Again. Do you know WHY Paul was rejected?
Yes, but to learn why we have to study Luke's account more closely, paying attention to clues which are easily missed. We also need to put aside our preconceptions about Paul, and simply let the words speak for themselves. (By the way my Bible is the NKJV; I don't know how other Bibles compare. I certainly don't recommend the CJB, which has the most corrupted translations of Paul's epistles I've ever seen.) Let's proceed:
1. After his 'vision', Paul stayed in Damascus for a while, then went to Jerusalem to learn more from the apostles (Acts 9:17-31). I believe this is a true record, which overrides the contradictory account in Galatians 1. (The reason for the differences is a story in itself, which I won't attempt to cover here.)
2. Some time later, Paul went to Thessalonica where he taught a Torah-friendly version of the gospel. The visit is recorded in Acts 17:1, and proof that this is what he taught them is seen in his follow-up letter of 1 Thessalonians, where in verse 2:14 he said:
"For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus". It's widely agreed that in those days, the churches in Judea taught Messiah + Torah. Therefore Paul was obviously doing the same.
3. After further travels, Paul went to Ephesus and was received into the synagogue (Acts 19:1-8). This is significant, because the Jews would not have received him if he'd been teaching against the Torah.
Now verse 8 tells us that he taught the gospel for 3 months, apparently with good success. But notice this: in verse 9, Luke reveals that Paul did something which caused such a huge uproar, that he was thrown out in disgrace. Paul also spoke of this in 2 Tim 1:15, where he said
"all those in Asia have turned away from me". Whatever he did in the synagogue caused such a stir, that the Ephesian Jews were still talking about it a couple of years later (Acts 21:27-29).
----
Now the question is this: What might Paul have done after three months, which caused the uproar? Why did his new Jewish converts suddenly abandon their faith, even condemning it as Luke recorded in Acts 19:9?
I suggest that after three months of preaching, Paul realised that by stretching grace to the limit, he could claim that it's not necessary to do good works or obey the commandments in order to get saved. He probably thought this made his gospel more marketable, but all it did was turn everyone off. Because of the well-known instruction to kill those who taught against the commandments in Deut 13:5, he was probably lucky to escape with his life.
From then on he never taught Torah again (as commanded by James in Acts 15:21), only the faith-alone gospel so familiar to today's church. Then after Paul's atrocious behaviour in the Temple (Acts 21:26-30), followed by the riot he caused amongst the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:7-10), James completely washed his hands of him. Paul was too much of an embarrassment to the church, and obviously had no intention of modifying his behaviour.
Because the Dead Sea Scrolls mention the excommunication of a Paul-type figure, I suggest that this is when it occurred. Following that, his rejection by James and the apostles was complete.
TorahMan
