Notice the focus on
the matter of Gentiles and the effectiveness of the Gospel’s message.
This, of course, makes perfect sense, as Paul is primarily known as the Apostle
to the Gentiles. At the same time however, he addresses himself to Jews
as well, as his congregations (household meal gatherings in honor of Jesus) are
a mixed bag, consisting of both Jews and Gentiles. This is well
demonstrated not only by the content of his letters, but by the fact that he
spends a great deal of time addressing Jews in the synagogues in the various
Gentile-dominated cities to which he travels.
However, Luke, as the
author of Acts, is free to pick and choose that upon which he focuses his
attention and that which he relays to the readers/hearers of his work.
Interestingly, he consistently chooses to impart information concerning
Gentiles, with this information provided its contextual setting by the
Jew/Gentile issue that consumed the energy of the nascent church and so much of
Paul’s attention. This lends substantial weight to the idea that the
means by which Gentiles are included in the covenant people and share in their
promises (the means by which they are justified) was a (if not the) fundamental
point of contention in the early church.
Verse twenty provides
the response: “When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to
him, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed,
and they are all ardent observers of the law” (Acts 21:20). That is, they
are believers in Jesus who continue to adhere to the covenant markers of
circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, and dietary laws. Going on, “They have
been informed about you---that you teach all the Jews now living among the
Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or
live according to our customs” (21:21). This, as can be gleaned from
Paul’s letters, is highly debatable, and probably something of a distortion or
half-truth (at best).
Paul’s primary
concern was the covenant marker of Gentiles, that being confession of Jesus as
Lord (their confession of the Gospel) that made them people of the covenant,
and not the submission to the ongoing covenant markers of Israel as that which
made them people of the covenant. Paul was not concerned with whether or
not the Jews continued to hold to these customs, being far more concerned with
not forcing Gentiles to submit to them, as doing so would contribute, in his
mind, to erecting barriers to the spread of the kingdom of the Creator God to
all peoples. Paul clearly demonstrates his belief that it would create
unnecessary and probably unhelpful divisions among people, with these divisions
based solely on identifying practices that had nothing to do with the
proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus.
If anything, Paul’s
preaching probably encouraged Judaizing Gentiles (Gentiles who had adopted the
covenant markers of Israel so as to come under the auspices and provisions of
the covenant, so becoming Jews) to discontinue Sabbath-keeping and adherence to
dietary laws (reversing circumcision, though possible, would probably not be
encouraged, especially considering that Jews were not the only people to
practice circumcision---it was really the combination of covenant related
activities, though these changed over the years to reach the form that they had
taken by the time of Jesus and Paul, that served to set Israel apart from other
peoples). This could form the basis for the mild accusation heard in the
twenty-first verse, as, in order to make a point, they would not make an effort
to distinguish between a Jew of national and ethnic Israel, and someone who had
become a Jew through the required processes. Though this study will not
dwell on it, this chapter and its recorded exchange provides an indication that
there may have been something of a struggle for honor within the church, with
what has already come and what follows serving as an attempt to shame Paul.
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