NOTES for Act 13:47

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⁴⁷For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

That the word of God must sound to the ends of the earth was already known from the preaching of the prophets. They were the first to speak of the calling, in the days of the Messiah, of Gentiles who would join the remnant of the Jewish people in order to form with it the new people of God. Only no one expected that the formation of this new people would begin with recent pagans. Logic suggested that the Jews, of course, would be the first to recognize and accept their Messiah, especially since in Gospel times there were many messianic movements among the people, and the question of exactly which of the religious brotherhoods then existing was the true messianic remnant aroused the fiercest disputes. And nevertheless it turned out that it was precisely the Gentiles, those who sought truth in the Synagogue and worshiped the God of Israel, who accepted Him first.

A paradox of spiritual history? Yes, of course, though it had its reasons: unfortunately, religiosity itself turned out to be the heavy burden that made it hard for many Jews to come into the Kingdom. For recent Gentiles who were free from this burden, it was easier, and they overtook many of those who were sure that the Messiah would come to them and for their sake.

But the apostles had no reason to maintain the sequence expected by many of their fellow tribesmen and coreligionists. Of course, in preaching they addressed first of all the Jews, those who should have listened and heard first. But their refusal could not and must not stop the witness to Christ and the Kingdom entrusted to the apostles. For this was not a human matter but God's, and it was not for people to determine the order in which Jews or Gentiles would enter the Kingdom. The apostles' task was to bear witness to what the Savior Himself had already testified: the Kingdom has drawn near, and the way into it is now open to every seeker, whether a Jew or a representative of any other people. And who would go first depended both on God and on the people to whom the Kingdom was offered.

And the apostles were glad to see everyone entering the Kingdom, regardless of nationality or religion. For they were above all people of the Kingdom, and only afterward representatives of their people and their religious community, as witnesses of the Kingdom should be.

Other notes

For Act 13:44-52

⁴⁴And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

⁴⁸And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

Paul and Barnabas say that the Word of God must first be preached to the chosen people—the Jews. Yet the preaching addressed to the Jews is also heard... Read more

Paul and Barnabas say that the Word of God must first be preached to the chosen people—the Jews. Yet the preaching addressed to the Jews is also heard by the Gentiles, and the Word sometimes penetrates their hearts more deeply than the hearts of the Jews. Paul says that by rejecting the Word, people make themselves unworthy of eternal life. The Jews thought the Gentiles unworthy of eternal life. Some modern Gentiles claim that the Jews are worthy of neither eternal nor temporal life. The Lord sees everything differently: for Him, no one is unworthy—except those who freely reject Him.

For Act 13:42-14:7

⁴²And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

⁴³Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

⁴⁸And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

¹And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

³Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

⁴But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

⁵And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,

⁶They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:

⁷And there they preached the gospel.

Paul and his companions no longer strictly followed the rule followed by the first witnesses, who had been forced to leave Jerusalem because of persecution. Those witnesses testified only to Jews; these were ready to testify to anyone ready to listen and accept... Read more

Paul and his companions no longer strictly followed the rule followed by the first witnesses, who had been forced to leave Jerusalem because of persecution. Those witnesses testified only to Jews; these were ready to testify to anyone ready to listen and accept their witness. In this respect the situation had changed radically. And the point is not simply the widening of the audience. The point is where the boundary of God's people runs. To those first witnesses it seemed self-evident that these boundaries coincided with the boundaries of the Jewish people.

They were, of course, Christians, or more precisely messianists, since messianists from among the Gentiles came to call themselves Christians. They had no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and the Son of God. But they were just as sure that one could follow Him only by being a Jew. And if you were not born a Jew, then first you needed to become one by accepting Judaism, and only then could there be talk about the Messiah.

They saw the Church as a continuation of the Jewish people and as part of it, as its messianic component. Paul and his companions saw the situation quite differently. For them the Church was not a simple continuation of the Jewish people and not its messianic part. For them the Church is the people of God in all its fullness. And belonging to it is not determined by belonging to the Jewish people. Of course, the Church is open to every Jew who accepts Jesus as the Messiah and as the Son of God. But it is just as open to anyone else, even if that person has no connection to Jewishness at all.

Only one thing matters: a person must accept Jesus as the Messiah and as the Son of God. And he must have his own deeply personal relationship with Him. The point here, of course, is not that Paul deliberately revised the traditional norms of the Torah in order to widen the boundaries of the Church. The point is that God opened His Kingdom to the Gentiles, and Paul could not fail to know this. And the boundaries of the Church, the one with a capital letter, coincide with the boundaries of the Kingdom. To cross them, one does not have to be a Jew.

This means that if somewhere in a large, or not very large, city the Jewish community as a whole remains indifferent to the witness about Christ, then one can and must testify to everyone else. Not in spite of the local synagogue, but simply because in that same city there may be people ready to enter the Kingdom and therefore the Church. To make their entrance into the Church depend on the attitude of the Church of the local Jewish quarter would be wrong and unjust toward them. More than that, it would be a direct violation of God's plan and an obstruction of His action in the world. No true witness of Christ would do such a thing, including, of course, Paul and his companions.

For Act 13:13-52

¹³Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.

¹⁵And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.

¹⁶Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.

¹⁷The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.

¹⁸And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

¹⁹And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.

²⁰And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.

²¹And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

²²And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

²³Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:

²⁴When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.

²⁶Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.

²⁷For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

²⁸And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.

²⁹And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead:

³¹And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.

³²And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,

³³God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

³⁴And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

³⁵Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

³⁶For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

³⁷But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.

³⁸Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

³⁹And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;

⁴¹Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

⁴²And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.

⁴³Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

⁴⁸And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

At first glance, what is happening here is the birth of a new religion: the Christian proclamation, not being... Read more

At first glance, what is happening here is the birth of a new religion: the Christian proclamation, not accepted by its mother environment, the Jews, goes beyond it and turns to the Gentiles. Formally, this is indeed so, but the preachers themselves, led by Paul, plainly do not think so (and this is clear from his preaching).

The point, perhaps, is that Christianity (not as a religion, but as a new experience of life with God) first touched those who were seeking not a religious system, but true, eternal life; those who were seeking Christ and finally received His presence in the Spirit. This directly concerns us as well: those who have not yet made up their minds and those who have long considered themselves Christians.

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