Sha'ul in Acts 21:21-25

 

As we read yesterday in the previous verses, Sha'ul is now in Jerusalem and one of the first places he heads to is the Temple, as I have done in the picture above - what a blessing!

    In Verse 21 the Jewish elders and leaders had told Sha'ul that the tens of thousands of Believers in Yeshua among the Judeans had believed the lie that he (Paul/Sha'ul) was teaching all the Jews living among the gentiles who were coming to Yeshua to apostatise from Moshe (the Torah), not to give their sons a B'rit Milah and not to follow the traditions (not the traditions of man, but rather the Oral Torah, which interprets the Torah and tells us how to apply the commandments and instructions God Himself gave us in the Torah). The passing down of the Oral Torah from Moses - which he got from God on Mount Sinai - is meticulously listed name by name and generation by generation in Pirkei Avot. I was so astounded when I first read that list - it goes on for pages and is so detailed that there can be no doubt about its authenticity.

    In Verse 22 they suggest that Sha'ul put these false rumours to rest by paying the expenses of 4 men whose Nazirite vow was about to come to an end. He follows their advice and purifies himself alongside them and goes to the Temple with them.

    Verse 24: (The Jewish elders said to Sha'ul): "Take them (the 4 men) with you, be purified with them, and pay the expenses connected with having their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to these rumours which they have heard about you; but that, on the contrary, you yourself stay in line and keep the Torah."

    Let's talk about the Nazarite Vow for a few minutes. One example of a Nazarite from birth was Shimshon/Samson, as we read in Judges Chapter 13 earlier this week. Two of the main things someone would have to do if they wanted to take upon themselves the vow of a Nazarite, were that they wouldn't partake of any produce of the grapevine and they wouldn't cut their hair. The length of time of such a vow was determined by the individual taking the vow. If you look at the conditions that had to be adhered to, you'll find a striking resemblance to the things that apply to a Kohen Gadol, meaning that if an ordinary person wanted to get closer to God - usually during a time of personal trouble or adversity - they would be able to become like a Kohen Gadol and be able to approach God much more intimately than usual. What a wonderful, beautiful concession of mercy and kindness God wrote into His Word!

    So, a Nazarite would have long hair for the duration of his vow. Nazarite is not to be confused with Natzeret - the town of Nazareth where Yeshua grew up. Not the same thing at all. There is absolutely no indication in the Brit Chadashah that Yeshua ever undertook the vow, so it is safe to say that He never had long hair!

    So, from the above verses, we can clearly see that even though Yeshua was obviously at the centre of it all, everything was rooted in Judaism and the Temple, which was still standing at that time. Yeshua Himself, God in the flesh, was born - by Design - into a Jewish household and community and was as Jewish as ever a Jew was. From talking about the B'rit Milah, the Nazarite vow, keeping the Torah and offering sacrifices, we can clearly see that Yeshua was firmly grounded in Judaism and so were His disciples. In fact, the early disciples were all Jewish! He (Yeshua) did not come to start a new religion with Christianity - that was done a couple of hundred years later by the Romans, most notably Constantine and his mom in about 300AD.

   To close: Verses 25-26: "However, in regard to the Gentiles who have come to trust in Yeshua, we all joined in writing them a letter with our decision that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled and from fornication."

    Again, it's the Jewish elders and Ya'aqov, brother of Yeshua and president of the synagogue, who are talking here. If the Gentile Believers were removed from Judaism, why would the President of the Synagogue be writing letters of instruction to them? They wouldn't. The Gentile Believers were not removed from Judaism at all. These four criteria that the Jewish elders require from non-Jews to join them in serving the God of Israel are the minimum starting point. As they (the Gentiles) attended synagogue services along with their Jewish brethren every Shabbat, they heard Moses taught and they learned and applied Torah principles as they went. This is how it should still look today. But God is in charge even of History. It is, after all, His Story!

 The Four Criteria:

1. Abstain from what is sacrificed to idols.

    Anything that has been dedicated to a false god belongs to the realm of idolatry and cannot be offered to the One True God.

2. From blood.

    The life (Nefesh) is in the blood and we are commanded not to eat blood at all.

3. From what is strangled.

    The Hebrew word used in my Hebrew-English New Testament for "strangled" is הַנֶּחֶנָק, which means "the strangler/strangled". Scholars have concluded that this actually means "eating a limb from a living animal", which is prohibited by the Torah.

4. And from fornication.

The Hebrew word used in my Hebrew-English New Testament is הַזְּנוּת, which means "prostitution". Either way, we know that both these activities are forbidden by Torah.

    The rest of the story takes a different direction and we may not even stop at the end of Chapter 21!

Erev Tov!