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A couple of questions...

  • 07-04-2008 6:17pm
    #1
    Pompey Magnus
    Registered Users Posts: 5,406 ✭✭✭


    I just have a couple of quick questions about St Paul / Saul and hopefully someone here could clear them up for me.

    (1) What changed in Jerusalem between the death of Jesus and the persecution by the Jewish authorities and Saul which meant that Jewish authorities were executing Christians as they wished? The Gospels point out during the arrest of Jesus that Jewish executions required the consent of the Roman Governor yet Acts shows the chief priests ordering executions on their own authority.

    What happened in those couple of years which sees the Jews going from being entirely impotent when it came to dealing with Jesus to being capable of killing "trouble makers" such as Stephen and other Christians at will?

    (2) From what I read in Acts, Saul seems to have grown up and been educated in Jerusalem and not Tarsus as I thought, was he in the city during the passover when Jesus was executed? As far as I am aware he would have been in his early 20s when this was happening so I would have expected him to have been aware of Jesus and his execution yet he never mentions anything about this in his writings. Is this unusual?


Comments

  • #2
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    Depeche_Mode wrote: »
    I just have a couple of quick questions about St Paul / Saul and hopefully someone here could clear them up for me.

    (1) What changed in Jerusalem between the death of Jesus and the persecution by the Jewish authorities and Saul which meant that Jewish authorities were executing Christians as they wished? The Gospels point out during the arrest of Jesus that Jewish executions required the consent of the Roman Governor yet Acts shows the chief priests ordering executions on their own authority.

    What happened in those couple of years which sees the Jews going from being entirely impotent when it came to dealing with Jesus to being capable of killing "trouble makers" such as Stephen and other Christians at will?

    In colonial outposts things often get done that break the laws but a blind eye gets turned to it. So, may well be that the same laws were in place at the time of Stephen's death as at the crucifixion of Jesus, but that the Jewish leaders felt safe to act in one case but not in the other.

    I can see several possible reasons why the circumstances might have been different.

    1. Jesus actually appears to have had pretty positive contacts with Roman officialdom. He healed a centurion's servant, and it may have been that the Jews feared retribution unless the execution of Jesus was carried out strictly according to Roman law. Stephen, however, may well have presented a 'softer' target.

    2. The execution of Jesus took place at Passover - a time of nationalistic fervour when the Jews celebrated deliverance from a foreign oppressor. There would be more soldiers on duty in Jerusalem and Pilate would be keeping a closer eye on things.

    3. Jesus had a fair measure of support among the ordinary Jewish people (albeit fairly fickle). The Jewish leaders may have feared a backlash from the people if they, rather than the Romans, carried out the actual execution. By the time of Stephen the early Church was holding large daily meetings in the Temple courts. Many ordinary Jews may now have seen Christianity as a threat to the Jewish faith and so deserving of persecution.

    4. John's Gospel records that Jesus had twice evaded or frustrated attempts to stone Him. Maybe the Jewish leaders figured they needed reinforcements to get it right third time around.
    (2) From what I read in Acts, Saul seems to have grown up and been educated in Jerusalem and not Tarsus as I thought, was he in the city during the passover when Jesus was executed? As far as I am aware he would have been in his early 20s when this was happening so I would have expected him to have been aware of Jesus and his execution yet he never mentions anything about this in his writings. Is this unusual?

    My understanding is that Saul would have gone to Jerusalem to study under Gamaliel when still fairly young (maybe 13 years old) and could well be back in Tarsus and working as a tent maker at the time of Jesus' ministry. But I don't think we can know for sure.


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