Main news for 11 June 2022

King James Version (en)

Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 28, verse 28

²⁴ After his preaching some were persuaded, and some believed not

²⁸Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.

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28:28 The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles - Namely, from this time. Before this no apostle had been at Rome. St. Paul was the first.

NOTES

Paul's words about salvation sent to the Gentiles are sometimes perceived as a kind of spiritual revolution. Yet there is nothing entirely new or unusual in them. The prophets said more than once that with the coming of the Messiah the Kingdom would be opened not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles who at that time would turn to the God of Israel. What was unusual in this case was only the fact that recent Gentiles were ready to accept the Messiah whom the Jews had rejected. From the standpoint of the views generally accepted in the Synagogue at that time, this seemed almost unbelievable: for it was the Jews who accepted the Messiah, it was they who were to decide who the true Messiah was, and those Gentiles who were interested in Judaism and worshiped the God of Israel were, by definition, left only to humbly accept the choice of their elder spiritual brothers.

In reality, everything turned out quite differently: recent Gentiles accepted the Messiah more readily than Jews did. One reason for this was precisely the Gentiles' freedom from those religious theories and concepts that at times so hindered Jews from seeing the Messiah in Jesus. And Paul sees no violation of subordination in bearing witness to Gentiles where Jews do not accept his witness, or where they have not yet made up their minds. The issue here is not even priorities, not who should hear first (and it should be noted that both always heard, since Paul always began his preaching in the local synagogue), but the fact that no one has the right to close the road to the Kingdom to others.

The apostle constantly reminds his readers of this in his letters: he keeps saying that the circumcised, that is, religious people, Jews, must not impose their religiosity on secular people, the uncircumcised, Gentiles. And if Paul now made the possibility of witnessing to Gentiles depend on the sanction of the local Jewish community, it would mean that he was making the Kingdom depend on religion. The apostle, of course, could not allow that, because he understood perfectly well that Christianity is not a religion and does not depend in any way on a person's religiosity. And if some part of the Synagogue, guided solely by religious considerations, closed the path to the Kingdom for those who were ready to go, such a state of affairs would contradict not only all the apostle's principles but also the will of God, who wants to save everyone regardless of that person's religious affiliation and regardless of the opinion of that person's fellow believers about the path he has chosen.

In essence, to refuse to preach in such a situation would have been, for the apostle, tantamount to betraying his witness and the people who believed his witness. It is no surprise that Paul continued his preaching: for him the Kingdom came first, not nation and not religion.

Today's reading sums up Paul's missionary ministry. And once again before us is the apostle's conflict with his own...

Today's reading sums up Paul's missionary ministry. And once again before us is the apostle's conflict with his own compatriots (vv. 23-24). Of course, rumors about Paul's preaching and his missionary activity could not fail to reach the Jewish community of Rome, which was quite numerous and influential. But the Roman Jews, as we can see, knew nothing definite either about the apostle himself or about his activity (vv. 21-22). Paul himself in Rome, as earlier in Jerusalem, affirmed the same thing he had previously told his judges: he was guilty of nothing either before the Synagogue or before his people (vv. 17-19). His only "fault" consists in the fact that he looks at the Messiah and the Kingdom differently from the majority of his compatriots and fellow believers.

But this does not at all mean that Paul's faith contradicts the tradition. On the contrary, the apostle in Rome, as had happened before in other places, was able to convince many that his faith in no way contradicted the tradition in its true understanding (v. 23). And of course Paul in no way considered his appeal to the Roman authorities and to the Roman court to be connected with any desire to harm the Synagogue or his people (v. 19). The point was only to avoid completely baseless accusations and a possible judicial, or perhaps even extrajudicial, reprisal (vv. 17-18). And still, as we can see, the apostle's words did not convince everyone (v. 24).

And once again what had happened more than once both with Paul and with other Christians happened again: not wanting a split in the community, they all reject Paul's witness, so that after his speech both those who agreed and those who disagreed leave (v. 25). Apparently, among those listening to the apostle, the desire prevailed, as people say in such cases, "not to rock the boat." And the result of this unwillingness, besides the appearance of peace in the community, was the rejection of Christ and the Kingdom, which Paul directly told his listeners (vv. 25-27). Thus conservatism and unwillingness to change became a barrier on the Jewish community of Rome's way into the Kingdom. But this, of course, could in no way stop the apostle's preaching; only now, as we can see, it was directed above all to the Gentiles, who did not have such an ancient and powerful religious tradition binding their mind and will (v. 28). And the Kingdom, judging by the evangelist's witness, truly continued to expand, and with it the Roman church grew, including ever new Christians, recent Gentiles (vv. 30-31).

While awaiting the emperor's trial, Paul does not waste time. First of all he meets with representatives of the Jewish community of Rome, one of the largest and most influential in the western Diaspora. And, as always and everywhere, he turns first to his own people. Paul is sure: he is guilty of nothing either before the Roman community or before the Jewish people as a whole. Again and again he emphasizes this, speaking of his appeal to the emperor's court only as a forced measure.

He does not break with Judaism; he is only trying to resolve a concrete conflict that, in that concrete situation, could not be resolved in any other way. But the apostle begins his witness, as he did in Jerusalem, with a conversation about the Torah and the prophetic books. As in Jerusalem, he appeals to Tradition. Precisely to Tradition with a capital letter. Not to religious tradition, but to the Tradition of Revelation. He regards his conflict with the leaders of the Synagogue in Jerusalem and with the Sanhedrin as a specifically religious conflict, and therefore a local one that does not touch the main thing.

For the apostle, the main thing is the history of Revelation and the history of salvation connected with it, which for him is the spiritual core and spiritual backbone not only of Judaism, but also, more broadly, of Yahwism. And in testifying to Christ, Paul appeals precisely to Tradition with a capital letter. He does not, of course, reject religion as such, but neither does he put it first. He knows from the experience of his own meeting with the Risen One on the Damascus road that everything that happened to him starting from that minute does not fit into any religious framework, but it can fit into those other frames that were opened to him, perhaps not immediately.

In truth, the spiritual picture opened to the apostle can be called a framework only in a very qualified sense. With his spiritual vision, Paul seems to see the whole sweep of God's action in the world: from the creation of this world, through the tragedy of the fall, and then through the giving of the Torah and prophetic revelation, to Christ, and therefore to the Kingdom entering the world.

This is the Tradition by which Paul lives. He relies on it when he bears witness to Christ, and especially when he bears witness to Jews. He takes nothing from others and loses nothing himself. And he gives up nothing except what can obscure the spiritual fullness opened to him. But what gets in the way is exactly what the apostle gives up, quickly and decisively. Otherwise all his witness will lose its meaning. And so will his life.

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