Month: December 2020

Paul’s Calendar

Paul (and Jesus) based his calendar of activities on the biblical sabbaths and festivals. Acts states multiple times that it was Paul’s custom to worship in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, wherever he happened to be. (14:1; 17:2 etc.)

In Acts 20:6 it mentions that Paul sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, i.e. Passover. No doubt Paul had intended to be in Jerusalem for Passover in obedience to the command in Deuteronomy 16:16. We see in Acts 19:21 that Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, likely for Passover, but he was detained by events. In Acts 20:3 we see that “Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia”, putting him behind schedule.

A few days after this it mentions that he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem before Pentecost (20:16), i.e. the Feast of Weeks, which was seven weeks after Passover. This was also one of the three feasts that Jewish men were to go to Jerusalem for. They had already missed the chance to get there for Passover.

Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians also seems to be focussed on Passover. In closing the letter (16:8) Paul mentions that he plans to stay at Ephesus until Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks), which gives the impression that it is around Passover when he is writing. This impression is reinforced by his mentions of Passover in the body of the epistle. He uses it as an analogy in chapter five. “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” (5:6-8) This analogy probably gets its effect from the fact that Passover is either about to happen or has just happened, so it is on people’s minds.

He also discusses the actual celebration of Passover at some length in chapter eleven. Since the Passover Seder includes quite a bit of liturgy before the meal is served, apparently some, probably Gentiles, are not waiting for the appropriate time, but are going ahead and eating right away. Paul rebukes them for this.

Another festival which is mentioned in passing to describe Paul’s itinerary is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is only called “the Fast.” “Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast.” (Acts 27:9) We can see that Paul oriented his weekly and yearly schedules around the Sabbath and festivals that are commanded in the Torah.

Jesus also did the same. Luke 4:16 mentions that it was his custom to attend synagogue on the Sabbath. It is well known that Jesus’ final days before his death were the Passover season. He celebrated Passover with his disciples the night before he was arrested.

The gospel of John records other Passover occasions during Jesus’ ministry. In John 2:13 Jesus went to Jerusalem for a Passover early in his ministry. In John 6:4 it again says, “The Jewish Passover Feast was near.” And of course we’re all familiar with the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his parents when he was twelve years old. (Luke 2:41-50)

Jesus celebrated other of the biblical festivals as well. Almost the entire seventh chapter of John is devoted to Jesus’ activities at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in the fall. In John 5:1 there is an unidentified “feast of the Jews” that Jesus goes to Jerusalem to celebrate. Jesus is even found in Jerusalem during Hanukkah, referred to as the Feast of Dedication in John 10:22.

Jesus and all of his followers in the New Testament were proponents of Judaism and observed the biblical festivals which God had commanded. There is no mention of anybody in the New Testament celebrating Christmas, Easter, or any of the “Christian” holidays. There is one mention of “Easter” in the King James translation, in Acts 12:4, but it’s a mistake. The Greek word is “pascha” which is a transliteration of the Hebrew “pesach”, which means Passover.

Jesus does seem to encourage combining the celebration of Passover with his passion and death. During his last Passover Seder with his disciples, he points out some of the symbolic elements of the Seder, the unleavened bread and the third cup of wine, and applies them to his flesh and his blood. Then he tells his disciples that every time they eat “this” bread (the Passover matzah) and drink “this” cup (the third cup of Passover), they should remember his death until he comes.

It’s such a shame that most “Christians” have abandoned the observance of the biblical festivals. There is no warrant in the New Testament to do so. And taking scripture as a whole, it seems that God would be pleased if those who claim to follow him would take seriously the celebrations that he established for his people.

Why Prefer Acts?

The apostle Paul who is described in the Acts of the Apostles can be seen as very different from the Paul of the epistles. The Paul of Acts is very Torah-positive. His mentor in the faith, Ananias, was described as “a devout observer of the law”. (Acts 22:12) He had Timothy circumcised to affirm that he was Jewish through his mother. (16:3) He preached in Jewish synagogues everywhere he went. When he was in Jerusalem, he cooperated in a demonstration to show that he encouraged believing Jews to follow the law, and that he observed it himself, (21:24) contrary to false rumors that were going around about Paul’s teaching. (21:21) He spent the bulk of his trip to Rome repeatedly emphasizing to one audience after another that the charges against him were false, that he teaches only what the law and the scriptures say, and that his faith is the same as those opposing him. (24:14-16; 25:8; 26:6, 20-22; 28:17-20) In all this he seemed to echo Jesus, who insisted that “until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law.” (Matthew 5:18)

In some of Paul’s epistles, on the other hand, there are statements that have led some interpreters to think that Paul opposed the idea of believers, either Jew or Gentile, observing God’s law. That has become the default position of most of Christianity since the second century. This is in spite of the fact that Paul’s epistles say things like “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” (Romans 2:13) “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:31) “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.” (I Corinthians 7:19)

It is true that Paul’s epistles, taken as a whole, make statements that seem both positive and negative toward Torah in approximately equal amounts, while the impression given of Paul in Acts is overwhelmingly Torah-positive. Which of these is the true representation of Paul and his attitude toward the law?

Many Christian interpreters have expressed a preference for the epistles of Paul as presenting his genuine viewpoints. The reasons they give are that the epistles are from Paul’s own hand. They also mention that the epistles were probably written earlier than the book of Acts. These reasons seem plausible on first examination.

On the other hand, I’m convinced that the book of Acts is a much more objective portrayal of Paul’s attitudes than his epistles. Acts was written to be an objective account of what happened, without any particular agenda. It was written as history.

The epistles, in contrast, were each written to individual congregations in response to specific issues. Paul’s discussion is in the context of those issues. Unless we understand accurately what problems Paul is writing to correct, reading his epistles is like hearing one side of a telephone conversation. For example, Galatians is often taken as teaching that obedience to the law is not necessary. In reality, the Gentile believers in Galatia are being tempted to think that they need to officially convert to Judaism, to be circumcised, in order to be pleasing to God. Paul warns them not to do this because it was prophesied that in the end times people from the nations will come to worship the God of Israel. If they convert to Judaism, they will no longer be people from the nations. That would defeat the purpose of the prophecies.

What we need to do is to understand Paul and his teaching based on the book of Acts. He repeatedly identifies his faith as Judaism, the faith of Israel. (23:6; 24:14; 26:5) Every passage in the epistles that seems to teach that the law has become obsolete in Christ can be accounted for by taking into account things in the context that clarify the issue, or by translation changes that are needed for accuracy. You can count on the book of Acts for a valid description of Paul. Take that as a starting place and work to harmonize the epistles with it.