Seen to be orthodox

There was a long silence in the room after James had finished speaking. The faces of his colleagues, elders of the Jerusalem church, revealed their satisfaction with the manner in which he had put their proposal. Paul and his companions, men of Asia and of Greece, sat with grave countenances. They had not expected this fundamental difference of outlook between Jew and Gentile to be introduced so soon after their coming together. The question was of observing or not observing the Mosaic law, but it had been introduced and now they had to face it and come to a decision.

The Asiatic and Greek churches had been collecting a money gift for the benefit of the hard-hit believers in Jerusalem for a number of years past. Now Paul was in the city, together with eight representatives of those churches, formally to hand over the money. As an evidence of Christian love and good fellowship this gesture ranks high. There had been very little contact between the Gentile assemblies and the Church at Jerusalem. The spirit that inspired the gift reveals an intense awareness, on the part of the Gentile believers, of the essential unity of all believers in Christ, transcending differences of race or nation, of culture or of doctrine. These Judean disciples were in dire need and the newly formed Gentile communities in the first flush of their Christian experience were doing what they could to relieve that need. The importance they attached to their gesture is high-lighted by the fact that in addition to Paul's personal Co-Workers, Luke And Timothy, Six Others Had Made The Long journey with him to Judea to testify to the Jerusalem disciples by their presence how real was the concern of the Gentile churches for the distressful condition of their fellow-believers in Jerusalem.

It is rather puzzling that the account of the meeting in Acts 21 says not one word about the actual presentation of the gift. The stern ascetic James, a natural half-brother of Jesus, was the acknowledged leader of the Church, and all the elders, it is said, were present. It is hard to resist the idea that the travellers were somewhat disappointed in their reception. All that Luke saw fit to record was that Paul gave a detailed account of the work he and his fellow-labourers had carried out in Asia and Greece and the results they had achieved in terms of conversions and assemblies established. The response from their hosts seems almost perfunctory: "and when they heard it, they glorified the Lord", and they immediately plunged into discussion of a totally different and purely local interest, the manner in which suspicion of Paul's orthodoxy in matters relating to the Mosaic Law might be allayed whilst he was in their midst. It seems almost as if that subject was of infinitely greater moment to them at that time than the gift and the loving spirit that had prompted so many believers in so many churches to make sacrifices for the well-being of these brethren whom they had never seen. It might well be that Luke, himself a Greek, had little patience with these pettifogging arguments about the detail and ceremonial of the Mosaic Covenant. Now he felt too sick at heart to record anything more about the gift which he and his brethren had carried with such pride as emissaries of their home churches.

All faces now were turned to Paul, for his was to be the decision. The proposal put forward by James was clear enough. The Jerusalem Christians still observed the Mosaic Law, including the rite of circumcision, the distinction between clean and unclean foods, and the observance of the great feasts. To what extent they realised that the coming and the death of Christ, and the new message which He taught, had abrogated all these things, is not now known, but they did certainly continue to observe all the outward ceremonial. Paul they knew as the man who proclaimed in no uncertain voice that "Christ is the end of the Law to everyone that believes". Nothing of all the ceremony and restrictions associated with the Mosaic Covenant was of any validity or value to the Christian. They also knew that he refused to draw any distinction between Jew and Gentile, saying that God Himself had broken down the wall of partition between them, that in Christ there was neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian or Scythian, but that all were one in Christ. Their own Christianity was not yet mature enough to prevent them resenting these sentiments with all their native Jewish pride and insularity. Matters were not helped by the accession of a great number of priests and Pharisees to the Church ‑ according to James at this time there were "many thousands which believe". The Greek word myriados, literally means tens of thousands, and was used colloquially to indicate a multitude that was well-nigh uncountable. It is probably true that the Christian Church in Jerusalem was in real danger of becoming merely a sect of Judaism, and it was only the catastrophic ending of the entire Jewish polity a few years later that destroyed its Judaistic leanings and transformed it into a true Christian community.

In the light of this position James made his suggestion. He wanted Paul to indicate his personal orthodoxy in things Mosaic by participating in a Temple ceremony. Four of the local Christians had taken the Nazarite vow ‑ to abstain from strong drink and allow their hair to grow uncut ‑ and the time of their ceremonial release was at hand. This involved an elaborate seven day ritual at the Temple, where alone this release could be effected, and the priesthood had seen to it that the procedure cost money. It was the custom for wealthy Jews, as an act of piety, to pay these costs on behalf of men too poor to meet them and this involved association in the relevant ceremonies. If, suggested James, Paul would thus associate himself with these four men and spend the necessary week in the Temple, all concerned would see that he was still a loyal son of Israel conforming at least to the outward trappings of the Law of Moses.

James' purpose was to allay criticism of Paul's reputed views regarding the Law, and there was nothing in the course suggested to which Paul could logically take exception. The Nazarite vow was a formal means of declaring in public the intensity of personal dedication or consecration to the service of God. As a ceremonial it had been regulated by definite provisions in the Law of Moses but there is reason to think that the practice existed long before the Law. The term "Nazarite" itself comes from a Hebrew word meaning 'to be separated' (it has no connection with the town Nazareth or the term Nazarene applied to the early Christians). A man desiring to express in symbol, for the edification of his fellows, the fact of his dedication to God, took the Nazarite vow. This involved abstaining from strong drink in symbol of keeping the mental faculties clear and vital for Divine worship, and allowing the hair to grow long ‑ the ancient idea was that physical strength resided in the hair ‑ to picture the preservation of the physical powers for Divine service. The vow was for a period at the end of which the hair was cut and offered to God by the priest with an appropriate ritual. The full law on the matter appears in Numbers 6. Several instances of its application are found in the Old Testament, Hannah's child and Samson being noteworthy examples. The ceremony was equally appropriate to Christian and Jew; Paul himself took the vow on one occasion (Acts 18.18) so that he was violating no principle of conduct in assenting to the proposal. The only question was whether his presence in the Temple for an entire week at the time of the feast ‑ for this was Pentecost and the city was full of pilgrims from all parts of the world - would spark off trouble with some of his inveterate enemies. Perhaps he reassured himself with the thought that only a few years earlier, at the end of his second missionary journey, he had undergone the same seven days ceremonial in the Temple on his own account when he himself had taken the vow, and no untoward circumstance occurred. At any rate, he assented.

In the Temple, trouble

This time the outcome was different. Five or six of the days had passed. The priests were conducting the ancient ceremonial in their usual perfunctory unhurried fashion, offering the unleavened bread, and the meat offering, and the drink offering, and the peace offering. Paul and his four companions were standing in their allotted places, carrying out their part of the ritual in harmony with the movements of the priests. At a respectful distance around them clustered a crowd of spectators, curious pilgrims whose own sacrifices had been presented and who now were going round gazing with wide-open eyes at every new spectacle this wonderful Temple could furnish. The offerings passed from hand to hand; the droning voices of the priests went on......

There came a sudden interruption. "Men of Israel, help. This is the man that teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the Law, and this place; and further brought Greeks into the temple and hath polluted this holy place" . The stentorian voice roared over the quiet court. A group of men ‑ provincial Jews, Asiatics by their dress, had rudely broken into the circle of priests and laid violent hands on Paul, shouting to the crowd as they did so. In an instant all was confusion. The mere mention of Greeks in the sacred precincts was enough to rouse the entire concourse to raging fury. Paul was surrounded by an angry mob and hustled out of the 'Court of the Women' where the ceremony was taking place, down the fifteen steps of the Gate Beautiful into the Court of the Strangers where there was more space and less sanctity. As they did so the priests hurriedly closed the ponderous gates to avoid risk of bloodshed in the sacred court. What happened in the Court of the Strangers was not so important and not so much their concern.

Somebody else, however, was concerned. At the north-west corner of the Temple area stood the Tower of Antonia, headquarters of the Roman garrison, specially built so as to overlook the Temple because so many riots had their beginning within its courts. The Romans had built a flight of steps that led down from the castle directly into the Temple outer court to facilitate the rapid descent of troops when necessary. The Romans had found by experience that it was frequently necessary. Now the centurion on duty looked down upon the melee below and saw the street ruffians hurrying in to take part in whatever was afoot. Without more ado he sent an urgent report to his commander that another riot had started in the Temple and "all Jerusalem was in an uproar". That long-suffering tribune, Claudius Lysias, dropped what he was doing, doubtless with a muttered imprecation upon these turbulent Jews who would never let him rest in peace, called up a detachment of soldiers and centurions, and dashed down the stairs into the Court. At the well-known sound of clashing Roman weapons the tumult momentarily lessened; there was probably a bit of a stampede to get out of the Gate and into the street. Citizens of Jerusalem knew what it meant when Roman soldiers sailed in to stop a fight. Even the Asiatic Jews who had started it all and were in process of beating Paul to death desisted when they saw the stalwart mail-clad soldiers forcing their way with scant ceremony through the crowd to get to them. In a moment, with typical Roman efficiency, the central figure was picked up from the ground and shackled to two soldiers. The remainder pushed the crowd back a little and then Lysias demanded to know what the trouble was all about. Immediately a babble of voices broke out mingled with abuse and threats aimed at Paul, standing silent in the midst of the soldiers. With a gesture of contempt the commander turned from the crowd. At a curt word of command, Paul's custodians began to march him toward the stairs. Seeing themselves being baulked of their prey, the crowd broke through the barriers and surrounded the little party, yelling like wild beasts. Quickly the soldiers formed a tight ring to push back the mob while several of them hoisted Paul up bodily and carried him up the stairs, their comrades holding back the crowd meanwhile. Once at the top, the emergency was over for no Jew would dare to follow on to the garrison ramparts.

It seems from the record in Acts that Lysias had formed the impression that his prisoner was a certain Egyptian false Messiah. Only a few months previously he had led four thousand deluded followers up the Mount of Olives under a promise that the walls of Jerusalem would fall before them and the Roman power be destroyed. Felix, the Roman governor of Judea, had acted promptly and quelled the insurrection, slaying many and taking other prisoners to be sent into slavery. The false Messiah himself had escaped and was never heard of again. Lysias seemed rather astonished to find that he had on his hands instead, an apparently respectable, educated Asiatic Jew. Perhaps rather reluctantly, he assented to Paul's request that he be allowed to address the multitude from the top of the stairs.

Standing there in full view of the people, Paul raised his hand in token of silence. The shouting died away; with a swift reversal of feeling the mob that a moment ago had been crying out for his blood was now curious to hear what he had to say. "And when there was made a great silence he spoke to them." Paul spoke in Aramaic, the native language of the people. That one fact alone must have contributed to the attention they gave him. Greek was the official language of the Romans, of the highly placed, the rich and influential. Aramaic was the tongue of the common people, the tongue of their ancestors. And many of them would be maliciously conscious that most of the Roman soldiers listening would not understand a word of what was being said, so they gave Paul their close attention.

It was a masterly discourse. "Men, brethren and fathers" was his introductory mode of address, conciliatory and giving due deference to the men of authority amongst them. He told them of his credentials as a Jew, his education under Rabbi Gamaliel, the famous Pharisee whose name was even then, in his own generation, famous throughout Israel. He described how as a zealous Pharisee himself he had "persecuted this way unto the death" and told of his conversion on the Damascus road when his eyes beheld the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth. He related the details of his commission to preach that same Jesus and how he obeyed. To all this his hearers gave respectful attention, for nothing he had said transgressed Jewish national or religious feeling. But then he came to the historic occasion when in this very Temple he had seen a vision of Jesus saying to him "Depart; for I will send you far hence unto the Gentiles". At mention of the hated name and Paul's bold assertion that God intended His salvation to be offered to the Gentiles, the entire assembly erupted in uncontrollable anger. "Away with such a fellow from the earth" they cried, "for it is not fit that he should live". They tore their clothes, threw dust into the air, and probably made an involuntary dash to the stairs as if to drag Paul down into their midst again.

Lysias had had enough. He probably did not understand Aramaic and had become increasingly impatient as he stood by listening to Paul's oration. Now he intended to get to the root of the matter. He told his soldiers to take Paul inside for interrogation and to preface the examination with a severe scourging, which was the accepted way of getting the truth out of an unwilling prisoner. Paul had been in this position before and knew his rights. He quietly reminded the centurion of the illegality of scourging a Roman citizen. The centurion was startled; it was unusual but not unknown for Jews to hold the privilege of Roman citizenship and he knew the severity with which any breach of the law in this respect was treated. He suspended the proceedings for the time being and went straight to his commander.

Lysias came down in what was probably a state of near panic to verify the fact personally. He seemed doubtful at first. He himself, he said, had obtained his citizenship at considerable monetary expense. He was probably a Greek or an Asiatic who had spent his life as a professional soldier and acquired citizenship as a reward for some contribution made to State interests or even, not impossibly, by bribery. "But I," said Paul, "was free born" ‑ born a citizen. That meant that his father or grandfather must have held Roman citizenship before him.

Lysias could doubt no longer; the penalty for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen was death, and he was convinced. He was also very worried, for in merely binding Paul preparatory to the scourging he had laid himself open to severe punishment should his prisoner make an official complaint to the governor Felix at Caesarea. It is very probable that Paul spent that night, not as a prisoner, but as the guest of Claudius Lysias in the latter's private apartments. The next morning the members of the Sanhedrin ‑ who had not been involved in the riot of the previous day anyway ‑ received a peremptory summons to arrange a session at which Paul, under Roman surveillance, should appear and have the matters in dispute settled once and for all.

So, at last, the wheel had turned full circle. Some twenty-five years previously Paul himself, as a member of that same Sanhedrin, had seen Stephen arraigned and condemned to death for blasphemy. He himself had given his vote for the death sentence. Now he, in his own turn, was to stand before the same judicial body to defend his advocacy of the identical principles for which Stephen had given his life.

(To be continued)

AOH