a) Ανατρέφω is used to denote raising/nourishing children in Luke 4:16 (of Yeshua growing up in Nazareth) and Acts 7:21 (of the raising of Moses by Pharaoh’s daughter.

b) Rabbi Gamaliel ben Simeon ben Hillel, aka R. Gamaliel the Elder or Rabban Gamaliel HaZaken (information from Hegg, Writer, pp. 37ff)

i) Led the Sanhedrin from 20-40 CE

(1) The first to lead the Sanhedron single-handedly

(a) previously it was ruled by zugot, “pairs,” like Hillel and Shimmai

(b) was therefore given the title of Rabban (“Our Teacher”),

ii) Was known for his light halakhah

(1) Lightened the Sabbath laws for witnesses, midwives, and other public servants (b. Rosh Hashanah 23b)

(2) Enacted laws to protect women and others and generally lighten the yoke of the Law (m. Shekalim 3:6)

(3) Ruled in favor of a woman who claimed her virginity against her husband’s word (b. Ketuvot 10b)

(4) Was tolerant towards the new Messianic sect, as shown in his mercy to Kefa and Yochanan (Acts 5:38f)

iii) Was also known for writing “epistles” – three are preserved in the Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 11b, Tosefta, San. 2:6; y. Sanhedrin 1:2, 18d)

iv) Finally, was known for encouraging his students to study Greek and Greek philosophy:

b. Sotah 49b
But is Greek learning, for its part, forbidden at all? And did not R. Judah say Samuel said in the name of R. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel, “What is the meaning of the following verse of Scripture: ‘My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city’ (Lam. 3:51)? “There were a thousand children in my father’s house, five hundred of them studied Torah, and five hundred studied Greek learning. “And I am the only one of them who has survived here, and my father’s brother’s son [survived] in Asia.” The household of Rabban Gamaliel is in a separate category [and may study Greek], for they had a relationship with the government.

(1) We see this in Paul who three times quotes Greek philosophers in the canonical Scriptures:

(a) In Athens, he quotes Aratus, a local philosopher (Acts 17:28)

(b) To Titus, he quotes the Cretan philosopher Epimenides (Tit. 1:12)

3) Lineage/Family

a) Of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1, Php. 3:5), the same tribe as King Saul (1Sa. 9:21) and Mordecai (Est. 2:5)

b) His parents were both P’rushim (Acts 23:6) and Roman citizens (22:28). The family was likely both monied and influential, since they secured Sha’ul an education with the Elder of Israel.

c) If some of his family rejected him, not all did; had a sister and nephew in Jerusalem who acted to protect him (Acts 23:16)

d) Rom 16:13 - Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.

4) Acts and Sha’ul’s Religious Identity

a) Before the Damascus road

i) Though taught at the feet of Gamaliel the grandson of Hillel, Sha’ul’s subsequent actions against the Nazarines are more consistent with the School of Shimmei.

(1) What caused this change?

ii) Actively used his influence to persecute the Ekklesia

b) After the Damascus road

i) Nowhere does the Bible say that Sha’ul converted from Judaism to “Christianity”—rather, he repented from his persecutions of Yeshua’s followers

(1) Paul’s change of heart is what revealed Yeshua’s power to change lives and affect repentance.

(2) His name

(a) The idea that he changed his name from Sha’ul to Paul as a part of his conversion is a Christian myth – continued being called Sha’ul through Acts 13:9, which then notes that he had a dual name.

(b) Sha’ul = Gr. Saulos, “the haughty walk of a prostitute”

ii) Initial activities after T’shuva

(1) Gal. 1:15-19
But when God, who picked me out before I was born and called me by his grace, chose to reveal his Son to me, so that I might announce him to the Gentiles, I did not consult anyone; and I did not go up to Yerushalayim to see those who were emissaries before me. Instead, I immediately went off to Arabia and afterwards returned to Dammesek. Not until three years later did I go up to Yerushalayim to make Kefa's acquaintance, and I stayed with him for two weeks, but I did not see any of the other emissaries except Ya'akov the Lord's brother.

(a) Before going to Arabia, he preached in Damascus until some of his opponents tried to kill him (Acts 9:22-25).

(b) It was in Arabia where he apparently received his revelation.

(i) Later in this same letter (4:25), he mentions that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia; is it possible that that is where he went to learn?

(c) Paul’s return to Damascus is not mentioned in Acts, most likely because Luke did not want to de-emphasize the very real danger to Paul’s life there. However, this visit would have taken place before his first trip to Jerusalem (Acts 9:26f).

(d) “make [his] acquaintance” = historesai (ἱστορῆσαι), not a casual visit, but one with a purpose: to inquire deeply into the person visited.

(i) Was not initially received until Bar-Nabba took a chance and introduced him to the others (Acts 9:26f)

(2) Returned to Tarsus after a plot to kill him was discovered (Acts 9:29f)

iii) First journey among the Diaspora

(1) Formally set apart by the Spirit to go to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2)

(2) Successfully preached the Besorah (Good News) in Cyprus, even converting the proconsul, Sergius Paulus

(a) Defeated Elymas in a “power encounter”; made him blind

(3) Went to Pisidian Antioch

(a) Invited to speak – given the honor of a respected rabbi

(b) Presents Yeshua from the prophets

(d) God-fearing gentiles beg him to speak again next Sabbath; the next week, the synagogue is overrun by Gentiles

(i) This is what turns the Jews in Antioch against the Besorah (Good News)!

(4) Journeys in Galatia

(a) Similar responses to that in Pisidian Antioch become something of a pattern

(b) A group of troublemakers start following Sha’ul around to stir up trouble and suppress the Besorah

(5) The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15)

(a) The controversy

(i) Gentiles were coming en masse to the synagogue on the Sabbath to hear about the Messiah; what is to be done with them?

(ii) The questions:

1. Must Gentiles be circumcised (become Jewish) in order to be saved? (v. 1)

2. Must Gentiles keep the whole Torah (written and oral) in order to be saved? (v. 6)

(iii) Note that whether Jews should keep the Torah is never brought up; it is assumed that they should!

(b) Paul’s actions

(i) Comes to Jerusalem as an emissary (v. 2)

(ii) Privately meets with the leaders of the Ekklesia and gets their initial approval (Gal. 2:1-10)

(iii) Writes his letter to the Galatian assemblies he had founded before the Council (otherwise he would have referenced the Council’s ruling)

(iv) Disputes the Judaizers before the Council with Kefa and Ya’akov’s support.

iv) Returns to Antioch (Syrian)

v) Second Journey in the Diaspora

(1) Separates from Bar-Nabba over the issue of Yochanan-Mark; travels with Silas

(2) Takes Timothy as a disciple in Lystria

(a) Circumcises him to facilitate their mission (Acts 16:4)

(3) Travels through Macedonia, passing through Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens.

(4) Goes to Corinth

(5) Returns to Antioch

vi) Third Journey in the Diaspora

(1) Travels again to Galatia

(2) Stays in Ephesus until a riot forces him to flee

(3) Returns to Macedonia

vii) Composes Romans while staying in Corinth (Acts 20:2-3, Rom. 15:25ff).

c) Never ceased identifying himself as (and therefore living as) a Pharisee

i) Act 23:6 - But knowing that one part of the Sanhedrin consisted of Tz'dukim and the other of P'rushim, Sha'ul shouted, "Brothers, I myself am a Parush and the son of P'rushim; and it is concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead that I am being tried!"

ii) 2Ti. 1:3 (NASB) - I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did . . .

iii) Continued to follow the whole Torah, even the sacrificial Temple service

(1) Act 18:18 - Sha'ul remained for some time, then said good-bye to the brothers and sailed off to Syria, after having his hair cut short in Cenchrea, because he had taken a vow; with him were Priscilla and Aquila.

(2) Act 21:18-26
The next day Sha'ul and the rest of us went in to Ya'akov, and all the elders were present. After greeting them, Sha'ul described in detail each of the things God had done among the Gentiles through his efforts.

On hearing it, they praised God; but they also said to him, "You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Judeans, and they are all zealots for the Torah. Now what they have been told about you is that you are teaching all the Jews living among the Goyim to apostatize from Moshe, telling them not to have a b'rit-milah for their sons and not to follow the traditions.

"What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. Take them with you, be purified with them, and pay the expenses connected with having their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that there is nothing to these rumors which they have heard about you; but that, on the contrary, you yourself stay in line and keep the Torah.

"However, in regard to the Goyim who have come to trust in Yeshua, we all joined in writing them a letter with our decision that they should abstain from what had been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled and from fornication."

The next day Sha'ul took the men, purified himself along with them and entered the Temple to give notice of when the period of purification would be finished and the offering would have to be made for each of them.

(3) Act 24:17 - "After an absence of several years, I came to Yerushalayim to bring a charitable gift to my nation and to offer sacrifices. It was in connection with the latter that they found me in the Temple. I had been ceremonially purified, I was not with a crowd, and I was not causing a disturbance.”

iv) W.D. Davies, former Professor of New Testament studies at Princeton University, concludes,

Paul belonged to the main stream of first-century Judaism, and . . . elements in his thought, which are often labeled as Hellenistic, might well be derived from Judaism. . . [I]n the central points of his interpretation of the Christian dispensation Paul is grounded in an essentially Rabbinic world of thought . . . the Apostle was, in short, a Rabbi become Christian and was therefore primarily governed both in life and thought by Pharisaic concepts, which he had baptized ‘unto Christ.’ (Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, 1 and 16)

d) His beliefs about his mission

i) Gal. 1:15 - But when God, who picked me out before I was born and called me by his grace . . .

(1) Jer. 1:5 - Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.

(2) Isa. 49:1-6
Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: the LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name. He has made my mouth like a sharp sword while hiding me in the shadow of his hand; he has made me like a sharpened arrow while concealing me in his quiver. He said to me, "You are my servant, Isra'el, through whom I will show my glory." But I said, "I have toiled in vain, spent my strength for nothing, futility." Yet my cause is with ADONAI, my reward is with my God.

So now ADONAI says - he formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Ya'akov back to him, to have Isra'el gathered to him, so that I will be honored in the sight of ADONAI, my God having become my strength, he has said, "It is not enough that you are merely my servant to raise up the tribes of Ya'akov and restore the offspring of Isra'el. I will also make you a light to the nations, so my salvation can spread to the ends of the earth."

Chapter 1

Greeting

From: Sha'ul, a slave of the Messiah Yeshua, an emissary because I was called and set apart for the Good News of God. (Rom. 1:1)

1. “Slave” = Gr. δοῦλος, equivalent to Heb. ‘eved עבד

2. Like Abraham’s ‘eved Eliazer, a sheliach (an emissary) “sent forth” to bring Isaac back his bride from the lands of the Gentiles

Shalom!

Back

Want to help Restore the Hebrew Root?

All donations are Tax deductible