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Tag: jerusalem

Roman Oversight of Jerusalem’s god
There’s been some trouble in town.

Now controversary and crowds are nothing out of the ordinary here (or in Roman oversight of Jerusalem), but I have been trying to determine how best to present an equitable view of recent events.

Oh, I might mention that today’s look back at history incites reaction in some no different than the acts concerning religion that caused mobs of angry men to fabricate their own stories on what actually took place.
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Can you imagine such a riot in a Common Era familiar to US?
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Jerusalem ~A.D. 56

Previously we witnessed the arrival of the Jewish Christ-follower Paul, or Saul as the Jews knew this Apostle of Jesus as he worshipped in the Temple along with thousands of others.

Jerusalem – a City Stirred Up

Today we will skip over some of Paul’s “Jewish” speeches, with which most Christians and Jews are most familiar from the Apostle’s THREE MISSIONARY JOURNEYS that go back several years to A.D. 47.

ACTS on Mission

Acts of the Apostles 21:
- Then the whole city was provoked…
- .. and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.
³¹And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ³²He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
- Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
- Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.
- he could not learn the facts because of the uproar
- he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
Let’s STOP here for a moment to view some conflicting reports.

The Antonia Fortress Barracks
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Note the several differences in archeological conjectures about the Temple and Antonia Fortress.
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A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes a thousand words will not paint the true picture.
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Even a simple scene from Luke's account enters into the controversies of the Jerusalem, Rome and religion to this day.
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And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
Acts of the Apostles 21:35-36 ESV

A Greek View of Things

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?”

And he said, “Do you know Greek?
Acts21:37 μέλλων τε εἰσάγεσθαι εἰς τὴν παρεμβολὴν ὁ Παῦλος λέγει τῷ χιλιάρχῳ εἰ ἔξεστίν μοι εἰπεῖν τι πρὸς σέ ὁ δὲ ἔφη Ἑλληνιστὶ γινώσκεις

WHY does a ROMAN military ruler even care that this Paulos knows Greek?

Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a * revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
* to excite tumults and seditions in the State: Acts 17:6; Acts 21:38.

ROMANS, like the GREEKS, worship a pan-Theon of gods and show tolerance for the religions of all.

AS for the politics of war and assassins, ROME had conquered a crumbling democracy of the Athens with many gods and overran a Senate of its own Republic with daggers and legions to establish this Roman peace unconditionally ruled by those who served Caesars.

Paul replied,

“I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
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So the ROMAN COMMANDER here learns that in addition to Paul NOT being an Egyptian opponent of Caesar that he is an out-of-towner from CILICIA (probably here for the festival). 
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40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people.

And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language [dialect, probably Aramaic]..
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This accused man speaks Greek, the universal language of his Roman Empire AND also the local Judean language.
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A Jewish View of Things

Let’s just highlight a few of Paul’s points to this mob of Hebrews who were just going to stone him.

.. he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
Acts of the Apostles 21:28b-29 ESV
- Remember the controversy of the Jew Paul in Ephesus?
- But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  - Acts 19:34
- The Ephesians are pagans!
Acts of the Apostles 22:

Rav Sha’ul said, “Anashim, Achim, Avot, listen now to my hitstaddekut (defense).”

²And when they heard that Rav Sha’ul was addressing them in the language of the Hebrews, they were even more quiet.
Acts of the Apostles 22:1-2a Orthodox Jewish Bible
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A few of Paul's points:
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- brought up in this city,
- educated at the feet of Gamaliel
- strict manner of the law of our fathers,
- zealous for God as all of you are this day.
I persecuted this Way to the death..
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.. near to Damascus [nearly 20 years ago  in ~ A.D. 37]
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.. ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me,

‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’
Acts of the Apostles 22:8b ESV

.. ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth..
Acts 22:14b

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

A Roman Reaction

23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air..
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And remember, just like two-score years [14] before when they stoned Stephen and two years before that when they murdered their Messiah Jesus, THE ROMAN SOLDIERS AND GOVERNMENT IS IN CHARGE!
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the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.
Acts of the Apostles 22:24 ESV
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Did these Roman soldiers under orders of their Tribune NOT believe this strange man the Jewish crowds insisted on killing?
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But when they had stretched him out with the leather straps [in preparation for the whip], Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to whip a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned [without a trial]?”
Acts of the Apostles 22:25 Amplified Version
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Paul, of course, knew the answer. For Romans promoted their culture under Law enforced by Centurions loyal to Rome's Caesar.

Once more, skipping ahead in Paul's arrival in Jerusalem: 
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So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.
Acts of the Apostles 22:29 ESV

a glance back toward Rome’s Empire

Herod the Great, half-Arab and half-Jew, was a politically adept client King of ROME, more Roman some believed than Judean.

Mostly, this King of the Jews (an official designation of the Roman Senate), is best known Biblically for his efforts to kill the Christ child while he tested the political winds of his time.

Herod, more famous for rebuilding and expanding the Second Temple ALSO built Jerusalem’s ROMAN fortress, naming it after Marc Antony.

Marcus Antonius had helped Caesar drive Pompey from Italy..

After Caesar’s assassination, Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) initially opposed Antony but later formed the Second Triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus. Antony helped defeat republican forces at Philippi and took control of Rome’s eastern provinces. On a mission to Egypt to question Cleopatra about her loyalty, he became her lover.. Octavian declared war on Cleopatra. Antony lost the Battle of Actium, and he and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, pursued by Octavian. When resistance became futile, they committed suicide.
Source: Britannica

Antonia Fortress
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Antonia Fortress had 3 towers 50 cubits (86 ft) high and a fourth tower 70 cubits (120 ft./36.75 m) high. 
The view from this highest tower, that, according to Josephus “commanded a view of the whole area of the Temple”
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At the place where the northern and western porticoes met, there was a staircase leading up to the roof of the porticoes. At this place there was an entrance to the Antonia Fortress.
Here we can imagine the scene portrayed in Acts 21 and 22, when the Roman captain, Lysias, allowed Paul to address his fellow countrymen from the safety of the Antonia.
Source:

All Roads Lead To ROME

Paul’s three Missionary Journeys have proclaimed Christ in many places. Next: Rome

By now, in the year of our Lord 56, the Apostle Paul will continue to balance his evangelism of all the world as a Roman citizen defending his faith in Jerusalem, but also in a race to the finish in Rome.

ACTS of the Apostle Paul

To Be Continued…

Talk of JESUS . com
May 31, 2024
Jerusalem – a City Stirred Up
Then the whole city was provoked…
Acts of the Apostles 21:30 NASB20

CROWD REACTIONS with violence, retribution and vengeance, WAR between two opposing forces where some claim PEACE while others besiege it with competing claims of war and tolerance…

Nothing is new under the sun, most especially in Israel !

Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

~ In the year of our Lord 30

So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Look, your house is left to you desolate.
Gospel of Matthew 23:37-38 NIV {in context of vs. 31-39}

JESUS had testified against these same leading trouble-makers.

Now the Apostle Paul has returned to the same Jerusalem where many years before this up and coming Saul of Tarsus had stood with the leaders of the Temple who then stoned Stephen to death.

https://talkofjesus.com/stephen-indictment-of-our-founding-fathers

~ A.D. 32 – Stephen martyred in Jerusalem
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* ALL estimates of YEARS are provided for chronological comparison to other events and for historical context.
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*approximately A.D. 54-55

https://talkofjesus.com/mission-to-macedonia-with-more-exhortation

Paul has also encountered these zealous Jews in many cities throughout the ten years of his three missionary journeys; including in Ephesus of Asia Minor from where the Apostle has just returned. And Jewish opponents of the Gospel have also traveled to Jerusalem for the festival.

Acts of the Apostles 21:
~ A.D. 57

Photo of door in gate of Jerusalem's wall from ~A.D. 1900
And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.
Acts of the Apostles 21:30 NKJV

Little doubt that the Apostle Paul, who had seen the Lord Jesus Himself along a road to persecuted Christians in Damascus twenty years ago (in ~A.D. 37) knew the similar intent of these same anti-Christs who had stoned Stephen.

Yet due to the prophesy of Agabus (Acts 21:20-21) Paul knew of a different outcome the Lord had in store for the Apostle.

Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
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Oh, did I mention that JERUSALEM is still UNDER the control and administration of ROME and NOT its appointed Jewish leaders (who incite the mobs to their own political advantage)?

Just like when Pilate governed JERUSALEM is controlled from beyond its oft-breached walls.
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He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them.

And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done.
Acts of the Apostles 21:33 ESV – The arrest of Paul in Jerusalem
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SOUND FAMILIAR? 

Will an arrest in JERUSALEM to appease shouting crowds restore a pax Romana? 
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21st Century of the Common Era

MAY, 2021 of the Common Era

Observant readers of Talk of JESUS .com will have noted that the COVER PHOTO of today’s post is contemporary rather than from the time of the Apostle Paul.

Palestinians protest at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on May 21, 2021. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

7 October 2023 C.E.

Most of us recall an initial incursion by militant Islamists into a pax UN of Israel tenuously instituted in 1949 after an A.D. 20th century holocaust of the Jews.

Their own atrocities of war and proven provocation of Jerusalem has led to great evil perpetrated by both sides.

Although I take no side in this divisive war I would ask you to consider current outcomes in light of entrenched positions which have led up to these current events.

23 May 2021

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

OP-ED
Losing the war

2024 C.E.
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"Meanwhile, Israel celebrated the nation’s 76th anniversary on Tuesday." - IMAGE of Gaza (date uncertain) 
By The Bharat Express News
May 14, 2024
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‘What does all this have to do with Paul and ACTS of the Apostles?‘
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While you consider and compare  A.D. FIRST CENTURY JERUSALEM with a 2024 of the Common Era Jerusalem, Israel let's LOOK BACK at what 1st c. A.D. JEWISH leaders already knew about their City.
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Before Christ
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* ALL estimates of YEARS are provided for chronological comparison to other events and for historical context.
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~1000 Before Christ + David rules a United Israel for 40 years

Now Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice..

“However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
1 Kings 11:9,13 LSB
- 930 B.C. Solomon dies. The Kingdom (which did not include Philistia & Gaza) had grown since David’s reign to influence all of the world from the Nile to the Euphrates. It now becomes divided between his sons.
- 721 B.C. Fall of Israel [Samaria] to Assyria
Assyria takes Samarian captives 722 BC & Babylon takes Judah’s captives 607-537 BC
- 661 B.C. on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement)
Now the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God, ‘Why do you trespass against the commandments of Yahweh and do not succeed? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, He has also forsaken you.’”

So they conspired against him and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of Yahweh [the Temple].
2 Chronicles 24:20-21 LSB
- AFTER refusing to listen to Prophets sent to them by the LORD Judah also falls.
- 587 B.C. Jerusalem falls
Flight of the Prisoners, Artist: Tissot, Photographer: John Parnell, Photo © The Jewish Museum, New York

And Judah was taken away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.
1 Chronicles 9:1b LSB
- 559 B.C.
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia,

‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Ezra 1:2 LSB

331 B.C.

After having defeated Tyre, Alexander the Great seizes Jerusalem, Gaza and much of Egypt.
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We'll skip past the Seleucid Empire to the east and Egyptian Empire to the west of Jerusalem, BOTH threats to Judea and ROME, as well as a familiar Jewish political/religious tiff between the Maccabees and Hasmonaeans.
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63 B.C.

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus or Pompey the Great captures Jerusalem and creates an alliance with the part-Edomite King of Jerusalem, Herod the Great. – Source

48 B.C.

Julius Caesar (100BC – 44BC)

Roman Rule (Before & in the years of Christ)
- Caesar was a politician and general of the late Roman republic – source BBC
- A civil war broke out, and Caesar’s soldiers were victorious against Pompey.
- Pompey escaped to Egypt in search of refuge upon losing the battle. Instead, he was assassinated in the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy XIII’s bid to win over Caesar. – source
August 9, 48 BC – Battle of PHARSALUS (in Greece)
- (Gaius Julius) Caesar went on to become the ruler of Rome, proclaiming himself to be the sole consul and dictator.
Paul: more than just a Jew
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Returning once more to  Jerusalem in A.D. 57 ... 

(where those present do NOT know that ROME will completely destroy Jerusalem and its Temple just 13 years from now...)
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Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.

And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,

for the mob of the people followed, crying out,

“Away with him!”
Acts of the Apostles 21:36 ESV (vs. 34-36 above)

Sound familiar?

NEXT, God-willing, we will continue with Paul’s troubles in Jerusalem

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
May 15, 2024
What God Hath Wrought
Jerusalem, Jerusalem !

And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. – Acts of the Apostles 21:17 ASV

That’s it, really – the end of a THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY OF PAUL (and many other apostles and disciples of the risen Jesus Christ).
- THE END of a FIRST MISSION beginning back in A.D. 47 had been about fourteen years after his conversion before Christ.
  - 1400 miles through CYPRESS and skirting GALATIA.
  - Paul and Barnabas return to the church at Antioch, Syria to ‘report all that God had done.‘
- In ACTS 15, Peter, James, Paul and other leading men of the church meet to resolve issues of JEWS and GENTILES eating and worshiping together, after which apostles were SENT out to the churches.
- These apostles of a SECOND MISSION then departed from Jerusalem to SYRIA and GALATIA in A.D. 49,
  - then crossing into Europe (THRACE, MACEDONIA, GREECE & ACHAIA);
  - Paul returns to ASIA MINOR, establishing an important church in Ephesus.
  - Paul returns to Antioch, via Jerusalem, having travelled a distance of 2800 miles
The Connection of Christ’s Missions

A.D. 52 – Apostles’ Missions so far..
- A.D. 57
  - Paul is about to give an account of his recent 5-year, 2700 mile THIRD MISSION to the church in Jerusalem.
Prophesying the unseen future

previously, a prophesy in Caesarea

Acts of the Apostles 21:
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NOTE: Due to the seriousness of ongoing issues of the Church formally considering Paul's report from mostly Gentile Hellenist Roman cities, please consider the gravity of a more formal Scripture of the American Standard Version (revision of 19th c. English update of the A.D. 1611 King James Bible.) - RH
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More People, More Problems

18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

And when he had saluted them, he rehearsed one by one the things which God had wrought among the Gentiles through his ministry.
Acts of the Apostles 21:19 ASV
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Let us PAUSE here to consider what witness Paul has 'rehearsed' to this council of Jerusalem Elders. 

It's been some seven or eight years since James and and the leaders of the CHURCH SENT this Apostle to the Gentiles with specific anointing and instruction.
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The things which God hath wrought !
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FIRST: defining a verb made archaic to Common Era ears
Wrought [121x in the ASV]
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- Thus all the work that Solomon wrought for the house of Jehovah was finished. – 2 Chronicles 5:1a
- And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and faithful before Jehovah his God. – 2 Chronicles 31:20
- And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard thereof, that all the nations that were about us feared, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. – Nehemiah 6:16
But he that *doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.
Gospel of John 3:21 ASV [context John 3:19-21]
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* ποιέω - is the SAME word Luke uses as 'rehearsed' om ACTS 21:19  - ..he rehearsed one by one the things which God had wrought among the Gentiles..
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What hath God wrought, might Isr'l say
Author: Thomas Gibbons AD 1720-1785
Published in 4 hymnals
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WROUGHT ! archaic to Common Era worship perhaps, but having a GRAVITY of TRUTH required of Paul to make his case for the Gentiles to cultural Jews.

And they, when they heard it, glorified God; and they said unto him,

Thou seest, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of them that have believed;

and they are all zealous for the law: and they have been informed concerning thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
ACTS 29:20b-21 ASV

James tells Paul why he must address many new believers providing truth and evidence overturning false accusations against the Way made by zealous Judeans.

What is it therefore?

they will certainly hear that thou art come.

Remember back in Caesarea?

Thus saith the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. – Acts of the Apostles 21:11b ASV – prophesy through Agabus for the Apostle Paul

This leader of the Jerusalem church once an unbelieving Galilean Jew (biological half-brother of Jesus) suggests a plan for Paul to convince them.

Do therefore this that we say to thee:
- We have four men that have a vow on them;
- 24 these take, and purify thyself with them,
- and be at charges for them,
- that they may shave their heads:
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These purification rites relate to Levitical Law & ALSO required completion of a VOW to the LORD.
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and all shall know that there is no truth in the things whereof they have been informed concerning thee;

but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, keeping the law.

Clear PUBLIC evidence of TRUTH !

AND in true leadership form JAMES reminds of their decision already made earlier regarding GENTILE customs:

But as touching the Gentiles that have believed, we wrote, giving judgment that they should keep themselves from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication.

Paul receives their advise humbly (even knowing somewhat of the outcome), as the Apostle has been counseled by the Holy Spirit.

26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them went into the temple, declaring the fulfilment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.

ACTS of the Apostles – To Be Continued…

What God Hath Wrought 2

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Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
April 26, 2024