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Most certainly the apostle had not taught the believing Jew to `forsake Moses'. He had taught him to see
that his hope of righteousness by his own attempts to keep the law was vain, but he had spoken not a word about the
circumcision of the children of believing Jews, and had actually circumcised Timothy. What he had resisted was the
attempt to force the yoke of the law upon believing Gentiles and to compel them to be circumcised, but such
distinctions would be brushed aside by a partisan. Seven times do we read of `customs' in the Acts (6:14; 15:1;
16:21; 21:21; 25:16; 26:3, and 28:17), and any teaching that touched the sacred `rites' of either Jew or Roman was
sure to arouse intense antagonism. The word translated `forsake' in the phrase `forsake Moses' has an ugly sound in
the original. It is apostasia, a word that occurs but once more in the New Testament where it is used for the awful
`falling away' that is associated with the days of the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3). Apostasion moreover is translated
`divorcement', and this would also be uppermost in the mind of a Jew.
Here, then, was the state of affairs at Jerusalem, and the apostle, however he might endeavour to conciliate such
opposition, would know that out of this condition would arise the circumstances which prophets had foretold in
every city through which he had passed on his journey to Jerusalem. Paul knew what it was to fear, he knew what it
was to pray for boldness, and he required all the grace and strength that his faith could muster as he listened to this
accusation and foresaw its consequences. We watch him going to the temple at the request of the rulers, as a lamb
to the slaughter. He was, however, to hear `the night following' the encouraging words:
`Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome'
(Acts 23:11).
We have however anticipated our subject a little, and must return to follow the steps of the apostle as recorded in
the section we are examining.
The Apprehension of the apostle in the Temple (Acts 21:27-34)
When we examine Paul's epistles, we find they contain two contemporaneous lines of teaching which, if taken as
two parts of a whole, make an intelligible presentation of truth, but if segregated, could easily become the tenets of
two opposing factions.
One of the objects of the apostle's ministry was the conciliation of the church at Jerusalem without yielding any
of the peculiar truth that constituted both the glory of his message among the Gentiles, and its offensiveness to those
that believed, but who were still zealous of the law.
In his then recently written epistles to the Corinthians and the Romans, this conciliatory spirit is especially
manifest, not only `to the Jews', but `to the Greeks' and `to the Church of God' (1 Cor. 10:32). He had not only
urged respect for the conscience of one who failed to shake off his earlier feelings regarding idols (1 Cor. 10:27-29)
but had counselled the same charitable attitude to the believing, yet ceremonial, Jew (Rom. 14). He had expressed
his attitude in the well-known words:
`Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto
the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I
might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to
God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak,
that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some' (1 Cor.
9:19-22).
This represented one side of the apostolic character and attitude. But there was another aspect of his teaching
necessary to complete the whole, and that was his unsparing opposition of all attempts on the part of Judaizers to
bring his converts under bondage. He had called these Judaizers `false brethren', `deceitful workers', and even
`dogs'. He had declared that those who had gone back to `the weak and beggarly elements' of the law were
comparable with those who returned to the rites and ceremonies of heathen gods; he had spoken of the `curse' and
the `wrath' that must be associated with the law, and had even declared that any believer who submitted to
circumcision would fall from grace, and that Christ would profit such an one, nothing.