NOTES for Act 25:10-11

Paul finally completes all his affairs in Jerusalem and demands the emperor's judgment, to which, as a Roman citizen, he had the right. Outwardly this decision looks like capitulation. Indeed, the apostle refuses to defend his rightness before the Sanhedrin and denies representatives of the people to which he belongs the right to judge him. He uses his right as a Roman citizen to disregard every court except the emperor's.

From the point of view of Halakhah, such a decision was an obvious violation of the norms both of the Torah and of Halakhah itself: Halakhah forbids Jews to appeal to the courts of pagans when the matter concerns questions of religion. A person who acts this way places himself outside the Jewish community; this is usually followed by excommunication from the Synagogue. But the point is that Paul did not intend to act according to the norms of Halakhah everywhere and always. Of course, he knew it perfectly well, at least in the form in which it existed at that moment: his training 'at the feet of Gamaliel' did not pass in vain. But Halakhah was not an unquestionable law for him. This is understandable: Halakhah is not the Torah. It is only legislation based on the Torah.

The Torah is not only legislation; it is a description of those spiritual laws that determine a person's relationships with God. The Torah is a spiritual phenomenon, although it gave rise to a powerful religious tradition; Halakhah is purely religious. After the meeting with the risen Christ on the Damascus road, religion was not something absolute for Paul. He, of course, did not reject the religious tradition in which he had grown up, but he did not absolutize it either. Therefore he saw no sense in following that same Halakhah at any cost.

He came to Jerusalem in order to bear witness there to the Kingdom, and the apostle fulfilled this task, almost becoming a victim of religious fanatics. He had nothing more to do in Jerusalem. For Paul there was no sense in playing by religious rules. He himself knows perfectly well that he committed no crime against his people, his religion, Jerusalem, or the Temple. But he understood perfectly that, for example, he would prove nothing to the Sanhedrin.

And it no longer made sense to prove anything to anyone in Jerusalem: in the end, neither the temple priesthood, nor the Sanhedrin, nor synagogue leaders head the Kingdom of which Paul became an inhabitant after the meeting on the Damascus road. If one must choose into the hands of which earthly authority to give oneself, secular authority looked preferable to religious authority: it was, at least, far less fanatical about religious questions than many representatives of the Sanhedrin and the temple elite. And Paul chooses the emperor's court. And sets out for Rome.