshe’s day), so he tried to strike timidity in them by killing one of the leaders and arresting another, so that the rest would not dare to make political waves. Unleavened bread: By the best available evidence, this is exactly fourteen years after Yeshua’s death and resurrection.

Round-house: again, an idiom for a prison. After Passover: Technically, if they were already in the days of unleavened bread, the Passover slaughter had already taken place, but already, as is still common today, this had been extended to refer to the whole seven-day feast. Congregation of the Jews: again, those in leadership.

Collective prayer adds weight to individuals’ petitions.

Herodos was so afraid of his getting away that he actually chained him to some of the guards!

Poked…get up: Being pierced in the side, guarded by soldiers until after Passover, and told by angels to rise up all increased Keyfa’s identification with Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Tie up your waist: The typical inner garment was much like a nightshirt, which would be pulled up between the legs and tied with a belt much like those seen among field workers in east Asia today. This was one could move about freely without loose ends becoming snagged while working. At such times one usually set aside his outer garment (on the corners of which the tzitziyoth commanded in Numbers 15:38-39 are worn); when sleeping, it was typically used as a blanket. (Deut. 24:13)

10. Now when they had passed the first and guardpost as well as the second, they came as far as the iron gate, and it opened to them by itself. And when they had gone out and crossed one street, the messenger departed from him.

Passed…crossed: Both words are from the root from which the term Hebrew (“crosser-over”) is derived. Keyfa was experiencing another re-enactment of the first Passover in his escape from bondage.

12. And when he discerned [this], he came to the house of Miryam the mother of Yochanan who was called Marqos, because many brothers were coming there and interceding.

The mother of Yochanan: literally, his mother, belonging to Yochanan: Yeshua said we would come to regard those who did YHWH’s will as more truly our mothers and siblings than those to whom we were born. (Mat. 12:48-50) Marqos: Yochanan was such a common name at this time (as with the Yochanan in verse 2 who was assigned to care for Yeshua’s mother, also Miryam) that some means of disambiguating was needed, even the use of a foreign nickname. While from our perspective of moving in the opposite direction today it seems treasonous to Hebraic loyalties to use a Latin name, it may even have been mandatory in some cases during the Roman occupation. This Yochanan was a nephew of Bar-Naba’ (4:36-37; 13:5, 13; 15:37-39; Col. 4:10) and became the author of the book of Mark.

14. When she recognized Shim’on’s voice, in her joy she did not [even] open the gate for him, but instead turned around and ran and told them, “Look! Shim’on is standing at the gate of the courtyard!”

Luqa preserved this anecdote that must have provided ample comic relief for those under such stress.

Mad: They thought she was hallucinating due to wishful thinking. His angel: i.e., his “ghost”, in modern parlance.

They apparently did not believe YHWH would do what they were asking Him to do! Are we any different?

Yaaqov: Not the one who had just been killed, but the brother of Yeshua. The brothers: possibly Yeshua’s other natural brothers, but probably including at least the ten other delegates. Though initially he was skeptical of Yeshua’s special role (Yoch. 7:5), Yaaqov was a believer after the resurrection (1:14) and was already becoming an important leader in the assembly (15:13; 21:18; Gal. 2:9-12), as shown by Keyfa’s wanting to be sure he stayed informed. A different location: so those who had captured him previously would not easily find him, especially with the commotion those in this location had just been making.

19. Now after he was set free and could not be found, Herodos judged the soldiers and commanded that they be put to death. Then he left Judea and stayed in Caesarea.

This was very much in character for Herodos. But soon we will see the price he had to pay for unjustly condemning (without even a trial) these men who were not at fault in Keyfa’s escape.

Dependent on: or, hanging in question. They were begging even for food at this point. (11:28)

Fixed: possibly the last day of unleavened bread, appointed as a feast in Exodus 13:6, explaining why they would be so celebratory even while there was a famine in the Land. Royal attire: Josephus specifies that it was made entirely of silver and reflected the sun at dawn in such an eerie way as to spread horror over those who watched. The semi-circular open-air theatre in which he would have stood has been excavated and is again used for musical concerts, having perfect acoustics after minimal repairs to the structure.

Daughters of the voice: a Hebrew idiom referring to a voice from heaven. Accepting flattery is always to one’s detriment, as the enemy uses this to take us off guard and sneak many otherwise-obvious attacks through. Yet the modern Gospel is based on flattery, presented primarily in terms of “what it can do for you”:

Maggots: or another form of larval worm. Josephus adds many details about this event in Antiquities of the Jews 19:8:2. . He says those in attendance said that while they had formerly seen him as one like the rest of them, they would now regard him as having a nature superior to that of mortals. At this point he noticed an owl sitting above him, and considered it an evil omen, and suddenly a sever pain arose in his stomach. He told the people that though they had called him a “g-d”, he was now being commanded to depart this life, thereby proving their barely-spoken words wrong. He was taken up to a chamber from which he could see people wearing black below, already mourning for him. After five days, he died, having said he had lived a satisfactorily-enjoyable life.

Hedged about: or, pushed back boundaries, caused its enemies to draw back.

CHAPTER 13

1. There were prophets and teachers in the congregation at Antiokhia—Bar-Naba’, Shim’on who was called Niger, Luqius from the city of Kurini, Mana’el son of the forces of Herodos, and Sha’ul.

Niger is Latin for “black”, and Luqius means “bright white light”. Most Jews were neither extreme, so already we see people representing the whole spectrum representing the Kingdom. There are some racist groups of both colors who call themselves Israelites, but the true Israel returning from exile encompasses all types of people. Mana’el: the Aramaic version; the Gk. form Menaen is apparently a corruption of Menahem, a common Hebrew name. Son of the forces: The Greek says he was brought up with Herodos. Interestingly, Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews 15:10:5) records the account of an Essene Menahem who was Herod’s contemporary and once saluted Herod as the king of the Jews when he was but a child, prophesying that he would be found worthy to be king and start well, have an everlasting reputation and outdo everyone in enjoyment of life, but would eventually forget piety and righteousness, for which he would be punished. Sha’ul may be listed last because the final “and” may imply that Sha’ul, too, was brought up with Menahem. Being a Roman citizen, he had some influence, and had to be from a wealthy family to study under Gamli’el. This may be why he was taken seriously by several governors, though his lifestyle appeared foolish to them.

Asking Elohim for favor: Gk., doing service (from the same root word as liturgy, which denotes doing service at one’s own expense, implying that if one is paid for his “ministry”, it is not truly ministry). Thus those chosen for service were people who were already active.

Laying hands on someone symbolizes that he is their representative.

Expressly: literally, from the taste of. Cyprus: Gk, Kupros; Heb., Qafrisim. This is the first of four journeys Sha’ul took for the same purpose. (See 15:40-18:22; 18:23-21;15; 27:1-28:16.)

Why did Sha’ul go to the synagogues? Because that is where people who were already hungry to know YHWH would be. He knew that no one who was not “hungry” would receive the message he had to bring them. We today can also find the Israelite unaware of their identity within the ranks of those who are not Jews but are drawn to the things of YHWH that Yehudah has preserved—the Sabbath, festivals, and other aspects of Torah. Jews made it a custom to read the Scriptures in the marketplace on market days, and many may have been attracted to come to the synagogues on the Sabbath to hear more.

Sorcerer: literally, one who mutters charms or incantations in a low voice. Greek, magos, from which we derive the term magician, but it implied one who watched the stars to interpret the signs that Gen. 1:27 says YHWH would place in the heavens. In this vein, we can understand the difference between astronomy (which studies “the laws of the stars”) and astrology (“the word of the stars”—i.e., not their normal patterns of behavior but what they are “saying” to us). Bar-Shuma: Gk., Bar-Iesous, i.e., son of Y’hoshua.

Sergius means “earth-born”, the same meaning as the LXX’s interpretation of the pre-flood creatures that were half-human, half-demon. Officer: Heb., netziv; the Greek term, anthupatos, identifies him as proconsul of a senatorial province, one of those into which Caesar Augustus had divided the Empire, possibly because of the census he took at the time of Messiah’s birth.

As is the translation: Elumas is a name not of Greek origin, and since he was Jewish, it is possible that this name is the corruption of a Hebrew word. If it is the sorcery to which his name is related, as the Greek (rather than Aramaic) phrase order suggests, Stern suggests chalom (“dream”) or ‘alim (“knowing/understanding science”). ‘Alam (“hidden/concealed”) might be another possibility.

Paulus: as in the name in verse 7, the Latin term means “small”, but it also approximates a Hebrew word, Pa’ul, which rhymes with Sha’ul and means “put to work” or “put into effect”. Spirit of being set apart: Since Elymas was a Jew, Sha’ul had a right to expect him to be separate from sorcery, which the Torah forbids. (Deut. 18:11)

Being Jewish, the raw materials Bar-Shuma began with would have been the “straight paths of YHWH”. Any type of change made to what is straight is by definition perversion, in Hebrew.

Blind: Those who twist the revelation they have been given are not permitted to see much more. He was put in the same position physically that he had already been in spiritually. Not see the sun: He would be unable to look for the signs in the heavens for a while. Hold him: Greek, lead him. He had considered himself unteachable, and now he needed a mentor. Sha’ul cursed him, outdoing his own magic. As a well-trained rabbi, Shau’l may have known how such things could be manipulated. In this day it was not uncommon for even the Jewish priests to wear amulets bearing blessings or curses.

13. Then Paulus and Bar-Naba’ traveled by sea from the city of Pafos and came to the city of Pergi, which is in Pamfulia. But Yochanan separated from them and went to Yerushalayim.

Pamfulia: the name means “of every tribe”. This is a province on the mainland of Asia Minor (now Turkey) west of Kilikia, the province where Sha’ul grew up. Separated: see also 15:39. Possibly because he was put off by Sha’ul’s cursing someone in such a bizarre display. He was going back to a place where they did not strike people blind! What was the difference between Elumas and Sha’ul if he used the same tricks? This time it was done in YHWH’s power, whether just to shut Elumas down or to bring him to true repentance. It certainly got the officer’s attention. He was looking for a sign, and Sha’ul gave him what he needed. We hear no about Sergius Paulus, so we do not know whether this fruit remained or whether the spectacle merely swept the house clean to make room for seven worse demons to come back into. This is one reason it is so vital to have a community into which to bring new believers for instruction.

15. And after the reading of the Torah and the Prophets, the elders of the synagogue sent to them and said, “Men, brothers, if you have a word of comfort, speak [it] to the people!”

They respected the order of their hosts’ house and did not speak until spoken to. In Jewish circles it is still common practice to read a haftarah from the prophets or writings which relates to the reading from the Torah. This practice was begun when the Greeks forbade the study of the Torah, so the Jews resourcefully taught the same lessons from the prophets and were thus able to indirectly teach each portion of the Torah. After this, it is common to allow those present to teach if able, and the dictates of hospitality often meant that this privilege would be offered to a guest. This is suggested in Luke 4:16-17, where Yeshua is asked to read what may have been the haftarah for that week. (The designated haftaroth have changed in some cases over the centuries.)

We can see here three designations: “Men” was, in that day, a term applied only to Jews. Sons of Israel, until the two houses of Israel are reunited, is a particular designation for those from the Northern Kingdom, who were now being drawn back to the synagogues because this was the closest they could get to Israel at that time, without the additional information he had to bring. They are the ones designated “Gentiles” in the Renewed Covenant; those who were “pure” Gentiles with no connection to Israel were seen as on the level of animals, often specifically dogs. Fearers of Elohim: a special term for those who were considering becoming proselytes.

18. “and sustained them in the wilderness forty years.

19. “Then He destroyed seven nations in the Land of Kanaan, and gave them their Land for an inherited possession.

20. “And for a duration of four hundred fifty years He gave them judges until Shmu’el the prophet,

21. “and at that time they demanded a king for themselves, and Elohim gave them Sha’ul the son of Qish, a man of the tribe of Binyamin—forty years,

Forty years: a figure not found in Scripture, but it does agree with Josephus’ total in Antiquities of the Jews (6:14:9), though in another place (10:8:4), he says 20.

23. “From the seed of this [man], Elohim raised up for Israel what He had promised—Yeshua the Messiah.

I have found…from the seed of this man…what He had promised: Here we see very strong parallels with Avraham, with whom YHWH chose to have an intimate friendship partly because he was one who would make sure his family would do what YHWH desired. (Gen. 18:19) The promised One must be the seed of David—through a woman, no doubt, but not some Greek-style “seed of Elohim” that produced a half-man like the Nefilim prior to Noakh’s flood.

His coming: Not before He was born, but before He emerged as Messiah. Prior to taking on this office, He was an ordinary man, like the priests before their 30th year, though they were clearly designated to that position from birth. Until Yochanan called the people to repentance, Yeshua had nothing to work with.

This is “kinsman-redeemer” language, for the one who relinquished his right to redeem to the next in line who was qualified to fill that position. This was his way of saying he was not as qualified as Yeshua to redeem the people, as seen in Ruth 4:7-8.

27. “because these inhabitants of Yerushalayim and their heads have not recognized—not at all—the writings of the prophets who are read every Sabbath, except to judge them, in fulfillment of all the words that are written.

These inhabitants: those usurpers who were “occupying” the Temple. Not only were they not the persons YHWH had prescribed for the positions of leadership therein; they did not even believe the things they were hearing and even saying so often!

29. “And when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they brought Him down from the cross, and laid Him to rest inside a tomb.

30. “But Elohim raised Him up from the house of the dead

31. “and he was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from the Galil to Yerushalayim, and they are now His witnesses to the people.

32. “And also we [ourselves] indeed bring you the glad news that the promise that came to the patriarchs--

33. “lo and behold, Elohim is fulfilling it for us, their descendants—because He raised Yeshua, as it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’

This was initially spoken of King Shlomo at his coronation, and thus “son of Elohim” is an idiom for the one who sits on the throne that he passed down to his sons. Raised: in this first instance, at His immersion He was raised from His everyday life as the carpenter’s son to be the set-apart deliverer of Israel. (See note on v. 24.) In the next verse, we see the other type of raising:

Confirmed: or reliable. The Greek version adds the first phrase to the LXX version; the Hebrew original of Yeshayahu 55:3 says, “Obey, and your soul will thrive, and I will cut an eternal covenant with you, the kindnesses of David being upheld.” This sets Sha’ul’s message squarely within the framework of Torah, so as Keyfa said, it was the unlearned and unstable who twisted it to sound contradictory to Torah. (2 Keyfa 3:16)

Pious: or kind, merciful. This is the Hebrew word hasid, from which a major branch of Orthodox Jewry is derived. Corruption: or, decay (also in v. 34). The quote is from Psalm 16:10.

Gathered to his ancestors: an idiom for having one’s bones collected a year or so after death—after the flesh had rotted away--and placed in the same part of a tomb or ossuary box as the bones of one’s ancestors. In other words, there had to be a greater fulfillment of this promise later in his lineage.

38. “Therefore, let it be known to you, our brothers, that through this one forgiveness of sins is announced to you,

39. “and from everything that you were not able to justify yourselves through the Torah of Moshe, through this one, everyone who places his trust is justified.

This means Yeshua is a supplement to, not a substitute for, the extent to which we can keep the Torah. We trust Him to take our utmost further than we can and make it adequate in the Father’s eyes. From another angle, Stern points out that the Mishnah’s tractate Kritot lists 36 transgressions from which one cannot be cleared from being cut off from his people since there is no designated sacrifice or punishment that restores fellowship. These include prohibited sexual unions, idolatry, profaning the Sabbath, some violations of purity laws, eating leavened bread during the Feast of Matzah, eating or working on Yom Kippur—things all of us from the Northern Kingdom once were guilty of while living in a Gentile framework. The renewed Covenant reiterates that there is no remedy for intentional (“high-handed”) rebellion (Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26; Romans 3:7-8; 6:1-2) As a people we had no kinsman-redeemer, because no one in the House of Yehudah had enough “purchasing power” to ransom us. There must be one qualified remaining if redemption is to take place, but until Yeshua came on the scene, there was no way the Torah could provide either house of Israel with a king or kingdom, for that had been lost to both. Torah had become so twisted in its interpretation that it could not declare anyone right, because no one was upholding it anymore. So YHWH raised up one who was not under sin and could set it back on its proper footing and bring it back to its undiluted fullness. While the kinsman redeemer sets one free from slavery, he is now under obligation to honor that redeemer as our new owner.

41. “‘Look, you mockers, and be awestruck and listen, because I am about to do something in your days that you would not believe if a man recounted to you.’ [Havaqquq 1:5]”

42. And when they departed from their presence, they begged of them that they would speak these words to them the next Sabbath.

43. And after the congregation was sent out, many Jews and also proselytes who feared Elohim walked after them, so they spoke to them and urged them to stick to the kindness of Elohim.

Urged: from the word for stubborn. The kindness: as opposed to the rabbinic restructuring of the Torah, which Yeshua and Keyfa said was too heavy a burden for anyone to be laden with.

45. but when the Jews saw the huge crowd, they were filled with jealousy, and rose up in opposition to the words Paulus was speaking, and reviled [against them].

Jews: that is, the leaders of the local synagogue, because those who were speaking were also Jews. The huge crowd: This, not what he said, was the catalyst for their opposition. They had been trying hard to make proselytes and had a handful of followers, but now there was clearly an adequate kinsman-redeemer, and to this they responded. (See also v. 48.)

The year that the curse of “no mercy” for the Northern Kingdom (Hoshea 1:6) had completed its course was 46 C.E. (based on the doubling in Yirmeyahu 16:18 of the 390-year sentence pronounced in Y’hezq’el 4:5) Since the events in chapter 12 were only two years prior to that and some time has clearly elapsed since that time, with the travels throughout Asia Minor, across to Cyprus, around the island, and back again in conditions that would sometimes require a long wait for more favorable weather (27:12), it is not at all unreasonable to hypothesize that 46 is the exact date here. Gentiles: the Greek term can also mean “tribes”.

The quote is from Yeshayahu 49:6, which is clearly in context of the restoration.of the tribes of Israel as the main task of the Messiah (1:6), with the nations added as a bonus gift since He deserved more.

They started cheering loudly, because at last there was a way to become part of Israel that was not too burdensome as the rabbinic way was. (15:10; Mat. 11:28-30)

Clearly there were many “lost sheep of the House of Israel” in this region!

Wealthy women: They were idle and could stir things up with gossip due to their influence.

This was in obedience to Yeshua’s command in Mat. 10:14, which may relate to the idiom of resurrection in Yeshayahu 52:2. Feet would normally be washed after one knew he was going to stay a long while (Mat. 10;11-13), or there would be none left on the feet to shake off. If the household did not wash the feet of the guest (Luqa 7:44), it was clear that this house was unworthy to stay in. Iqanon: Gk., Iconion; Latin, Iconium, meaning “little image”. It was a well-known city, the capital of Lukaonia. They had a strategic plan, going where they knew some of the lost sheep of the House of Israel would be found.

Were filled: or, filled themselves, let themselves be filled; they had to make a choice in this circumstance to see the bright side and recognize that they had indeed taken new ground despite the apparent defeat.

CHAPTER 14

The Greek text reiterates that they were still in Ikonium, the “city of images”. One reason “Greeks” would be in the synagogues is that only there could those who were being drawn to YHWH find diplomatic immunity from otherwise-mandatory idol worship. Yeshua also had told His witnesses not to go in the “ways of the Gentiles”. But the synagogue is also one of the few places the written Torah could be found, from which their message could be verified. If people were not learning the Torah, the envoys’ message would make no sense. That is why there are so many variations in modern Christianity; there is no basis left, without a foundation of Torah knowledge. Butthose who had heard the Torah would be wondering, “What now? We are in exile as the Torah promised we would be, so where is the promised Deliverer?” “Greeks” might also refer to Hellenized Jews.

This followed the same pattern as Yeshua’s conviction and execution, for this is where the political authority to persecute lay. These Gentiles are those outside the synagogue—the native people of Ikonium. But the maltreatment did not deter them from continuing to do what they were there to do.

He gave witness: If the “He” is to be understood as Yeshua, the authorization for them to heal in His Name was given while He was among us. (Luqa 9:1) The signs proved that He was behind what they were doing.

5. There was a threat over them from the Gentiles and from the Jews and their heads to hide them away and stone them with stones.

Threat: or assault.

They were trying to get the word out as quickly as possible in each place before the enemy could catch up with them—to undermine his order of things before those who recognized that it was damaging to their corrupted power structure could pull the wool back over people’s eyes. They had to “cut to the chase” and choose their audience quickly. Their strategic decision was to go to where people were already keeping the Sabbath—a wise pattern to follow today as well, for if someone does not even obey this command, what sense can other Hebraic things make to him? The pattern was proving to be that they often had only one Sabbath to get the message out before their adversaries took advantage of the tide of emotion to create a mob that could run over anything that was in their way. Emotional appeal is so prevalent in modern society that we often need to over-correct and leave it out altogether, since the enemy plays on the weakness of the human heart. Derbi (Derbe in Greek) is the furthest inland they went on this journey. These two cities and Ikonium were the chief cities of Lukaonia, which is a fertile land well-adapted for pasture, separated from the Kilikian coast by the Taurus Mountains. In this pastureland dwelt some of the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”. The last phrase is verse 7 in Greek, and the rest of verses in the chapter continue in that sequence, one number higher than the Aramaic version.

8. This [man] heard Paulus speaking, and when Paulus saw him, he knew that he had within him the confidence to be healed.

Knew: the root meaning is to test by investigation and prove; the same term is translated “were sure” in verse 6.

10. And the crowd of people, when they saw what Paulus had done, lifted up their voice in the language of the place and said, “The gods have taken on the form of humans and come down to us!”

The language: Greek mixed with Syriac, a form of Aramaic based on the dialect of Edessa. The gods: The well-known Greek myth of Baucis and Philemon which promised blessings to those who would treat well the deities who came in the form of men to test their sincerity would have predisposed these people, who might never have seen a true miracle before, to bend over backwards to try to appease anyone they suspected of being super-human:

Master of the Elim: Gk., Dia, from which the modern Spanish word Dios is derived, and the term “deity”. It is a form of the name Zeus, and corresponds to the Latin Jupiter. Hermes: the equivalent of the Roman Mercurius. None of these names should be on our tongues. (Ex. 23:13; Joshua 23:7; compare Deut. 12:3) But they are physical entities in the heavens. Without “light pollution” and modern forms of entertainment, the drama for most people in this day was what went on in the night sky. Priests like this would have slept in the daytime and been in the “presence” of their elohim when they could be seen. Yet planets do not even give light, but only reflect it! But there are always spiritual entities that attach themselves to anything other than YHWH that is worshipped. This may be the reason that the doors of the Temple of YHWH were locked at night. Yeshua says the night is the time no one can work. (Yochanan 9:4) We are to be “children of the day” who do not work the works of darkness. (1 Thess. 5:5) Started speaking: or, been the chief speaker. As Aharon was the spokesman for Moshe and Gehazi for Elisha, most dignitaries would not address the people face to face, but would utilize a representative, they may have assumed the chief deity would not be the one to do the talking, but would have someone introduce him.

The bulls represent the highest sacrifice since it would be eaten by them, and the garland wreaths imply very special treatment such as accorded to the emperor.

Tore their garments: a typical response when hearing blasphemy.

The only thing most of these people have done is to express the idea that men could be elohim. This is one way Christianity got so far off track. Paulus, whose words have been twisted by many to say that this is true of Yeshua, says that such a concept is useless and that it is ridiculous to worship (except as a king) one who is of the same nature as ourselves. If he had wanted to merely shift the focus to Yeshua instead being Elohim rather than himself, this would have been the perfect time to do so. But note well that he did not.

In the past: in a similar statement (17:30), he states the obvious implication: “But now He is calling all men everywhere to repent.”

They did not preach the “Gospel” to these people, since they had no reason to suspect that they were lost sheep of the House of Israel; instead they gave a general witness to the need to worship the only One who truly deserves it.

It is hard to overcome with mere logic the human tendency to worship a healer, as we see even with “faith healers” today.

Iqanon (Ikonium) was not far from Lustra, but to come all the way from (Pisidian) Antiokhia meant they were very serious about putting a stop to this message. They were not content to merely “run them out of town”.

The disciples must have prayed, because it would be miraculous for someone assumed to be dead to be able to simply get up and walk into the city.

These are the towns they had been “run out of”. But they still had “follow-up” work to do there, and there was much profit in going back to ensure “fruit that would remain”:

Strengthening: making their grip more firm. Unlike today’s “Gospel”, the expectation of persecution was clearly taught from the start. But it is clearly worth the high price! It was probably the disciples gathered over Paulus when he revived that engraved on his mind the fact that the only reason he was still alive was for their sake, so he realized he could not just give them the message and then leave them without capable leadership and order:

23. And after they had gone around throughout the region of Pisidia, they came into Pamfulia.

24. Then after they had spoken the word of YHWH in the city of Pergi, they descended into Italia,

Pergi: Greek, Perga. Italia: in this case, the Aramaic way of spelling the Greek name Attaleia (a coastal town in Pamfulia, not far from Pergi), not the country we now refer to as Italy.

Journeyed: Greek, sailed—the fastest way to make this trip.

Being accountable to authority, they report back to those who commissioned them.

Some people: probably the “men from Yaaqov” to whom Sha’ul referred in Galatians 2:12, in which case it would mean Keyfa had been visiting for some time at Antiokhia as well while Sha’ul was there, just before they arrived. In this case, his second visit to the Delegates (9:26ff) must have occurred not long before this, probably just before his first journey into Asia (chapters 13-14), being 14 years after the visit in 9:26ff, which fits with Gal. 1:19. Down: Not just in altitude, but in the spiritual importance of the place. Custom: in the Hebrew translation, it is minhag—a tradition that, if practiced for a long enough time by a particular community, is considered by rabbinic Judaism to be “torah”--binding upon every member. (Nehemia Gordon) Moshe: the Hebrew translation from Aramaic actually says “Torah”, which is what “Moshe” often symbolizes, but this seems to have been a particular manner of circumcising that claimed to stem all the way from Moshe, since circumcision itself was first given as a command not to Moshe but to Avraham. Interestingly enough, Moshe himself was hesitant to circumcise his own sons, probably because it seemed repulsive to his wife. (Ex. 4;24ff) This “custom of Torah” correlates with the “works of the law” doctrine that Sha’ul spoke against. (Rom. 9:32; Gal. 2:16; 3:2-10) Delivered: not “saved” in the Christian sense, but rescued from exile. (See v. 11) In one sense they were absolutely right, because in order to return to the Land and participate in the Kingdom in the fullest sense, they indeed had to be circumcised, because this is a requirement for any who eat of the Passover lamb. (Ex. 12:48)

Confusion: tumult, noise, disturbance, consternation; Gk., dissension, insurrection, uproar. Dispute: Aramaic, mutual questioning. The book of Galatians was apparently written early in this time, since it does not fit with his attitude as expressed after this (apparently his third) trip to Yerushalayim to visit the Delegates—or theirs toward him. (v. 25) Thus the dispute must thus have lasted for some time. It appears that these men in v. 1 brought with them the epistle of Yaaqov (James), since it is a direct response to the letter of Galatians (a copy of which must also have had sufficient time to have made its way back to Yerushalayim prior to this). Note that it is the emissaries from Yerushalayim, not Paulus and Bar-Naba’, who initiate the plea for a ruling to end the debate.

Congregation: Paulus and Bar-Naba’ had been sent out by the same congregation at Antiokhia, but they were not elders there; they needed the authorization of the leadership to go proclaim the message, and could be sent out by their mandate for other reasons, like this one. They had no direct routes in those days; they could not bypass the other established communities, so on their way they brought them up to date on YHWH’s latest move. Return: or repentance. Note the emphasis on coming back to what their ancestors had known; these were not “ordinary” Gentiles!

5. But some men from the sect of the P’rushim who had come to the faith stood up and said, “It is up to you to circumcise them and command them to keep the Torah of Moshe!”

They, like Paulus, are not “former P’rushim”, but remain P’rushim still (23:6), though they have opposite views on the subject at hand. Circumcision was being seen not only as a sign of the covenant, but as an overall badge of approval, a status symbol in the arrogant sense rather than merely a part of obedience. (See note on 11:2.)

Convened: or concentrated themselves. Consider: literally, to eye.

Difference of opinion: or, division. The first days: at least seventeen years prior to this time, and probably significantly more.

Even though they may not be familiar with every ramification, the Delegates could see evidence from their lives that they had the right motivation. Demons can make people “speak in tongues”; the real evidence that it is a HOLY spirit motivating them is that the Kingdom is their priority.

10. “So now, why are you putting Elohim to the test by putting a yoke on the necks of the disciples which neither we nor our ancestors nor have been able to bear?

Keyfa was following the pattern Yeshua had laid out in Mat. 16:19—that Keyfa could bind and loose on earth what was “[already] having been loosed” or bound in Heaven. It began from his mouth (v. 7) after YHWH made it clear that “Gentiles” could come into the Kingdom. And here again, Keyfa is only confirming what YHWH has already made unmistakably evident. This yoke is not the Torah! Moshe himself said the Torah was not beyond our ability to keep (Deut. 30:11-14); that is a Christian “straw man” argument. And it is binding on Israel; it is not a question of if it must be obeyed, but the issue here is “how much, when?” Must the lost sheep of the House of Israel who are coming back to a recognition that they are Israel bear the sign of the covenant and be keeping every part of the Torah before they can join the community? Or should they come to an understanding of what they are doing first, and then carry it out? The only Torah teachers that exist at this point are from the House of Yehudah, and the only place the Torah scrolls are available is the synagogue. The only way to properly learn—and live--the Torah is in community. If they must already be observant before they can be permitted inside, they are put in an impossible position. That is the unbearable yoke he is talking about here. He and his ancestors had not had to become observant on their own, without a community to help. Every other context around them was pagan; there was no way to practice Torah there, since it must be carried out with one another. The Northern Kingdom tried to become connected to other nations and yet remain Israel, and the result was that the Torah fell by the wayside. It is as illogical to expect them to remain part of their pagan surroundings and learn to be Israel before they can become a part of us as it would be to expect someone to be able to wield weapons properly and skillfully before he could join the army, when the only place he could ever practice was in the army, since he was denied access to them anywhere else! Yeshua warned of the P’rushim laying a “heavy burden” on men’s shoulders without lifting a finger to help them. (Mat. 23:4) And now even the believing P’rushim are doing this. They expected these believers outside the Land to live as Israelites before they would allow any of them back into the Land.

The Jews from the Land were also nonetheless under Roman occupation, and not able to have a Torah-based kingdom yet. Though they might be much more adept at rowing the boat, they were still in the “same boat”. We have a hope and a promise of deliverance, but we are not yet in our Land (which is how Scripture defines salvation) and the king is not yet present. We do not yet have a kingdom, so why should we act as though we are already there and they are not?

13. And after they had settled down, Yaaqov stood up and said, “Men of our brothers, listen to me!

Yaaqov: the brother of Yeshua.

Though certainly Sha’ul and Bar-Naba’s testimony is taken into account, it is never mentioned; Shim’on’s words are given much more weight, because he is one of their own elders. Sha’ul is “out there on his own”. He is not fully recognize as one of the Delegates, though at times he argues that he should be. (Gal. 1:1; 1 Cor. 9:1-2; 2 Cor. 12:12)

16. “‘“After this I will return and set up the fallen sukkah of David and rebuild whatever [part] of it has fallen, and I will establish it…

The hearers would quickly make the connection between the feast of Sukkoth’s emphasis on the nations coming into the Kingdom and the throne of David being re-established through Yeshua. To rebuild the fallen sukkah, writes Moshe Koniuchowsky, would entail using the same building materials as before—that is, the twelve tribes of Israel “living in harmony and unity under the new and greater David.”

This follows the interpretive text of the Greek LXX. The original Hebrew says, “so they may dispossess the remnant of Edom”, but Edom and Adam are very similar, and there is only one letter difference in Hebrew between yiyrshu (they dispossess) and yidr’shu (they earnestly seek), and could easily have been mis-copied in some cases. The Greek text takes it in this direction, possibly to soften the intensity of the Hebrew concept in case less sympathetic foreigners should read it and consider such “unfair” treatment cause for persecution of the Jews.

19. “Therefore, I say [we should] not trouble those who are returning to YHWH from among the Gentiles.

I say: Gk., It is my ruling/judgment. Don’t the other elders get to share in the ruling? Keyfa has been given the keys, yet Yaaqov has the right to rule after listening to those whose input he considers worthy. (See note on v. 22.) Returning: If they were merely Gentiles, they would only be “turning”, but since Yeshua was sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, these include the alienated tribes who assimilated with the Gentiles, and lost their identity. But YHWH did not forget who they were. So He sent the envoys after them so He could begin reuniting the two houses of Israel. The Hebrew term used to translate the Aramaic text (shavim) clearly denotes coming back; if “turning” was the intent (as it is ambiguous in Greek), a different Hebrew word (sur as used in verse 20) would have been more appropriate. Yaaqov recognizes that those raised in a pagan context cannot be expected at first to understand everything the Jews have known. Note, though, that he does not say, “Tell them not to worry about it”, for if they are to call themselves Israel, they must act in a way that is recognizable as Israelite:

What is slaughtered: the Greek version has “the defilement of idols”, thus stating the implication more directly. This undoubtedly refers to the meat offered to idols (as per the Greek version of v. 29 and 21:25) which Sha’ul deals with often. (1 Cor. 8:10; 10:19) This has many applications today—Christmas trees, steeples, crosses—anything that in any way has been dedicated to pagan elohim, even if it now has a Christian name. Even the English names of the days and months reflect their names. While we are not fully there until we are speaking purely Hebrew, he wants them to evidence a pattern of removing these things from their lives, for they are incompatible with Israel. Setting such boundaries in our lives will indeed make us uncomfortable since we cannot even speak the language of those around us without awkward circumlocutions. This demands that we become a tighter community while still in exile, for we will need support and reinforcement in all these lifestyle changes. What is strangled: deprived of life without shedding blood. Even a dull knife can strangle the animal on its own blood, and this would not then be kosher. The Greek term was actually used in the broader sense much as treif (torn) is used today to mean anything not killed in a kosher manner not only according to the Torah but even according to Jewish tradition, which in some cases is even stricter. The men in verse 1 have a valid point; some aspects of these former Gentiles’ lifestyle could never be palatable to the Jews, and it is a simple fact that the condition they are in is not acceptable to YHWH; it is not an easy message, for those who have lived this way can no longer do so. The disciples are asked to in this case follow Jewish custom in order to avoid any reason for both groups not to sit together at the same table. This way they will not be doing things that sicken the Jews and might get them expelled from the only place they can learn. The blood: Since non-kosher sacrifice, which in essence means meat without the blood drained at the time of slaughter, has already been listed, “blood” here most likely refers to intercourse during a woman’s time of niddah. They are all purity issues, and all are clearly commanded in Torah; without these one cannot be part of a community that holds them as its standard. He will tell them clearly, “We will not exclude you because you are not yet fully-observant, but you must take these steps before you can expect us to welcome you.” Such wisdom! He keeps the landmarks in place, without overwhelming them with too many details, knowing that this would suffocate them in the same way that introducing solid food back to a starving man too quickly can kill him, as seen in the liberated concentration camps after World War II; though he certainly needs food, he must be acclimated to it gradually. So Yaaqov simply says, “Stay within these boundaries and you will not have a problem.” He thus does not alienate either side of the argument, yet stays within the boundaries of Torah.

Do not trouble them: I.e., do not lay on them too heavy a burden all at once. But if they are truly Israel, they are responsible to gradually come back into the fullness of Torah-observance insofar as it is possible outside the Land and with no Temple intact. By attending the synagogues, they would learn the rest little by little, and assimilate each aspect into their lives at a realistic pace by which it could sink in and really become part of them. They would know why they are doing it; it would not just be “jumping through hoops”. But on the other hand, we dare not stop at verse 20, because it is contrary to Torah to have one standard for the Jews and another for the other tribes—or even those who are guests among us. Equal weights and measures must be used for both. (Deut. 25:13-16; Lev. 24:22; Num. 15:16) Note that they had to be in the context where both houses of Israel could meet together to be able to learn properly, and they had to submit to the Sabbath (not decide on their own day of worship), which in essence adds two more requirements to the four in v. 20. These fenceposts define the boundaries, so that they can begin to discipline themselves and see the benefits of walking in Torah; they can “connect the dots” and fill in the gaps between them little by little.

Why do the leaders not even discuss the matter before doing what Yaaqov suggests? Because by this time Yaaqov has risen to prominence among the believers, probably not because he is so much further along in knowledge, though his own faith has solidified and grown stronger since Yeshua’s meeting with him after the resurrection (Mat. 28:10). But though he came along at the “eleventh hour”, he has great authority because in Yeshua’s absence, being the next eldest brother, he is the one with the right to the throne of David, and those who believed in the restoration of the Kingdom gave him the dignity of this recognition. He receives much less attention in the text than Paulus or Keyfa, but his historicity is much better documented outside the Bible (in Josephus and other sources) than any of the other delegates. He is called “Yaaqov the Just” and was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man alive. Paulus and Bar-Naba’ were never authorized by these leaders in particular, or trained by them (who indeed had been trained directly by Yeshua), so they cannot be certain that their message will be exactly the same. Yeshua had shown them how to present Him from the Scriptures. (Luqa 24:27) They had the sense that Paulus might not keep the message of Torah in front of the Gentiles as strongly as he should. He was not adequately focusing people on the authority structure by which Israel is to operate, which emanates from Yerushalayim. The king of Israel ruled that all believers follow Yehudah’s standards in this case, so it is incumbent on us today as well. Bar-Saba: apparently the brother of the Yoseyf mentioned in 1:23. Shila: Gk., Silas, short for Silvanus (forest-dweller).

24. “We have heard that men from among us have gone out and disturbed you with words and confused your souls by saying that it was upon you to be circumcised and keep the Torah—things we did not order them [to say].

Words: The particular Hebrew word is milim. The root word is malal, which is a homonym with the term for circumcision, so they are undoubtedly making a play on words. Confused your souls: Gk., unsettled your consciences, i.e., making you feel guilty where you cannot be reasonably held at fault due to the position another (in this case, your ancestor who turned from Torah) has put you in. We did not order: The men were “from among them”; what was not authorized was statements like that in verse 1 that added interpretations that went too far too soon. The leaders who sent them to bring a corrective to Paulus’ message did not intend for them to overwhelm his students by saying they had to meet all the standards in an impossibly short time.

Weighed out: pondered, reasoned, balanced—i.e., carefully took all the factors into consideration. Beloved: While Sha’ul is being corrected, the Delegated Envoys make it clear that it is in no way to be taken as hostile, and their position in the eyes of those whom they have taught is supported and validated as far as possible.

Handed over their souls: or, given up their lives. What an example and standard for us all to reach for!

Orally: Heb., b’al-peh—the same phraseology used of the “oral torah”, emphasizing that in Hebraic thought, what is spoken verbally reinforces and adds weight to what is merely written. This hints at the possibility that the requirement being promoted in vv. 1-5 included the keeping of the oral torah, not just the written, giving additional meaning to verse 10. In any case, they can “give the sense” by their tone of voice to clarify any ambiguities and elaborate if there are questions about exactly what is meant. They can also vouch for the fact that this letter is not a forgery and confirm that indeed there are no ways to get around the ruling.

Necessary: pressing, urgent. Yet Christianity has come so far from the original intent of the delegates that even these most basic of principles seem foreign!

What is slaughtered: or “sacrificed” as the term is specially used in a ritual sense. Verse 20, when Yaaqov is explaining what needed to be done, is more explicit: it is “the defilement of what is slaughtered.” But in any context outside of Yerushalayim, anything “sacrificed” would be in the context of idolatry. Firm: set up, stationed, mustered up. I.e., do not let yourselves be swayed by those who would make Yeshua’s yoke seem heavy or who would put Torah out of your reach. (Mat. 11:28-30; Deut. 30:11-14—note the reversal of numbers in these two verses with the same theme!)

31. And when they read it, they were glad and took comfort.

32. And with many words they strengthened the brothers, and the fellowship of Yehudah and Shila confirmed them, being that they indeed were also prophets.

Confirmed: fulfilled the intent expressed in the last sentence of the letter. It confirmed to the young believers that they were not missing any of YHWH’s favor while they were still far from keeping the Torah perfectly, as long as they were taking respectable steps in the “spirit” of that intent—that is, already riding the current that was taking them in that direction. As long as they were headed home, the prodigal’s father would meet them before they reached home.

34. Paulus and Bar-Naba’ remained in Antiokhia, teaching and proclaiming the glad news (the word of Elohim) with many others.

35. Then after how many days Paulus said to Bar-Naba’, “Let’s go back and inspect the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of Elohim, and see how they are doing.”

How they are doing: or, what they are accomplishing. Since the elders have held him accountable, he realizes he must go back and make sure those he had established are also being held accountable, and that the elders he put in place over them will teach them these same standards. Yaaqov’s epistle showed how the things Paulus had taught could easily be misconstrued as libertine, though he certainly did not intend them to be taken that way. He wrote to people he had taught, and so did not state the parameters for interpretation in some cases, and Yaaqov’s concerns have proven true. As Keyfa said (2 Keyfa/Peter 3:16), his words have been wrested (literally, tortured) from their original context.

37. But Paulus did not want to take him with them, since he had abandoned them when they were in Pamfulia and did not go on with them.

38. On account of this disagreement, they separated from one another, and Bar-Naba’ took along Marqos, and they embarked by sea and traveled to Cyprus.

Bar-Naba’ was more patient with his nephew, but Sha’ul later expressed acceptance of Marqos. (See additional details on this relationship in 1 Cor. 9:6; 2 Tim. 4:11; Filemon 24.)

We would think from verse 33 that Shila was back in Yerushalayim by this time, but to be released does not force one to go; the Greek version adds an explanatory note after v. 33 that Shila thought it worthwhile to stay on in Antiokhia. (Therefore there is one more verse in the Greek version of this chapter than the Aramaic.)

CHAPTER 16

Timotheos means “honoring to Elohim”. Aramean: in Greek it says “a Greek”, and this pattern of substitution is common; in both cases it undoubtedly can often simply mean “non-Jewish” without indicating a particular nationality.

3. Paulus wanted to take him with him, so he took and circumcised him on account of the Jews who were in the district, because they all knew that his father was Aramean.

Today Jews trace their “Jewishness” through their mothers, possibly based on the pattern seen in Ezra 10:2-3, in which children of foreign wives were considered foreign, probably because the mothers raise the children from the earliest age, and also because of how common rape by foreign conquerors became, in which cases it was difficult to determine who the father was. But this practice began much later than this; there are no matrilineal genealogies in the Renewed Covenant (except one of Yeshua’s, for a different reason). Timotheos’ mother Evnike had raised him in the Scriptures since he was a child (2 Tim. 3:15), yet apparently she was influenced by his father not to circumcise him. Yet we see in Timotheos’ correct choice a tikkun (reparation) for the other “son of an Israelite woman” with a Gentile father (Lev. 24:10-14), who had instead blasphemed YHWH. This verse is often taken to mean that he was only circumcised because he was half-Jewish, and otherwise it would not matter. But this contradicts chapter 15, which stipulates that non-Jewish believers take steps to make them palatable to Jews, so they could remain in an environment where they could learn the rest of the Torah, which includes circumcision. These Jews had to be some of those who believed in Yeshua, because why else would they care if this half-Gentile was circumcised? They were watching Paulus to make sure he was carrying out what he was sent to do. And if he was teaching what was intended to lead others to circumcision, he would not be considered credible if he brought along as a trainee someone who was not mature enough in Torah to even be circumcised yet:

5. and indeed the congregations were established in the faith and growing in number with each day.

Established: or consolidated. I.e., they were all brought to agreement on an important question.

Galatya: the region where he had caused the most confusion by his emphasis on belief before circumcision through his letterto the Galatians, so it was especially important that he take this message there. Asiya: west of Früggia, an area that was nevertheless reached with the Gospel of the Kingdom, even by Paulus himself. The seven congregations in Revelation 2-3 are there. But this was the season for strengthening the existing congregations, as important as it would later be to establish new ones. Even the need of the lost sheep there had to wait until correctives were made to the message. They were thus to be kept set apart from something that was not kingdom priority at the time, as tempting as it was to break new ground. The light from the existing congregations would have to permeate into Asiya. Today we are at a similar stage of correcting mis-teachings before the largest influx of believers realize they are actually Israelite. As we do so, and as we gather into community, we will form a more intense “lighthouse” effect that will be much more potent than a single firefly in isolation.

Now the time apparently had come to enter new territory, for Paulus had not visited this region on his first trip. Why did he “want to” go into Bithünia in particular? Jewish legend says (at least some of) the northern tribes of Israel had crossed over a river called the Sanbatyon, never to be heard from again. Yochanan Hevroni Ben-David has identified the Sanbatyon as the Bosporus Strait (near present-day Istanbul), which connects the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, and at times flowing back and forth between the two. In the language of that region, san meant “river”, and it is easy linguistically to trace batyon to Bithünia (alternate spelling Bithynia, the region of northern Turkey just south of the Black Sea). Thus the Bosporus would have been called “the river of Bithynia” (alternate spelling). It is the gateway from Asiya Minor into Europe—a natural “jumping-off place” for migration of a large number of them into Europe, according to Dell Griffin. As they assimilated with the nations, the Jews lost track of who they were—and so did they themselves. Bithünia had thus long been a place where the northern tribes of Israel were known to have settled, so naturally Sha’ul would think it logical to look for them there. But apparently by this time most had already moved on. Spirit of Yeshua” Aramaic; the Greek version simply says “the spirit”.

Troas is on the northwestern coast of Turkey, right where the Bosporus Strait meets the Aegean Sea.

Iyov (Job) 33:15-18 links dreams with instruction that keep us from going in the wrong direction. Help me: Greek, help us. Maqedonia is northwest of the Aegean Sea and north of Greece.

We: By this point, Luqa has joined Paulus and begins to travel with him, possibly as a medical assistant (as Col. 4:14 identifies him as a physician), and thus much of his account is written from direct experience, with Paulus filling in most of the other details. Luqa was with Paulus when he wrote the letter to the Colossians, 2 Timotheos (4:11), and Filemon (1:24).

12. and from there to Filippos, which is the capital of Maqedonia, and it is a colony. And we were in this city on definite days.

13. And on the Sabbath day, we went out to the outside of the city gate to the riverbank, since we had seen a house of prayer there. And when we had sat ourselves down, we spoke with the women who were gathering there.

Sabbath: Greek, the day of the Sabbaths (plural), or weeks, hinting that the “definite” days referred to the counting of the omer, the seven weeks counted from the firstfruits of the barley harvest until Shavuoth. A house of prayer: or simply, a place of prayer. In a pagan city, it was common for Jews to meet outside of town by a river, where it would be easy to carry out ritual washings prior to praying. It would also be safe for men and women to interact there as seen here, since no one who was ritually defiled would be present for that reason. If the synagogue were in the city, they would be defiled again the moment they stepped out of the miqveh. Where are the men? Some sects of Judaism were by this time already segregating men and women, either by location or time of liturgy. But women are also more attuned to spiritual things, and it may be that Paulus and Shila wanted to convince the women, who would catch on more quickly,

Purple: either the dye itself or products dyed purple, such as clothing. A fearer of Elohim: a special term for one considering conversion to Judaism and studying toward that end. Such a “Gentile” would be a prime “suspect” of being one of the lost sheep of the House of Israel. Lüdia, or Lydia, means “labor/travail of YHWH” in Hebrew. Theatirah (Thüatira in Greek) means “odor of affliction”. Since she was from there, she may have returned, and it may be that she was the one chosen to take the message back there, as that is one of the towns that had a key congregation by the time Yochanan sent a special message there from Yeshua as recorded in Revelation 2 some forty years later.

A woman who had this much authority over a house was most likely to have been a widow, unless this particular city had a matriarchal society.

Divination: both the Greek and Hebrew terms are related to a word for a snake, and in Hebrew, hissing in particular. The Greek specifies a python, for Pütho was the region where the oracle of Delfi was located, so it suggests a territorial spirit of that region. This oracle was so consistently accurate that kings would consult her. She even prophesied the birth of Messiah at the right time. Her “logo” was the python, and this has been passed on to “fortune-tellers” to this day. But this connection goes back even further, to the symbol of the cobra on Pharaoh’s headdress. Prophecy was seen as providing control over the unpredictable unknown—and this desire goes all the way back to Eden. YHWH’s command that Moshe pick up his rod (symbol of authority) that had turned into a snake thus symbolized his taking up of a prophetic calling.

El Most High: true, but still she dos not specify his Name; in a Greek context people would assume she was speaking about Zeus. Aside from having taken up the spirit of prophecy without authority and “casting pearls before swine” by giving this message to an audience different from the ones it was intended for, this became downright irritating to Paulus:

19. And when her masters saw that their source of trade had left her, they seized Paulus and Shila and dragged them away and brought them to the public square.

This “serpent’s” head was crushed indeed. (Gen. 3:15) Source: literally, hope or expectation. Square: actually circle in Hebrew! In Greek, it is a marketplace.

Highest-of-rank: Greek, magistrates.

Customs: the particular ones commanded in chapter 15: having nothing to do with idols (a prohibition which went against Roman law, which dictated on what days one was to sacrifice to which idol, some of which involved the eating of swine’s flesh) or fornication (often very particularly a part of the ceremony of worshipping pagan deities); circumcision (which offended the Greeks, who considered the human body, especially male, to be perfect in its natural state); and of course, the belief in only one Elohim (since the Romans constantly added to their already-huge pantheon whenever they conquered a new region. But modern Christians are also Romans at root, and they things we teach are also unlawful to them. Keeping the dietary laws? (“That would cramp my freedom in Christ!”) YHWH is one? (But what about the trinity?) Keep the Torah? (“But Christ is the end of the law!”) Not to mention how “politically incorrect” these customs are!

23. And after they had flogged them extensively, they sent them to the prison-house and gave orders that the prison warden keep a strict watch over them.

Watch: or guard.

Front wing: Greek, inner prison.

26. Suddenly there was a huge earthquake, and it shook the foundations of the “round-house”, and right away all the doors opened, and everyone’s bonds sprung [releasing them].

27. And when the prison guard woke up and saw that the prison doors were open, he took a dagger and was about to kill himself, because he thought the prisoners had fled.

Was he, like a Samurai warrior, killing himself as a matter of honor for failing his duty? Probably not; he simply wanted to avoid a slow, tortuous death. We know from chapter 12 that it was common to execute a jailer who let his prisoner escape, even if it was not his fault.

29. So he kindled a lamp and got up and came trembling, and fell down at Paulus’ and Shila’s feet.

30. Then he took them outside and said to them, “My great ones, what is [it that is] on me to do in order to be rescued?”

Because of the honesty of these prisoners who did not run, he would be spared from being killed by the government with whom he had a contract to guard them. But he was at their mercy now, because he was certain they did not wish to stay in prison, yet surmised that they were innocent.

There was a way to survive, but it required joining a different kingdom. They were calling him to recognize Israel as his new citizenship, and its King as his new authority, who would somehow enable him to survive. If he is no longer a Roman, the Roman magistrates have no authority over him.

33. And within the hour [that] night he took and washed their wounds, and right away he and all the sons of his household were immersed.

34. And he took them and brought them up to his house, set the table for them, and he and his whole household were rejoicing in the faithfulness of Elohim.

Or, …were joyful as they trusted in Elohim. His house: probably adjacent to, possibly even above, the jail he operated. Jails were not very large in general, so there would not have been a larger number of “other prisoners”.

As in Yonah’s case, they probably recognized the earthquake as a sign that they had done the wrong thing in imprisoning these men, for there is no indication that the jailer had informed the authorities. Rods: probably those with which they had flogged them, though the Aramaic says “scepters”.

37. Paulus told them, “For no crime we were flogged in the sight of the whole world—us! Men who are Roman [citizen]s!—and thrown into prison. And now you are taking us out in secret? No! Only if they come let us out!”

He would not simply let an injustice go unnoticed. Having had no proper triual, they were never officially proven to be in the wrong.

Why would he appeal to his being Roman when he is persuading men that they are truly not Greek, but Israelite? Possibly to discredit Rome’s pride in her justice system, which had failed here. Possibly to provide diplomatic immunity to those he taught who were living here. Many of those who had flogged them were probably not Roman citizens, for one generally had to be born in Rome or purchase citizenship at a high price.

40. And when they left the prison-house, they came to Lüdia, and saw the brothers there, so they encouraged them and departed.

Thus, some men have joined the community here, not just women.

CHAPTER 17

Thessaloniki is a large, well-known city on the Thermaic Gulf, and was at that time capital of the second division of Maqedonia and the residence of a Roman governor and quaestor. It was founded after the triumph of Maqedonia to celebrate its new position in the world, and it quickly outgrew the older cities around it to become Maqedonia’s principal city. It is at the junction of two major axes of land routes, and remains an important city even today. (See photos.) The fact that the text points out that there was a synagogue here may mean that in this region they were few and far between.

As was his custom: If the Sabbath had been supplanted by the first day, as Christians teach, why was Paulus still attending synagogues and keeping the Sabbath? In fact, he was commissioned to teach the Gentiles to do this very thing! (15:21) This was also Yeshua’s custom. (Luqa 4:16) How is it that those who claim to follow them both do not do the same? Writings: possibly the Scriptures in their entirety, but possibly the specialized meaning of those other than the Torah and prophets, such as the Psalms, wisdom literature, and historical books.

Explained: or commented on; Aramaic, clarified.

5. But the Jews were jealous and gathered to themselves malicious people from the streets of the city, convened a huge mob, and got the city in an uproar. They came and assaulted the house of Yason and were seeking to take them from there to hand them over to the mob.

From the streets: Greek, from the loafers in the marketplace. Got the city in an uproar: or, stormed the city. Hand them over: or, inform against them. Yason: possibly a relative of Paulus. (Rom. 16:21)

Disturbing the whole earth: Greek, turning the whole world upside down.

Commands: Greek, dogmas. We, too, by proclaiming the coming Kingdom of Yeshua are still going against what is now ruling the world. Having a true king at all even goes against the principles of democracy—which is, incidentally, a Greek concept.

9. So they took pledges from Yason and also from the brothers, and then they released them.

These local believers posted their bail.

Paulus wrote two (extant) letters back to Thessaloniki out of concern “to conserve his gains from rival teachers and from disillusionment in the face of further agitation.” (E.A. Judge, Professor of History, Macquarie Univ., N,S.W.) Bero’ah: Beroya in Greek, commonly known as Berea. They were still in Maqedonia. The city is situated 50 miles (80 km.) from Thessaloniki, at the foot of Mt. Bermius, near Pella, and was probably founded four to five centuries B.C.E. By this time it was prosperous. Today it is called Verria. It is not to be confused wit the Greek name for the eastern city of Aleppo as in 2 Maccabees 13.

Hospitable: or liberal, free; Greek, noble-minded, of better breeding (from the same root word as “eugenics”). They did not simply react emotionally, as in Thessaloniki, but politely gave his message a fair hearing, and let the facts in Scripture speak for themselves. Investigated: tested, found evidence, clarified, made sure, had it explained. They had access to Torah scrolls in the synagogues where they met.

13. And when the Jews—those who were from Thessaloniki—found out that the word of Elohim was being proclaimed on the hands of Paulus in the city of Bero’ah, they came there and did not stop objecting to and disturbing the men.

14. So the brothers sent Paulus to go down to the sea, while Shila and Timotheos were left within the city.

15. And those who accompanied Paulus came with him as far as the city of Athenoi, and when they parted from him, they received from him a letter to Shila and Timotheos [telling them] that they should come to him quickly.

Accompanied: Greek, conducted or arranged for; his administrators—probably those sent along by the Yerushalayim Council (chapter 15) to ensure that he was following instructions, and apparently even setting his itinerary to some extent. Athenoi: Athens, the capital, at the far end of Greece from Bero’ah.

Embittered: Gk., pained within him. Idols: the Hebrew word means “nothingnesses”, i.e., empty, vain things.

Yeshua had instructed His witnesses not to go in the ways of the Gentiles; possibly those he was targeting in the marketplace were Hellenistic Jews, as they are missing from the list of those he spoke with in the synagogues, as compared to those mentioned earlier in the chapter.

Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E): Born on the isle of Samos, he studied under a disciple of Democritus, and adopted the view that the world was the result of random motion and a combination of atomic particles. There was thus no purpose to existence, so they aimed at materialistic gratification, whether gross and sordid or aesthetic and refined, but without any pursuit of higher moral or spiritual interests and mocked the popular pagan myths. (D. Stern) By 306 he had established a school in Athenoi. The goal of his philosophy was peace through serene detachment, disbelief in divine punishment or an afterlife, the limitation of desire, and the joys and consolations of friendship. Later Epicureans became known for extravagant pursuit of pleasure, which is what they are best known for today. (M.H. Cressey, Principal, Westminster College, Cambridge) His best-known disciple was Lucretius. Stoics: The sect derived its name from the Stoa Poikile, a portico here in Athenoi where its founder, Zeno of Citium (335-263 B.C.E.) first taught. His teaching was codified and carried forward by Chrysippus (280-207 B.C.E.), but by this time the philosophy had been modified by elements of Platonism. They “sought salvation in aligning the will with the inherent reason of the universe”, i.e., find the laws of nature and “go with the flow”, not wanting anything to be different than it is, and fulfill one’s role with disinterested recognition that serving one’s fellow man is natural; love or desire would only bring about suffering. (Cressey) They were pantheists who worshipped a blurry “god” into which everything, including the human soul at death, is absorbed, rather than a creator who ruled independently of human ideas. They had a higher moral view than the Epicureans, but regarded austere apathy as superior to passion. They used reason as a guide, but this did not prevent the first two leaders from committing suicide. It is a philosophy very similar to Buddhism; it viewed the Greek “gods” more as symbolic than literal. We could compare them today to those who spend all their time in internet “chat rooms”, discussing the newest fads and insights, but with no permanent improvement because of them. Gatherer of words: or piler-up of words; colloquially, “blabberer”; Greek, chatterer, dilettante, or, literally, “seed-picker”—one who eclectically picked from a variety of sources. This was too hasty a classification.

Areos Pagos: a rocky height opposite the western end of the Acropolis (shown in photo) to the northwest, called Mars’ Hill because, Mars (Ares), having slain Halirrhothius, son of Neptune, for the attempted violation of his daughter Alikippe, was supposedly tried here for the murder before a jury of twelve of the gods. This was where the judges convened who, by appointment of Solon, had jurisdiction of capital offences such as willful murder, arson, poisoning, malicious wounding, and breach of established religious usages. The court itself was called Areopagus because of its location, also "Areum judicium" and "curia". Dating from “legendary” times, the Areos Pagos was the most revered institution in Athenoi, though by this time it was more of a figurehead in terms of actual power. Nonetheless, its prestige remained, and it did have special jurisdiction over matters of morals and religion, which is why Paulus was brought to this forum. Except for homicide cases, the council met by this time at the “royal porch” in the marketplace. (F.F. Bruce, University of Manchester) Pagos is the term from which the word “pagan” (“those who worship on hilltops”) is derived.

Strange words: Gk., startling things.

Were interested in: or, occupied themselves with; Gk., had leisure for or cared about. They wanted only to have their ears tickled with novelties, not to do anything with the ideas they were discussing.

Into the worship of demons: Greek, extravagant in your religiousness. Though he is setting them up for a shocking statement, he begins by flattering them, from their point of view.

Hidden: or, mysterious; Gk., unknown. Now he tantalizes them with a statement bound to hold their attention. The history behind this altar is that it was one of many set up by prophet-philosopher Epimenides of Crete when Solon or Nikias invited him to Athenoi in 596 B.C.E. to purify the city after it was visited by a pestilence for the murder of Cylon. He instructed the men of the city to follow a flock of sheep around and mark the places where they might lie down. They did this in the morning when they were the hungriest, assuming that if any of them lay down then it would be a supernatural sign. Wherever they lay down, an altar was built to an elohim whose name they did not know—one that would accept them as a sacrifice in order to stop the plague. (Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosophers) This was the one remaining altar of many that bore this inscription.

Undoubtedly Paulus gave a broad sweep with his hand, as he was surrounded by such temples on every side.

Narrowing his scope from universal to particular was his way of structuring his message according to forms familiar to the Greek mind, but his conclusions are far from those these philosophers were drawing.

27. “so that they might long for and search for Elohim, and from His creations might find Him, because He really is not far from any one of us,

28. “since ‘in Him we live and are motivated and continue to exist’, and also, as some of the wise men who are with you have said, ‘From Him we originated’.

The first quote is from the very Epimenides who had built the altar which he used as his point of departure. He wrote it in a poem addressed to Zeus, whom he proposed was immortal, going against the general opinion in Crete at that time. Paul quotes another part of the same poem in Titus 1:12. Epimenides was one of the founders of Orphism, a philosophy very similar to Hinduism which had a great influence on Greek cultureand later Western mysticism. The second quote is from either Aratus or Cleanthes. (Stern) From Him we originated: Gk., we are His offspring. Paulus’ ability to quote Greek poets so freely did not come from his teacher Gamliel! He evidenced a strong background of study not only in the Torah but also a wide-ranging knowledge of the Greek mind and ability to adapt to their discursive style, having grown up outside Israel. This may be why those who arranged Paulus’ itinerary (see note on v. 15) chose him to be the one to speak to the Athenians, since the more conservative leaders in Yerushalayim did not have this background, but were trained by direct experience with Yeshua and encounters with the Torah. He may have carried his identification with their concepts a little too far, for Epimenides’ ideas bear many resemblances to what Christianity became—a reincarnation of the righteous, evil punished in the nether world, the body as the prison of the soul, a divine child, and a strong emphasis on self-denial. Paulus’ seeming endorsement of Epimenides may have made it too easy for later believers to twist his statements (2 Keyfa 3:16) by identifying them with a Greek understanding of similar ideas, for most seminarians today have a much more Hellenistic than Hebraic approach to Scripture.

Gold: The above-mentioned philosophy of Orphism spawned a strong interest in alchemy, in which men tried to turn lesser-quality materials into gold. This was considered a scientific pursuit, and as carried on by the Arabs later, did result in much knowledge about chemistry through their trial and error. Paulus parallels this concept by saying that YHWH is not made from lesser things like stone, no matter how precious, but transcends all of these and men’s minds as well. He made us; we do not create Him!

Passed over the times of wandering in error: or, caused the times of ignorance to pass.

Departing from his typical appeal to lost sheep of the House of Israel, Paulus on this one occasion preaches a universal message, possibly based on the assumption that the fullness of the Kingdom was just around the corner and so all nations, which would soon be influenced by the Torah and responsible to pay tribute to the King of Israel, should be preparing for the changes that would mean for them. It should be noted that he did not choose this audience of his own free will, but he was apprehended and taken there.

The Epicureans, who believed in no afterlife, would indeed find the resurrection and judgment to be uncomfortable subjects.

34. and several of them attached themselves to him and had confidence; one of them was Dionüsios, from among the judges of the Arios Pagos, and one woman whose name was Damaris, as well as others along with them.

Despite his unlikely audience, he did succeed in convincing some. Dionüsios is named after the divine child fathered by Zeus when he supplanted Cronus, who formed the universe, according to Greek mythology. Paulus may have caught this judge’s attention when he spoke of YHWH’s impending judgment of the whole world.

CHAPTER 18

Korinthos is on the western end of the isthmus between Akhaya and the Peloponnesus, some 40 miles (65 km.) west of Athenoi. Much trade was taken across this isthmus rather than around the stormy southern promontories, so Korinthos became a flourishing center of trade, especially in ceramics, as within a few miles there were also two major harbors (Qankre’os on the southeast and Lekhaium one the west). Its name means “satiated”, and it was known for its high level of immorality due to a temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. There is a huge acropolis towering some 1,600 feet above the rest of the city. According to Prof. J.H. Harrop, it had been a Maqedonian then an Akhayan-league city opposed to Rome until in 146 B.C.E., Rome razed it and sold all its inhabitants into slavery; Caesar rebuilt it in 46 B.C.E., and Augustus made it the capital of the new province of Akhaya, which was ruled separately from Maqedonia.

Suetonius (75-160 C.E.) wrote that Claudius expelled the Jews because they “were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus. Stern thinks Suetonius was mispronouncing “Christos” (the Greek word for Messiah or anointed one), thinking this was one of the disputes between Messianic and other Jews such as seen in this very chapter and throughout the book in other cities. This event is dated at 49 C.E., and it is not certain whether there were Messianic believers in Rome yet at that time.

Craft: or art; Greek, trade. Saddle-makers: though this is not the term used in the Scriptures for saddles; others interpret the Aramaic word to mean canvas-makers; the Greek says tent-makers, and some interpret it to mean they made taliyoth (prayer shawls). A tent-maker would be an excellent picture, since “living in tents” is figurative in Scripture of being taught in the ways of Shem (that is, the knowledge of YHWH). At a time when most people lived in houses, who would use tents? Those who came up to Yerushalayim for the pilgrim festivals—and shepherds. Since Paulus was training shepherds for the congregations he started, his spiritual ministry would thus strongly parallel his means of livelihood. It is not stated whether or not this couple were believers in Messiah prior to this; Paulus may simply have been looking for a way to earn income, and since they were Jewish, he knew he could eat what they ate with no problem, since he did not allow those he taught to support him financially, at least while in Korinthos. (2 Kor. 10:9) They would have plenty of occasions to talk with them about the Messiah as they worked together.

Pagans: Heb., servants of elilim (idols or vanities); the Greek text calls them Greeks or possibly Hellenists.

Greek, was pressed by the Spirit, earnestly testifying.

Insulted: or, blasphemed. Shook out his garments: an act Nekhemyah had performed (Nkh. 5:7-13) to show what YHWH would do to those who would not keep their promise to stop charging interest to their fellow Jews, who had been redeemed from slavery to Gentiles. Innocent: Greek, clean. He is no longer attached to those who have heard the truth but will not accept it. The Greek term for “Gentiles” here can also mean “tribes”, which was his actual target audience. The Greek adds the phrase, “Your blood be upon your own heads!”, which is not in the Aramaic. This would remind these learned Jews of Y’hezq’el 33:2-9, but also of 2 Shmu’el 9:16 in which David kills the one who says he has killed King Sha’ul—“YHWH’s Anointed” (the same word as “Messiah”). The very ones who did kill the Messiah called this same judgment down on themselves. (Mat. 27:25) We still do see Paulus going to many synagogues and talking to the Jews after this, so he was saying this mainly to insult them in hopes of jarring them to action. They were meant to be a light to the Gentiles, but since they obviously do not understand what this means, he says he will do it himself. He has shown them the only effective way to do something about all the paganism that surrounds them, so if they lament the fact that it remains, they have no excuse, since they would not listen to the solution. Compare 28:25-28.

Titus: the Greek has Iustus (“the just one”, probably a nickname) Near: Greek, beside. He was not a Jew, and yet possibly wanted to live as close as possible to the place where he had discovered there was truth. He was one of these Gentiles to whom the Jews were meant to be a light. It was common for a “beadle” (care-taker, the only paid employee of a synagogue) to live next door. They may have chosen a non-Jew for this post so that they could ask him to do the work they could not do on the Sabbath. He must have nonetheless learned much in the process. This Titus is mentioned on numerous occasions in Paulus’ second letter back to this city, as apparently (according to Guthrie) he had been acting as Paulus’ representative there during the year prior to its writing. (8:16) It seems anachronistic to identify this man with the Titus mentioned in Gal. 2:1-3, as apparently he was not yet a believer in Yeshua at that time. (Titus was a very common name, including that of the Roman general who sacked the Temple in 70 C.E.) He does appear to be the same man to whom Paulus wrote the epistle that bears this name, in which case he later became a pivotal leader of the believers in Crete.

Paulus’ ploy in v. 6 worked for someone too learned not to admit he was right. Krispos means “curled”—possibly a nickname also, based on his pe’oth. He was one of the very few whom Sha’ul (Paulus) immersed personally. (1 Kor. 1:14)

It is ambiguous whether “the Master” refers to YHWH or Yeshua, but it could be the third vision in which Yeshua spoke directly to Paulos.

The last thing one would expect anyone to tell Paulus was to keep talking! So there must have been some perceived danger that made him wonder if he should “lay low”. He may have thought that since he had “landed such a big fish”, too much trouble would come to Krispos if he kept speaking, as verse 17 (especially in Greek) suggests that Krispos had quickly been replaced by Sosthenes once he admitted Paulus was right. In any case, this was not the time to lay low, for there were more people who were ready to hear him. But another meaning of this vision is that YHWH already had people positioned in strategic places to keep Paulus from being harmed, as we will see below. Note that He did not say He would work miracles to protect him; rather, he used people with leverage to his advantage. The verse immediately after “YHWH is for me. I will not fear; what can man do to me?” says, “YHWH is on my side through those who help me.” (Psalm 118:6-7)

Apparently he no longer taught in the synagogue, but had established a new congregation of those expelled from it because of their belief in Yeshua as Messiah. He gave them a firm foundation by teaching them directly for such a long time.

Akhaia: one of the principal sections of Greece, northwest of Athenoi. An inscription at Delphi (also in Akhaia) places the date when Gallion (whose name means “one who lives on milk”) was proconsul between 51 and 53 C.E. He was brother to Jucius Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher. Jerome, in the Chronicle of Eusebius, says that he committed suicide in 65 A.D. Winer thinks he was put to death by Nero. Seat of judgment: Greek, bema, a tribunal, a raised platform often with a throne on it.

Without Torah: Paulus’ earlier reputation for not insisting that those returning from among the Gentiles did not need to keep the whole Torah yet, though this had since been clarified and remedied elsewhere, apparently had preceded him. The Greek text says “contrary to Torah”; since those who merely heard the Torah read in the synagogues did not have their own copies of the Scriptures to read along, they could not distinguish between what was Scripture and what was commentary interjected between it by the reader, as was commonly done. Oral tradition came to be indistinguishable from what was actually written, and today it has gotten to the point that the Talmud (which is merely interpretive opinion) is considered an integral part of the Torah itself in the minds of many Jews. Therefore they imagined that the ban on the verbalization of YHWH’s name was something Moshe himself had commanded. Since Paulus went against this custom, in their eyes he was contradicting the Torah itself. Paulus had actually consented to the stoning of Stefanos for the very same reason. (See note on 7:57.)

Greek: according to reason I would endure you. Note that YHWH used the circumstance of his not being able to “get a word in edgewise” to save him from getting into further trouble through words that might anger them even more.

Names: probably indicative of the fact that he was using the true Name of YHWH, which angered those who had adopted the custom of not voicing YHWH’s Name at all out of an unhealthy fear of upsetting Him—a tradition learned from Babylon and revived after a respite in which the Maccabees restored its usage but people had carried it too far in the other direction and became careless about discarding documents with His Name written on it. Those who were jealous of Paulus would use any detail they disagreed with to try to discredit him. You are acquainted: Greek, you see to it yourself.

17. When all the servants of idols seized Sosthenes, an elder of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment hall, Gallion was unmoved by such things.

Servants of idols: the Greek text says “the Greeks”. This may have been a separate event to highlight his attitude of aloofness from all religious disputes, or it may be an immediate result of the foregoing dispute. Unmoved by: or ruthless about; Aramaic, neglectful of; Greek, none of this mattered to him I. Howard Marshall says the Greeks took advantage of Gallion’s policy of non-interference as a license to indulge their anti-Semitic sentiments. In any case, both they and Gallion (v. 16) were some of those people YHWH had put in place in this city to protect Paulus (v. 10). YHWH had already hardened men’s hearts to oppose those Jews who refused to listen to that which the Torah had been so clearly demonstrated to be pointing toward.

The only type of vow for which the Torah specifies that the heads is to be shaved (before beginning and when it is fulfilled) is a Nazir’s vow. (Num. 6:2, 18) It may be that Paulus had not cut his hair since he was first sent on this journey. But one must only cut off the hair of his separation in the presence of the priests at the sanctuary when it is standing (Num. 6:18-19), so apparently Paulus had broken his vow. He may have inadvertently touched a dead body, or an enemy may have even maliciously sneaked a grape product into his food (as Amos 2:12 said some had made a practice of doing to Nazirites). Since he had been away from Yerushalayim for two years at the very least and Jews did not normally grow their hair so long for other reasons, it would be obvious to all that he was under a Nazirite vow, and this might have been the only “pot shot” those who were unable to discredit him in any other way felt they could use to trip him up.

Spoke: Greek, reasoned.

21. as he said, “I must by all means do the coming feast in Yerushalayim, and if Elohim wills, I will come back to you.”

By all means: literally, “on every face”. Compare his eagerness to arrive there again in time for Shavuoth in 20:16. The Mishnah says that the a Nazirite vow undertaken outside the Land of Israel is invalid, so if he had to begin his vow over again (as per ) he would need to get back to Yerushalayim as quickly as he could to do so, and since the command is for every anyone who is able to be there for the three pilgrim festivals, he might as well fulfill both duties at the same time.

Caesarea: the closest major port to Yerushalayim. Went up: an idiom for traveling to Yerushalayim in particular. Greeted: literally, asked for the peace—a Hebrew idiom. Thus begins Paulus’ third such “missionary journey” (which continues through 21:16). He may have written his first letter back to Korinthos before he left them behind, since he tells the Korinthian believers in 1 Kor. 16:19 that this couple wished to send their greetings along with his.

This would be his third visit to that region, possibly again to be sure they were clear about the things he had taught somewhat carelessly the first time, being corrected by the Yerushalayim Council.

Alexandria: near the mouth of the Nile River in Egypt, and the chief center of Hellenistic Judaism, where the Jewish intellectual Philo lived, and possibly was still alive at this time. It had its own style of “reform Judaism” which made accommodations to Greek culture, and even had its own temple. (Stern) Some 250 years earlier the Septuagint (LXX) had been translated here. Competent: erudite, skilled.

Enthusiastic: or fervent; literally, flaming. In a full manner: Greek, accurately. Yochanan had taught repentance because the King was coming soon. Yochanan’s teaching must have gotten as far as Alexandria, at least in some record that found its way to its library, which was the world’s largest. But being away from the Land of Israel, it may have taken time for news that the King had already come and twenty years earlier begun to establish His Kingdom to reach Appawllo either in Alexandrai, Efesos, or en route between them. Now immersion was not merely into the preparatory repentance, but into the Kingdom itself. He needed to be taken a step further:

27. And when he wanted to go to Akhaia, the brothers held him back [until] they wrote to the disciples that they should receive him. So when he went, he helped all the believers very much through the hands of mercy,

28. because he argued forcefully against the Jews in front of the congregation by showing them about Yeshua from the Scriptures—that he is the Messiah.

Showing them: Greek, proving. Forcefully: or firmly; Aramaic, prevailingly. He was such an effective teacher that in some people’s eyes, especially in Korinthos (19:1), he began to rival even Paulus and Keyfa. Paulus did not like the insinuation that there were substantial distinctions between their messages (1 Kor. 1:12ff), for their gifts supplemented one another (1 Kor. 3:6), and he later looked to Paulus for direction to some extent (1 Kor. 16:12; Titus 3:13), probably because those who taught him had been directly taught by Paulus.

CHAPTER 19

Higher: in altitude—that is, mountainous or plateau regions. Efesos: An Anatolian settlement colonized by Ionians around the time of David and Shlomo, it was conquered by Croesus around 560 B.C.E., and he glorified it with great artistry. 16 years later it fell to the Persians and became part of the Kingdom of Pergamum, which Attalus III bequeathed to Roma in 133 B.C.E. It was now the principal city in the Roman province of Asiya on the west coast of what is now Turkey. Situated at the mouth of the Caÿster River between the Coressus Mountains and the sea and at the end of a major land trade route, it was an important export center. It would later become the headquarters of Yochanan the Envoy, and by a generation after his time, the congregation here was still well-known and faithful, according to Ignatius, a contemporary writer. The shoreline has since been silted in and the city is 10 miles from the coast. Its ruins are still plentiful and well-preserved. Paulus fulfilled his promise to try to return after his trip to Yerushalayim. (18:21) The disciples: This time he found some who had already been partially taught, so the bar is raised. He no longer spends much time reasoning with those who have no knowledge, but teaches those who have responded, in great depth. There comes a time when we no longer need to deal with those who have not repented.

They would have certainly had a concept of the spirit of which even David had written. But they did not know the King had already arrived, so how could they have His kingdom as their priority? Today many Jews ask returning Efrayim why we keep the Torah when we don’t “have to”, as they do. This shows that they lack true Hebraic perspective—the spirit of holiness--which is meant to move us closer to the Kingdom.

This shows how far Yochanan’s disciples had carried his message of repentance. But though Yochanan did not leave Yeshua out of his message, this shows that his main emphasis was on the repentance prerequisite to the Kingdom. These people had been taught that they needed to return to the Torah, so they are called “taught ones”. But they have heard very little about what Yeshua accomplished, though they certainly would have heard a little about Him. News traveled much more slowly in these days.

Aküla and Priskillah had just been teaching Appawllo something similar in the same city. (18:25) But he had apparently gone on to Korinthos without teaching others here this same thing. (A prophet is not appreciated in his own city, as Yeshua said.)

Into the name: that is, into the reality of everything He represents—His accomplishments, His personality, power, and reputatiuon. (Stern) Note that they responded with no questions asked; Yochanan’s teaching had laid the groundwork well and they were ready to receive the next step.

Different languages: a word play in Hebrew, in which it is pronounced, bilshonoth shonoth, though these are based on two different root words. This was a phenomenon seen at strategic junctures (2:4; 8:17; 9:17; 10:44-48) but by no means on every occasion where people put confidence in Yeshau. They were in a cosmopolitan city where (as in chapter 2) many languages were spoken, and for each to understand the full impact of the message, some had to hear it in their native tongues.

Why would Luqa tell us this unless there was a significance to the number? It is clearly a reminder of the twelve whom Yeshua taught intensely in the same way, indicating that one person instructing learners with the undercurrent of “imitate me” was a process that was meant to be repeated. The Greek version says “about twelve”, so the number itself, while reminiscent of the twelve tribes of Israel, is not the main point, but the relative smallness of the group is.

9. But some people from among them were twisting and arguing and reviling the way of Elohim in front of the assembly of the Gentiles. Then Paulus left and distanced the disciples from them, and every day he spoke with them in the school belonging to a man named Türannos.

School: literally, interpretation-house. In Hebrew it is beyth-midrash, a common title for a private school run by a rabbi—somewhat of a private synagogue where in-depth study could take place in an environment more secure from public annoyance. (Meyer) Türannos means “tyrant” and may have even been a reference to Paulus himself ruling it with an iron grip rather than to another man, though it may be that the owner of the school was a prominent Jew like Yason (17:4-8) and Krispos (18:8), who had responded to the message. In any case, once Paulus saw that many were hardened to the message, he could not stay in a ccontext where he would have to keep fighting them and still get anywhere with his students. (We face the same situation with churches today once they recognize that while we have some things in common, we cannot remain under their authority.) Now his message was not available to those who “had something to say” about it, and possibly not even to inquirers. It was removed from the atmosphere where someone could optionally “take it or leave it” (though no one seemed to respond in a neutral manner!) into one where teaching was by invitation only. Yeshua did the same; He taught crowds but only let his inner circle of 12 ask Him what He meant. Yet look at the result:

An emotional “come one-come all” approach does not work; removing ourselves from old attachments and having those who have proven to be truly committed be grilled even further had a much more effective result. There was not a person in the whole region who was not aware of the issues anymore. During these two years, the Kolossian congregation was established (Kol. 1:6-7; 2:1) and Paulus wrote his extant letters to Korinthos. (1 Kor. 16:8-9)

Great heroism: Gk., powerful works, not by mere chance/not common/hitting the mark. As he became less selfish and more focused on what the real task was, he “hit the nail on the head” more often.

Paulus himself was not touching them; others were taking things that pertained to him, and miracles were occurring. (Compare the account of Keyfa in 5:15-16.) This might seem like magic at first, but notice what objects were being used. In the Greek version, t“shawls (not prayer shawls, which did not exist as such at that time) and pieces of cloth” are described as handkerchiefs (as used for wiping off sweat or clearing the nose) and aprons (a covering for half the body such as a workman would use). These are not religious relics or amulets! They are simply things he would use every day on his physical job. They are objects any ordinary man who worked for his food would use. Paulus did not put himself on a pedestal or make money off the “mantle of holiness” like so many other “religious” workers who surrounded him:

Defiled spirits: not just demons, but also unclean attitudes, faulty motivations. Demons as such are rarely mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, and never exorcisms; people were normally credited or blamed for what they did. But Josephus mentions that King Shlomo had learned to expel demons by using herbal roots, and that he composed such incantations for others to use. (Antiquities of the Jews 8:2:5) This may have been a pagan influence from his foreign wives. But many incantations have been found at places which were the centers of rabbinic rule after Yerushayalim was destroyed (Tsippori and Teverya). By this era more focus was being placed on unseen causes, and exorcism is a major theme in the Talmud and medieval Jewish literature. Exorcism was also common in this region, as shown by the fact that a magic formula has been unearthed that bore the name “Ephesia grammata” (Efesian letter). An amulet with Paleo Hebrew (showing it was of Jewish origin) containing an incantation to drive out a demon of sickness was found in Asiya Minor dated to this same time period. Such incantations are forbidden by Torah (Deut. 18:10-12), but some of this found its way into kabbalistic teachings as well. People like the Shim’on of chapter 8 would collect any incantation they saw work, and it was often a source of income for them. And these people were only using Yeshua’s name as one more such magical formula, knowing nothing of who He was, but only having seen it work on the hands of those who, unlike them, had true authority to use it.

High priest: So what were they doing so far from Yerushalayim? During the 107 years from Herodos the Great until the Temple was destroyed (about 16 years after these events), there were 28 men who held the office of high priest in Yerushalayim since, contrary to Torah, the position was held not by the rightful heir to Aharon, but by the highest bidder when Roma put the position up for sale. So this Skeva may have been a former high priest, now using his fame to keep from having to work for his living as Paulus did. The fact that he would buy the priesthood should have been enough to show that he was a charlatan, but now his sons were also itinerant vagabonds who would go from place to place like modern faith healers, capitalizing on the power of a contrived atmosphere and an emotional experience to make people feel cured long enough to get to the next town and leave it before word spread to that town that the people in the previous stop on their tour had gone back to their previous state when the euphoria wore off.

Malicious: or bad, harmful. What Paul did brought healing; these men had no life to back up their words. To them it was just a profession or money-making scam.

These men were playing with something a little bit too big for them, like those today who assume that whatever they add “in the name of Jesus” to must come to pass. So they left more than humiliated.

Magnified: raised up, given great dignity, praised, grew.

19. and even many sorcerers gathered up their books and brought and burned them in the sight of everyone, and they calculated the value, and it surpassed 5 [pieces] of silver [worth] 10,000 [each].

Many sorceres: Probably those referred to in verse 13. Some estimate the value as about $2 million in today’s currency. The Kingdom of Heaven was obviously worth far more to them than worldly wealth, and another “demon”, Security, was vanquished and a great door opened:

21. When these things were completed, Paulus set his heart on traversing all of Maqedonia and Akhaya then going to Yerushalayim, and he said, “After I go from here, I would even like to go up and see Roma.”

22. So he sent two of the men who waited on him—Timotheos and Aristos—into Maqedonia, though he [himself] remained in Asiya for some time.

23. At that time there was much rioting over the Way of Elohim.

The firm refusal to compromise with paganism had affected the magic cults and was now affecting the trade in idolatrous cult objects:

Artemis: the Greek version of the Roman Diana, supposedly a daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo, the moon goddess as well as the mistress and protectress of wildlife. She was considered the “virgin goddess”, averse to marriage because of the pain her mother went through at her own birth. Many silver coins have been found in widespread places bearing the inscription “Diana Ephesia”, and even in later times she was a many-breasted figure (to which Easter eggs can be traced). But earlier there had been an Anatolian fertility goddess to whom this site was sacred, also with the Persian name Artemis, which made it easy for Alexander the Great to dedicate her temple to the Greek goddess with the same name. Such changes in the orientation of a pre-existing deity were rampant as Roman Christianity spread throughout the world.

Transfer the context to how dependent most retailers today are to people feeling obligated to celebrate Christmas, and you will be able to foresee the results when more people turn to the truth. Such religiously-oriented merchandising with civic pride as its excuse nevertheless ultimately has income as its main purpose.

27. “And not only will this business be exposed to derision and cease, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be considered as nothing, and even she, the goddess to whom all of Asiya and all the nations bow down, will become a mockery!”

28. And when they heard these words, they will filled with rage and shouted and said, “She is great—Artemis of the Efesians!”

If one wants to sway people, he can do so very easily with a slogan, and they will stand behind an icon which simplifies things in their eyes. Those who promoted Christmas among the weak-minded did not care about the “Christ child” at all, but only the bottom line, yet they turned Santa Claus from an impish creature to a jolly one and even seemed to give the Church’s stamp of approval by connecting it to St. Nicholas, who actually was a very upright, honorable leader. By rolling all three separate concepts into a single one, they were able to draw income from many unrelated circles. In Hebrew, the very recording of this incident was an insult to those who were being described, because the word for Efesians (efesim), spelled the same way, means “worthless nothings”or “zeros” in Hebrew!

This theatre is at the end of the main market arcade in Efesos and built directly into Mount Pion. Constructed in the Hellenistic period and altered under Roman emperors Claudius and Nero, it had a seating capacity of about 25,000.

31. And the heads of Asiya, since they were his friends, also sent and begged him not to endanger his life to enter the theater.

These “Asiarchs” as they were called in Greek, were officers of the “commune” of greater Asiya, and their primary function was to foster the imperial cult, of which Efesos was called the “temple-warden” just as it was called the guardian of Artemis (v. 35).

How typical of a “lynch mob”, where most just get caught up in the fervor of the moment, without really having a strong opinion to back up their zeal, but go along with those who are most vocal. These leaders were sharp enough to put out the message that would best suit their purpose: “They wantto take Artemis from our great city and make us a godless people!” Compare the accusation that would be leveled against those of us who “want to take away your heritage and the times you spent with your parents around the Christmas tree!”

34. When they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted with one voice for about two hours, “She is great—Artemis of the Efesians!”

There was a large colony of Jews in Efesos and for a long time they enjoyed a privileged position under Roman rule. (Josephus, Antiquities, 14:10:12, 25) But religious freedom is always threatened when people sense that there source of income will be removed if an opposing philosophy becomes too influential. The mere fact that he was a Jew identified him with Paulus in their minds and thus an enemy and a threat.

Mayor: Greek, town clerk (grammateus), the leading civil official who was directly responsible to Roma for breaches of the peace due to illicit assemblies such as this, explaining his eagerness to quell the riot. Came down from the heavens: Possibly a meteorite or shrapnel from an astronomical event by which this “daughter of Zeus” was supposedly “born” from an alleged explosion of Zeus’ head. (The Greek term for heaven here is Dios, an alternate form of “Zeus” which we recognize more easily in Spanish and Latin.) The partly-humanlike shape of this “sacred stone” may well be how the idea of her many breasts was founded.

37. “because you have brought these men, though they have not even plundered temples or cursed our goddess!

Temples: Artemis’ temple was 2 km. northeast of the city center, where the marketplace, library, theater, baths, stadium, and gymnasiums were located. After it was burned in 356 B.C.E., Alexander the Great rebuilt it. Supported by 100 massive columns, it was the largest building in the Greek world and one of the seven wonders of the world until it was destroyed by the Goths in 263 C.E. After many years of searching, it was uncovered in a marsh by J.T. Wood in 1870. There were two other official temples here, to Serapis and the emperor Domitianus.

City commissioner: the Greek has “Proconsul” in the plural form. This could pinpoint the date here very precisely, because normally there was only one proconsul of Asiya, but when Junius Silvanus was poisoned by his subordinates at the time of Nero’s accession (in 54 C.E.), Helius and Celer, they both took over his position in a shared role until his justly-appointed successor arrived.

40. “because even now we are standing in danger that we will be accused of being those who uncover a disturbance, since indeed we are not able to justify the assembly that we have assembled this day undeservedly and had ourselves an [unruly] riot for no reason!”

Disturbance: or, confusion.

YHWH had people in this city as well, to work things out without any need for compromise by Paulus. Apparently the Nikolaitans (who later operated in Efesos according to Revelation 2:6, 15) advocated compromise with the power of paganism when under pressure in situations similar to this one.

Kissed: or, equipped with weapons; Greek, greeted with an embrace. The kiss would be more common in a middle eastern or even Mediterranean setting like this.

3. And he was there for three months. However, the Jews were conspiring against him as he was starting out to go to Syria, so he considered going back to Maqedonia.

4. Sopatros (who was from the city of Bero’a), Arestarkhos and Sekundos (who were from Thessaloniki), Gaios (who was from the city of Derbi), and Timotheos (who was from Lüstra) went out with him as far as Asiya.

5. They went on ahead of us and waited for us at Troas.

Us: Luqa again includes himself in the entourage.

This may have been nearly a year after they left Efesos (based on Paulus’ plans expressed in 1 Kor. 16:8, where he said he planned to stay there until Shavuoth—six to seven weeks after the prior feast of Unleavened Bread) This would place the date at 55 C.E.

First day of the week: the Greek is ambivalent, as it could also read “the first of the Sabbaths”; Aramaic, On the day of First Sabbath—suggesting the seventh day of the Counting of the Omer (the seven weeks from the firstfruits of the barley harvest until Shavuoth), when we focus on the maturity of the Body through each one’s gift functioning together in unity with the others. (Eph. 4) It is clearly within that time frame, but cannot be the first Sabbath since twelve days are mentioned “after the days of Unleavened Bread”, and the Counting must begin on the day after the Sabbath following Passover (the same day Yeshua rose from the dead); he would have had to arrive on the first day of the counting, which is still within the feast of Unleavened Bread. Heb., on the day one on the Sabbath—that is, the overlapping transition between the Sabbath and the evening that begins the first day of the week, as per Gen. 1:5). That is critical for understanding the next piece of data:

Plenty of torches: or the right number of torches, so it is clearly the ceremony of havdallah, which closes and sets the Sabbath apart from the rest of the week. Six candles, representing the uniting of six days to form the seventh, or the completeness (hence, “plenty”), are traditionally used, and this ensemble is called “torches”. Fires may not be lit during the Sabbath itself (Ex. 35:3), so by tradition they are lit as soon as the sun is all the way down. The middle of the night on the first day of the week is what is called “Saturday night”, so this verse cannot be used, as many try, to prove that believers had already started meeting on “Sunday” instead of the Sabbath. The faithfulness of the Delegates to all the other festivals shown in this passage immediately precludes such a thought, which would have been unimaginable to them.

Third story: literally, third loft or level. Stern speculates that the smoke from the oily torches was adding to his fatigue, and he sat in the window to get some fresh air.

Life: literally, soul. Eliyahu operated in a similar manner when raising the son of the widow of Tzarfath (1 Kings 17:21), and Elisha was involved in a similar miracle. (2 Kings 4:34)

What he was teaching was clearly crucial, for he takes the whole incident in stride, takes some additional sustenance and gets back to the matter at hand, equipping them with as much truth as possible.

Rejoiced…to a great extent: Greek, were not moderately encouraged. Another resurrection took place during the Counting of the Omer (as with Yeshua’s, which occurred on the first day, the day of Firstfruits of Barley).

It seems Luqa is bringing out a parallel with the life of Yeshua in Markos 8, in which, after a miracle, Yeshua entered into a boat and his disciples realize they have only one loaf of bread. Luqa may have been one of those sent by the Yerushalayim Council to make sure Paulus’ doctrines remained sound, and since he sees that Paulus is staying on track, he presents him favorably in his report to those who may still be somewhat hesitant to fully accept him. He does this subtly through small anecdotes that mirror events in Yeshua’s life. Thessos: Greek, Asson. It is only about twenty miles south of Troas. The order: Greek, the arrangement.

Mitülini is on the landward side of the island of Lesbos.

16. since Paulus had decided to bypass Efesos, so as not to be delayed there, because he was hurrying to—if possible—do Shavuoth in Yerushalayim.

There: the Greek text adds, “in Asiya”. In ancient times the silt around the harbor at Efesos had to be dredged often, which may be another reason Paulus stopped at Miletus instead of Efesos. Again we see Sha’ul trying hard to get to the feasts that YHWH had commanded whenever possible, even if he was far from the Land and one might think he had a reasonable excuse not to go.

He still could not bear to bypass them completely, but chose the most efficient way to have a final visit with them.

19. “as I served Elohim with great affliction and with tears and with tests that came over me through the craftiness of the Jews,

20. “but I did not neglect to proclaim to you anything that would benefit your souls when teaching you in the streets or I houses

21. “as I bore witness to the Jews and the Arameans about the repentance toward Elohim and the confidence in our Master, Yeshua the Messiah.

22. “And now I am obligated by the Spirit and I am going to Yerushalayim, and I have no idea what may befall me therein,

23. “because the spirit of being set-apart bears witness to me in every city and says, ‘Chains and distresses are the plans for you.’

Despite this he kept going in the direction he knew he must. This is clearly part of “taking up his execution stake and following Messiah”, but 9:16 and the simple principle of reaping what one sows suggest that he is still bearing the consequences of his responsibility in the death of Stefanos and others whom he persecuted. His willingness to suffer may in some way be the tikkun (sewing up of what he had torn) for his past actions. An undercurrent of guilt comes through in his letters, and he was very aware of his need to run to Messiah as his city of refuge after having been struck with blindness to reveal how blind he had actually been up to that point. (Compare Numbers 35:23, where mercy is extended to the manslayer who does not notice what he is doing—literally saying, dos not see. Since Paulus had been blind, thinking he was doing the right thing, he is not judged by the “elders” of the city of refuge to be worthy of turning over to the avenger, but must still stay where he is obliged to stay, as we see in v. 22.)

The glad news is that He has allowed the tribes He once banished to come close to Him again.

Knowing he might have no occasion to influence them again, he makes sure he leaves out nothing important. Pay attention to the kind of things that are most on his heart to leave with them when he has so little time left.

He was a watchman who had faithfully fulfilled his duty to warn them of pitfalls, and would do so yet once more on this occasion. (Y’hezq’el 33:1-6)

28. “So then guard yourselves and the whole flock in which the spirit of set-apartness has established you as overseers so that you might shepherd the congregation of the Messiah—she that He acquired [by purchasing] with His own blood.

Here the Aramaic text does away with a problem in the Greek text, which substitutes “Theos” (Elohim) for “the Messiah” here, making it appear that Elohim was the one that bled. YHWH allowed the Aramaic text to be spared from this apparent tampering with the text, probably for the purpose of upholding the doctrine of the trinity, for which there was not enough evidence in the original text as it stood first.

30. “And also from among your own selves men will arise who say perverse things to entice the disciples away to follow after themselves.

Perverse: literally, crooked.

Alert: literally, awake or aroused. In Hebrew there is a homonym that means “enemy”, and this context suggests that there is a connection between the two words. Admonish: combines the ideas of chiding, arguing, proving, rebuking, and warning. Three years: Again Luqa subtly brings out a parallel in the life of Yeshua, who taught His disciples for this length of time. Again, in Markos 8, Yeshua’s disciples did not recognize the significance of His warnings about the leaven of the P’rushim and Herodos, so He had to jar them with the reprimand that they had eyes and ears but could not see or hear. Here Paulus reminds his disciples to be alert to the dangers that may not yet be obvious, and take measures to preclude the worst effects from them.

Entrust: with the same sense as depositing money in a bank for safe-keeping. An inheritance: an allusion to the place in Israel that our ancestors, the set-apart people, were originally given by the first Y’hoshua.

Jewish tradition says the “sin that crouches at the door” is given power through our desires. Paulus kept this door shut and thereby evaded the evils that come even to many ministers through the love of wealth. (Compare 1 Korinthians 9:1-14) He did not live off the tithes collected from those he was teaching:

35. “I showed you all about how we need to labor and to be concerned for the weak, and to remember the words of our Master Yeshua since He said, ‘Those who give are more favored than those who are the receivers.’”

Favored: or blessed, have more joy. This saying of Yeshua does not appear exactly in this form in any of the other extant historical accounts of His life, so we do not know its context, but as Yochanan wrote, Yeshua did so many things that the world could not contain all the accounts of them if they were written down. So undoubtedly this saying had passed to Paulus through oral tradition, possibly when he was with the Delegated Envoys who had spent three years with Yeshua, or from Luqa, who must have collected many more sayings of Yeshua and edited them down to keep his account from being too long. One saying of Yeshua that he did include says nearly the same thing in different terms (Luqa 14:12-14; compare Matthew 10:8-10.) As Yeshua told the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to have the fullness of the kingdom (Luqa 18:22), Paulus encourages these students who have taken his words to heart better than most to give themselves away to the fullest extent so they can be even more effective.

37. And they all wept great tears, and they embraced him and kissed him,

38. but they were most sorrowful about the thing he had said, that they would never see his face again. And they accompanied him as far as the ship.

CHAPTER 21

Parted: Greek, torn ourselves away. Qo: Greek, Koos.

3. When we got [within sight of] the island of Cyprus, we bypassed it from the left side and came to Syria and from there we put in at Tzur, because there the ship had to unload its cargo.

4. And when we found disciples there, we remained with them seven days. And every day they told Paulus through the Spirit that he should not go to Yerushalayim.

Compare the paradoxical constraint he felt in 20:22-24. These men received “words of knowledge” (1 Kor. 12:8) through the Spirit as to what would befall him there, but it was their own inference that he should therefore not go there. (Stern) He knew from the beginning that doing YHWH’s will would mean suffering for him personally. (9:16)

6. Then each kissed his brother and we got on the ship, while they went back to their homes.

7. And we set sail from Tzur and arrived at the city of Akko. We greeted the brothers who were there with “Shalom”, and delayed one day with them.

Akko: the modern Hebrew name again, and it is thus in the Aramaic text, but theGreek calls it Ptolemais. This is within the Land of Israel, and is known as the most oriental city in the Land.

The seven: those described in chapter 6 who were assigned to ensure that the Hellenistic widows were cared for, of whom Stefanos had been another. That he lives in Caesarea and has left Yerushalayim does not mean he has broken rank, because he is still called “one of the seven”. Instead, it shows us that in the years that have passed since he was chosen for this job, he has been able to train others to do what he had been doing. He has earned the trust of the council, and they have assigned him to progress to other cities with the message they know will be accurate, for he has proven faithful in the things on which he “cut his teeth” as a leader. He has proven he could love his neighbor, and he knows how to care for the poor, who were the majority of Yeshua’s audience. He has gained administrative skills for fair distribution. Since he is a Greek-speaker, he is sent to a cosmopolitan city where that would be the common language. Caesarea was the capital of Judea at this time, built by Herodos to showcase his architectural and engineering prowess, as it boasted a fully man-made harbor and aqueduct which can still be seen today.

10. And when we had been there many days, a prophet whose name was Khagav came down from Judea

Khagav: Greek, Agavos; seen earlier in 11:28. All the prophecies recorded of him are of negative circumstances. But he was probably the teacher of these four prophetesses, in the tradition of the “schools of the prophets” such as King Sha’uyl knew (1 Shmu’el 10:11; 19:20) and Elisha oversaw (2 Kings 2, 4), coming to ensure that his students were accountable, using their gift appropriately, and not operating unduly in emotion or letting their fleshly inclinations direct them like those we saw in verse 4.

That which girds or supports him is what ends up binding him up. The fact that he is so well-trained in Judaism and Torah as well as being versed in the cultures of neighboring lands is exactly why he wa sbeing hunted.

13. Then Paulus answered and said, “What are you doing? Because you are crying and breaking my heart! I myself am prepared not only to be bound but also to die in Yerushalayim on behalf of the name of our Master, Yeshua the Messiah!”

Compare Yeshua’s response when Keyfa tried to dissuade Him from going to Yerushalayim. (Mat. 16:21ff) Again, Luqa is drawing parallels with Yeshua to place Sha’ul (Paulus) in a favorable light for those he is reporting back to.

15. And after those days, we prepared ourselves and went up to Yerushalayim.

16. And several disciples from from Caesarea came with us, and they brought with them a brother—one of the first disciples, whose name was M’nason, and he was from Cyprus, who had received us into his house.

17. And when we arrived at Yerushalayim, the brothers received us with joy.

18. And the next day we went in with Paulus to Yaaqov at a time when all of the elders were with him.

The Greek text makes it appear more like Luqa and the others who had arranged Paulus’ itinerary were the ones who had an audience with the elders, and Paulus was only allowed in when accompanied by them.

20. And as they heard, they praised Elohim, and told him, “See for yourselves, our brothers, how many tens of thousands [there are] among the Jews who believe, and all of them are zealous for the Torah!

Tens of thousands: Koniuchowsky sees in this an allusion to Deut. 33:17, which says, “[Yoseyf’s] majesty is like the firstborn of his ox, and his horns are like the horns of a re'em [an extinct wild ox]. With them he shall push the peoples together [from the] edges of the Lnd, and they are the myriads of Efrayim and the thousands of Menashe.” The apostles, recognizing that Paulus’ work is bringing about the return of these “myriads”, counterposes with what YHWH is doing among the “myriads” at home in the land still indwelt by Yehudah, emphasizing that Yeshua was bringing both houses of Israel back to Himself in a parallel way. Stern notes that this count discredits the common non-Messianic Jewish argument that the Jewish believers in Messiah were a “negligible proportion of first-century Jewry”. He cites a census taken by Emperor Claudius in 48 C.E.—fewer than ten years prior to this—which found nearly seven million Jews within the Roman Empire, of which not more than two and a half million lived in the Land of Israel. (Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. “Population”) The maximum population of Yerushalayim at that time is thought to have been 400,000. A minimalist reading of “tens of thousands”, then, would place the believers at 5% of the Jewish population in Yerushalayim. But Magen Broshi, curator of the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book, estimates the city’s population only at 80,000 by the time the Temple was destroyed some 14 or 15 years after this.(Biblical Archaeological Review, 4:2, 1978) In that case, the believers constituted at least 25% of the city! The swollen population for Shavuoth (noted by Josephus) may also account for some of these believers, since this was the time Paulus was aiming to reach the city. (20:16) I.e., they may not have all been from Yerushalayim itself. These Jewish believers both held to Yeshua on one hand and did not let go of the Torah on the other. For seventeen centuries, people have been compelled to fall only into one camp or the other, but now again, praise be to YHWH, it is becoming clear that this is the norm for both Jews and the other tribes of Israel. They did not consider themselves “ex-Jews” like so many believers of Jewish descent today based on misinterpretation of Galatians 3:28. (Would one, based on that verse, also consider himself an “ex-male”?) Zealous: also means “jealous” in Hebrew. This is a bit of a rebuke to Paulus as well, since here in Yerushalayim there is no question but that the believers are keeping the Torah, but the reports they have received about Paulus from correspondents in other cities still sound like the people he has taught are somewhat lawless:

They have been told: i.e., it was rumored. Circumcising their sons is what made Israelites physically distinct at that time. (Stern) Though Paulus emphasized that those who had not grown up in the context of Israel should know what they were doing before they were circumcised, these people ignored the fact that he himself did perform at least one circumcision. (16:3) But their use of the term “traditions” (practices or customs) is important, for that is wherein lies the problem the council is addressing with Paulus. As long as he is teaching the Torah, why is it a problem if he leaves out the customs added by men? It is because these are what builds a “hedge” around the Torah. The fence itself is not part of Torah, but if it is taken down, it leaves valuable treasures vulnerable to being stolen as they were for the Northern Kingdom. Yes, some were indeed inconsistent with the Torah itself, and Yeshua addressed these; they must indeed be weighed against the actual commandments, but He did not “throw out the baby with the bathwater” as Paulus was appearing to do. He was not obligated to teach any of these customs to the Gentiles, for each tribe or clan or household has a right to determine how to walk out the general commands of the Torah where it is not specific. But once a ruling has been made within that realm of authority, it is binding on those within that community. Yaaqov had chosen a high standard for the believing Jews who were under his authority. As long as the particular practice did not conflict with another Torah command, Yeshua’s Jewish followers were expected to abide by the standards recognized by all Jews. So he wanted to make sure Paulus was not undermining what these believers had been taught previously; otherwise there would be difficulty in keeping order in the Kingdom, which they fully expected to be coming to fruition within their lifetimes. While he could allow the returning Gentiles different ways of living out the Torah, he must not get in the Delegates’ way when teaching Jews. Most of the time, after so many centuries of Yehudah being the only tribe that cared about Torah, their ways are more effective than anything we could do to “reinvent the wheel”. In 1 Kor. 11:2 and 2 Thess. 2:15 (which came after Galatians) we do indeed see Paulus end up reminding the believers to keep the traditions as he had taught them—i.e., in the form in which the Delegated Envoys under Yaaqov had told him he must.

The Greek version adds, “What is it then? In any case, a multitude must come together…” at the beginning of this verse; this is not in the Aramaic text.

They give him the benefit of the doubt, as they do not really believe the rumors they are hearing about him, but they know that he can be a bit careless in how he states things, leaving the door open for many to misunderstand him (cf. 1 Keyfa 3:16) and thus level accusations such as this, so their directive is also not an option for him. When Paulus said, “faith, not works” he was using a Hebraic idiom for “this is the weightier of the two”, but unlike the Hebrew listeners, the Greek mindset would tend to hear this as “the former only and the other not at all”. Yaaqov had to clarify this in his letter, and Yeshua stated the contrast better when He said, “You pay tithe of mint, dill, and cumin, but have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Mat. 23:23)

Only a Nazirite vow involved the shaving of the head. At that time such a vow was usually taken for one to three months when voluntary, as described in the Mishnah. Purification is how the ending of the vow is described where the regulations for it are given in Number s chapter 6. It may have been difficult for them to pay their own expenses, which could be quite high, as they include the offering of a year-old male lamb and a year-old ewe, a ram, a basket of matzah, and other grain and wine offerings, as well as whatever else one could afford. (Num. 6:13-21). If so, this may be an example of Paulus’ statement in Gal. 2:9-10 that the delegated envoys had asked him to remember the poor as he went out among the Gentiles, and this was the very thing he was eager to do. It may have been out of concern for the poor and their inability at present to perform aspects of the Torah like this one that he tended to underemphasize the need to keep the whole Torah when teaching believers outside the Land. This is also a test to see whether he will object to one of the seemingly-trivial aspects of the Torah and so prove his accusers in some sense right. Instead, he shows all men for all time that he not only kept the Torah, but taught it (compare Mat. 5:19), and that he only objected to the way the P’rushim demanded that he keep the Torah. (Koniuchowsky) He would have to provide 15 animals, which probably cost over an average year’s wages. This would certainly demonstrate that he “meant business”. He had been sent to collect “tz’daqah” (charitable contributions) for those at Yerushalayim (1 Kor. 16:1); now they are telling him to use these to pay these expenses. Such contributions are what has preserved Jewish identity through the ages, preventing the Jewish poor from having to g o outside the community for assistance and thereby putting themselves in danger of feeling obligated to the agendas of whomever might help them. This is one of the “traditions” in verse 21, for apart from caring for the widow and fatherless with specific tithes the Torah only commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves; the custom of using money to do so was one of the methods chosen by the Jewish authorities to walk this commandment out. They recognize that YHWH chose Paulus for a particular mission to non-Jews, but he must also remember who he is, and recognize that what is incumbent on all Jews because of legitimate rulings on how to carry out the Torah is also his responsibility. Show to all men: It again needs to be demonstrated to the Jews today that he “did nothing against the Torah” (25:8), since they have heard the same things to a much stronger degree for centuries. And may they rejoice to have their “prodigal rabbi” back! A lie: Greek, that there is nothing to (these rumors).

26. Then Paulus took those men on the next day and had them purified, and they came in and walked to the Temple as he had notified them of the fulfillment of the days of purification until the drawing-near [offering] of each of them could be brought near.

27. But when the seventh day arrived, Jews from Asiya saw him in the Temple and had all the people surround him and laid their hands on him,

Had all the people surround them: or, object to them; Greek, stirred up all the crowd.

Arameans: in typical fashion, the Greek text says “Greeks” here. The point is that they did not recognize that these were in fact “former Gentiles” (compare Efesians 2:11; 4:17-22)—an issue that had apparently come up in the very hometown of the man whom Paulus had indeed brought with him (20:5):

Again, there was no truth to the words they used to incite the people, though they chose the things most likely to anger the crowd. Because of the incident with Antiokhus Epiphanes, commemorated at Hanukkah, the original 500-cubit square on which Shlomo’s Temple complex stood was walled off from the rest of Herod’s complex and signs all along it in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin notified non-Jews that if they trespassed beyond this line, they would be responsible for their own death, which was certain to follow. Some such plaques have been unearthed by archaeologists. This soreg, as the wall was called, is the “middle wall of partition” that Sha’ul/Paulus wrote about in Efesians 2:14—one which was not only contrary to Shlomo’s wish that this Temple be “ahouse of prayer for all peoples” but now barred non-Jewish Israelites as well from returning there. While it served an important purpose for other uses, it now stood in the way of the reunification of the two Kingdoms of Israel.

Agitated: literally, terrified with their hair standing on end.

Captain of a unit of a thousand: Greek, chiliarch of the cohort.

33. Then the captain of a thousand approached him and seized him, and gave orders that they should bind him with two chains, and inquired about him: “Who is he? What has he done?”

34. And people here and there in the crowd shouted [things] out about him, but on account of their shouting, he was not able to understand anything properly, so he ordered that they should lead him to the [army] camp.

Camp: the Greek and Aramaic terms can also mean “barracks” or even headquarters—probably referring to the Fortress of Antonia, which was built immediately against the northern wall of the Temple complex and raised above it (see photo) so the Roman army could keep an eye on what went on inside, precisely for situations like this one.

Carried him away: or, hoisted him up.

37. And when Paulus had approached and entered the camp, he said to the captain of a thousand, “Will you permit me to have a word with you?” And he said to him, “You know Greek?

38. “Aren’t you the Egyptian who before these days incited and brought four thousand men, sons of worthlessness, into the wilderness?”

With his shaved head, he would look like an Egyptian! But this is probably a tongue-in-cheek question. Anywhere else one would think it would take a major criminal to cause such a reaction. How could this little man with no hair or eyebrows cause so much trouble? Sons of worthlessness: or unprofitable sons, Heb., belial—used for scoundrels or villains in modern Hebrew; the Greek uses the term for assassins who carried a short dagger: sicarii, which is probably the basis for Iscariot, the nickname for “Judas”. The reference is to a man who, around 54 C.E. (during the procuratorship of Felix, when robbers had made a habit of entering the Temple during festivals and murdering their enemies there or luring people into the wilderness to see miracles, but were punished by Felix for following the impostors), claimed to be a prophet and advised masses of common people to follow him to the Mount of Olives to watch him knock the walls of Yerushalayim down from a distance. He promised he would make a way for them to enter the city afterwards. Felix sent out a large number of soldiers and horsemen and killed 400 and took another 200 captive, but the Egyptian man escaped and never showed up again. The robbers thereafter stirred up the people against Rome and burned and plundered the villages of those who would not go along with them. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20:8:6) It seems this captain was confusing the Egyptian man with several of the others who had come before him doing similar things.

40. And when he gave him authorization, Paulus stood on the steps and motioned to them with his hand. And when they had quieted down, he addressed them in Hebrew and said to them:

Addressing them in Hebrew was very wise, considering the accusations against him.

CHAPTER 22

Fathers: elders in Israel, whom he respected whether he agreed with their views or not because they held authority. He began his defense the same way Stefanos had done so. (7:1)

3. “A Jewish man I am, born in Tarsos, which is in Kilikia, but I grew up in this city at the feet of Gamli’el. And I was trained in all the instruction of our ancestors, and I became zealous for Elohim just like every one of you.

He identifies himself both with his accusers, who are Jews from Asiya (21:27), saying he is one too, and with the majority of the crowd, who are from “this city”, Yerushalayim. (Stern) All the instruction: Greek, to the fullest extent, in every detail, in the strictest manner, or with the exactest care. In other words, he knew every detail of every custom that was incumbent on Yehudah according to the way its authorities had determined was the best way to walk out the Torah. Gamli’el the Elder was “the most distinguished rabbi and scholar of his time”, the grandson of Hillel and and the leader of his school of disciples. He was the first to be called “Rabban” rather than the more common “rabbi”. (Stern) The Mishna tells us that when he died, “the glory of the Torah came to an end; and purity and separation came to an end.” (Sotah 9:15) He laid the background for the triumph of liberal Pharisaism under R. Yochanan ben Zakkai after the fall of the Temple. Paulus makes a strong case for being strictly Torah-observant due to being from this school.

5. “with the high priest and all the elders who bore witness, from whom I received letters to go to the brothers who were in Dameseq, that I might bring whomever might also be found there, chained, to Yerushalayim so they could received punishment.

Despite his denials, Sha’ul was indeed a great orator. Having lived in both Greek and Jewish contexts, he truly does know how to be “all things to all men”—that is, to communicate in either style. There is much wisdom in his approach. First, he ingratiates himself to his audience, and speaks their language, not Greek, which would only anger them more. He identifies himself with their cause (v. 3). He appeals to the authorities who sent him on the mission during which he was confronted by Yeshua, showing that he was no renegade. He is able to develop rapport with those who are trying to kill him, easing gradually into the point he knows they will not like. Elders: The same term is used of the leaders of the Way (15:4), but here it refers to the Sanhedrin. (23:1) Thus there were two “sanhedrins” in Yerushalayim at this time. One was headed by a High Priest who had bought his position; the other was appointed by the new King of Israel, so obviously the latter was a threat to the former. Paulus honors them because they are put in a position by YHWH, just as the Roman occupiers were, so he operates within both of those frameworks, though he does not hesitate to, at times, pit the two against each other when it is to the advantage of the incoming kingdom. If he needed a ruling, he would, of course, go to the council headed up by Yaaqov, not the Sanhedrin. But these rulings would not apply to all Jews, only those who considered Yeshua their rabbi. An absolute Jewish halakhah does not exist; there are varying opinions on everything in the Talmud, so there was room for many viewpoints within the framework of pure Torah. The other Sanhedrin allowed the Way’s “Sanhedrin” to exist due to pressure from the people. Those in Yehudah today who recognize the return of Efrayim prefer that we have our own halakhah, because they need Efrayim to come home; they do not need clones of themselves, for they have enough “Jewish want-to-be’s”. But our authority does not come from the Mishnah or Talmud, but from Yeshua and His followers.

7. “and I fell on the ground and heard a voice that said to me, ‘Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why are you persecuting Me?’

8. “And I answered and said, ‘Who are You, Sir?”’ And He said to me, ‘I am Yeshua the Notzri Himself, whom you are persecuting.’

Persecuting: or pursuing; Yeshua literally “cut to the chase” and reversed the roles! Yeshua caught him first! He took away that aspect of his pursuit and made him face the rest of the facts. Sir: or, my Master.

Saw the light: the Greek version adds, “and were afraid”.

11. “And right away I could not see on account of the brightness of that light, those who were with me grasped me by my hand and led me into Dameseq.

12. “And one man, Chananyah, righteous according to the Torah, as all the Yehudim there could bear witness in regard to him,

That he was completely Torah-observant was not mentioned in chapter 9, but Paulus knew this fact would be important to his audience.

14. “And he said to me, ‘The Elohim of our ancestors has raised you up to know His wishes and to see the righteous One and to hear the voice from His mouth.

15. “‘And you will come to serve as a witness for Him to all sons of Adam about all that you have seen and heard.

To all sons of Adam: not literally to every person alive (for many have felt they had to make major compromises in order to try to allow everyone to hear the Gospel), but to all types of people, though his audience did not balk at this yet, because at that time in history they would only consider this term to apply to Jews, or at the very most to the rest of Israel, though most considered the other tribes to simply have become Gentiles, and thus in the same category as all other men. Some would apply it only to Torah-observant Jews.

Be immersed: or, immerse yourself, which is the normal Jewish practice, with only a witness to ensure that every part of the body and every hair goes under the water. He was being told to go back to the beginning and start over, at least on this point. Be purified from: Greek, wash away. Immersion is a vivid symbol by which we can mark a change in ritual status which should also correspond with an ascension to a higher level of spiritual experience and action. It certainly marked a turning point for Sha’ul.

18. “and I saw Him saying to me in a vision, ‘Be alert and go out from Yerushalayim because there is none who will receive your testimony concerning Me.’

19. “So I said, ‘Shucks, my Master! They know that I turned them over to the prison-house and beat the believers in You in every synagogue!

20. “‘And when the blood of Stefanos, Your witness, was shed, I too stood with them and counted myself as belonging to the wishes of his murderers, as I watched over the garments of those who stoned him.’

He was trying to argue that he had exactly the credentials for what they needed to hear, and who but him could convince them better than one who had just been “on their team”? This has strong parallels with Moshe, who thought Israel would understand that he had been sent to deliver his people (7:25) when he still had forty more years of training ahead of him.

22. And after they had listened to Paulus up to this word, they lifted their voice and screamed, “One such as this must be purged from the earth, because he has no right to live!”

This word: nations, which is the same word for “Gentiles”, and had a strong pejorative sense. This was an understandable response from those in their shoes. Since there was no king, they were the supreme ruling body in Israel, yet had no true authority in Rome’s eyes (since they could not issue a death sentence without permission). Since the deaths of the first two Herods, the Sanhedrin’s influence had declined even further. The Jews were exiles in their own Land, since they were not free to fully keep the Torah. They had asked for this in a sense when the Hasmoneans asked for Roma’s help to defeat the Greeks, not realizing that Roma’s policy was that anyone they helped was automatically considered their vassal. The remains of the headquarters of the Roman occupiers has been found by archaeologists, with the Roman seal on every tile. The one place they could get away from the ever-present Romans was the inner courts of theTemple Mount, where they knew everyone was like-minded. Now even this seemed to be being violated, and the thought was insufferable. This ruling body was also influenced by the Zealots, who were freedom-fighters who used terrorist techniques, and all of these added up to the fact that the word goyim was a red flag. As if it was not enough that Gentiles held the priestly garments for ransom so the Jews would “behave”, now he was bringing them here too! This was the “last straw”. Earth: or, the land (i.e., of Israel in particular). Has no right: or, is not worthy or suitable.

Casting their garments off: the same way they had done at Sha’ul’s own feet when stoning Stefanos. The Greek term includes the sense of displaying disgust. The outer garments included marks of their status, and these were the wealthiest in society, so to toss these garments aside is not something they would do lightly. Throwing dust into the air is not a common Jewish custom; Stern argues they were probably throwing it at Paulus, not having any stones to throw within reach—or they may have hesitated to execute him in this way since they were in the presence of the Romans this time, as was not the case with Stefanos.

He assumed he would get the right answers if he put a little pressure on Paulus, for this was the Roman way. These soldiers would have to answer to Roma for any illegal assembly. But any of the Hebrew festivals were assemblies, so the Romans prevented riots by the Jews by holding over their heads the threat of canceling the right for the high priest to use his garments during a feast, which of course was required by the Torah.

Roman: not by ethnicity but by legal citizenship.

27. So the captain of a thousand approached him and said to him, “Tell me, it is true that you are a Roman?” And he told him, “Yes.”

28. So the captain of a thousand answered him, “With a lot of money I acquired my Roman naturalization.” Paulus told him, “But I was even born with it!”

This was some leverage with which YHWH had provided him long beforehand to keep him alive longer to teach more people and further strengthen his disciples.

If he had not been a Roman citizen, they would not have cared. Only Roman citizens had a right to due process. Most Roman soldiers were not citizens, many actually being conscripted prisoners of war. More soldiers died from such discipline by their own leaders since the Roman army ran such a tight ship. It killed more of its own soldiers than enemies. And they still held Paulus overnight, despite his citizenship.

2. Then Chananyah the priest ordered those standing by him to strike Paulus on his mouth.

Priest: the Greek has “high priest”, and 24:1 in the Aramaic corroborates this. He apparently believed Paulus was arrogant to make the claim to a guilt-free conscience, whether simply because he thought Paulus’ views were wrong, or because he knew how guilty his own conscience was for hypocritically holding a position that was not lawfully his, since he was not a direct descendant of Aharon. Paulus was not saying that everything he had done up to this point was right, but that at each point in his walk he had had the sincere motive of following and serving YHWH. The reason he had persecuted the followers of the Way was out of zeal for the Torah as he understood it then. He knew he had been guilty, but he had always thought he was doing what was right. Can you say the same? Most of us, too, once sat under phallic symbols (steeples) in churches on the day of the Sun and set a table to Fortune and Destiny (Yeshayahu 65:11) by celebrating Christmas. At that point in our walk, it was the only open path to get us to the higher point YHWH wanted us at. We were not doing something we knew was wrong, whereas after we knew the facts more clearly, we could not stay in that position. Chananyah was appointed by Herodos and was in office from approximately 47 to 59 C.E. By this time, he did not carry out most of the religious aspects of his position, except at Yom Kippur. That is why we see people like Z’kharyah drawing lots to burn incense (Luqa 1:9)—a job the high priest was supposed to do. But since the Romans sold the position to the highest bidder, he was not the right person for the position, and therefore was more of a figurehead who was involved in the politics of keeping the Romans placated.

Whitewashed wall: i.e., one who appears pure on the outside (even wearing white, as a priest normally did), but was not the same within. (Compare Mat. 23:25-27) Even whitewash, which may hide defects under its veneer, wears off eventually. Rabbi Eliezer, who was on the council of rabbis at Yavneh after the Temple was destroyed and who became a believer in Yeshua, told his students that if any of them were not the same on the inside as they were outwardly, they had to leave his academy. He was fired from his position and replaced by someone known for his mercy, and the school garnered a much larger following at that point. He went to YHWH asking if he had done wrong, and was given a dream about a caper bush, after which he knew he had done the right thing. Why? Because a caper plant that is somehow diseased puts out a second crop of fruit exactly four months after the first harvest, and it looks the same outwardly, but when opened, the capers are black and inedible inside. Thus, though the harvest seemed numerically greater, it added nothing of any value to the first crop, which had actually been what it appeared to be. (Neot Kedumim) Transgressing the Torah: first, by striking him before a trial had proven him guilty, and second, by striking him while he stood rather than having him lie down first. (Deut. 25:1-2)

Curse: or speak evil of.

Out of protest for a sacrilege committed by the Romans at an earlier point, the Sanhedrin had moved out of its chamber on the Temple Mount, which was the only place they could render a death sentence. Having been summoned by the Romans (22:30), we know they were not now in the Temple complex, so the high priest could not have been wearing the garments that distinguished him from the other priests. Sha’ul, having been back from abroad for some time, should have known who the high priest was, having participated in at least one pilgrim festival since he returned. However, he might have only been able to see him from a distance, and his writings suggest that Paulus had poor eyesight. (Gal. 4:15; 6:11) He apparently was standing far enough away to be out of reach of the high priest himself striking him, and it could be that he could not tell who was speaking, though at least we knew he could see that he was seated while others stood (vv. 2-3), and at least he knew that the one speaking was therefore the one in the position to make the ruling. But there seems to be a tone of sarcasm in his saying “I was not aware…”, whether due to the high priest’s not behaving like one or because he called into question the validity of his authority. Still, despite his unworthiness of the position, Paulus held the position itself in high respect since YHWH had instituted it and it at least represented order rather than anarchy. But quoting this verse should also have reminded the high priest of its context, which was all about treating one’s neighbor as oneself, and would show him how shamefully he had treated Paulus.

Note that, despite Yeshua’s warnings about the leaven of the P’rushim and their hypocrisy, it was not incompatible to be both a follower of Yeshua and a P’rush.(Compare 15:5.) It has even been argued by some that Yeshua was a P’rush as well. While he would not be defined by a classification stucture that came long after the Torah was given, many of His teachings were quite similar; it was an intrafamilial argument He had with them, for while they believed mostly the same things about the Torah, it was the corrupt heart attitudes of some of the P’rushim that came out in their laying heavy burdens on people and not lifting a finger to help them, donating money that should have been used to care for their aging parents to the Temple in order to look more pious, trying to have their religious deeds noticed by as many as possible, etc. They were making Torah subservient to self, rather than vice versa, and this was what Yeshua found so heinous. It was not the fact that they tithed mint, dill, and cumin; He commended such attention to detail, but chided them for making this more important than loving their neighbors.

He diverted their attention off himself, taking advantage of a fact that he knew would set them off. But while his ruse was a smart move, it was not very honorable, as no one had said anything about the resurrection up to this point; the incident that sparked this trial was his supposedly having taken a Gentile into the Temple. So now he was definitely acting out of disrespect for his audience. “Divide and conquer” does not fit with the submission to authority within Israel that the Torah requires. He is not taking them seriously since they are acting outside the Torah. He used to try to please even the Ta’doqim, with whom he did not agree; now, he shows that he no longer cares what they think.

Tz’doqim: more specifically, the Boethusians, since other Tz’doqim did believe in the resurrection, as their successors, the Karaites, do today as well.(Gordon) No spirit: that is, one such as a demon. The Boethusians believed the soul disappeared when the body died, and only Elohim’s Spirit remained. Yeshua answered this tenet of theirs in Mat. 22:23-32. Thus, unlike the P’rushim, it would be difficult for the Tz’doqim to remain thus after an experience of the risen Messiah. (Stern)

What of it: Greek, “Let’s not fight against Elohim!” Unlike Gamli’el’s situation some twenty years earlier, they could not just say this fervor for Yeshua might blow over, for it had kept growing and growing. But now the squabble has become partisan, and the P’rushim act as if they had been defending Paulus all along!

Disturbance: Greek, insurrection.

12. And as it was becoming morning, men from among the Jews assembled and banned themselves from eating or drinking until they should kill Paulus.

Men: probably not just men on the street, but people on the council (which has been the definition of “Jews” as used throughout this context), or at least those had political aspirations and expressed this by trying to please the high priest and elders, which could gain them honor and position in Israel as it stood then.

14. And they approached the priests and elders and said, “We have truly placed a ban on ourselves not to taste anything until we have killed Paulus.

15. “So now you and the heads of the Sanhedrin ask the captain of a thousand to let him come to you, as if you only wanted to inquire to confirm what he is doing, and we are prepared to kill him before he reaches you.”

They could not legally execute him, so now they turned to a more direct means of getting him out of the way. These men were not telling the leaders what to do, but came up with a plan that they knew would please them, and were saying, “Here’s what you do: set him up for us and we’ll do the dirty work for you.”

How could he have heard of it unless his father was among the conspirators or on the council? Apparently as had been the case with Paulus, other members of his family still had strong political connections, and Paulus must have now been an embarrassment to them. But this boy was either also a follower of Yeshua or simply loved his uncle very much.

18. So the centurion took the lad and brought him to the captain of a thousand, and said, “The prisoner Paulus called me and asked me to bring this lad to you, because he has something to tell you.”

19. The captain of a thousand grasped the hand of the lad, and pulled him aside and asked him, “What do you have to tell me?”

20. So the lad told him, “The Jews have been advised to ask from you that Paulus be brought down to the assembly tomorrow as if they only desired to know yet another matter from him.

21. “You therefore must not listen to them, because look! More than forty men of them are waiting in ambush for him, and they have banned themselves from eating or drinking until they have killed him, and look! They are preparing and waiting for your assurance.”

Listen to them: Greek, let them persuade you. How ironic that different factions of Jews had to beg protection against one another from pagans! Assurance: or promise.

23. Then he called for two centurions and told them, “Go, prepare two hundred Roman [soldier]s who can walk to Caesarea and seventy horsemen and two hundred spear-hurlers who can leave at the third hour of the night.

Third hour of the night: that is, 9:00 p.m. Each Roman soldier carried a short sword, a dagger, and a 7-foot-long spear. The spear-hurlers had 10-foot spears and a dagger. Each horseman carried a long sword and a dagger, and all 470 of these would have carried shields as well. All this to protect one man from 40! Paulus was treated with great respect because he had almost been beaten unlawfully, and these captains bent over backwards to make amends!

Deliver: the Hebrew term includes smoothing the way, giving safe passage, and hurrying him along. Felix was the husband of Herod Agrippas’ daughter and had been procurator of Shomron from 48 to 52 C.E., while Cumanus ruled Judea. When Cumanus was removed from office for failing to suppress riots between Jews and Gentiles in Caesarea, Felix was put in Caesarea as his replacement. Tacitus wrote of him, “With all cruelty and lust he exercised the power of a king with the spirit of a slave.”

25. And he wrote and gave them a letter that had this in it:

26. “Claudios Lüsios to Felix the exalted commissioner—greetings of peace!

27. “The Jews seized this man with the intention of killing him, and I stood up with the Romans and rescued him when I knew that he was a Roman [citizen].

28. “And immediately I asked to know the reason for which they were accusing him; I took him down to the assembly.

29. “And I found that they were accusing him as touching upon questions of their Torah, and there was no worthwhile excuse for imprisonment or death upon him.

30. “And when the ambush plot of the Jews in regard to him was made known to me, I immediately sent him to you, and I ordered that his accusers to come before you with him. Be healthy!”

After his trial, Sha’ul may have been given this letter, as Luqas was able to quote its exact wording. One would think the conspirators against him would have starved to death after YHWH provided this way of escape. But we know that the rabbis later ruled that oaths made in error or of exaggeration could be nullified (Mishnah N’darim 3:1), and though the rabbis as such were not in authority until after the Temple was destroyed, corrupt men were already making rulings of convenience that flew in the face of the Torah, which says our vows must be performed. (Num. 30:2) The rabbis may have used such things as a precedent for their later rulings. Be healthy: Greek, be strong—a typical greeting, as we would write “farewell” or “sincerely”.

31. Then, as they were commanded, the Romans took Paulus by night and brought him to the city of Antipatris.

Antipatris, named for Herod the Great’s father Antipater, was 42 miles from Yerushalayim and 26 from Caesarea. Known today as Tel Afeq, it is situated in a very fertile region near the coast, northeast of Tel Aviv.

33. And they brought him to Caesarea and gave the letter to the commissioner and had Paulus stand before him.

34. And when he had read the letter, he asked him what city he was from. And when he heard he was from Kilikia,

35. he told him, “I will hear you[r case] when your accusers come.” And he ordered that he be guarded in Herodos’ fortress.

Fortress: or citadel. This was protective custody, yet he was not free to move about, and the conditions were similar to imprisonment and as we will see, lasted a long time, as his accusers probably deliberately delayed. The cell that he was thought to have been kept in has now been unearthed by archaeologists.

CHAPTER 24

High priest: Here the Aramaic text first directly identifies Chananyah as more than just a “priest”. Orator: It was clear to Paulus’ opponents that his skill at oratory was beyond their ability to match, so they hired someone who they expected to be up to his caliber to be their spokesman.

3. “For the most part we live in tranquility, thanks to you, and many improvements have been made for this people by your concern. And we all, in every place, are the recipients of your mercy, O exalted Felix!

We: It appears that Tartellos is identifying himself as a Jew. It was customary to begin a court presentation with a compliment to the one presiding; this prosecuting attorney, trained professioninally to speak in a Roman court, still overdoes the flattery to ingratiate his party with the commissioner and effect a smokescreen over what he knows is a very weak case.

5. “Because we have found this man [to be] one who corrupts and who awakens disturbances among all the Jews who are in all the world, since indeed he is [a] head of the sect of the Notzrim,

A head: Not necessarily “the” head. In fact, his opponents do not present him as having any connection to the large group in Yerushalayim headed by Yaaqov, who was one of the most respected men in Yerushalayim, according to Josephus. Since Hellenistic Jews are already looked down upon and he is placed in that category because he was most-often seen in a Greek-speaking context, he is seen as somewhat of an outsider. Though by this time he has been reined in much more tightly by the followers of Yeshua at Yerushalayim, when he causes trouble in other cities, people do not link him with that group in any obvious way. It is as if there are two streams to the followers of Yeshua already, and this one was indeed, if not “founded” by Paulus, at least the basis for modern Christianity in the form into which his teachings were misconstrued. (2 Keyfa 3:16) Having allowed, even temporarily, a lower standard for believers coming back from a pagan context, opened the door for his version of the Glad News to eventually be seen as a separate religion. Yaaqov’s camp, on the other hand, was only seen as Jews who had a grasp of something that had taken place which had fulfilled many prophecies about which they had heard all their lives, and so formed much more of a seamless continuum with Torah keepers of previous generations. The hard-liners got more respect at the time, but the believers who did not value their connection to Israel took the less harsh man as their figurehead.

Paulus’ opponents want Felix to see Paulus as in the same category of the Egyptian (21:38) whose uprising Felix himself had mercilessly crushed.

8. “and gave orders concerning his accusers that they should come to you. Now you are able—when you interrogate him—to hear from us about all these things we are claiming against him.”

9. And the Jews also made accusations against him, in saying that these things were truly the case.

10. Then the military commissioner signaled to Paulus to speak, so Paulus responded and said, “I know that for these many years you are the judge of this people, and therefore I am glad to make a defense in regard to myself.

11. “Because you are indeed able to discern that there are not more than twelve days since I went up to Yerushalayim to worship.

12. “And they did not find me speaking with anyone in the Temple—not even in the assembly of the congregation, nor in their synagogues, nor in the city!

13. “And they have nothing in their hands to prove in your presence what accusations they are bringing against me now.

14. “But this I do confess, that in this ‘sect’ of which they speak—in it I serve the Elohim of my ancestors in that I put my confidence in all the things written in the Torah and in the prophets;

15. “in that I have expectation in Elohim, as they themselves also expect, that in the time to come there will be a resurrection from the house of the dead—of [both] the righteous and the wicked.

They themselves: though at least one of the Tz’doqim, who did not believer in the resurrection, was present (the high priest himself). Yet he presents himself as just another Jew like them, not someone who is in a widely different category. He brings up this subject again, possibly since it worked so wwell to his advantage last time. But this time his opponents hold their peace, having, like himself, had time to reflect on what had gone wrong at that trial.

Struggle: labor or suffer.

Alms: not necessarily just for the believers in Messiah, but for the Judean nation at large. Other references to this charitable contribution are found in Romans 15:25-31, 1 Korinthians 16:1-4, 2 Kor. 8:1-9, and Gal. 2:10.

Noisy crowd: or tumult, confusion.

Fitting: at least according to Roman law, which gives one the right to face his accuser. In the Torah, two witnesses are required, but only in the case of adultery is the accused required to be present. But this trial is based entirely upon hearsay, and no actual witnesses can be brought forward, so even under Hebrew law, they have no case. With his mastery of Greek culture, he is thus able to outdo his opponent very quickly.

21. “other than just this one thing that I called out when I stood among them—‘In regard to the resurrection of the dead I am being judged today before you’!”

Paulus is admitting his wrong in lying or bantering about the reason he had been on trial. He proves a gain to be a great lawyer by conceding the only point on which they could rightfully bring anything against him.

“The Way” is a term only used for the followers of Yeshua in contexts in which Paulus figures prominently. Deferred: There is no evidence that Lüsios ever did come, so Felix was just putting him off indefinitely.

24. Then after a few days Felix and his wife Drusilah (who was a Jewess) sent and summoned Paulus, and listened to [testimony] from him concerning the faith of the Messiah.

Drusilah (meaning “watered by the dew”) was Felix’s third wife in succession. She herself had a very colorful history. Being only 19 years old at this time (born in 38 C.E.), Felix was already her second husband, having persuaded her using the skills of a magician named Atomos (whom Josephus actually identifies with the Shim’on of chapter 8), to desert Azizus of Emesa, the petty king of Syrian to whom she had been given, and marry him instead. Her life also ended in a spectacular manner at age 41, when she and her son were killed at Pompeii when Mt. Vesuvius erupted (79 C.E.). Faith: or, faithfulness.

Holiness: The Greek text has “self-control”. Having stolen another man’s wife, it is no wonder that Felix was terrified at the mention of coming judgment. But apparently he was nfot frightened enough to want to hear about the solution. (Stern)

His interest may have been piqued by Paulus’ mention of the alms he had brought (v. 17). When he was seen in Yerushalayim, he was carrying a substantial sum of money. He may have thought the Gentiles who had contributed might be concerned enough about their teacher to buy his freedom. He is aware that Paulus’ opponents have no case, but possibly the fact that Paulus was such a great orator made it obvious to him that he had come from somewhat of a well-to-do family who could afford to give him such an education.

Being disappointed in regard to his expectation, Felix changed which side of the argument he leaned toward! He was recalled by Nero in 59 C.E. (which shows us that the chronology of these events falls only 11 years prior to the destruction of the Temple). He was saved from proceedings initiated by the Jews only by the influence of his brother, the freedman Pallas, who had been a favorite of the earlier Emperor Claudius. Porkios Festus’ name means just what it sounds like: festival of swine! Pork was indeed a favorite even of the highest classes in Roma, and his family had attained to senatorial rank centuries before this. Nothing else is known about him personally from the historical record except that he died in office just over two years later in 62 C.E.., and was succeeded in his office by Albinus. Yet why is Paulus, who was allowed any visitor he wished, still in custody two years later? If he had been told he was to go to Roma, why was he not pressing harder to get back into a position to be able to travel? Why didn’t any of the influential followers of Yeshua in Yerushalayim pay his bail? It could be that even they could not affiord to, being affected by the famine for which Paulus had brought the alms. But one cannot escape the impression that the Delegated Envoys had never fully embraced him as their own, and may to some degree have had the attitude of, “He made his own bed; let him lie in it.” After all, he had appealed to his Roman citizenship—something they did not place a particularly high value upon—and they may have felt that he was now Roma’s problem, not theirs. The fact that he acknowledged their authority with some hesitancy and that every time he showed up in Yerushalayim, he made waves that caused trouble for them. The fact that Paulus encountered many in his travels who already knew about Yeshua shows that those based in Yerushalayim had already sent out some envoys of their own, and it is not hard to imagine them being somewhat defensive about what they considered their “turf”. He based his authority on visions that no one else saw and had to trust his word about, but as genuine as they may have been, that cannot compare to the authority that came from having walked with Yeshua himself for more than three years, with many witnesses. He was driven by a fervor to get the message out, being convinced as they were that Yeshua’s return as king was imminent, but he was less hesitant to make compromises in order to get the job done. Responding more to guilt over what he had initially done to Yeshua’s followers than to his training in Torah, he overcorrected in order to make it easier for more people to re-enter the ranks of Israel. But this created many problems from which we still suffer today, for the conflicts between the two camps have never yet been fully resolved in a way satisfactory under Torah. His work was far from being worthless (and was recognized as such by the Envoys), but the manner in which he carried it out, and the fact that many of his writings which were intended for a specific context have been universalized for every situation in every age, have had the effect (unintended though it was) of loosening the Torah. His carelessness in a few cases left the door wide open for the spirit of lawlessness to get the upper hand, and it is now our task to undo much of the effect of his writings (in the form in which they have come down to us). This may be why we see no overt effort on the part of the leadership to expedite Paulus’ release.

CHAPTER 25

1. When Festus had come to Caesarea, after three days he went up to Yerushalayim.

2. And the chief priests and the heads of the Jews informed him about Paulus,

3. and they pleaded with him and begged him for this kindness: that he send and have him brought to Yerushalayim--while they arranged an ambush on the way for the purpose of murdering him.

Unless they actually let him in on the plot (thinking they would solve his dilemma as well, since he was stumped as to how to solve Paulus’ case any other way), these men’s frustration over Paulus and how he has brought them such dishonor must have been so intense that they were willing to risk having to fight 470 soldiers to attack him for there is no reason to believe he would not have given Paulus the same safe conduct back to Yerushalayim as he had had when coming to the coast from there. The fact that they would bri/ng up his case after two years when bothering the governor could get them all killed, was only explainable by pride. Apparently among the Hellenistic Jews in Yerushalayim (who may have preferred his more lenient stance on some issues than that of the Apostles), his imprisonment had made him enough of a hero that his influence was still felt strongly there, much to the consternation of these Jews. But he had also visited more than Jews in his travels, and, like today, many of the “Gentiles” who now knew they were actually of the “lost” tribes of Israel would be desirous of visiting the Land with whom they now knew they still had a connection, and would want to go back and “get in touch with their roots”, visit the still-standing Temple, etc. This in itself would irritate the stricter Jews to no end, considering how strongly they reacted to even the rumor that Paulus had brought a Gentile into the Temple precincts. They themselves probably would not have been the ones waiting in ambush, but would have hired “hit men”, possibly from among the Zealots.

5. “so those who are among you who have the means can go down with us and argue about every perversion there is in the man.”

He gave no reasons for Paulus being kept there, but he may have suspected that it was not safe for Paulus to go back to where his accusers had previously been waiting to kill him. He includes a tone of sarcasm or disgust here as well, and will not make it any easier for them, requiring them to pay their own way if they really thought it important enough to make this trip.

Eight or ten days: Greek, more than ten days; variant reading as per manuscripts used in compiling the New American Standard version: “not more than eight or ten days”. This may reflect the original document from which both the Greek and Aramaic versions may have been a second-generation copy.

8. while Paulus replied, “I have not been perverse at all, either toward the Torah of the Jews or toward the Temple or toward Caesar.”

9. But Festus, since he wanted to do a favor for the Jews, said to Paulus, “Do you want to go to Yerushalayim and be judged before me there concerning these [accusations]?”

A favor: one that would make him politically popular with them, since he had just come into office. Even the Caesar’s position was precarious at this point in history, as he had to answer to the Senate. How much more one who would bear the blame if there was an uprising among the Judeans? Of course this would oblige them to do him a favor in return at some point. Yet Festus is puzzled at how to appease both sides, since Paulus is a Roman citizen, he knows he is innocent, and Paulus’ “Jewish-Roman” family still has a lot of clout.

11. “And if I have done an injustice or anything worthy of death, I am not hesitant to die. But if there is nothing against me from these matters about which I have been accused, a man would not give me to them undeservedly. I call upon the Caesar!”

Call upon: Greek, appeal to. I am not hesitant to die: This is itself is a lesson in honor that most modern people have yet to comprehend.

Though he knew he was to go to Roma because of the vision Yeshua had given him, Paulus does not appear to be asking to see the emperor himself, since for an ordinary citizen of Roma—and one living in another land—to demand to see the emperor would be seen as audaciously arrogant and absurd. Rather, since this is a court that operates by the laws Caesar has effected, and he knows these laws (possibly better than his judge does), and therefore is well aware that according to that systen of jurisprudence, his accusers have no case, so this is what he is actually appealing to. He is therefore asking to be judged according to that system, and in effect is saying, “Why can’t you just gieve a ruling right now?” This was, after all, Caesar’s court (v. 10). But being an one-upman, he caught Paulus in his own words, finding a loophole by which he could get the responsibility for this sticky case out of his hands. He takes Paulus’ words literally, and says he will send him to the actual man Caesar. The Greek text identifies this Caesar as Sebastos—“the venerable”, rather than by his title.

Agrippas (II): born 27 C.E. as the second and eldest surviving son of Herod Agrippas I (whose death is recounted in chapter 12), he was at first considered too young to succeed his father to the throne (at 16), but was later made king over the area north of Judea, reigning from Caesarea Filippi, whose name he changed to Neronias as a compliment to Nero for increasing his territory in 56 C.E. At this point he was about 32 years of age. From 48 to 66 he was the one who named the Jewish high priest, and did his best to prevent the war against Roma in 66, but though he failed, he remained loyal to Roma, and his territory was increased even further as a reward. He died childless around 100 C.E. Berniqe: Eldest daughter of Agrippas I (born A.D. 28), and sister of Drusilah, Festus’ wife. At age 13 she married her uncle Herod of Chalcis. Upon his death in 48 C.E., she went to live with her brother (this Agrippas II). Juvenal alleged that she had an incestuous relationship with him. She later married Polemon, king of Kilikia, then deserted him, and returned to her brother prior to the events of this chapter. After this time she became the mistress of Titus before he became emperor. Josephus (Wars of the Jews 2:15:1) recounts how, in 66 C.E., during the Jewish revolt, when she saw how badly the procurator Florus was treating the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, she begged him to stop the slaughter. She even made a 30-day Nazirite vow to Elohim and stood barefoot before Florus’ tribunal to beg him to spare the Jews, but he would not listen.

As Orthodox Jews today who come to believe in Yeshua yet do not diminish their Torah-observance in any way are hissed at by other Jews even though thye have not forsaken any of the nation’s customs, Paulus was seen as a traitor since he was now doing the exact opposite of what they had sent him to Dameseq to do. His very existence constantly reminds them that they are wrong, taking the easier, lower road, which is why they do not want to let him go on living.

16. “And I told them that the Romans do not have a custom of handing a man over to be killed until his judge comes and they bring evidence in his presence and he gives him the occasion to reply in regard to that which he is accused of.

17. “And when I came here, though I hadn’t even settled in, the next day on the judgment seat I ordered that the man be brought to me.

Judgment seat: the only place he could make authoritative rulings.

19. “But they had where these accusations against him concerning their religion and concerning one Yeshua who died, which Paulus claimed was alive.

20. “And as soon as I was not standing on the investigation of these things, I said to Paulus, ‘Do you want to go to Yerushalayim and be judged there concerning these [accusations]?’

21. “But he requested that he be kept for judgment by Caesar. So I ordered that he be guarded until I could send him to Caesar.”

22. And Agrippas said, “I was wishing to hear this man [myself].” So Festus said, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”

23. So the next day Agrippas and Berniqe came in great splendor and entered the judgment hall with captains of a thousand and the heads of the city. When Festus gave the order, Paulus came.

Splendor: or ornamentation, finery, pomp. This occasion gave them another excuse to show off.

25. “But I discerned that he had not done anything worthy of death, so as soon as he asked to be kept for judgment by Caesar, I ordered that he be sent.

26. “And I have no idea what to write about him to Caesar. Therefore I wanted to have him come before you—and especially in front of you, O King Agrippas, so that after his case is examined, I might find what to write,

27. “because this is not proper, [that] at the hour that we send a man—a prisoner—we don’t document what his offense is.”

CHAPTER 26

Answered: Aramaic, brought forth his breath, or defended his spirit. Held out his hand: Greek orators used this gesture to symbolize, “What I am about to say is what I solemnly believe.” This has carried over into our modern courts when one raises his hand and swears to tell the truth.

Judeans: or simply, Jews, but neither the Aramaic nor Greek uses an article here, indicating that he is not speaking of everyone in that category, but only particular ones. The Aramaic adds, to defend my spirit.

Questions: or, problems. Patient: literally, long. In typical fashion, he compliments his judge, but does not use excessive flattery as Tartellos had done in chapter 24.

5. “because from the time they became acquainted with me, they have known that in the sect of the P’rushim I lived as a renowned, distinguished expert.

6. “And now in regard to the hope of the promise that our ancestors had from Elohim I am standing and undergoing litigation--

Our ancestors: Paulus considers Agrippas a fellow Jew, and thus does not need to give as much background as he would to Festus. (Stern)

For the first time he overtly refers to the twelve tribes as sharers in the promise along with the Jews, though he has been targeting them directly as recipients of what was promised as he proclaimed that it was now available to them. He clearly sees his commission not to the Gentiles at large, but, as Yahshua specified to His students, the lost sheep of the House of Israel (the northern ten tribes), who are scattered among all the nations. What these men from the tribe of Yehudah are rejecting because it irritates them, he says, is precisely what the rest of the tribes have been aching and longing to receive, and would give anything for! In Paulus’ view, the restoration of temporarily-blinded Israel is a form of resurrection from the dead. (Rom. 11:7-15; compare Y’hezq’el 37:1-14.)

He still maintains that the issue over which he is being tried is the resurrection, though the accusers have never said anything directly about this. Yet Paulus knows the reason they gave—that he had allegedly brought a Gentile into the Temple—was only an excuse with which to entrap him; the bottom line—what they really have a problem with—is the resurrection of Yeshua. He knows the inner workings of their minds, because he himself had been a P’rush and believed in a resurrection, yet had judged it in the case of Yeshua to have been incredible, and considered it a heresy to oppose (F.F. Bruce); so it had proven to be just a theoretical doctrine after all—something for a distant time about which no one could offer proof either for or against (compare Yochanan 11:), for when the rubber met the road—when the issue was brought into the immediate present by a concrete example of a resurrection as the firstfruits—they showed that they really did not believe it—or did not want to; if there was a resurrected king, they would no longer have any of the power or authority they had usurped, since they were neither of the proper house to be king nor of Levi to be priests.

10. “that which I did was even in Yerushalayim, that many holy people I sent to prison, with the support that I received from the head priests. And when some of them were killed, I participated with those who condemned them.

11. “And in every place standing that belonged to the congregation, I tortured them as I compelled them to insult the name of Yeshua. And in the great [enthusiastic] rage that I was full of on account of them, I even went out to other cities to pursue them.

Standing place: or post, situation. Insult: revile or blaspheme. Pursue: or, persecute.

Permission: or, authorization.

14. “Then we all fell to the earth, and I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew: ‘Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why are you persecuting Me? It is a [severe] difficulty for you to kick against the cattle-prods!’

While they all were affected by this event, only Sha’ul received a clear and direct version of what was being communicated.

16. “Then he told me, ‘Get up onto your feet, because for this I appeared to you—to appoint you as a servant and a witness about what I have shown you and what I have yet to show you.

17. “‘And I will rescue you from the Jews and from the other nations to which I am sending you

18. “‘to open their eyes so that they might return out of darkness to light and [turn] from the domination of the adversary [back] to Elohim, and they will receive forgiveness of sins and a lot with the holy ones by means of placing confidence in Me.’

19. “Therefore, O King Agrippas, I did not rise up in obstinacy against the heavenly vision,

20. “but rather made proclamation beginning with those who were in Dameseq then to those who were in Yerushalayim and in all the towns of Judea, and I also proclaimed to the nations that they should turn back and face Elohim and do deeds befitting repentance.

The Gospel includes appropriate actions, not just belief! This is exactly what Yaaqov had emphasized to Sha’ul himself. Turn back…repentance: Both terms denote coming back to what one had previously left. If Agrippas is sharp, he should pick up on the fact that the “nations” in v. 17 were actually tribes of Israel. (The Greek term allows for either “nations”, “Gentiles”, or “tribes”.) The deeds that prove we believe Israel can be resurrected are those that are for the purpose of building the Kingdom.

22. “But Elohim has helped me up to this day, and look! I am standing and bearing witness to small as well as great, and I have said nothing outside of Moshe and the prophets, except the things that they said which were yet to come about--

Nothing outside of: or, nothing further out than. Gk., “except what Moshe and the prophets had said would take place”. This is the only authority that really counts, anyway, which lessens the value of the laws added by the P’rushim.

24. And when Paulus had thus returned his defense, Festus shouted with a loud voice, “Paulus, you are going mad! The multiplicity of books is making you go mad!”

Multiplicity of books: Greek, much learning. Festus is Roman and does not understand the significance of the issues at stake as Agrippas does.

Honesty: or straightness, equity, evenness. Sha’ul’s even-keeled response makes Festus look the mad one! (Stern)

In secret: Greek, in a corner—i.e., out of the public spotlight. Rather, as Yeshua said, He spoke openly in the synagogue or Temple every day. (Yochanan 18:20)

28. The King, Agrippas, told him, “How would you persuade me by so little to become Messianic?!”

By so little: or, in sucvh a short amount of time. It is hard to tell what his attitude here, but for “Messianic”, the Greek and Aramaic both have “Christian”—a term which then carried only a pejorative or degrading overtone; i.e., you want me to be one of those fanatics!

30. Then the king rose up, along with the commissioner, Berniqe, and those who were sitting with them.

31. And when they had departed from there, they spoke to one another and said, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or chains!”

32. And Agrippas told Festus, “This man could have been rewarded if only he had not appealed to the Caesar.”

Rewarded: i.e., with his freedom; literally, hired or be given wages. He could be paid back for the two years he was wrongfully kept in custody. If only: Because Festus accepted Paulus’ appeal publicly before his accusers, it could not simply be annulled. (Stern)

CHAPTER 27

He was named after the prototypical Caesar.

Arestarkhos traveled with Sha’ul to Efesos (19:29) and was one of the representatives who came all the way back with him to bring the contribution collected from the exiled congregations up to Yerushalayim (20:4). He was imprisoned with Sha’ul in Roma. (Col. 4:10; Filemon 24) We: Apparently Luqas also rejoined the entourage here. He may have again been sent along by the Council to ensure that Paulus stayed within their bounds, or he may have been along to minister to Paulus’ medical needs, being a physician. (Col. 4:14)

Tzidon: a very ancient and important port further north along the coast in present-day Lebanon. Rest: Greek, receive care, refresh himself, or have his needs provided for.

Skirted: or went around; Greek, sailed close to the leeward of, that is, shielded from the wind by its mountains. This would involve sailing northward, then turning westward along its northern coast.

Lükia: where western Turkey widens southward, to the southwest of Pamfülia. Müra is two and a half miles inland from the mouth of the Andriakos River.

Seated: in the Aramaic text. This may indicate that Luqas was one of those made to row the ship below deck. There are more such references in the chapter that hint at this being the case. The word “seated” is missing from the Greek text, so it may simply refer to them finding a place for them on the ship.

Knidos: a promontory between the islands of Kos and Rhodes at the extreme southwest of what is now Turkey; today it is called Cape Crio. The Hebrew text suggests that at that time it might have still been an island as well. Kretim: Greek, Kreytey (Crete), also called Candia; the largest and outermost of the Greek islands and home of the ancient Minoan civilization. Salmoney: at the eastern tip of Crete.

Fair Havens: or Beautiful Harbors, so named because the natural port was well-shielded from the weather since the coastline turned inland. From this chapter we can incidentally learn many details about seafaring methods during this period.

Jews’ day of fasting: probably Yom Kippur, though they would probably not have been travelilng during Sukkoth, which begins five days after Yom Kippur. The text does not say they left immediately after Yom Kippur, though. Yet Yom Kippur belongs to all Israel; it may have been one of the lesser, voluntary fasts initiated by the tribe of Yehudah, such as the fast of Esther or the fast of Gedalyah, though these do not seem to fit the season (v. 12), and the Greek text does not have the word “Jews” in it..

Hardship: distress, straits, tightness. Shipping became increasingly risky after the early autumn and sailors rarely embarked on voyages after mid-autumn because storms were very likely then. (Stern) This may have been a prophecy, or it may just have been the voice of experience, as he had previously been in three shipwrecks and was once adrift overnight on wreckage. (2 Kor. 11:25)

12. So because the port was not suitable to be exposed to the winter in, many of those who were with us wanted to sail from there and, if we could make it to one harbor in Kretim that was called Phoenix, to winter [there], as it was facing to the south.

13. And when we caught a south wind and they supposed they could attain their goal, we rowed around Kretim.

The south wind would keep them close to the southern coast of the island, where they could maintain better control of the ship.

This is a violent east wind that causes large, surging waves. It blew them westward, away from the coast.

The Greek text adds: and let her be carried away.

Qodah: Greek, Klaudey.

Tightened up: Greek, undergirded. The lifeboat might have been dragged behind the ship rather than hanging from the side, making it more difficult to manage. It would have been needed for the sailors to pass ropes or ables around the ship to hold the fracturing hull together. This would be very difficult to do during a storm!

Threw…: Greek, lightened the ship.

Equipment: Stern suggests that the Greek term includes even the navigation apparatus. In this case, this detailed account of the voyage gives us many analogies of Israel’s history. We threw overboard the very thing YHWH gave us to guide us back home—the Torah. (Even when some of it was recovered, the “experts” kept it out of the hands of most Israelites, and by the time it became more widely available, it was being interpreted very wrongly, so that we were still misguided.)

No form of navigation was left to them. It would be very unnerving for sailors to have no idea exactly where they were. By analogy, having dispensed with the Torah, exiled Israel needed signs in the heavens to guide us, and this led to even more bizarre interpretations of Scripture. Yet the wind (the same word as spirit in both Hebrew and Greek) mercifully blew us in the right general direction.

Sailed from: or, become separated so far from. Anguish: or distress.

Without torture: Greek, of cheerful spirits. He has said, “I told you so”, but mainly to show them that they should trust him now. Would they heed his advice this time?

He is most likely speaking to the crew in the daylight hours, so he would be saying “tonight” in the Hebrew sense, which had already passed by the time the light arrived. (Gen. 1:5 et al) A messenger of Elohim: who rescues those who fear YHWH. (Psalm 18:2; 34:7; 91:11)

He was assured that this was not his time to die, since he had at least one more assignment. These men who were stubbornly wise in their own eyes were spared simply because Sha’ul had an appointment in Roma and because they had been providentially placed on the same vessel as he, and had helped him to reach his goal. This is a reversal of the situation with the prophet Yonah, whose presence brought trouble to all who rode with him. This has its parallels in Yeshua’s statement that whoever shows hospitality to a prophet would receive the prophet’s reward (Mat. 10:41), that we are the salt of the earth (preserving it), YHWH’s willingness to spare S’dom because of Lot, and Paulus’ own teaching that Israel’s being scattered among the nations brought salvation to many who might never have heard of YHWH any other way. (Rom. 11:12, 15)

26. “However, we have to be cast [aground] on an island.”

27. And after fourteen days in which we were astray and wandering on the Adriatic Sea, halfway through the night, the sailors thought they were nearing [dry] land.

Adriatic: most properly the long offshoot of the Mediterranean between Italy and Maqedonia and the Baltic states, but this would have been more in the area between Sicilia and Greece near the very fuzzy bundary between the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.

29. And when we were afraid we might encounter places where there were rocks, they cast four anchors from the stern of the ship, and prayed that day would come.

30. The sailors wanted to flee the ship, and were lowering the lifeboat from it into the sea, with the pretext that they were going to row in it to tie off the ship to the land.

With the pretext…: Greek, pretending to be about to cast out anchors from the prow.

The ship’s hands were so crucial because only they had the skill to handle such violent conditions. But didn’t they already have a promise that no life would be lost? (v. 22) YHWH often makes promises, but then sends us leaders whom we must follow in order to remain in a position to receive the fulfillment. How important this is to remember in light of the promises that the two houses of Israel will be rejoined to one another. The promises will be moot if we do not follow the prophet like Moshe. (Deut. 18:15) Paulus himself told us that for a house built of different materials to adhere, certain rules have to be followed (Rom. 14:19), and this is exactly what the ruling in 15:14-21 of this book was about.

They removed the way in which only a few could bail out, so they would “all be in the same boat”, for better or for worse. Everyone who was supposed to be on the boat must be there if any are to be saved. Contrary to the Christian doctrine of individual salvation alone, Israel cannot reach its salvation—the return to the Land, just as in this anecdote—if any part of it is missing. If all of us are not saved, none of us are. No one is mere “extra weight”. Yehudah cannot receive its redemption without Efrayim, and vice versa. So burning every bridge of man-made security, they had to surrender to the “spirit” (wind).

34. “For this reason I beg of you that you receive food to preserve your lives, because not a hair of the head of one of you will be lost.”

35. And after he had said these things, he took bread and praised Elohim [aloud] in the sight of them all, and broke it and began to eat.

Praised: He probably said the traditional blessing of YHWH, the one “who brings forth bread from the earth”. Again, Luqa highlights a parallel with Yeshua in Paulus’ life. (Luqa 24:30) Paulus was the first to break the fast, showing his confidence that their prayers had been answered, and thus giving the others courage to do the same:

He got everyone focused on the same goal—sharing from the “one bread” of community, as he himself had written in 1 Kor. 10:17—instead of their own individual plights. How could they work together to avoid the loss of each other’s life if they were all still stuck in their own weakness?

276 is the numeric value of each of the Hebrew words u-b’khoser (“and in [a situation of] lack”) and er’eh (“I will feed”)! This was no Mayflower-class sailing vessel; ships from this period with hulls 70 feet tall have been discovered by archaeologists and are depicted in period drawings. It was not until the dark ages that this technology was lost until modern times.

They knew the ship would not last long until the next mealtime. Thankfully, Paulus had pushed them all to eat.

40. So they cut the anchors away from the ship and released them into the sea, and loosened the ropes of the rudders and spread the small sail toward the wind that was blowing, and we turned towards the dry land.

41. But the ship struck a high spot between two deep parts of the sea, and was scraping along it; her forward side got stuck on it and would not come loose, but the rear side was broken off due to the forcefulness of the waves.

Being a 30-year veteran surfer, David Stern notes that “when a swell reaches an island, its waves split to pass it, and they may meet head-on at the far end of the island. At this place, the sand carried along by the currents from both directions is deposited as a sandbar or sand spit, on which the waves break from nearly two opposite directions, sometimes even running straight into each other …[making conditions] very treacherous for ships.” This seems to have been the case here.

43. But the centurion restrained them from [doing] this, because he desired to rescue Paulus, and in regard to those who were able to swim, he ordered that the swim first and cross over to the dry land.

The captain recognized that it was only his association with Paulus that had saved all their lives (v. 24), and if only as a “good luck charm”, he did not want to lose him. So again, all the prisoners were spared on his account. Was it his confidence, his speaking with authority, or his refusal to panic that earned him such respect when to most on board he would seem just another prisoner?

Paulus’ prophecies of verses 22 and 26 were therefore both fulfilled.

CHAPTER 28

Malta: about 50 miles south of Sicily. Though the winds had blown them nearly 600 miles westward from Kodah, the last land they had seen (27:15), they ended up only about 150 miles off course, because YHWH was in control even of the wind and waves.

Barbarians: not the natives of this island, who had Roman names. (v. 7) Most who were called by this eponym at this time were of Germanic stock. Since this was a place where ships wintered (v. 11), these were probably foreign seafarers staying on the island for the winter.

It was clearly not a Sabbath day! (Ex. 35:3; Num. 15:33ff) Attached itself: in the sense of getting stuck on, as by spindling. This probably means it did not just bite him, but kept its fangs in his hand for some time—longer than necessary to deliver a typical dose of venom.

Justice: Grrek, Dike, a particular goddess of justice, not simply the general idea that one will eventually get what he deserves.

Viper: the same thing Yochanan the Immerser had called the P’rushim and Tzadoqim. (Luqa 3:7; Mat. 3:7) A few verses later in both accounts he speaks of fruitless trees being thrown into the fire as this snake was. The venom of the P’rushim and Tzadoqim is exactly what Paulus has survived, as throughout this whole book they have been trying to kill him. Their poison has proven to not be as strong as Yeshua’s message. In the long run, it has no effect. We have our own “brood of vipers” in the “powers that be” today, but “those who trust in Yeshua’s name” are told that they will pick up serpents, drink deadly poison (also a metaphor for false doctrines) and be unscathed, and lay hands on the sick and they will recover (as seen in v. 8 below.) Paulus was also paralleled with Yochanan the Immerser in 26:20, where he preaches the same message—that one must do works befitting repentance. (Mat. 3:8) So Paulus did teach both faith and works after all.

Waited a long time: probably even making bets among themselves as to when he would succumb. Said he was a deity: However, they seem to have merely shrugged it off as inconsequential, rather than responding with worship as those in chapter 14 did. Part of the reason for this may be that the German barbarians are known to have considered their deities to only be slightly-stronger men. (If we can make a divinity a little more common, we can have more likelihood of winning an arguiment with it or controlling it.) Or they might only have been less religious than most, as sailors tend to be. But notice how ready the non-Hebraic mind was to attribute deity to a human being simply because a miracle was involved. They did not consider the possibility that it was simply that YHWH was protecting Paulus since he had a mission to accomplish. Someone on the island was apparently praying! A deity: Greek, theos, which is used of the true Creator, but also of anything that in any way resembles Him, which includes in many cases demonic spirits that people worship as “gods”. Today the English equivalent is used of the deity of any religion when translating from another language. With such a broad base of meaning, how could we possibly use such a word to describe YHWH? Where is His holiness (set-apartness) in that? “God” is a title that, were not also the proper name of a pagan deity, would still be a profane title for YHWH because it severely diminishes His uniqueness.

Puplios: the Aramaic version of the Latin Publius, “a popular one”. This was the standard length of time one was expected to provide hospitality for strangers in ancient times (and still today among the Bedouins—who say that the visitor is then “as welcome as a snake”!) Apparently this was somewhat of a universal practice, as this was well over a thousand miles from the middle east.

This is the same pattern in which Paulus himself was healed in 9:17. See also note on v. 5 above. A bowel disease: Greek, dysentery, an inflammation and ulceration of the lower part of the intestines caused by parasites (especially the amoeba) or chemicals, usually accompanied by fever (as here) and diarrhea. It is still common in places where the water cannot be drunk without boiling it.

YHWH brings many people into an initial level of faith through such healings, and as yet another parallel between Paulus and Yeshua (for this is a continuation of the book of Luqa), this was a way to bear witness of the coming Kingdom, when healing will abound. Undoubtedly Paulus used the occasion to teach about that Kingdom as well. But when we are more mature, sometimes He uses sickness again if it is what we need in order to get our attention on where and how we are not trusting Him as we should.

11. We left after three months and sailed on an Alexandrian ship that had wintered on that same island, and it had on it the symbol of the Twins.

The symbol of the Twins: the Greek specifies the children of Dios, a variant of Zeus, that is, the mythological Castor and Pollux (as in the constellation “Gemini”), considered the divinities that protected mariners.

Sürakousa: called Siracusa today, on the coast of the southeastern fork of Sicily. Its harbor was excellent, and it was surrounded by a wall 14 miles (23 km.) long.

Regium means “breach”, that is, in the land, allowing ships passage. On the “toe” of the boot of Italy, at the southern entrance to the strait of Messina, at the closest point in Italy to Sicily. Puteoli is about 90 miles south of Roma. Its name means “sulfurous springs”.

Puteoli is known to have had a large Jewish presence. Note how they extended hospitality more than twice the expected time period (v. 7), to a complete cycle of seven days, meaning as well that they would have to spend one Sabbath with them, for fellowship has not been complete until we have shared this appointment with YHWH together. Apparently Paulus’ entourage went by foot from this point.

Appius Forum is 43 miles (70 km.) from Roma! Though the news about Yahshua had already arrived in Italy through some other witness(es), the believers there were very hungry for fellowship, indicating that they were relatively few. Paulus’ reputation as a teacher and shepherd in so much of the world also probably added to their eagerness to come so far to meet him. Three Taverns: 10 miles closer to Roma. “Tavern” in the Latin sense, as translated into Aramaic here, means more of an inn, resting place for travelers, or center of hospitality in general than a “barroom” alone as we think of it today. Took courage: literally, strengthened himself.

17. After three days, Paulus sent and summoned the heads of the Jews. And when they gathered themselves, he said to them, “Men, my brothers, although I arose against the people or Torah of my ancestors in nothing [I said], I have been delivered from Yerushalayim in chains into the hands of the Romans.

At this time there were some 10,000 Jews living in Roma, only a decade after the former emperor Claudius had expelled them all. (18:2)

19. “So when the Jews rose up in opposition to me, I was compelled to call for an appeal before the Caesar—not as if I had anything of which to accuse the sons of my people.

Call for: or, shout out. Appeal: or, objection.

21. They said to him, “We have not received a letter about you from Judea, nor has any of the brothers who have arrived from Yerushalayim told us anything bad about you.

His accusers apparently thought an appeal to Caesar was too dangerous a prospect, or the journey not worth taking, and their threat dissipated into thin air.

Not accepted to a man: Greek, is spoken against everywhere. As prophesied in Luqa 2:34, Yeshua was a watershed to all who heard of Him, causing either their downfall or their rising up, and was a “sign which would be spoken against”.

24. And [some] men from among them believed his words, while others were not persuaded.

Since those who believed were among the heads of the Jews, they undoubtedly persuaded some of their students as well.

26. “saying, ‘Go to this people and tell them, “Listen, hearing, but you will not understand! And look, but you will not distinguish!”’

27. “Because ‘the heart of this people’ has become ‘fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes’ smeared over, ‘lest they [should] see with their eyes or hear with their ears, and make a distinction with their hearts, and return to me, and I forgive them.’

After quoting Yeshayahu 6:9, he paraphrases verse 10 into the tense that indicates the prophecy has actually come to pass. Return to Me: The Hebrew original only says “repent”. And I forgive them: the Hebrew orinal says, “and someone should heal it.” The context is Yeshayahu’s vision of YHWH filling the Temple after King Uzziyahu’s death. It then goes on to say “the Master” (not necessarily YHWH, but possibly Yeshua instead) asks, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” Paulus is alluding to the fact that he is at least one instance of this messenger who has a vision of Yeshua and says, “Here I am; send me!”, spending his whole life in repentance, for he, too, is a “man of unclean lips, in the midst of a people of unclean lips”, as “lip” in Hebrew can also mean “language” (note Gen. 11:1), and Paulus was speaking mostly Greek among people who did not speak Hebrew, the pure language of Ts’fanyah 3:9.

Nations: or gentiles. As usual, he has presented his message “to the Jew first”, but then he must go to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”, the specific title for the Northern Kingdom, i.e., the rest of Israel. By this time the proto-rabbis had ruled that the other tribes had become so hopelessly mixed with the peoples (Hos. 7:8) that they were to be referred to as Gentiles, but when “THE Gentiles” were spoken of, as here, it clearly referred to Yehudah’s prodigal brother. They will indeed heed it: a wholehearted response very different from that of many of these Jews. YHWH had promised to always retain a remnant and one day bring the other triebs back, but not all of Yehudah is pleased with this prospect. But as in Yeshua’s parable, the return of the lost brother does not threaten the inheritance of the one who returns from profligacy, so Yehudah should rejoice. But starting with Qayin and Hevel, and culminating with Yaaqov and Esau and Yaaqov’s own sons and Yoseyf, there are many precedents of jealousy between brothers that is very hard to overcome. They did not necessarily want their long-lost brothers to return—as is the case again today. Also, recall that these Jews live in Roma, where they have many rights and protection—in short, a comfortable life. Yet they rightly understand the proclamation of the Kingdom to be a call for them to return to the Land as well to participate in it, so this message strongly shakes them from their routines as well. The bracketed phrase does not appear in the Aramaic version, but only in some of the Greek ones, in which it is verse 29, there being 31 verses in that version. It is somewhat redundant with verse 25, and therefore is not integral to the point of the passage..

With his own silver: an example of his own teaching in 1 Korinthians 9:11-19. It was common for rabbis of that day to support themselves. (Stern) The Mishnah warns, “Do not make of the Torah…a spade with which to dig.” Since no one else was his sponsor, no one could tell him, “We are paying your way, so do things the way we want them done.” He did not therefore feel the need to compromise his message. The last thing we hear about the one known for his many travels is that he has settled down, for he knows there is a time to go out and a time to come in. He no longer went looking for the lost sheep on street corners (which may be why no one hindered him, v. 30, since he was behind the scenes and less a threat). He lit his lamp and like moths drawn to the warmth, those who had heard the Shepherd’s voice and wanted to uproot themselves from their own comfort zones and follow would indeed flock to one they knew could teach them. Those who did not ask for food received nothing, and this better reflects the concept of holiness (being set apart). The sowing has been done; now only those who are serious about bearing fruit will be harvested.

Though he was technically under house arrest (v. 16), it did not keep him from fulfilling his most important calling. By tradition Paulus died by 68 C.E., just two years prior to the destruction of the Temple in Yerushalayim. He alludes to his impending death in 2 Timotheos 4, implying an execution, so this suggests that he was arrested a second time after his audience with Caesar and a period of freedom. The text mentions nothing of either the trial or his death, implying that Luqa no longer remained in his presence after that point and reminding us tat the book is not about Paulus, but about the spread of the Glad News of the Kingdom.

According to Moshe Koniuchowski, a Greek manuscript long held in the archives at Constantinople and translated by C.S. Sonnini during the reign of Louis XVI of France (1774-1793) purports to be “chapter 29”. It details approximately six additional years of Paulus’ travels into Spain (a desire he had expressed in Romans 15:24) and “Barat-Anat” (Britannia), since he had heard in Phoenikia that some of the descendants of Israel had escaped there around the time the Assyrians took those remaining in the Northern Kingdom captive. The port at which he entered Britain was called Raphinus in the text, which turns out to be the Roman name for Sandwich in Kent, where there long stood an ancient house known as the “House of the Apostles”, and local tradition said that Sha’ul (Paulus) was one of these. One of the places he preached and was well-received was “Mount Lud” where he stood “in the Broadway”. The location on the Broadway now called Ludgate Hill is where St. Paul’s Cathedral now stands—a mere coincidence? He prophesied that “in the seventh numbering of the people” (an allusion to the punishment multiplied seven times over, as per Lev. 26:28, since there was no repentance at the end of the years Y’hezq’el 4:4-5 had prophesied the Northern Kingdom’s sentence would end), their eyes would be opened, and the weightiness of their inheritance would shine out before them, and the nations would then come up and worship on “the Mount that testifies of the patience and long-suffering of a servant of YHWH.” Some Druids come and tell him privately that they were descended from the Jews who escaped from Egypt. Paulus then departs for Gallia (the land of the Celts), where some Belgae (ancestors of the Belgians) inquire about the man Yahshua. He then returns to Roma via Helvetia (Switzerland) The value of this manuscript, if genuine, would be that it so plainly identifies Paulus’ intended audience as descendants of the “lost tribes” of Israel, thereby clarifying and confirming the target groups Yahshua had in mind when He sent His students out into the world to proclaim His coming Kingdom.