Paul and Barnabas in Antioch of Pisidia
The
Passage: Acts 13:14-49
Structure:
A. 13:14-23, Israel is chosen by God (13:17)
B. 13:24-25,
proclaiming baptism of repentance (13:24)
C. 13:26-30,
God raised Him from the dead (13:30)
D. 13:31-32,
We proclaim this good news (13:32)
C’. 13:33-37,
Jesus is raised (13:33)
B’. 13:38-41,
proclamation of forgiveness of sins (13:38)
A’.
13:42-49, Word of God spoken to you first (13:46)
Historical
and geographical context:
By the time
of Jesus (maybe even earlier) Jewish community developed Scripture reading
calendar. It is mentioned here in v. 15 and 27. Books of Torah (5 books of
Moses) were divided into 54 parashot – weekly passages. These readings were
also supplied with readings from the Prophets (the block of books of Prophets
differs a little from our understanding of prophets, see Overview of the Bible:
Introduction). Our reading calendar is based on Gospels with additional
readings from OT, Psalms, and Epistles.
St. Paul
mentions Pilate (v. 28) without any additional explanation of who he is and
what he did. Looks like, at least among Christians who new the story of the
Crucifixion, he became somewhat a famous figure. Think about it – man made into
history, we [XXI century] mention his name at least every Sunday…
Theology:
I mentioned
it many times before: I AD Jewish communities had two main groups of people: Men
of Israel and God-fearers. St. Paul addresses them in v. 16 and 26. Why it is
important? Noticing this helps us to see the goal of the Holy Spirit in the
development of the Church, bringing together both groups and uniting them on a
faith basis.
Sermon has
an ambiguous statement “about 40 years in the wilderness”. On one hand,
Israelites spent full 40 years traveling from Egypt to the promised Land. On
the other hand, after two years of travel they made to the boundaries of the
land and could’ve enter. Yet, because of their disobedience they got stuck
there for another 38 years – during which God had to “put up with them”.
This is one
of the most important passages on Resurrection. From other parts of the Bible,
we know that Jesus came back to life in the glorified body. He ascended into
heaven and – as we confess – sits at the right hand of the Father. But St. Paul
in his sermon here brings up an argument of “no-corruption”. This leads us to
an understanding that the time between our death and the Second return of
Christ is a time when we experience separation of body and soul. The body is
buried and will be a subject of corruption, while the soul of the faithful ones
is in the presence of the Lord (Lk. 23:43). Therefore, we expect the final
resurrection when our bodies in glorified state will be reunited with our souls.
This should happen when He will come “to judge both the living and the dead”.
To support
this corruption/no-corruption idea both St. Peter [during Pentecost] and St.
Paul here use the example of David. While St. Peter simply points out the tomb
of the king in Jerusalem (Acts 2:29), St. Paul goes further, specifically
stating that the body of king David – however great guy he was {served the
purpose of God] – saw corruption (Acts 13:36). Apparently, David was a
paradigmatic figure for the Early Church theology.
There is a
need for a translational note: verse 39 used verb “freed” while it should be
translated as “everyone who believes is justified”. Maybe the translators
wanted to underline an idea to be free from corruption. Yet, the Law of Moses
was never intended to free, but to establish a proper relationship between God
and the people of God (Deut. 30:19-20).
Other
themes:
The sermon
is full of chronological refences. For example, what 450 years refer to? Could
be the time from Abraham to the settlement (Gen. 15:6 to Joshua 24). Or it
could mean the time between the Exodus to the victory over Jerusalem (2 Sam.
5:6-10), as the final control over the land taken from seven nations (Deut.
7:1, note that Jebusites who controlled Jerusalem are listed last).
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