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He Preached Christ in the Synagogues

Paul in the Acts Period

 

Most of those who write about the Apostle Paul and his journeys describe them as “missionary journeys” in which he is attempting to reach the world with “the gospel” and plant churches.  But a quick look at the details of his activities during the Acts Period reveals that everywhere he went it was, "to the Jew first" (Rom. 1:16; 2:9 & 10), When Paul says “to the Jew first,” he does not mean that Israel is “first in order of time”[1] but rather that “the Jew is first in privilege.”[2]

 

In Acts 3:26, Peter, speaking to the “men of Israel” (2:22), says, “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.” He has just explained his reasons for making this point: “‘Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (Acts 3:25).  Jesus had made this same point when he said that “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).  The fact that the gospel was preached to the Jew first, was because Israel was the appointed channel of blessing to the nations of the earth. A saved Israel is necessary for the functioning of the promise made to Abraham. [3]

 

 So as long as Israel’s program was in operation Paul goes “to the Jew first” in their synagogues as the following verses well testify:

 

  • In Acts 9 Paul meets the risen Christ, is converted, “And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues [in Damascus], that he is the Son of God.”  (Act 9:20)

  • But when they [Paul and his company] departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down (Act 13:14). And 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.  (Act 13:15)

  • And it came to pass in Iconium, that they [Paul and Barnabas] 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[4] believed.  (Act 14:1)

  • Now when they [Paul and Silas] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:[5] And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is [the][6] Christ. (Act 17:1-3)

  • And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews [in Berea).  (Act 17:10)

  • Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons[7], and in the market daily with them that met with him. (Act 17:16-17)

  • And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.[8]  (Act 18:4)

  • And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.  (Act 18:7) And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.  (Act 18:8)

  • And he [Paul) came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.  (Act 18:19)

  • Even “a certain Jew named Apollos” (Acts 18:24)…began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. (Act 18:26)

  • And he [Paul] went into the synagogue [which was in Ephesus], and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.  (Act 19:8)

  • “For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.”[9] (Act 20:16) And from this point on Paul sets his course to go to Jerusalem. The remainder of the book of Acts records how Paul came to be arrested at Jerusalem and tried, first before “the chief priests and all their council” (Acts 22:20), then before Felix, governor of Samaria[10], then Porcius Festus who was procurator of Judea from about AD 58 to 62 (Acts 25:1-12), then the king of Judea, Herod Agrippa II[11](26:1-32). Because he appealed to Caesar, Paul was sent to Rome (Acts 27:1-28:16). Once in Rome, Paul does as he has always done and seeks the opportunity to reach the Jewish leadership of the synagogues of the city, “ And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening” (Act 28:23).

  

Nothing could be more certain then the fact that, during the Acts Period, Paul went “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16; 2:9 & 10) because: “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen” (Rom 9:2-5). So from the time that Christ appeared to him until his imprisonment in Rome “for the hope of Israel,” (Acts 28:20) “he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God” (Act 9:20).

 

NOTE: The Acts Period ended some time after the end of the book of Acts when God revealed to Paul that Israel's program was being set aside. They were no longer a "priestly kingdom" (Ex. 19:6, 1 Peter 2:9). At this point, God revealed The Mystery to Paul. This mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God (3:9), was "that all nations are together bodies, i.e. there is no nation separated unto God from another. And that individual believers in the nations are together heirs and together partakers of the promise given to them by God and that because Christ is among the believers of every nation, they will be glorified apart from Israel."[12]

Allen 

 

[1]So says Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible, Rom 1:16

[2] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Rom 1:16

[3] Charles Welch, ULTRA DISPENSATIONALISM A criticism examined. The place of Acts 28, An Alphabetical Analysis Part 5 Terms and texts used in the study of ‘Dispensational Truth’ T to W. See http://www.spiritualblessings.org/journal.html

[4] “…proselytes from the Greeks, who were in the habit of attending the synagogue.” Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Acts 14:1.

[5] Paul did not incidentally go to cities with synagogues. He intentionally sought those locations where enough Jews lived that there would be a synagogue. This is because that during the Acts Period, Paul was fulfilling the so called great commission and going unto the uttermost parts of the world reaching the Jews with the “good news” that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had purchased for them the New Covenant.

[6] The deviant article “the,” which is ho in the Greek, almost always precedes the title “Christ.” Jesus was “the Christ.” Christ is not His last name but His title. Christ is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew Messiah. Both mean “anointed one.”

[7] “…Jewish proselytes, who had renounced idolatry, but who had not been fully admitted to the privileges of the Jews.” Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Acts 17:17

[8] “…that is, Gentile proselytes; for to the heathen, as usual, he only turned when rejected by the Jews “(Acts 18:6).

[9] Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish feast called the “Feast of Weeks” or in Hebrew, “Hag Ha Shavuahim.”

[10] Samaria is the northern part of the Roman province of Judaea (Acts 23:33-24:27) or what we call Israel.

[11] King Agrippa II was the great-grandson of Herod the Great, who had attempted to kill infant Jesus and who did kill many baby boys in Judea. Agrippa’s father was King Agrippa I, who beheaded the apostle James and arrested Peter in an attempt to kill him also. The Lord was angry with King Agrippa I and he was killed in the city of Caesarea in A.D. 44, as we read in Acts 12.

[12] Joyce Pollard, What Exactly is The Mystery That Had Been Hid in God?, http://www.rightwordtruth.com/exactly.htm