Acts 17:1-9
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17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
17:1 Amphipolis and Apollonia … Thessalonica. Amphipolis was thirty miles (48 km) southwest of Philippi and Apollonia twenty-five miles (40 km) farther on the highway to Thessalonica. Paul and his companions were eager to get to Thessalonica, forty miles (64 km) beyond Apollonia. Thessalonica had a population of two hundred thousand and was the provincial capital of Macedonia.
17:2 three Sabbath days. The Pauline Epistles suggest that Paul stayed in Thessalonica longer than three or four weeks (including the workdays before, between, and following three successive Sabbaths). According to Phil. 4:16, the church at Philippi sent him aid at least twice, and the Thessalonian epistles indicate that Paul had been able to give extensive doctrinal instruction to the Christians there. Acts does not state that the uproar surrounding Jason, the missionaries’ host (v. 5), occurred immediately after Paul’s third Sabbath of teaching in the synagogue. The conversions listed in v. 4 may have occurred over subsequent weeks, leading eventually to the hardening of Jewish opposition and the mob violence against Jason and other brothers.
17:2 three Sabbath days. The Pauline Epistles suggest that Paul stayed in Thessalonica longer than three or four weeks (including the workdays before, between, and following three successive Sabbaths). According to Phil. 4:16, the church at Philippi sent him aid at least twice, and the Thessalonian epistles indicate that Paul had been able to give extensive doctrinal instruction to the Christians there.
17:3 necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise. Neither Jesus’ disciples nor their Jewish hearers readily accepted the divine necessity of the Messiah’s suffering (Luke 9:43–45; 18:31–34; 24:25, 26; 1 Cor. 1:18–25). When Paul establishes this point from the Scriptures and identifies Jesus as this suffering and triumphant Messiah, some of those who attend the synagogue, both Jews and Gentile God-fearers, as well as some of “the leading women,” come to believe in Jesus (v. 4).
He could have supported this viewpoint with Isa 53:10–12
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
17:5 filled with jealousy As happened earlier in Pisidian Antioch (13:45), Iconium (14:2), and Lystra (14:19), the jealousy of particular local Jews compels them to oppose Paul and the movement of the early church.
17:7 against the decrees of Caesar. Paul proclaims Jesus as the anointed King who has inaugurated the spiritual kingdom of God (14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31), but his opponents distort Paul’s message, alleging that the apostle advocates political insurrection against Rome. About this time, Claudius Caesar (A.D. 49–50) expelled the Jews from Rome (18:2) because of riots allegedly instigated by “Chrestus,” a probable reference to disputes within the capital’s Jewish community over the identity of the Christ.