Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Acts · About this commentary
Thessalonica: turning the world upside down
Acts 17:1-9
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. · WEB
Three Sabbaths of argument from the Scriptures produce a church and a riot, and the charge brought against them is politically astute and largely true.
Paul, as was his custom, went in to them. The phrase covers a settled practice, and it describes a man who had announced twice that he was turning to the Gentiles and who still walks into the synagogue in every new town.
His method is set out in three verbs that are worth separating. He reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating. The first is a dialogue rather than a monologue; the second means opening a text up; the third means setting the evidence side by side. There is no appeal to experience, no vision recounted, and no claim of authority. He argues from a book both parties accept.
The proposition he argues has two parts, and only the second is about Jesus. First, the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead — which is a claim about what the Scriptures say the Messiah would be, and is the harder half, since a suffering Messiah was not what most expected. Second, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Establish the shape from the Scriptures, then identify the man who fits it.
Three Sabbaths, and then results: some Jews persuaded, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women. The God-fearers again outnumber the converts from the synagogue itself, and prominent women appear a third time in as many chapters.
The opposition's method is the one used at Iconium , refined. They take some wicked men from the marketplace — hired loiterers — gather a crowd, and set the city in an uproar. Then they attack the house of Jason, where the missionaries have been staying. Failing to find them, they drag Jason and some brothers to the magistrates.
The charge they lay is the cleverest in the book. These who have turned the world upside down have come here also... These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.
Both halves deserve attention. The first is an accusation and has become a compliment; the men it describes had preached in the town for three weeks. The second is a capital allegation. Loyalty oaths to the emperor were sworn throughout Macedonia, and proclaiming a rival king was treason. It is also, in a sense the accusers did not intend, accurate. The church did preach a king, and Paul had told them to expect his return 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10. What the charge omits is that this king's kingdom made no claim on Caesar's throne — an omission the movement's opponents would exploit for three centuries.
The magistrates are troubled, which is what officials in a loyal colony feel when the word treason is used, and they take security from Jason — a bond, forfeited if there is further trouble. That is why Paul leaves that night and cannot return; his host has posted money against his absence. He wrote later that he had wanted to come back and was hindered 1 Thessalonians 2:18, and this bond is the likeliest hindrance.
settled What this mark means