The eighth chapter of Acts begins with the persecution of the Church immediately following the death of Stephen in the fall of 34 CE. At this point in time, however, it would be wrong to assume the Church is an entity in itself in the same manner that it had become in the 2nd century CE. Rather all Messianic Jews were considered a part of Judaism, a faith made up of all Jews, whether or not one believed in Jesus as the Messiah. It is precisely because Stephen and the group of Messianic believers who settled in Jerusalem from the Diaspora were Jews that the leaders in Jerusalem had the authority to pursue them and bring them to Jerusalem for trial.
Acts 8:3 mentions Paul doing what he could against the Church, that is, the Grecian believers or those of the Diaspora who resettled in Jerusalem. In Acts 26:11 Paul testified that he had gone even to cities outside Judea, probably meaning within the province of Syria. This would have taken months at the very least, depending upon how many cities Paul had in mind. The rest of chapter eight concerns the ministry of Philip, one of the original seven. He preached to the Samaritans and many of them came to believe in Jesus. The chapter ends with Philip settling in Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean, where we find him in Acts 21:8 just days before Paul was taken prisoner in Jerusalem in 58 CE. Philip’s work in chapter 8 could have taken years or a few months. Luke doesn’t offer an indicator as to how long it took him to get to Caesarea. However, this doesn’t matter as far as chronology is concerned, because Luke’s book of Acts is mostly interested in either the ministries of Peter or Paul, especially Paul.
The orders to arrest Grecian believers and bring them to Jerusalem would have stayed in effect until the government in Jerusalem was changed, and this is exactly what occurred as implied in chapter nine. In Acts 9:1-2 Paul sought new letters to arrest believers in Damascus. New letters would have been unnecessary if Caiaphas was still the High Priest. The Roman governor of Syria had replaced both Pilate and Caiaphas about the time of the Passover in 35 CE. He put Jonathan, the son of Annas, into the office of High Priest, and it is Jonathan to whom Paul went seeking letters to allow him to go to Damascus to arrest believers and return with them to Jerusalem for judgment. On the way to Damascus Paul’s life was transformed through a meeting with Jesus. He became a believer, stayed with the brethren in Damascus for a short time (Acts 9:19) and then went into Arabia where he spent perhaps 2 ½ years, developing his Gospel to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:17). Afterward he returned to Damascus, but got himself into trouble with the local Jewish authorities (Acts 9:20-23) and the Nabataean ethnarch (2Corinthians 11:32). Paul’s life was in danger so the brethren aided him and he escaped through a window in the wall of the city (Acts 9:24-25), and so, after three years away from Judea, Paul returned to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18; Acts 9:26) in 38 CE. After a few weeks, perhaps a month, he fled to Tarsus, as the unbelieving Grecian Jews sought his life (Acts 9:29-30).
It was in the fall of 39 CE that trouble developed between Rome and the Jewish authorities. Caius Caesar was growing mad by this time and had ordered Petronius, the new governor of Syria, to erect an image of him in the Temple at Jerusalem. All of a sudden the Messianic Jews were no longer a problem as far as the Jewish authorities were concerned (Acts 9:31). The Jews left off plowing and seeding their fields for the remainder of 39 CE and throughout 40 CE [Josephus: Antiquities, 18.8.2-9] and assembled themselves in mourning before the new Syrian governor where he had assembled his men at Ptolemias, along the coast just north of Caesarea. Petronius was impressed with the sincerity of the Jews and wrote back to Caesar interceding for them and awaited a reply. By the time Petronius received his reply in the spring of 41 CE, Caius was assassinated and Claudius reigned in his stead, and Agrippa was appointed King of Judea. Petronius’ orders were now moot, so a Jewish war was averted.
While all this was happening, Peter was ministering in Lydda (Acts 9:32) and Joppa (Acts 9:36-43). At this time, probably cir. 40 CE, we are introduced to a centurion named Cornelius, living in Caesarea just south of where the Roman troops were stationed awaiting orders from Petronius (Acts 10:1).
Long-story-short, Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius and his family and friends—all Gentiles. They believed and were baptized without having to be circumcised (Acts 10:47-48). Of course Peter had a lot of explaining to do (Acts 11:1-2), but he was prepared in that he brought a lot of witnesses with him to show this was God’s doing (Acts 11:1-18).
The rest of chapter 11 concerns the Gospel reaching the northern coastal cities of the Syrian province. At first the believers preached only to Jews, but probably after hearing of what Paul was doing in Cilicia, they began preaching to Gentiles in Antioch, and the Gentiles believed. The time line here is vague, but it was certainly after spring of 41 CE but before Agrippa’s death in the summer of 44 CE. Acts 11:30, however, predicts a famine that occurred after Agrippa’s death. The execution of James the Apostle and brother of John (Acts 12:1-2) probably took place in 43 CE before the Passover and about a year and a half before Agrippa’s death in 44 CE, assuming he died after the summer games honoring Caesar (Acts 12:20-23). Acts 12:24 is one of those ambiguous verses that can cover a short period of time or a longer time span than is normally thought. In this case it takes us to 47 CE. We know this because of the prophecy mentioned in Acts 11:30 and comparing it with Acts 12:25. Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch after bringing the offering the churches in northern Syria and probably in Cilicia had put aside for the poor in Jerusalem. Josephus mentioned this famine which was especially severe in Jerusalem. It occurred during the days of Cuspius Fadus and Tiberius Alexander, procurators of Judea. It so happened that Queen Helena of Adiabene, who was visiting Jerusalem to worship, was filled with compassion for the people in want there and sent her servants to buy food in Egypt [Josephus: Antiquities; 20.5.1-2; see also 20.2.5]. So, Acts 8 begins in the fall of 34 CE and the current chronology study ends in Acts, chapter 12, 13 years later, probably in the spring of 47 CE.
No comments:
Post a Comment