Tag: riot

  • Jerusalem – a City Stirred Up

    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!

    portico of Solomon in Herod's temple

    ~ 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

    * ALL estimates of YEARS are provided for chronological comparison to other events and for historical context.

    *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
    shepherds near Damascus Gate of Jerusalem around 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.


    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.

    Roman squad of Legions

    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 ESVThe arrest of Paul in Jerusalem
    SOUND FAMILIAR? 

    Will an arrest in JERUSALEM to appease shouting crowds restore a pax Romana?

    21st Century of the Common Era

    Jerusalem a city stirred up - from ACTS of the Apostles 21:30a Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together.

    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.

    14 October 2023 of the Common Era a young woman poses before a festival in Israel before she is abducted by Hamas along with many others and killed, a planned provocation of Israel destroying military fortresses throughout Gaza and an extended war against Palestinian Muslims set on destroying Jerusalem and Israel

    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.

    Source: BHARAT NEWS 
MAY 14, 2024 CE https://thebharatexpressnews.com/us-doctor-captured-in-gaza-discusses-challeng es-of-treatment-during-war-this-is-an-intentional-disaster/
    "Meanwhile, Israel celebrated the nation’s 76th anniversary on Tuesday." - IMAGE of Gaza (date uncertain) 
    By The Bharat Express News
    May 14, 2024

    ‘What does all this have to do with Paul and ACTS of the Apostles?

    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.

    Before Christ

    * ALL estimates of YEARS are provided for chronological comparison to other events and for historical context.
    time line of David ruling israel
    ~1000 Before Christ + David rules a United Israel for 40 years
    model of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem

    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
    10 Northern Tribes - Ephraim & Judah's Captivity with map of routes
    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
    esile to babylon
    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.

    Alexander the Great captures Jerusalem in 331 BC

    After having defeated Tyre, Alexander the Great seizes Jerusalem, Gaza and much of Egypt.

    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.

    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 Caesaer
    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 BCBattle 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

    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...)

    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

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  • RIOTING TODAY! – Testimony from many stakeholders

    RIOTING TODAY! – Testimony from many stakeholders

    RIOT TODAY IN EPHESUS!

    READ all about it.

    The NEWS headline could have been from TODAY! But first we return to this riot mentioned in our last edition and Luke’s account of Acts 19.

    Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying,
    “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

    The city was filled with the uproar, and the crowd rushed to the theater together, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, the Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:29 New English Translation

    Some accounts begin: So the whole city was filled with confusion, while other accounts of the incident refer to this riot simply as an uproar.

    And for the testimony of our trial later note its participants: the CROWD (who all rushed to the theater together) and two outsiders from Macedonia (Gaius and Aristarchus).

    A picture shows the scene after an explosive device exploded in a taxi in Syria's town of Azaz in the rebel-controlled northern countryside of Syria's Aleppo province near the border with Turkey, on January 13. -/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    Syria War Refugees

    This ‘trial‘ of these outside agitators in the public stadium (think of it as the social media outlets of the day) should solve the town’s local political problem.

    These free-speaking men (shouting down the acts of these disciples of Jesus) stormed the Roman court with two Macedonians they had already convicted by majority mob rule.

    u s capitol under siege Jan 6 2021
    U.S. Capitol under siege JANUARY 6, 2021
    READ some earlier accounts of recent events leading up to the riot (the A.D. 1st c. riot in Ephesus, that is). AND note the outsiders who come and go with Paul.
    • 23 .. Paul left and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
    • 24 Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived in Ephesus..
    • 26 ..Priscilla and Aquila (having arrived ahead of Paul) heard him..
    • 27  [Apollos leaves Ephesus to] cross over to Achaia..

    ACTS 19:

    and when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. (Now there were about twelve men in all.)

    So Paul entered the synagogue and spoke out fearlessly for three months, addressing and convincing them about the kingdom of God.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:6-8 NET
    • 9 .. he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years..
      • * NOTE that the events leading up to this riot went back more than two years.
    • .. so that all who lived in the province of Asia [of which Ephesus is its Roman political capital], both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.
    • 14 (Now seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.)
    • 17 This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; fear came over them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised.
    • 18 Many of those who had believed came forward, confessing and making their deeds known.
      • 19 Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them Inup in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total fifty thousand silver coins.
    • [Paul] .. after sending two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, he himself stayed on for a while in the province of Asia [and presumably in its capital Ephesus for the most part].

    Inciting the riot of the day

    THIS all leads up to what Luke describes as ‘NO SMALL DISTURBANCE’ concerning ‘the WAY’ or disciples (all followers) of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    We have heard of these incidents before.

    Thessalonica & Berea in Macedonia 

    But the Jews, becoming jealous, taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, and forming a mob, set the city in an uproar.. they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting,

    “These men who have upset the world have come here also.. And they disturbed the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

    Acts of the Apostles 17:5a,6b,8

    But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, shaking up and disturbing G5015 the crowds.

    Acts 17:13 LSB

    Trial of the ACTS 19 Riots in Ephesus

    And the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia.

    And when Paul wanted to go into the [people of the] assembly, the disciples would not let him. Also some of the [*] Asiarchs who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.

    * These are Political or religious officials of the province of Asia, likely some Roman and others Jewish converts of The Way.

    32 So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the [*] meeting was in confusion..

    * Some Bibles translate this gathering of citizens as 'assembly,' from a word familiar to many Christians:  ekklēsia
    

    .. and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together.


    Centuries of riots and wars, refugees and massacres


    But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single cry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours..

    Acts of the Apostles 19:34a – at the riot in Ephesus

    Undeniable Facts

    35 Now after calming the crowd, the city clerk said..

    ‘So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess.’

    “So then, if [your leader and you] have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the [scheduled] lawful meeting.

    Sometimes riots END as quickly as they begin IF sensible leadership prevails over the CROWDS incited by hatred into a frenzy of lawlessness and sin. (Of course at other times sin simmers beneath the surface until it erupts into something worse -- even war.

    “For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot [stasis] in connection with today’s events, since there is no cause for which we can give as an account for this disorderly gathering.”

    Acts of the Apostles 19:40 LSB

    And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.

    After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:41-20:1 ESV

    στάσις – stasis – From the base of ἵστημι (G2476)

    The KJV translates Strong’s G4714 in the following manner: sedition (3x), dissension (3x), insurrection (1x), uproar (1x), standing (1x).

    Eleven (11) other versions of the Bible translate this simply as a riot.

    Contemporary applications to this lesson from first century Ephesus — in a Greek culture accommodating Jews and other religions under a heavy hand of a pagan Roman Empire and its governors with the power to judge and execute whom they will — consider one further application from the Greek root of this word:

    A word of warning from Scripture received by the Apostle John a few years later near the end of the first century.

    Then I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing G2476 before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 20:12 LSB


    ACTS of the Apostles – The Third Missionary Journey of Paul —

    To Be Continued… in Macedonia, God-willing…

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