Sides: Acts 9
Slide 1
9:2
Saul initiates (thus peace in 9:31)
Letters of recommendation
High priest
- Caiaphas
- Access?
. Young man (7:58)
. But advancing (Gal1:14)
. Wealthy family (22:3)
- High priest respected by Jewish communities outside Palestine
- Diaspora synagogues would thus cooperate
Slide 2
“the way”: Essenes: preached divine path
Damascus:
- 135 mi/220 km N. of Jerusalem
- 6 days on foot
- Essenes
- “synagogues” plural: over 20,000 Jews there
- as many as 18,000 Jews massacred there in AD 66
Slide 3
9:3
Light from heaven= shekinah (as at Sinai, elsewhere)
Theophany with divine call: Ex 3; Isa 6; Ezek 1
Slide 4
9:4
Fall to ground at divine or angelic revelations (OT and Jewish lit.)
Doubled names: Gen 22:11; 46:2; Exod 3:4; 1 Sam 3:10
Persecuting followers= persecuting Jesus
His representatives (Luke 10:16)
Slide 5
9:5
“Who are you, Lord?”
Obvious theophany but… how can Saul have persecuted God?
9:6
“What must you do” – cf. 2:37; 16:30
9:8
Blinded
- to prevent evil purpose (Gen 19:11; 2 K 6:18-20)
- cf. Zechariah mute (Lk 1)
Slide 6
9:9
3 days not uncommon for a fast
w/o water would cause dehydration
Judaism: often mourning or repentance
Usually conjoined with prayer in NT
Slide 7
9:10
Here am I: 1 Sam 3:10; Isa 6:8
9:11
Ancient Jewish hospitality
Some: Straight Street= long E-W street (fits tradition)
Tarsus
-important city (21:39)
prosperous: representatives for its merchants elsewhere
capital of Cilicia
major university center; philosophy
many Jews there
Slide 8:
9:12
paired visions
- confirmed divine coordination
- also in Ac 10
9:13-14
objections to “absurd” commands: e.g., Ex 3:4; 4:10
9:15-16
resembles OT call or commissioning narratives
9:17
figurative kinship language
probably means; fellow-believer
Slide 9:
9:18
Scales from eyes: language recalls Tobit
Baptism: perhaps Barada River
- ran through Damascus
- near traditional Straight Street
Slide 10
9:19b-31 Confrontation in Damascus and Jerusalem
parallel responses to Saul in Jerusalem, Damascus
similar to response to Jesus’ opening message in Lk 4
9:19b-21
9:22
Saul already expert in the Scriptures
God often uses parts of our backgrounds (fishers, shepherds of people)
Slide 11
9:24-25
plot known to Saul: plots often leaked
watching gates: closed at night, limiting those exiting
2Cor 11:32-33: Nabatean ethnarch cooperating with Jewish community
- preached in Nabatean cities? (GAL 1:17)
- Aretas IV of Nabatea (9 BC-AD 40)
Escape
- Houses sometimes built into city walls
- Tradition: Anania’s house, nabatean quarter
- Biblical precedent (Josh 2:15; 1 Sam 19:12)
- Habitation around walls; baskets lowered
Slide 12
Only apostles he got to know well were Peter and James (Gal 1:18-19)
Appears headed for martyrdom like Stephen
Possibly relatives in Tarsus (22:3)
Long period before fulfilling full calling
Slide 13
9:32-43 Continuing Miracles Through Peter
Lydda (9:32)
11 miles (17:5 km) from Joppa (v.36)
Joppa and Lydda: the major Jewish coastal cities (Caesarea had more Gentiles)
Slide 14
“Sharon” = coastal plain
Lydda on S. end of plain
Chr. Presence still notable in Lydda in 2d cent
Slide 15
Joppa:
Profitable port city
30 miles (48km) S of Caesarea
Jewish control until direct Roman authority in AD 6
“Tabitha”
- Semitic for “Gazelle”
- Dorcas Greek for “Gazelle”
Women patrons
- Maybe benefactor of the widows mentioned in v. 41
Slide 16
9:37
Jewish dead always washed before burial
Only women prepared women’s bodies for burial
Slide 17
9:38
burial normally before sunset, so urgent
11 miles (17.5 km) between Joppa and Lydda
maybe 4 hours’ travel each way
9:39
upper rooms usually small, on flat rooftops
well-to-do Roman matrons had maids to do it, but still responsible
Slide 18
9:40
body covered before Peter was brought into room
sending others out, cf. 2 K 4:33: Elisha for Shunammite’s son
9:41-42
present raised person (2K 17:23; 2 K 4:36; Lk 7:15)
Slide 19
Tanner (9:43)
Strong odors, so lived outside cities
Later rabbis: wives could divorce tanners because of smell
Many more lenient if tannery near water, as here in 10:6
Slide 20
10:1-8 Cornelius’ Vision
Cf. paired visions of Paul and Ananias in 9:12: confrontations
Slide 21
Caesarea Maritima (10:1)
Different Caesarea Phillippi
Strato’s Tower, renamed by Herod the Great
Herod built there best harbor on Judean coast
Theater: seated 4000
Residence of the roman governor of Judea (23:23-24)
5 auxilliary cohorts and calvary
- Cohort: c 480-600 (?: 6000, 10 cohorts)
- 1 cohort in Jerusalem
Syrian soldiers there sided with Syrians vs Jews
Slide 22
Generations
- commanded 80 men
- unlike aristocrat tribunes or legates, usually worked up through ranks
- “Italian” cohort
- - original cohort maybe from Italy, but may be Syrians now
- known in Judea in AD 69
- Cornelius prob. retired (by age 60) by the war of 66-70)
Military Service
- Preferred occupation
- Roughly ½ enlisters survived the 20 years of service
. ages 17-37
. became 25 yrs later in 1st cent.
Noncitizens
- Couldn’t join legions
- But: auxiliary troops (citizenship at discharge)
Oaths of allegiance to the “divine” Emperor
Lk 3; 7; 23; Acts 27