Acts 18
1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. 4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. 6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. 8 Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. 9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. 18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. 19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. 22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. 23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. (Acts 18, ESV Bible)
1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. (Acts 18:1, ESV Bible)
Lessons Learned
Paul left Athens feeling out Hellenized. He disavowed Greek philosophical models and approaches altogether. He arrived in Corinth determined not to dress the gospel with Greek rhetoric and philosophy. In his letter to the Corinthians, he admits that, before arriving in Corinth, he had resolved to know nothing but Messiah crucified:
When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Yeshua the Messiah, and Him crucified ... my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. (I Corinthians 2:1-4)
In the same letter, Paul reflected on the disappointing results of his attempt to fuse the gospel with Greek wisdom and philosophy (I Corinthians 1:17-25). He resolved to no longer rely on "cleverness of speech" because "the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." He asked, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" Paul observed that, despite its sophisticated philosophical systems, "the world through its wisdom did not come to know God." Instead, God chose to reveal Himself in a message that sounded like foolishness to the world. The Jewish people looked for prophetic signs and proofs from God; the scandalous message of a crucified Messiah turned them away. The Greeks searched for wisdom through philosophical reflection. The message about Yeshua sounded like utter foolishness and primitive superstition to them. Paul observed, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Korintos
It did not take more than a day to sail to Corinth. Paul arrived sometime between late spring and early fall of the year 50 CE. Corinth occupied the west end of the Isthmus of Corinth, which served as a land bridge between central Greece and the Peloponnesus. In addition it had access to two harbors, one connected to the city by long walls granting access to the lonian Sea and the western Mediterranean, the other at the city of Cenchrea, granting access to the Aegean Sea. A stone tramway upon which mariners could transport cargo and smaller vessels on large carts linked the two seas. Traffic flowed through Corinth, making it a thriving trade city with a culturally diverse population of more than half a million. It functioned as one of the empire's principal economic hubs. Over two-thirds of the population consisted of slaves. In Paul's day, the walls of Corinth extended for six miles around the city.
Every two years, Corinth sponsored the Isthmian Games, a local version of the Olympics in honor of Poseidon. Thousands of people traveled to Corinth to attend the games, where they watched athletes compete "to receive a perishable wreath" (I Corinthians 9:24-25). The festival in the year 51 CE would have opened before Paul left Corinth.
The Corinthians worshiped in a wide variety of temples and shrines dedicated to members of the Greek pantheon and Roman emperors, but the goddess Aphrodite (Venus) held a special place in the hearts of the people of Corinth. The city's original citadel stood atop a steep, flat-topped rock (the Acro-Corinth). In Paul's day, an acropolis containing the temple of Aphrodite (Venus) dominated the city from that height. Thanks to Aphrodite and her temple, the city had a reputation for sexual licentiousness:
The temple of Aphrodite was so rich that it owned more than a thousand temple slaves, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated to the goddess. And therefore it was also on account of these women that the city was crowded with people and grew rich; for instance, the ship captains freely squandered their money, and hence the proverb, "Not for every man is the voyage to Corinth." (Strabo, Geography 8.6.20)
The "immoral Corinthian" was proverbial even in the promiscuous Hellenist world of the Roman Empire. To "play the Corinthian" was idiomatic for fornication, and the term "Corinthian girl" meant harlot.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade. (Acts 18:2-3, ESV Bible)
The Tent-Makers
When Paul arrived in Corinth, he set up shop in the market. Whenever he could, Paul worked his trade rather than live off the community dole. He earned his living as a tentmaker, a term used to refer to anyone who stitched leather, skins, and fabrics. Tentmakers of Tarsus worked with a cloth of goats' hair called cilicium, used for cloaks, curtains, and other waterproof fabrics. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminded them that he had provided for his own needs while teaching among them (I Corinthians 9:3-18). He boasted, "We toil, working with our own hands" (I Corinthians 4:12).
Paul insisted on financial self-sufficiency so that he could "offer the gospel without charge" (I Corinthians 9:18), a principle he had learned from Pharisaism:
Rabbi Tzadok said, "Do not use the Torah as a shovel to dig with." In addition, Hillel would often say, "He who makes a profit from the crown of Torah will waste away." (m.Pirkei Avot 4:7)
All study of the Torah which is not combined with work will ultimately be futile and lead to sin. (m. Pirkei Avot 2:2)
Ancient markets were typically divided into trades and ethnicities. In many cases, a single ethnic group monopolized a particular trade. As Paul began to look for market space among the other Jewish tentmakers of Corinth, he needed to consult the local guild and get to know the competition. To his astonishment, the tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla were also disciples of the Master. While living in Rome, they encountered the gospel. They had recently come to Corinth along with a wave of Jewish immigrants exiled from Rome under the decree of Claudius. They agreed to work together in both the trade and in the gospel. They had a home in Corinth, and Paul took lodging with them.
Paul spent his weekdays in the markets plying his craft, as it says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work" (Exodus 20:9). Paul's trade occupied most of his time. From dawn to dark, he was bent over his workbench, working with leather-cutting knives, punch awls, and sinew stitching. He spent his Sabbaths in the Corinthian synagogue, as it says, "But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work" (Exodus 20:10). "Entering into the synagogue he discoursed every Sabbath, and introduced the name of the Master Yeshua, and persuaded not only Jews but also Greeks" (Acts 18:4 Western Text).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. (Acts 18:5, ESV Bible)
News from Tasloniki
After Paul had been at work in Corinth for several months, Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, bringing news from the assemblies in Thessalonica and Philippi. Paul had been afraid that the new believers he left behind might have abandoned their confession in his absence. Upon hearing a good report from Timothy, he composed his first epistle to the Thessalonians:
Now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always think kindly of us, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, for this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Master. (I Thessalonians 3:6-8)
Silas brought Paul a financial contribution from the Philippian assembly. Paul wrote to the Philippians, "You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone" (Philippians 4:15). The wealthy, Philippian household of Lydia may have been the principal donor. Thanks to the generous gift, Paul temporarily set aside his day job and applied himself full-time to preaching Messiah in the synagogue at Corinth. He later reminded the Corinthians about the gift from Philippi:
I preached the gospel of God to you without charge. I robbed other assemblies by taking wages from them to serve you; and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. (2 Corinthians I1:8-9)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
6 And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” (Acts 18:6, ESV Bible)
Leaving the Synagogue
Finally freed up to teach full-time, Paul made a nuisance of himself in the synagogue. Archaeology has discovered a piece of an inscription from a marble lintel that rested over a door in Corinth, which read "Synagogue of the Hebrews." Initially, the synagogue of Corinth welcomed Paul and offered him a venue for teaching. He quickly developed a loyal following of disciples, a small congregation within the larger congregation of the Corinthian synagogue.
He persuaded many members of the synagogue, both Jews and God-fearers, to confess Yeshua. Resistance to his message grew proportionately with his success. Community leaders in the synagogue "resisted and blasphemed." In the days of the Master, the word blasphemy (βλασφημία, blasphemia) had a broad range of meaning, including any abusive language, railing, slander, or defamation. Paul's opponents may have directed the abusive language against him or against the Master or both. As tensions mounted, Paul felt it prudent to withdraw.
During the course of one heated exchange and in what could only be interpreted as a highly provocative gesture, Paul shook out his cloak and declared, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." The declaration followed his standard procedure of taking the gospel "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." He shook out his four-cornered cloak, a rectangular, poncho-like garment called a tallit (טַלִּית) to which the ritual tassels (tzitzit, צִיצִית) were attached. He shook out his tallit in keeping with the Master's instruction to shake the dust from his feet:
Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. (Matthew 10:14-15)
His sharp denouncement, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am [innocent]," alludes to Ezekiel 33:1-7. The LORD warns the prophets that if they do not prophesy, they incur liability for the disaster that overtakes the nation, but if any man rejects the prophet's message, "his blood will be on his own head" (Ezekiel 33:4). Paul believed that the day of judgment (i.e., the Day of the LORD) was imminent. The men of Corinth ignored his message about the kingdom, repentance, forgiveness, and Messiah at their own peril.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
7 And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue. (Acts 18:7, ESV Bible)
The Community of Talmidim
Paul made a dramatic exit. He marched out of the synagogue and into the house next door.
Next door to the synagogue, a wealthy God-fearing Gentile named Titius Justus owned a large house. The name Titius Justus sounds like a Roman nomen and cognomen. His praenomen seems to have been Gaius. If so, that is the name by which Paul referred to him in Romans 16:23: "Gaius, host to me and to the whole assembly, greets you."
Crispus, the head of the Corinthian synagogue, along with his entire family, stood up and followed Paul to the house of Gaius. The high-profile defection of the leader of the synagogue inspired other Jewish families in Corinth to cast their allegiance with the new messianic sect. Crispus the Jew and Gaius the God-fearer became leaders of the new assembly. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions both men by name and recalls that he personally conducted their immersion into Messiah: "I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius" (I Corinthians 1:14). In addition, he concedes that he immersed "the household of Stephanas," his first disciples in Corinth, "the first fruits of Achaia" (I Corinthians I:16, 16:I5). He did not personally oversee any further immersions in Corinth, but many new believers were being immersed.
Paul had never before established a congregation of believers in direct competition with the synagogue. Nevertheless, we should not picture the new Corinthian assembly as a Christian church competing with a Jewish synagogue, rather as two synagogues within the same religion but espousing different views on the Messiah. The Corinthian believers did not even need to change the route they took to get to their place of assembly. Neither did they need to change their day of assembly or mode of worship. They continued their practice of Judaism, the observance of Torah, and the celebration of the Sabbath and festivals as they always had.
The house of Gaius probably accommodated not more than thirty or forty people. As the community grew, other house-synagogues must have opened, such as those who met in the house of Chloe and the assembly in Cenchrea. The small house-assemblies of the early believers were similar to the Chasidic klaizls (small houses of worship) and shtibls (small synagogues) that operated outside a city's main synagogue in the Shtetls of Eastern Europe.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Master’s People in Korintos
As the community began to flourish in Corinth, the apostles prepared themselves for the inevitable push-back. In every city they had ministered, either the local pagans, the local Jews, or a combination of both eventually rose up against them and drove them out of town. After the establishment of the house-synagogue in the home of Gaius, Paul anticipated that the hand of persecution would, once more, rise against him soon enough. Shell-shocked from so many confrontations, Paul worked among the Corinthians "in weakness and in fear and in much trembling" (I Corinthians 2:3).
He began to make preparations to leave the city.
One night, the Master appeared to Paul in a vision and spoke to him, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:9-10).
One of the Master's people in that city had the political strength to help shield the apostles. They had acquired a prominent disciple by the name of Erastus. It is uncertain whether Erastus was Jewish or Gentile, but he was certainly a man of public prestige. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul refers to him as "Erastus, the city treasurer" (Romans 16:23). This same Erastus seems to have later risen through the political circles in Corinth to become a city commissioner. In 1929, archaeologists found an inscription in Corinth dating to the second half of the first century that mentions Erastus. Originally, the inscription consisted of letters cut into limestone paving blocks and then inlaid with metal. Most of the inscription is still in a small plaza in Corinth, just east of the theater:
[.]ERATVA PRO AEDILIT[AT]E S P STRAVIT
Erastus in return for his commisionership laid [the pavement] at his own expense.
Erastus spent some years serving Paul. He traveled briefly with Timothy on a fundraising mission to the congregations in Macedonia. Then he returned to Corinth.
Paul took the Master at His word and settled in to continue work in Corinth. He remained in Corinth for some eighteen months or more, straddling the years of 50-52 CE. The extended stay gave him the opportunity to celebrate the festivals with the community: Passover, Pentecost, the high holidays, and Sukkot.
During those eighteen months in Corinth, Paul composed several letters to the congregations he had left behind. He must have written to his home base in Antioch and to the congregations in Galatia, in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and in Berea. From the dozen or so letters he potentially composed during that first stay in Corinth, only the two epistles he sent to Thessalonica have survived.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.” 14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint. 15 But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of these things.” 16 And he drove them from the tribunal. 17 And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of this. (Acts 18:12-17, ESV Bible)
Tribunal of Galliyon
When Paul of Tarsus began teaching at the Corinthian symagogue in the spring of 50 CE, "Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Master with all his household" (Acts 18:8). When members of the community began to denounce Paul and his crucified Messiah, Paul left the synagogue with a large portion of the community, including Crispus and his family, and opened a new house-synagogue next door in the house of the God-fearing Gentile, Gaius Titius Justus. The remaining members of the original synagogue elected a man named Sosthenes to replace Crispus. His first job was to do something about the next-door competition. They "talked together amongst themselves against Paul" and formulated a plan (Acts 18:12 Western Text).
In that particular year, Emperor Claudius had appointed Junius Annaeus Gallio as proconsul over Achaea. An imperial inscription in Delphi makes it nearly certain that he occupied that office in 5I CE. Gallio was a personal friend of Emperor Claudius. His younger brother Seneca was the famous Stoic philosopher, writer, and unfortunate tutor to young Nero. Seneca was already tutoring Nero in Rome when his brother Gallio took the post in Corinth.
Seneca describes his brother Gallio as an affable fellow, impervious to flattery and political manipulation:
My brother Gallio is a man whom even his most ardent admirer cannot love as much as he deserves ... one would admire his easygoing nature and unaffected grace of character ... No one in the world, I may tell you, treats his best friend better than Gallio treats every man. At the same time so great is his natural agreeability that it is free from any flavor of disingenuousness or pretense. (Seneca, Natural Ouestions 4a.9-10)
Sosthenes and other prominent members of the Corinthian Jewish community seized Paul and brought him before Gallio. They hoped that the proconsul would show their synagogue deference as the established Jewish community of Corinth and recognize that Paul and his followers were upstarts who had formed an illegal collegium. In Roman society, legally recognized collegia functioned as guilds, social clubs, civic societies, business associations, and religious orders. The Romans tolerated synagogues as the Jewish version of the collegia. Sosthenes supposed that, if he could demonstrate that Paul's collegium was not part of the Jewish community proper, he could convince the proconsul to disband it. He told the proconsul, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the Torah."
Paul was about to object to the charges, "I have committed no offense either against the Torah of the Jews ... or against Caesar" (see Acts 25:8), but Gallio cut him off before the words left his mouth. The proconsul was not the least interested in Jewish religious disputes. He said, "If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but it there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters" (Acts 18:14).
Gallio had no patience for Jews, and he made no distinction between Jews in general and the disciples of Yeshua. He considered them all beneath his dignity. He knew that his friend Claudius had only recently expelled the Jews from Rome. Gallio's younger brother Seneca described the Jews as a criminal or dreadful people. Those anti-Jewish sentiments reflected typical Roman prejudices. Dismissing Sosthenes and Paul as members of a troublesome minority pleading special interests, he threw the case out of the court-literally-without bothering to hear anything further.
Encouraged by the proconsul's open disdain for the Jews, the Corinthians present at the tribunal gave the Jewish leader a lesson in Roman justice. "All the Greeks took hold of Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat" (Acts I8:17). Gallio pretended not to see the public beating. He "was not concerned about any of these things." Perhaps he was not as pleasant a fellow as his younger brother thought.
Luke does not tell his readers anything else about Sosthenes, but it appears that he and Paul made peace that day. Paul had been the recipient of similar beatings, and he did not take any delight in seeing his enemy suffer:
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone ... If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men ... if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans I2:17-21)
Perhaps Paul rescued Sosthenes and helped him home after the beating. Something happened to change Sosthenes' attitude about Paul. By the time Paul sent his first letter to the Corinthians, Sosthenes was working with him in Ephesus, helping him compose the letter:
Paul, called as an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth. (I Corinthians I:I-2)
The Corinthian synagogue needed to find a new president again.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. (Acts 18:18, ESV Bible)
Leaving Korintos
After having spent eighteen months or so in Corinth (50-51 CE), Paul prepared to return to his home base in Syrian Antioch. He hoped to coordinate the trip in such a way that he could first arrive in Jerusalem for the Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles). He left Corinth with his friends and colleagues, Priscilla and Aquila, who were transferring their residence to Ephesus.
Timothy almost certainly went with Paul, too, but Luke does not mention his other traveling companions. Silas had either left Corinth already, or he chose to remain behind. He does not appear again in the book of Acts.
Paul later reminds the Corinthians, "The Son of God, the Messiah Yeshua, was preached among you by us-by me and Silvanus [Silas] and Timothy" (2 Corinthians I:I9).
Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians grant us an up-close and personal portrait of the Corinthian community he was leaving behind. They were a diverse community of Jewish believers, God-fearing Gentiles, and recently converted pagans. They were not perfect people.
They struggled to maintain cohesion after Paul left. They often differed in their opinions and practices regarding such matters as gender roles, sexuality, the use of spiritual gifts, and the doctrine of the resurrection. Some found it difficult to adapt to Judaism's strict standards of modesty in dress and conduct. Sexual immorality was a problem. The Corinthian leadership struggled with censuring members who were engaged in immorality. A lack of qualified leaders to serve as judges in civil suits encouraged the community to use secular courts. The Corinthian believers misused ecstatic utterances and allowed charismatic antics to disrupt worship services. Philosophical monotheists among the Corinthians chafed at the prohibition on things sacrificed to idols and struggled with the concept of a literal resurrection of the dead. Visits from other apostles led to factionalism. Some among the Corinthians began to question Paul's authority and apostleship. In his letters, Paul addresses these issues and several other problems with genuine pastoral concern.
The voice in Paul's epistles often sounds lonely and tired. The constant travels wore on him. He always begins his letters with broad salutations to a community he has left somewhere far behind and ends each epistle with personal greetings and hopes for being reunited. He was unsettled, always moving from place to place, often pursued by persecutors, sometimes driven on by the Spirit of God. Readers of his epistles can sense some of the loneliness and weariness of his travel-worn soul:
We do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Polos the Nazir
The Corinthian port city of Cenchrea was six miles southeast of Corinth. While Paul and his party waited to board their ship, they spent time with "the assembly which is at Cenchrea" (Romans 16:1). Paul had his hair cut off "for he was keeping a vow." Some textual variants indicate that both he and Aquila undertook the vow.
In the days of the Temple, if a man or woman desired to take a special vow of separation to the LORD, he or she could take a nazirite vow. The Torah lays out the specifications in Numbers 6. People undertook nazirite vows for a variety of reasons, including healing, safe return, prayer for another, and simply to observe a time of sanctification. Rabbinic literature attests to the popularity of the vow in the late Second Temple Period. The Mishnah dedicates an entire tractate to the subiect. Nazirites were not uncommon among the disciples of Yeshua. John the Immerser and James the brother of the Master were lifelong Nazirites. Later in the book of Acts, Paul completes a second nazirite vow along with four other disciples.
At the outset of the vow, the Nazirite declared the length of the vow's term. The sages required a minimum of thirty days for anyone who did not specifically state a term. While under the term of the vow, the Nazirite could not consume any product of the grape, whether raisins or grapes, new wine or old wine, or any intoxicating drink. The Nazirite also had to avoid contact with a dead body that transmits ritual uncleanness. He could not attend funerals, enter cemeteries, or be under the same roof with a dead body. Also, while under the vow, the Nazirite could not cut his hair.
It is not clear if Paul's haircut indicates the beginning of the term, the completion of the term, or the disruption of the term. The hair of the Nazirite, both symbolically and literally, represented the amount of time the Nazirite spent under the vow. When the Nazirite completed the term of his vow, he cut his hair and burned it at the Temple, symbolically delivering the term of the vow to God. If he had been a Nazirite for only a few months, the length of hair represented only a few months' growth. If he had been a Nazirite for several years, he had several feet of hair to offer. In order for the length of hair to accurately represent the length of the vow, a Nazirite might want to begin the term of his vow with a shaved head. Acts 18:18 may indicate that Paul began the period of his vow at Cenchrea. He may have worded it in these terms, "Behold, I will be a Nazirite until I reach Jerusalem." Whether he was beginning a vow, completing a vow, or aborting a vow due to ritual contamination, the Torah required him to return to Jerusalem and the Temple to make the necessary sacrifices: a lamb, a ewe, and a ram as burnt offerings, sin offerings, and peace offerings. Some years later, James the brother of the Master encourages Paul to complete his own nazirite vow and pay the expenses for the sacrifices of four other disciples in order to demonstrate that he walked "orderly, keeping the Torah" (Acts 21:24).
Paul and his party left Cenchrea on a ship bound for Ephesus.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. 20 When they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined. 21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus. (Acts 18:19-21, ESV Bible)
Efsos
Paul had his eye on Ephesus, the capital of Asia Minor, long before arriving there. Two years earlier, he had intended to travel to Ephesus with Silas when he was "forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia" (Acts 16:6).
Two or three days after leaving Cenchrea, Paul's ship sailed into the port of the great city of Diana. Ephesus was one among many lonian Greek settlements on the Aegean coastland. Ancient accounts praise Ephesus for its splendid beauty. Situated at the mouth of the Cayster River between the Coressus Mountains and the sea, Ephesus enjoyed notoriety as the most important city in the Roman province of Asia Minor. The proud city had a large theater, stadiums, gymnasiums, extensive libraries, luxurious bathhouses, broad, paved streets, marble roads, running fountains, a well-stocked marketplace, and multiple temples to the Caesars and the gods. The magnificent temple of Diana (Artemis), one of the celebrated seven wonders of the Roman world, overshadowed the city and attracted pilgrims and worshipers from all over the empire.
Paul's ship anchored in the mouth of the Cayster River. He and his party disembarked and followed the impressive, double-wide and colonnaded harbor road up into the city. Paul and Timothy had only a few days to spend in the great city before their ship left. They would be spending the Sabbath. Paul wanted to take advantage of the opportunity by teaching in the synagogue. A large Jewish community made their home in Ephesus. "On the next Sabbath ... he himself entered into the synagogue" (Acts 18:19 Western Text).
To Paul's delight, the Jews of Ephesus received his message about the kingdom with interest and enthusiasm. They asked him to spend more time with them. He could not oblige them. He was making all haste to reach Jerusalem in time for the Festival of Sukkot. He told them, "I must by all means keep the coming festival in Jerusalem, but I will come back if it is God's will" (Acts I8:20 Western Text).
The believers were careful to qualify promises and plans for the future with that type of circumspection: "You ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that' (James 4:15). As it turned out, it was God's will for Paul to return to Ephesus. Acts 19 records the story of his return to the city and his sojourn among the believers there for two years.
After the Sabbath, Paul (and Timothy) said farewell to Priscilla and Aquila and boarded a ship bound for Caesarea.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
22 When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. (Acts 18:22, ESV Bible)
Arrival in Yerushalayim
Paul and Timothy landed at the harbor in Caesarea and set out for Jerusalem. This would have been Timothy's first visit to the Holy Land; his first pilgrimage to the holy city. Luke mentions the trip to Jerusalem only in passing: "He went up and greeted the assembly." The words "he went up" reflect conventional Jewish terminology for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, i.e., making an aliyah (עֲלִיָּה, ʿaliyah) ("ascent"). To "greet the assembly" means to pay his respects to James, the apostles, and elders.
Paul and Timothy must have arrived at least seven days before the festival began in order to receive ritual purification. The disciples in Jerusalem welcomed them and listened to their adventures. Despite the decision at the Jerusalem Council, Paul knew that many of the disciples in Jerusalem were not friendly to his Gentile mission. He did his best to cast his work in a positive light.
While in Jerusalem, he might have reconnected briefly with Barnabas and John Mark, if they were there. At least he could ask for news about their progress and whatever might be learned about the work of the other apostles who had spread across the world. Judas Thomas may have been there that fall, recently back from his first voyage to India and faraway Indo-Parthia. If so, he and Paul could have exchanged stories about the Spirit's work among the Gentiles.
As the Galilean disciples began to arrive for the festival, they brought a startling report. A pilgrim caravan coming up through Samaria had been attacked by the Samaritans. At least one man was dead, perhaps more. The local government had done nothing to help, and some pilgrims had turned back. Word about the attack spread quickly through the crowded city.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Incident in Shomron
At Sukkot in the year 5I CE, a crisis in Samaria nearly plunged Judea and Galilee into a war with Rome and threatened the relationship between the Jewish believers and the Samaritan disciples. Paul and Timothy were present in Jerusalem at the time.
The conflict started with a feud between two Roman procurators. Ventidius Cumanus (48-52 CE) had already proven himself despotic toward the Jewish people. Josephus says, "Under Cumanus the troubles began, and the ruin of the Jews began to come upon them." Cumanus ruled over Judea and Samaria.
Antonius Felix from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum
Meanwhile, Marcus Antonius Felix, the brother of the emperor's trusted friend Pallas, exercised authority over the Galilee. Cumanus and Felix were bitter enemies, and they used their respective positions of power to wage a private war. Both men worked with rogues and bandits, encouraging them to organize and make raids into the territory of the other:
Accordingly they plundered each other, letting loose gangs of robbers, forming ambushes, and occasionally fighting battles, and carrying the spoil and booty to the two procurators. (Tacitus, Annals I2.54)
Thanks to the raids and provocations, tensions already ran high. Things got out of hand when Galilean pilgrims tried passing through Samaria on their way to celebrate Sukkot in Jerusalem. In those days, pilgrims from Galilee often traveled through Samaria on their way to Jerusalem, just as Yeshua had done with His disciples (John 4; Luke 9:51-54).
As the pilgrimage caravan entered Samaritan territory near the city of Ginae (modern Jenin), a Samaritan band attacked them, robbed them, and killed a great many of them, including a certain prominent man. The Galilean pilgrims were ready to avenge the murders.
Jewish leaders quickly carried a complaint to Caesarea, the Roman capital from which Cumanus governed. They urged him to act quickly and decisively. They wanted him to bring the guilty to justice before tensions escalated and the incident instigated an uprising. Cumanus refused to investigate the murders because the Samaritans bribed him to overlook the matter (Josephus, Antiquities 20:119/vi.1). According to the account in Tacitus, the Samaritan robbers would have been Cumanus' own cronies.
When news of the murders and the governor's indifference reached Jerusalem, a mass of angry Galileans erupted into civil strife. A Zealot named Eleazar son of Dineus rose up among them and rallied them to take action. He made open declarations about throwing off the Romans and winning Jewish freedom, "Slavery is in itself a bitter thing, but when direct injury like this is added to the insult, it is utterly intolerable!"
Paul and Timothy looked on with dismay as the Temple courts became a venue for political rhetoric and the fiery denouncements of the Zealots. Before things could get too far out of hand, the high priests from the house of Annas appeared and called for calm. They assured the multitude that they would endeavor to persuade Cumanus to avenge the blood of the murdered.
The crowd would have none of it. The hot-headed Galileans shouted down the priests and abandoned the Temple. Taking up what arms they could find, they stormed their way toward Samaria with Eleazar son of Dineus and his Zealot terrorists at their head.
Cumanus heard that the Galilean Jews had taken up arms to plunder the villages of Samaria. He hurried out from Caesarea with a troop of Roman horsemen. Four regiments of footmen followed, arming the people of Samaria as they entered the territory. The combined forces quickly cut down the Jews and took many Galilean prisoners.
Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, angry voices continued to raise tumult and call for revolt. The leadership of the city put on sackcloth and ashes and threw themselves before the angry multitude. They entreated them, "Do not take vengeance upon the Samaritans, lest you provoke the Romans to come against Jerusalem. Have compassion on your country, your temple, your children, and your wives, and do not bring the destruction upon them in order to avenge yourself for the murder of one Galilean!" (Josephus, Jewish War 2:237/xii.5). James the Righteous and the elders in Jerusalem might also have been among those leaders calling for peace. Such entreaties prevailed, and the multitude dispersed.
After that tumultuous Festival of Sukkot, Paul and Timothy left for Syrian Antioch, the point from which he had departed with Silas more than two years earlier. They probably avoided Samaria on their way north.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Before Kadratos and Clodyos
Back in Judea, the matter of the murders in Samaria was not yet resolved. The Samaritans sent an official complaint to Quadratus, the current Roman governor over Syria. They blamed the Jews for starting the trouble and demanded justice. The Jews sent Jonathan the son of Annas to present the Jewish side of the story and to denounce Cumanus for refusing to take action against the murderers. Quadratus waited nearly six months before beginning his investigation. When he finally came to Caesarea that spring, he began by ordering all the Galilean prisoners from the uprising crucified. Then he convened a tribunal at Lydda. His hearings convicted eighteen more Jews of participating in the uprising. He had all eighteen beheaded:
The flame of war would have spread through the province, but it was saved by Quadratus, governor of Syria. In dealing with the Jews, who had been daring enough to slay our soldiers, there was little hesitation about their being capitally punished. (Tacitus, Annals I2.54)
Quadratus also summoned Cumanus before the tribunal. Cumanus was dismayed to find his archival Felix seated with Quadratus behind the bench, conducting the hearing.
After hearing arguments from the Jews, from the Samaritans, and from Cumanus himself, Quadratus decided to send the entire case to Rome for a final decision. He sent the prominent leadership of the Samaritans to represent their side before Emperor Claudius. He sent the Sadducean high priests Jonathan and Ananias, the sons of Annas, to represent the Jewish side. Quadratus also sent Cumanus and a Roman tribune who had participated in the action to answer for their handling of the affair.
Emperor Claudius agreed to hear the case. He was inclined to rule in favor of Cumanus and the Samaritans. By chance, King Herod Agrippa II happened to be in Rome at the same time. He knew the details of the case, and he also knew that Claudius was likely to rule against the Jewish people. Agrippa appealed to Claudius' evil wife Agrippina and her secret paramour Pallas for help. (Agrippa's family knew Pallas from their days in Caesar's court. Pallas was a freedman from the household of Antonia [Claudius' mother].) Since Pallas was the brother of Felix, Agrippa had little trouble enlisting his help in the case against Cumanus and the Samaritans.
The trial turned into a showdown of political will. Agrippa made an impassioned speech in defense of the Jewish people. In the end, Claudius submitted to the combined influence of Agrippa, Agrippina, and Pallas. He condemned the Samaritans and exonerated the Jews. He punctuated his decision by putting the Samaritan delegation to death and exiling Cumanus. He also ordered that the guilty Roman tribune, who had served under Cumanus, should be dragged alive through the streets of Jerusalem and then put to death. Claudius sent Felix to take over Judea and Samaria as procurator (52-58 CE).
The victory was important for the Jewish people because it kept them in Rome's good favor. King Agrippa I also profited from the encounter. Claudius awarded him with control over some of the territory previously held by his father: "He removed Agrippa from ruling over Chalcis and gave him a greater kingdom. He gave him the tetrarchy which had once belonged to Philip-Batanea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis. He also added to it the kingdom of Lysanias, and the province [Abilene]" (Josephus, Jewish War 2:247/xi1.8).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Collection for the Evyonim
While these things transpired, Paul and Timothy spent the winter with the disciples at the Synagogue of the Christians in Antioch. Both men felt restless. Paul wanted to return to all the assemblies he had planted, and he was eager to follow up on his initial contacts in Ephesus. Timothy was eager to see family and friends he had left behind in Lystra and Iconium more than two years earlier.
When James, Peter, and John gave Paul his apostolic commission to go to the Gentiles, "They only asked [him] to remember the poor" (Galatians 2:10), that is, "the poor among the saints at Jerusalem." Paul's recent visits to Jerusalem reminded him of his promise to "remember the poor" of the holy city.
His recent travels in the Diaspora reminded him of how Jews living outside the land of Israel annually sent their half-shekel Temple tax to Jerusalem to support the Temple services. Paul began to wonder if some similar arrangement might be organized for the Messianic communities of the Diaspora. The Gentile believers were not obligated to pay the annual half-shekel, but what if they were "to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem" (Romans 15:26)? Paul reasoned, "If the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to [the Jews] also in material things" (Romans 15:27). Paul may have also considered that, if the Jewish believers in Judea and Jerusalem began to realize that the God-fearing Gentiles could be an asset to them, they might begin to better appreciate his efforts. He resolved to travel back to the congregations he had planted and to raise a contribution for poor ones in Jerusalem.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
23 After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. (Acts 18:23, ESV Bible)
The Collection on the First Day
As soon as the spring weather allowed for travel into the mountains, Paul and Timothy set out again. They followed the same path, back through the Syrian Gates to Tarsus, from Tarsus through the Cilician Gates to Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch.
As they passed through Galatia, Timothy had the opportunity to reconnect with his mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois, at Lystra. The disciples in Lystra and Iconium gathered around Paul and Timothy to hear their adventures. Paul encouraged the believers to stand firm in the Master, and he told them that they had become an example for congregations in Macedonia and Achaia. In each of the congregations, Paul and Timothy were "strengthening the disciples," reinforcing their faith and resolve, and encouraging them in the ways of the Master.
Paul also directed each community to begin preparing a collection for the holy ones in Jerusalem. He told each person to set aside a small amount according to his means "on the first day of every week." After they had collected a large sum, they were to designate a courier to carry the collection to Jerusalem along with official letters from Paul or actually in Paul's presence:
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me. (I Corinthians 16:1-4)
Why did Paul tell them to set aside the money on the first day of the week? Does this not imply that the early believers had already begun to observe the first day of the week as their day of assembly and worship?
From a Jewish reading, the passage presents no conflict with Sabbath observance. Jews do not handle money or engage in any type of financial transactions on the Sabbath. Synagogues take no collections on the Sabbath. Paul chose the first day of the week as an appropriate time for setting aside a sum of money because he envisioned the contribution as a type of first fruits or tithe, which must be separated from the main sum-something that should be done at the outset rather than the end of the week.
The instructions in I Corinthians 16:I-4 do not necessarily imply a public assembly at all. Paul instructed each individual to set aside and save his sum of money privately. Paul did not direct the believers to contribute the money into a public coffer, only to have it ready when he came. The passage does not indicate that the believers gathered together to make a public contribution.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Acts of Thecla
A late second-century Christian romance called Acts of Paul and Thecla-also known as Acts of Thecla- tells a fictional version of Paul's final journey through Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch. In the story, a young virgin of Iconium named Thecla (Θέκλα) is engaged to be married when she hears Paul teaching about holy chastity, celibacy, and lifelong virginity. She decides to accept the call of a sacred virgin. Her fiancé reacts badly. He leads a mob to arrest Paul.
Thecla follows Paul to prison, receives more teaching from him, and becomes a Christian. Paul is flogged and released, but Thecla does not escape so easily. Her mother and fiancé conspire to have her condemned by the city governor and burned at the stake. She miraculously survives the flames and flees from Iconium with Paul.
When they arrive in Pisidian Antioch, a city aristocrat makes sexual advances towards her. She rebuffs him. Feeling publicly embarrassed by the girl, he has her arrested and prosecutes her under false charges. She is condemned to exposure to wild beasts in the arena. Prominent women of the city hear about the case and decry the decision. Queen Tryphaena, a visiting noblewoman, has a dream about Thecla and attempts to rescue her, but she fails to shelter the girl from the city officials.
The wild beasts, however, do not harm Thecla. A lioness protects her from the aggressive male beasts. Then Thecla, who has not yet been baptized, publicly baptizes herself in a pool of man-eating seals and emerges unharmed. The spectators are amazed. The governor realizes that she has divine favor and releases her. Queen Tryphaena becomes a Christian along with all her female servants. Thecla returns to Iconium and converts her mother to Christianity. Finally, she travels to Seleucia, where she teaches. Eventually, she dies in Seleucia.
The story advocates sexual abstinence and Christian continence, symptoms of its late second-century origin in encratic Christianity. In the second century, Gnostic-influenced Christian ascetics glorified celibacy and disapproved of sexual relations even in wedlock. Acts of Thecla depict Paul as a preacher of holy celibacy, "depriving young men of their wives and virgins of their husbands." The fictionalized and apocryphal Paul teaches, "Blessed are those who have wives as if they did not have them" (Acts of Paul and Thecla 12 and 5, respectively).
The real Paul taught the opposite (E.g., I Corinthians 7:2-9; 1 Timothy 4:1-3). Nothing in the story's narrative or its teaching suggests Apostolic-era authenticity. Nevertheless, Acts of Thecla played an important role in the formation of the traditional church. After its appearance in the second century, it became extremely popular, especially among women. Christians venerated Thecla as an apostle and proto-martyr among women, equal to the apostles. Thecla-societies flourished in Seleucia, Iconium, and throughout the church, fueling the celibacy movement and inspiring early versions of convents. The Thecla-celibates were, in some ways, reflections of the Roman cult of Vestal Virgins.
Thecla still enjoys fame as a celebrated saint in the church today, but did Thecla really exist? According to Tertullian, the story is ancient fan fiction. It belongs to a larger apocryphal Acts of Paul, which was forged by a clergyman who claimed that he wrote it for the love of Paul:
But if the writings which are falsely attributed to Paul claim Thecla's example as a precedent for allowing women to teach and baptize, let them know that, in Asia, the presbyter who composed that writing (as if he could increase Paul's fame from his own mind), was convicted [of the forgery] and confessed that he had done it for the love of Paul. He was removed from his office. (Tertullian, de Baptismo 17)
Does the story have any historical merit? Some scholars suppose that unless a real person named Thecla had once been associated with the Pauline mission in Galatia and Phrygia, the cult of Thecla could not have gained such rapid success and credibility:
It is possible that in this episode the author of the Acts [of Paul] may have used a local legend, current in his time, of a real Christian martyr Thecla. It is otherwise difficult to account for the very great popularity of the cult of St. Thecla, which spread over East and West, and made her the most famous of virgin martyrs. (M.R. James, The New Testament Apocrypha)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Queen Tryphaena and Polos
Antonia Tryphaena
We do not know if Paul's disciple Thecla really existed, but Thecla's royal protector, Queen Tryphaena, was a real person in the Apostolic Era. Antonia Tryphaena of Thrace was a Roman princess and client queen in the first century. She was the widow of King Cotys of Thrace. Through her mother's side, she was the daughter of the great-granddaughter of Mark Antony and his wife, Antonia. That also made her a distant cousin of Emperor Claudius. In Rome, Tryphaena had been well-connected with Livia, Gaius Caligula, and Claudius.
Her elder brother Zenon (Artaxias III) was once the Roman client king of Armenia. Her son Polemon II served Rome as a client king over Pontus and Paul's native Cilicia. Queen Tryphaena appears on Pontic coins dated to the year 54-55 CE, and she was a famous patroness of the city Cyzicus in Mysia, not far from Troas.
Acts of Thecla places the queen in Iconium at the same time that Paul was passing through. She is apparently present to attend imperial games. In the story, she has a dream in which her deceased daughter appears to her and urges her to rescue the condemned Iconium girl. Queen Tryphaena does so, taking the convict into her home and adopting her in the place of her deceased daughter. Her attempt to shelter Thecla, however, proves unsuccessful. She attends the arena games in Antioch. She sees wild beasts released on Thecla and swoons, but when Thecla miraculously survives the arena, Tryphaena and her household become Christians.
Why did the writer of Acts of Thecla, who lived at least a century later, pick this obscure Roman noble-woman as a character in his story about Paul? Queen Tryphaena might have already had a traditional association with the Pauline mission. The earl believers seem to have remembered her as a convert. It may not be mere coincidence that Paul greets a "Tryphaena and Tryphosa" in his epistle to Rome (Romans I6:12). Tryphaena's son Polemon II briefly converted to Judaism, married Queen Bernice, and might have had contact with the Apostle Bartholomew.
Putting all of this evidence together, it seems plausible that the writer of Acts of Thecla embellished an already existing tradition about Paul, Queen Tryphaena, and an Iconian convert named Thecla. If so, the original tale of Paul, Thecla, and Queen Tryphaena may have circulated among the believers in a much simpler form. The following broad strokes seem plausible:
A young girl from Iconium became a disciple under the teaching of Paul. Her conversion offended certain dignitaries. Roman officials tried to make an example of her by unjustly sentencing her to death in the arena at Pisidian Antioch. Queen Tryphaena unsuccessfully tried to intervene on the girl's behalf. The girl miraculously survived the arena and was released. Her testimony and miraculous escape from the arena convinced Tryphaena to become a believer-she and her whole household. Subsequently, Tryphaena became a patroness of the disciples at Rome and in Pontus and Mysia.
One last thought. The Acts of Paul and Thecla also contains a description of Paul's appearance. Although the Acts of Paul and Thecla is a known forgery, the description of Paul might accord with second-century Christianity's memories of the famous apostle. Of course, it is possible the author of Acts of Paul and Thecla invented the description out of his own imagination, but if so, he did not choose to flatter Paul: "A man of small stature with a bald head and crooked legs, in good physical shape, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness, for now he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel" (Acts of Paul and Thecla 3).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. 27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, 28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. (Acts 18:24-28)
Appolos of Aleksandriya
A Jew from Pontus named Aquila matried a lewish girl named Priscilla. They lived among the Jews of Rome and supported themselves as tent-makers.
While living in Rome, they learned about Yeshua of Nazareth from teachers in the Jewish community there. Several years later, in 49 CE, Emperor Claudius expelled the Jewish community of Rome. Aquila and his wife relocated to the colony at Corinth, where they met Paul of Tarsus and helped him establish the Corinthian congregations. After two years in Corinth, they went to Ephesus, secured a spacious house, a shop in the market, and settled into the local Jewish community.
On one particular Sabbath, an itinerant teacher arrived. The Ephesian synagogue gave him permission to address the congregation. Priscilla and Aquila listened intently as the stranger expounded the message of the gospel.
He accurately interpreted prophecies about the Messiah and deftly handled the Scriptures. He spoke about the urgency of the coming kingdom, and he declared the advent of the Messiah, saying, "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" He delivered his appeals in eloquent, perfect Greek with a refined, rhetorical flourish.
Intrigued and excited, Priscilla and Aquila invited him home as their Sabbath guest that day. He accepted the invitation. Over the course of their conversations, he identified himself as an Alexandrian Jew who "had been instructed in his own country in the things of the Lord" (Acts 18:25, Western Text.). His Greek name was Apollos (An 1ws), a short version of the common Alexandrian name Apollonius (Ano))úvios). It means "belonging to Apollo."
Apollos explained that he and the disciples of John the Immerser were doing the work of Elijah, preparing the way for the coming of the Messiah. He had never actually met John the Immerser. The famous prophet had died about a quarter-century earlier, but he learned about the kingdom and the Immerser's repentance movement from disciples of John who taught the good news in Alexandria. He had never encountered the Master or His apostles. "He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Yeshua," but Priscilla and Aquila "took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18:25). The correction may have involved the identification of Yeshua as the one John the Immerser spoke about; it might have involved the significance of immersion in the Master's name in addition to an immersion of repentance.
Apollos continued to teach in the Ephesian synagogue, presenting Yeshua and calling for repentance signified by immersion. The believers in Ephesus rallied around him, and he greatly encouraged their efforts. "Now certain Corinthian [disciples] were sojourning in Ephesus, and having heard him, they exhorted him to cross with them into their own country; and when he consented, the Ephesians wrote to the disciples in Corinth that they should receive the man" (Acts 18:27, Western Text). Priscilla and Aquila signed the letter of recommendation, which read something like this:
We commend to you our brother Apollos, who is an eloquent man, mighty in the Scriptures, and a teacher of the assembly in Ephesus; that you receive him in the Master in a manner worthy of the holy ones, and that you help him in whatever matter he may have need of you. (Based on Romans I6:I-2)
Bible readers sometimes categorize Apollos with the apostles, but he was not an apostle. He had never met the Master or seen the risen Mes-siah. Clement of Rome carefully identified Apollos, not as an apostle but as "a man whom [the apostles] had approved" (I Clement 47:4). When Apollos arrived in Corinth, he used his eloquence in the Jewish community to boldly defend the messianic claims about Yeshua, demonstrating from the Scriptures that Yeshua was the Messiah. The Corinthian believers were dazzled by the eloquence of Apollos, and they compared him against Paul, to Paul's disadvantage.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.