‘Paul was called to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles after his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).”
With the repeal of Affirmative Action and the promotion of Race Neutrality by the Supreme Court, as President of the United States I will work hard to take away the false belief that Christians as a whole are being persecuted like Jesus was persecuted – by Jews – or by any other group of people! There is strong evidence many Jews saw Jesus as THEIR KING, and not as THEIR MESSIAH. How many Jews saw Jesus as THEIR GOD IN DISGUISE, is the question.
When I read the Bible for the first time, in 1987, when I was forty, I found it impossible to believe GOD would forgive Saul-Paul, and make him the head of GOD’S MISSIONARY WORK AMONGST THE GENTILES.. To accept this as the truth, is to accept the idea THE GOD OF THE JEWS, no longer sees the Jews as His Chosen Children, and is intent on having THE JEWS REJECT GOD, so Gentiles will be THE NEW CHILDREN OF GOD! What is the damn difference I asked? I became a BIG DOUBTER. I could not buy Paul. I was not alone. It looks like the origial disciples. and other KEY JEWS ,did not buy what Paul was selling – and this is when he MURDERED THE DOUBTERS – OF PAUL!?
,”Paul persecuted Jews who thought Jesus was the Messiah, his “conversion” at least represents a reversal of that opinion.
We know Jews murdered Jews in the Civil War of Kings. The Kings of Judah waged war with the Kings of Israel. Englishmen murdered Englishmen in the English Civil Wars, that were religious in nature. Not one of the warring Jewish Kings announced they – ARE GOD! This might be seen as – BLASPHEMOUS – and thus the usurper of God would deserve to be put to death. The God of the Jews – would want this! Why wouldn’t the God of the Gentiles – want this? There can only be ONE JUDAIC-LIKE GOD!
Twelve hours after I sit in the Oval Office, I will compose and send a letter to every Senator and Congressman, with these words…
“Your President demands you answer this question…DO YOU BELIEVE JESUS IS GOD? I want your answer on my desk in the next twenty-four hours. I need to direct questions to the Supreme Court, and Clarence Thomas in particular, about the real possibility Christians will never see themselves as equal to non-Christians, because they secretly believe Jesus is God, and millions of Americans are persecuting The One God, and thus are…..The Lowest of the Low!
We can not live in a Democratic Society where half the people are not in touch with Common Reality, and are going to vote for INVSIIBLE BELIEFS. This idea Jesus is God, is also problomatic to Orthodox Jews, and secular Jews, who are seen as Murders of Kings, Messiahs, and the One God! How can we have – TRUE EQUALITY – when normal human children are consider Co-Murderers of God – until they repent as adults? Consider the murderous anti-Semitic hatred of the Jews by Martin Luther who depicts non-Jews as victims of Jews, simply because they did not buy the teaching of Saul-Paul – A SERIAL KILLER!
Sincerely
John Presco
Presdient of the United States of America”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism
8 Saul agreed that the killing of Stephen was good.
Troubles for the Believers
On that day the church of Jerusalem began to be persecuted, and all the believers, except the apostles, were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
2 And some religious people buried Stephen and cried loudly for him. 3 Saul was also trying to destroy the church, going from house to house, dragging out men and women and putting them in jail. 4 And wherever they were scattered, they told people the Good News.
https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits
Paul was called to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles after his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Before this he was a hater and killer of Christians. In Acts 22:20–21 he wrote “And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.” So as you can imagine his portrayal of Jesus in the Epistles (letters) that he wrote is quite personal. As a matter of fact, Paul describes Jesus differently in every letter (with the exception of Philemon which was a personal letter of appeal to a slave owner). Take a look at Paul’s portrayal of Jesus in the epistles and key verses below. My list includes passages from Hebrews because though it is somewhat unknown I believe Paul wrote this letter.
Jesus the Peacemaker
Romans 5:1–2 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Read more: https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/pauls-portrayal-of-jesus-in-the-epistles/#ixzz86Docts4p
“Though Justice Jackson seems to think that her race-based theory can somehow benefit everyone, it is an immutable fact that ‘every time the government uses racial criteria to ‘bring the races together,’ someone gets excluded, and the person excluded suffers an injury solely because of his or her race,’” Thomas wrote.
“Justice Jackson seems to have no response—no explanation at all—for the people who will shoulder that burden. How, for example, would Justice Jackson explain the need for race-based preferences to the Chinese student who has worked hard his whole life, only to be denied college admission in part because of his skin color?” Thomas questioned.
“With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the people of our Nation proclaimed that the law may not sort citizens based on race. It is this principle that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment adopted in the wake of the Civil War to fulfill the promise of equality under the law,” Thomas wrote.
And it is this principle that has guaranteed a Nation of equal citizens the privileges or immunities of citizenship and the equal protection of the laws. To now dismiss it as ‘two-dimensional flatness,’ is to abdicate a sacred trust to ensure that our ‘honored dead . . . shall not have died in vain,’ Thomas said, quoting Justice Jackson and a portion from President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
“Yet, Justice Jackson would replace the second Founders’ vision with an organizing principle based on race. In fact, on her view, almost all of life’s outcomes may be unhesitatingly ascribed to race,” he continued.
Acts 9 – Why did Paul Persecute the Jewish Christians?
Ekhard Schnabel asks this question in Paul the Missionary (44, cf. Early Christian Mission, 2:927-928). There are rally two questions here. First, what was the theological motive for Paul’s persecution? Second, what drove him to pursue Jesus’ followers to Damascus?
Some scholars have argued the Jewish Christians were admitting Gentiles without circumcision. This seems unlikely, since there is no reference at all to Gentile mission by the Jerusalem Church until Acts 10. God-fearers were accepted into the synagogue without circumcision, so it is unlikely this would be a problem for Paul, if it had occurred. Similarly, some argue Gentile believers were not concerned with food traditions. This too is unlikely for the same reasons as the first, there is no evidence of Gentile converts in the pre-Pauline period. These two issue are a problem only when a significant number of Gentiles were saved, and especially Gentiles who were not God-Fearers before accepting Jesus as Savior.
A more likely motivation is the possible political / social problems caused by the preaching of a crucified messiah / savior. How would this play before the Gentiles, especially the Romans? Could this be an accusation against Rome, and a possible rally-point for anti-Roman activity? The problem here once again is the lack of evidence for preaching anything to Gentile / Roman audiences. The early apostolic mission was confined to the temple area and the city of Jerusalem in general. Remember that the factors which will eventually result in the Jewish War are already in the air some thirty years earlier. Paul may have been concerned for sparking a revolution by teaching that Jesus is a resurrected King who will return and establish a kingdom.
It is probably best to see Saul opposing the Apostolic teaching as heretical. That Jesus was the Messiah was absurd, since he was crucified, “hung on a tree,” and therefore a curse, not salvation. In addition, Schnabel points out that any theology which saw Jesus as Savior is not compatible with the view that salvation comes through faith expressed in obedience to Torah. A simple example from the gospels will illustrate this point. When the rich you man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, he understands this in terms of obedience to the foundation of the Law (ie., he keeps all the commandments). This is not to say Judaism was a “works for salvation” religion, but that one was right with God because God has given Torah and individuals come to God through the perfection of the Torah.
These early followers of Jesus claim that there is no other name by which a person can be saved (Acts 4:12). Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 concludes with a contrast between the Torah and Jesus. Saul’s motivation is to correct this false teaching within Judaism, using the synagogue punishment system itself. He likely sees himself as a reformer, working for the high priest, with the goal of dealing sharply with the followers of a condemned Rabbi.
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29 thoughts on “Acts 9 – Why did Paul Persecute the Jewish Christians?”
- Do we have a clue as to what Jewish followers of Jesus, after his crucifixion, believed or did not believe about him? People keep throwing around the word “Savior” or “Messiah” as if it meant what Paul meant by the words. Someone please cite for me where it says just what they believed and precisely why Saul was persecuting them. Really, because maybe it’s there but I don’t know where it is. The “history” provided in Acts was not composed until more than fifty years after Jesus died. Whether it is truly history or not is debated. Aside from the question of circumcision, what, I wonder, did the Jerusalem Council mean if and when they referred to Jesus as “Lord” or “Messiah” or “Savior”? There was no Pauline Christology in the early days. I won’t even say “the early days of the church” because there was no church in the beginning, just some sort of Jesus movement, I guess. The word “Christian” hadn’t been coined. When Jews said “Savior,” they meant God. When they said “Messiah,” they didn’t mean “savior.” Messiah does not mean savior. If they had been able to capitalize the word messiah, would they have and, if they would have, would it have been just because it was a title or because they believed there was something divine about Jesus? Did they believe so early on that he was the Son of God? No one even suggested he was God until at least 57-60 years after he was crucified (John). This is all quite muddled for me and I’d like some help sorting it out, but not with a flurry of doctrine and cliches.Loading…Reply
- I think a start at the answer is to read “Christ” as messiah, to read how Second Temple Judaism understood the idea of messiah. I think that Psalms of Solomon 17 provides one view (probably Pharisee), the Qumran material has a similar view, although there are differences. I am of the opinion that the fourth second of 1 Enoch does in fact date to the Second Temple period, but that cannot be proven since that is the one section not found at Qumran. While 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra post-date Paul by 40 years or so, I think they provide another flavor of messianism in the period. This is a daunting task, but there are some helpful summaries, I suggest John Collins, the Star and Scepter, recently re-printed by Eerdmans as a second edition.A second angle to explore is Pauline theology, as you suggest. There are reasonable arguments for Philippians as an authentic letter of Paul, written from Ephesus in the mid 50’s, 25 years after the events described by the later gospels. The Christ-Hymn in chapter 2 is widely accepted as a pre-exiting piece of tradition which has a very high Christology. Although we cannot know how early that tradition was, it does push a traditional high-Christology back into the first two decades at the very least. (I might also include Col 1 here, although that letter is often rejected because of the Christological hymn in chapter 1).Less certain would be the type of exegesis found in the speeches in Acts. If there is an authentic basis for the collation of texts by Peter in Acts 2-3 and Paul’s sermon in chapter 13, Psalm 2 seems to be a foundational text for proving that Jesus is the anointed one, God’s Messiah of Psalm 2. The language of Son of God clearly appears there, although it is not the same type of theological statement you find in the early Creeds.I like your statement: “no church in the beginning, just some sort of Jesus movement.” This is indeed the case, perhaps we could say, various struggles to figure out just exactly who / what Jesus claimed to be. He taught and did things which led at least some of his followers to think he was the Messiah, and more than that, that he was the God of Israel. But there were others who thought he was not even a messiah. Back to the topic of the original post, Paul persecuted Jews who thought Jesus was the Messiah, his “conversion” at least represents a reversal of that opinion.
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