God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post we saw how Paul went to great lengths to “become all things to all people” in order to communicate the love of Jesus. But in spite of that effort, Paul was beaten and verbally abused. If you’re interested, you can read more here: “Doing Everything Right, But Suffering Anyway–Acts 21:27-36”.

In today’s post we’ll explore some of the historical context around Paul’s conversation with a government official. (As I often do when it comes to historical context, I’ll be leaning mostly on Keener here.)

Acts 21:37-40

As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:

Some Relevant History Regarding Paul’s Conversation

So Paul was about to be brought back to the barracks. Some say it was the same place where Jesus was taken after Jesus’ beating. And as they were about to take him there, Paul speaks to the tribune in Greek, Paul says: May I say something to you?

This is a surprise, because the tribune thought Paul was an Egyptian rebel who had gained a following of thousands. And a man from Egypt would be unlikely to know Greek, but Paul spoke Greek fluently. In fact Keener believes the idea here is that Paul is speaking fluent Greek without an accent. So they ask Paul how it is that he knows Greek. And they say: Aren’t you that Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and then led the four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness?

As an aside, the original word for Assassins here is sicarii. They were terrorists who carried curved daggers under their cloaks and murdered aristocrats. According to Josephus the last of them took refuge at the fortress Masada where they died.

Anyway, Paul responds to the accusation by identifying himself as a citizen of Tarsus. At that time in that culture, a citizen of a city would be of higher status than a resident, and a resident of higher status than rural people. (Paul hasn’t yet revealed that he’s also a citizen of Rome.)

So the tribune allows him to speak. He was likely hoping Paul would clarify that he wasn’t the Egyptian rebel, and hoping that clarification would calm the crowd.

In our next post we’ll hear what Paul has to say to the crowd, and we’ll see the crowd’s reaction.

Notes:

Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, IVP Academic; 2nd edition, January 3, 2014, pp. 388-389

Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)