Transcript: Okay, with that in mind, let’s go back to the first reading for today. What is the first reading? It’s from the Acts of the Apostles. We’re continuing our journey here, but we’re shifting our focus from the evangelistic activity of Peter and James in Jerusalem to the evangelism of Paul and Barnabas among the Gentiles. So in Acts 13:14 it says this: [T]hey [meaning Paul and his companions] passed on from Perga and came to Antioch of Pisid'ia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
And now the lectionary skips all the way down to verse 43 of chapter 13 and says this: And when the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, `I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’” That is a quote from the book of Isaiah. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord spread throughout all the region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Ico'nium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Okay, so what’s being described here? This is the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in the Church of Antioch. And one of the things that’s really significant about the church in Antioch is that there was a Jewish synagogue in Antioch. There’s a Jewish population in that city. We know this from other ancient sources as well. There was a fairly large Jewish population. And so what we see here is Paul and Barnabas bringing the gospel outside the Holy Land, but notice what they do, they don’t go immediately to the pagans, they don’t go immediately to the gentiles. First, they go to the synagogue (in the city of Antioch) and they preach the gospel there.
And notice, we see three groups of people in this account of evangelization. First, we have the Jews. Remember I’ve talked about the Ioudaios (the Judeans), these are circumcised believers in the Torah of Moses, who follow the law, but then second, notice it mentions converts to Judaism; or in Greek (literally) “worshipping proselytes” (prosēlytōn is the Greek word) and prosēlytōn, it basically means “these are gentiles who believe in the God of Israel”. They’ve accepted that there’s only one God, the God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they haven’t become Jews themselves because they haven’t received circumcision for whatever reason. In fact there were a lot of these people who are mentioned in the book of Acts. Sometimes they’re called God-fearers. They are basically Gentile converts to Judaism who’ve not yet received circumcision, or who may not even plan to receive circumcision, but they actually would go and listen to the teachings (like those given at the synagogue), they revered the Jewish scriptures, but they had not made the full transition into becoming members of the people of Israel through circumcision.
And then finally, the Gentiles themselves, which would be complete non-Israelites who don’t believe in the God of Israel at all, who are effectively pagans. So you have three categories: Jews, God-fearers, and Gentiles. And all three of those groups, you’re going to have conversions from those different groups, as Paul and Barnabas bring the gospel out to the nations. And why is this the case? Well, Paul and Barnabas say: “Because Isaiah prophesied that there would be a light to the nations and that salvation would not just go to the Jews, but would go to the ends of the earth.”
And so, we see a very important principle (and again, this is one of those misunderstandings that I have found common among some students): sometimes, there’s a notion that in the Old Testament, God chose the Jewish people and rejected the pagans (the Gentiles), and then in the New Testament he changed his mind and he chose the Gentiles but rejected the Jewish people. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. That is complete caricature, both of the Old Testament and of the New Testament. Because in the Old Testament, already at the time of Solomon, Solomon builds a temple and he makes a court for the nations. There’s a kind of evangelistic motion outward to bring the nations to worship the one God of Israel.
That’s already in the Old Testament. And the prophets say over and over again, that “the nations will worship God”. So God is open to the nations in the Old Testament. And by contrast, in the New Testament, the same thing is true. God does not reject the Jewish people by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, Paul himself says in Romans 11, “The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” So what happens in Acts 13…we need to be really careful here that we don’t misinterpret what’s going on here. When it says that Paul “turns 9 to the Gentiles”, that does not mean that he abandons his Jewish brothers and sisters. That’s just not true. Over and over again in the book of Acts, you’ll see, every time Paul brings the gospel to a new city, he always goes to the synagogue first before he brings it to the local Gentiles. This is his principle from Romans 1: “Good news to the Jew first and then to the Greek.”
The Jewish people always have priority in the reception and the proclamation of the Good News (of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus). It’s only when Paul is rejected by the local Jewish synagogue (or the local Jewish leaders) that he then turns to the local gentiles and begins bringing the Good News to them. So it’s really important that we don’t universalize this local event. When Paul and Barnabas shake the dust off their feet and go to the Gentiles, that is a specific act against the synagogue in Antioch, it’s not a complete rejection of all of the Jewish people throughout the Greco-Roman world. That’s ridiculous, because in the very next chapters of Acts, if you look in Acts 18, Acts 19, as Paul continues to preach in other towns and cities, he’s going to go again to the synagogue. It’s always to the synagogue first and only then to the Gentiles if the synagogue (or the leaders of the synagogue) reject the message. And by the way, Paul is simply following Jesus’ instructions here.
If you remember in the gospels, he sends the Apostles into various cities and he says, “You go into one town and the next town, and if a town or city rejects the gospel, shake the dust off of your feet and then move on.” So that’s the principle that’s being laid out here in Acts 13, I just think it’s really important for us to clarify what is not happening here and what is happening here. What is happening here is that Paul is turning from the local Jewish synagogue to the pagans, what is not happening here is that Paul is turning his back on his Jewish brothers and sisters, and refusing to bring the gospel to them. That’s just not the case.
Brant Pitre
Author