Bible Study: Acts 13-14

There are a couple major shifts that happen as we approach the midway point of the book of Acts. In these chapters, Paul becomes the main character, and Peter and the Twelve almost entirely drop out of the story. The center of the story also shifts from Jerusalem, the Jewish capital city, to Antioch, located in Syria, a thoroughly Greek/Gentile area. From this city, Paul will begin several missionary journeys which are described in the remainder of the book of Acts, and he returns here often, making Antioch a center of Christianity. (The modern day city of Antakya, in Turkey, remains.)

Part of the reason given for this shift to Antioch is that the Jewish religious leaders continue to reject the message of Jesus, even when many people who hear Paul and Barnabas speak in synagogues are converted. Indeed, they are even willing to travel over a hundred kilometers to drive the apostles out of other cities (14:19), even resorting to violence to be rid of them. The zeal that Saul showed in earlier chapters to curb the Christian proclamation is now turned on him, as he becomes a victim of their efforts to stop his preaching.

Notice the difference between the style of Paul’s proclamation in these two chapters. Chapter 13 takes place in Antioch of Pisidia, not to be confused with Antioch in Syria (modern Turkey). Here Paul is speaking to an audience of Jews in a synagogue, and so builds on their existing faith and understanding of how God works through Moses, the wilderness, prophets, kings, and finally to Jesus, descended from David. They demonstrate in this long sermon that God is doing what God always does: save the people from their oppressors. But the following week trouble develops. They are run out of town by jealous Jews, who realize they will lose control of their synagogue, including the content of what is taught there, if the people continue to follow Paul. In verse 47, Paul and Barnabas quote Isaiah, turning the promise to and identity of the Israelites to themselves as Christians, to be “a light for the nations/Gentiles”. While they continue to preach in synagogues (and to be challenged by Jewish authorities), their focus will diversify from here on out, to include Gentiles, some of whom have been “God-fearers” (associated with a synagogue, and somewhat familiar with Jewish moral teaching), and many who are completely unaware of the God of the Ancestors.

We see such a group in chapter 14. Paul and Barnabas have arrived in a place where they cannot speak the language, but continue to preach and heal anyway. They appeal to the order of nature (v. 15) rather than to Hebrew scripture to build their case for God acting through Jesus and now the Holy Spirit, by whom the crippled man was healed (vs 8-10). That the locals so readily associate this miracle with Zeus and Hermes indicates these are not even on the margins of Jewish society, so Paul and Barnabas don’t preach the same way they did at the Antioch (Pisidia) synagogue.

We begin to see here polarization among religions. Earlier in Acts, people were practicing Jewish tradition and “adding” faith in the resurrected Jesus; they didn’t have to choose between them. As the jealousy and anger of the Jewish leaders intensifies, it is harder for this blending of traditions to happen and be accepted. In converting Gentiles, it is assumed that they abandon their pagan religious traditions to become Christian (which still holds many Jewish traditions, as we do today), but we know it was probably not such a tidy switch from one to the other; old habits are hard to break, traditions and holidays are held dear.

In our own time, we know the complication and the pain of such polarization. As we observe the 500^th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses, we are reminded of the centuries of pain and sinfulness we have inflicted on, and received from, Roman Catholic tradition, and on other Protestants. We have experienced in our recent history the split from the ELCA of two new Lutheran denominations, with whom we do not have table or pulpit fellowship. We see the ongoing persecution of Muslims, which has been present from the foundation of Islam in the same ways the Jews in Acts are persecuting the Christians there. If the central message of Christianity is reconciliation—we are reconciled to God in Christ Jesus—what is our response, and our responsibility, in times of division? How are we called to be Christ, rather than to be Christian or to be Lutheran, to create space and opportunity for reconciliation to happen? Just because this is an old problem doesn’t mean we can just let it stand. What can we learn about reconciliation from Acts, both how to, and how NOT to?

Our guiding questions:

1.     What is God doing?

2.     What are the people doing?

3.     What do we learn about being church?