Sunday, February 13, 2011

Acts 23:10 (NLT)
As the conflict grew more violent, the commander was afraid they would tear Paul apart. So he ordered his soldiers to go and rescue him by force and take him back to the fortress.

- Now that's a "lively" meeting!

Acts 23:12 (NLT)
The next morning a group of Jews got together and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

- I recall when Jesus was taken before Pilate, the Jewish leaders claimed they didn't have the authority to execute Jesus, only the Romans did. Since then, Stephen has been stoned to death by these same people, and now they are arranging to assassinate Paul.

This leads me to believe that in the case of Jesus' trial there was a hidden agenda at work to shift responsibility onto Rome.

2 comments:

DeAnn said...

Hmm ... Interesting idea. Hadn't thought of that. I'm going to think about this idea. It definitely means something. Very subtle. Thanks for mentioning it.

gmc said...

Hi DeAnn

I've seen movies and read various accounts that questioned the motivations behind the execution of Jesus, and was it the Jewish leadership manipulating the Roman authorities to take the heat off themselves, or was it the Roman authorities manipulating the Jewish leaders to get rid of a troublesome rebel...

I personally see in the NT a tale of a group of religious elite who are quite comfortable with the status quo and want to get rid of this troublesome upstart Jesus, but don't want to do it in a way that would turn the population against them. So, they put Pilate into a corner and get him to do the "dirty work." (But apparently some more liberal scholars see this as reflections of anti-Jewish bias in the original authors. So, ultimately, who knows?)

Over the centuries too many Christians (including Martin Luther apparently) have indulged in anti-Semetism and used this issue to label all Jews forever as the killers of Christ, which mistreats the bible (imho) and more importantly totally misses the point. Christ's death is upon all of us. That's what this sin "thing" is all about.

As always I'm interested in your insights. I'm certainly no scholar on any of this.

Thanks for commenting,
Grant