Talmidim Masei
Talmidim Masei
Acts chapters 25 & 26
Act 25:1 Festus therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to Yerushalayim from Caesarea.
Act 25:2 Then the Kohen Gadol and the principal men of the [unbelieving] Judeans informed him against Sha’ul, and they begged him,
Act 25:3 asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Yerushalayim; plotting to kill him on the way.
Act 25:4 However Festus answered that Sha’ul should be kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to depart shortly.
Act 25:5 “Let them therefore,” said he, “that are in power among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong in the man, let them accuse him.”
Act 25:6 When he had stayed among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he sat on the judgment seat, and commanded Sha’ul to be brought.
Act 25:7 When he had come, the [unbelieving] Judeans who had come down from Yerushalayim stood around him, bringing against him many and grievous charges which they could not prove,
Act 25:8 while he said in his defense, “Neither against the Torah of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all.”
Of course, he meant Elohim’s written Torah. He had very much taught against the Pharisee’s Oral Law, which they also called “torah.” That’s why they hated him so.
Acts, continued:
Act 25:9 But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Judeans, answered Sha’ul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Yerushalayim, and be judged by me there concerning these things?”
Act 25:10 But Sha’ul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Judeans, as you also know very well.
Act 25:11 For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I don’t refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that they accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
Act 25:12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”
Act 25:13 Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the King and Bernice arrived at Caesarea, and greeted Festus.
Act 25:14 As he stayed there many days, Festus laid Sha’ul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix;
Act 25:15 about whom, when I was at Yerushalayim, the chief Kohanim and the Jewish elders informed me, asking for a sentence against him.
Act 25:16 To whom I answered that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man to destruction, before the accused has met the accusers face to face, and has had opportunity to make his defense concerning the matter laid against him.
Act 25:17 When therefore they had come together here, I didn’t delay, but on the next day sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought.
Act 25:18 Concerning whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge of such things as I supposed;
Act 25:19 but had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about one Yeshua, who was dead, whom Sha’ul affirmed to be alive.
Act 25:20 Being perplexed how to inquire concerning these things, I asked whether he was willing to go to Yerushalayim and there be judged concerning these matters.
Act 25:21 But when Sha’ul had appealed to be kept for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be kept until I could send him to Caesar.”
Act 25:22 Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” [Festus replied,] “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”
Act 25:23 So on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and they had entered into the place of hearing with the commanding officers and principal men of the city, at the command of Festus, Sha’ul was brought in.
Act 25:24 Festus said, “King Agrippa, and all men who are here present with us, you see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Judeans petitioned me, both at Yerushalayim and here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
Act 25:25 But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor I determined to send him.
Act 25:26 Of whom I have no certain thing to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him forth before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, that, after examination, I may have something to write.
Act 25:27 For it seems to me unreasonable, in sending a prisoner, not to also specify the charges against him.”
Act 26:1 Agrippa said to Sha’ul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Sha’ul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.
Act 26:2 “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Judeans,
Act 26:3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
Act 26:4 “Indeed, all Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Yerushalayim;
Act 26:5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Parush.
Paul was raised as a Pharisee, and while they were used to men of other sects disputing with them, it particularly galled them that one of their own had so obviously turned against their traditions and precedents of the Oral Law, which they assert is just as binding as Elohim’s Written Torah (but of course, it isn’t really). Furthermore, many of the Sanhedrin were of the Sadducee sect, which did not accept the Book of Daniel as scripture (they considered it a Hellenistic era text and nothing more) and therefore did not believe in the prophetic events described in Daniel that were still to come – resurrection being one of these. As a book of history, they considered the writings of Daniel to have already come to pass, and no longer relevant. By insisting the Abomination, etc., was not something from the time of the Maccabees only and insisting the Beast was a ruler still to come, Paul gained the ire of the Sadducees as well as of the Pharisees. In short, he made everybody mad.
Acts, continued:
Act 26:6 Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by Elohim to our fathers,
Act 26:7 which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Judeans, King Agrippa!
Act 26:8 Why is it judged incredible with you, if Elohim does raise the dead?
Act 26:9 “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Yeshua of Natzeret.
Act 26:10 This I also did in Yerushalayim. I both shut up many of the holy ones in prisons, having received authority from the chief Kohanim, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
Act 26:11 Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
Act 26:12 “Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief Kohanim,
Act 26:13 at noon, O King, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
Act 26:14 When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Sha’ul, Sha’ul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
Act 26:15 “I said, ‘Who are you, Adonai?’ “He said, ‘I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.
Act 26:16 But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;
Act 26:17 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
Act 26:18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Hasatan to Elohim, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
As we read in the Torah portion, Ezekiel makes it plain that the obedient believers among the nations will in fact receive an inheritance in Eretz Israel by lot along with the House of Israel. So there isn’t anything particularly astonishing about this assertion – it was already known to them from the time of the First Diaspora until then (shortly before the second Diaspora in 70 CE).
Acts, continued:
Act 26:19 “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
Act 26:20 but declared first to them of Damascus, at Yerushalayim, and throughout all the country of Yehudah, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to Elohim, doing works worthy of repentance.
To repent means to stop living in sin, and sin, by definition, is the transgression of the Torah (I John 3). Unfortunately for the Pharisees, repenting also means giving up their Oral Law, because it breaks the commandment against adding to and taking away things from the Written Torah. Of course, Elohim is accepting of any tradition or custom that does not directly violate His Real Written Torah, but the Pharisees have always tried to force their interpretations onto everyone else (and still do to this day in the form of the Rabbinate) – pretending their interpretations are LAW and the ONLY correct way to observe Torah, claims that are simply lies. By rejecting the Oral Law, the apostles challenged the religious and political authority of the Pharisees, and they brook no competition. There were also plenty of Hellenists among the leaders of Judea – collaborators, men appointed to positions of authority who wanted the “superstitions” of their ancient faith done away with entirely, and worked diligently to lure the people into assimilating into Greek and Roman culture. Any religious revival was a threat to their power and control in Judea.
Acts, continued:
Act 26:21 For this reason Judeans seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.
Act 26:22 Having therefore obtained the help that is from Elohim, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moshe said would happen,
Act 26:23 how the Messiah must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.”
There are several passages in the prophets that beat around this bush, but none that say this directly. It is possible that this is a quote from a prophetic text that is now lost to us, perhaps the one which also said Yeshua would “be a Nazarene.”
Acts, continued:
Act 26:24 As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Sha’ul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”
The phrase “great learning” here tells us that Paul had worked his way up the Rabbinic hierarchy and at the time of his Road to Damascus experience had been a high ranking scholar of the Pharisee sect. Such a person would have literally spent from his 5th birthday until his 30s doing nothing whatsoever but learning the ins and outs of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Oral Law.
Acts, continued:
Act 26:25 But he said, “I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness.
Act 26:26 For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner.
Both Yeshua’s execution, His appearance to the 500 witnesses (besides his apostles and other close followers), and the rising up out of the graves of the recently deceased obedient believers at the time of his death on the stake would certainly have been well-known events. Many ask why there are not more contemporary secular sources describing them, but the answer to that is very simple. One, the seige of Jerusalem and its destruction in 70 CE no doubt wiped out a lot of the diaries and contemporary writings of those who lived there and witnessed these things personally. Two, the Yavneh Sanhedrin, under Judah HaNazi (who cut a deal with the Romans to save himself and his close followers) got to rewrite Judaism to suit themselves after the second Diaspora and they made no secret of the fact that only writings from their own sect, the Pharisees, were fit to become part of what would become the Talmudic tradition. Of other sects all that was permitted to remain were sections of works that they wrote responsa to refute, and those became part of the Talmud. In other words, the victors got to write history, and they edited out anything they didn’t like. Not just writings of Believers but apparently some works of the prophets were also excluded from their canonization, probably because they spoke too clearly of events in Yeshua’s life.
Acts, continued:
Act 26:27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”
Act 26:28 Agrippa said to Sha’ul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Messianic?”
Act 26:29 Sha’ul said, “I pray to Elohim, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.”
Act 26:30 The king rose up with the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them.
Act 26:31 When they had withdrawn, they spoke one to another, saying, “This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.”
Act 26:32 Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
But freedom, of course, wasn’t Elohim’s plan.
Next: Epistle Masei.
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