Paul declares he is a Jew In Acts 21:39 which is after Jesus has risen.....

Kyle16

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Paul answered, "I am a jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people." Acts 21:39

Jesus has already risen from the Dead when Acts was written. So why did Paul say " I am a Jew" he does not say " I was a Jew" like some commentaries I read. I am very confused on this.

Can someone explain this with Scripture please.
 
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Ken Behrens

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Jews get saved every day, and remain Jews, even today. They have simply realized who the Messiah is, and chosen to follow Him. Today they are called Messianic Jews. In those days, most of the new salvations were among the Jews. And most continued to go to temple and keep the old laws. You want a Scripture, Rev. 7, the first group of people being saved are from the tribes of Israel, they are Jews by birth, Messianic by belief. Acts 15 exempts the Gentiles from keeping the Jewish laws, which the Jews (including the 12, who were certainly Christians by our definition) still kept, or there would not even have been a problem.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Paul answered, "I am a jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people." Acts 21:39

Jesus has already risen from the Dead when Acts was written. So why did Paul say " I am a Jew" he does not say " I was a Jew" like some commentaries I read. I am very confused on this.

Can someone explain this with Scripture please.
What YHWH'S WORD says agrees with the one YHWH called and chose as an apostle.
There's no contradiction in Scripture.

There are many contradictions in commentaries. That's the source of confusion.
 
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John Hyperspace

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Paul answered, "I am a jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people." Acts 21:39

Jesus has already risen from the Dead when Acts was written. So why did Paul say " I am a Jew" he does not say " I was a Jew" like some commentaries I read. I am very confused on this.

Can someone explain this with Scripture please.

Paul is using the word as a statement of lineage. A Jew being someone whose lineage traces back to Judah, the son of Jacob, called Israel. That's where the word Jew comes from, Judah. It's a shortened form of the name Judah. So this would be like, suppose your name is Kyle Smith, and you would say, "I'm a Smith"; this isn't a declaration of religion or ideology, it's the family from which you come. This is the same use as Paul's.

The word Jew can also be used as meaning, to what religion do you adhere. One may say, I'm a Jew, and not actually be of the family lineage of Judah, but mean they adhere to the religious beliefs and traditions of that family. In the law any Gentile who converted to the religion of the Jews is to be considered a Jew for the most part (though there are still some limitations): Ezekiel 47:22-23

But Paul is claiming a reckoning of family by geneology when he says "I am a Jew" just as you would be by saying "I am a Smith" (if your name were Smith).
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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But Paul is claiming a reckoning of family by geneology when he says "I am a Jew" just as you would be by saying "I am a Smith" (if your name were Smith).
Scripturally:

What advantage has the Jew? Much in many ways !

What advantage has the Smiths? None.
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Paul answered, "I am a jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people." Acts 21:39

Jesus has already risen from the Dead when Acts was written. So why did Paul say " I am a Jew" he does not say " I was a Jew" like some commentaries I read. I am very confused on this.

Can someone explain this with Scripture please.
Based on everything I've ever seen and heard, commentaries are often destructive to faith and may be contrary to GOD'S WORD.
Confusion is the result,
and sometimes worse.
 
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pescador

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Based on everything I've ever seen and heard, commentaries are often destructive to faith and may be contrary to GOD'S WORD.
Confusion is the result,
and sometimes worse.

I don't know anywhere where faith and ignorance are one and the same. Rather then being contrary to God's word commentaries are very helpful in understanding it. Would you rather gain understanding or remain in confusion?
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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I don't know anywhere where faith and ignorance are one and the same. Rather then being contrary to God's word commentaries are very helpful in understanding it. Would you rather gain understanding or remain in confusion?
If you have believed
the lies of those commentaries*, (many have been exposed on this forum,
many "commentaries" are full of a multitude of errors - often in the use they are put to, and often in the practices using them to defend a false position (i.e. < shrugs > who knows how many errors in translation?/ interpretation? ) )
, instead of gaining understanding,
who is the one in confusion ?

To gain understanding requires GOD'S GRANTING IT
as always:

" Then opened HE their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,"
==========================

To remain in error and in confusion only requires trusting men.
==========================

*commentaries: some are true. Each to be tested. Not accepted carte' blanch' without being proven true - in line and in harmony with GOD'S WORD and GOD'S PLAN and GOD'S PURPOSE. Not in error, and not out of order, not wrong.
 
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