 |  |
What a wonderful exhibition this action of grace on Paul's part! A mere doctrinaire
would have repudiated the humiliating conditions suggested by the leaders at Jerusalem.
He would also feel resentment at the very casual acceptance of the gift to gather which he
had spent so much time and prayer. He could easily have hidden behind the evident fact
that he had stood for complete emancipation from all such dead ceremonial works. But
Paul knew better. He believed and taught that true grace was Christ-like, and this
overcame all objections, leading him meekly to submit where he might have waged war
against "those who seemed to be somewhat".
"And when the seven days were almost ended" (Acts 21: 27).--In Acts 24: 18
the apostle said that they who arrested him found him "purified in the temple, neither
with multitude nor with tumult". In the law seven days is a usual period for purification
(Exod. 29: 37; Lev. 14: 8; Numb. 12: 14), and in the law concerning the Nazarite
provision is made for anyone contracting ceremonial impurity, which enjoins upon him
the necessity of waiting for seven days till offerings be made and restoration effected. So
also at the close of the vow, it seems that to make doubly sure the priests demanded a
lapse of seven days before release could be given. Towards the close of this period
"The Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the
people and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man that
teacheth all men everywhere, against the people, and the law, and this place: and further
brought Greeks also into the temple and hath polluted this holy place (For they had seen
before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had
brought into the temple)" (Acts 21: 27-29).
To understand why the people could be so easily inflamed some acquaintance will be
necessary with the conditions that obtained at the time of Paul's visit. The populace had
but recently been infuriated by Claudius under whose orders the golden robes of the High
Priest had been locked away in the tower of Antonia. Such an exhibition of fury resulted
that the presence of the Prefect of Syria with a large force was required to keep the peace.
Claudius yielded to pressure, and the obnoxious order was cancelled. Josephus,
moreover, tells us that during the Procuratorship of Cumanus a Roman soldier had
expressed his contempt for the Jewish ceremonies, by a gesture of the most insulting
indecency, thereby again plunging the Jews into turmoil. The Procurator was cursed and
the soldiers were stoned. This brought upon the Jews such punishment that the number
trapped and cut down by the sword is variously stated at ten and twenty thousand. Again,
a Roman soldier roused the Jews by the burning of a copy of the Scriptures in public, and
so insistent was the Jewish opposition that, this time, Cumanus thought it best to sacrifice
a common soldier to gain time and keep the peace. Cumanus was finally banished, and at
the time of Paul's visit, Felix was Procurator of Judæa. Felix was guilty of several
outrages and, moreover, only seven weeks before Paul's arrival at Jerusalem, an
Egyptian, posing as a Messiah, had raised 30,000 followers, who expected the walls of
Jerusalem to fall down flat at his approach. Four thousand of his poor dupes actually
accompanied him to the Mount of Olives, where Felix killed four hundred and took a
number of prisoners.
It will, therefore, be perceived that abundant material existed for another outburst, and
the arrival of some Jews from Asia provided the spark. "Men of Israel, help!" From one