Au – After Fourteen Years, Paul went up to Jerusalem 2: 1-2a

After Fourteen Years,
Paul went up to Jerusalem,
and took Titus and Barnabas with Him
2: 1-2a

After fourteen years, Paul went up to Jerusalem, and took Titus and Barnabas with him DIG: Why would Paul take Barnabas with him to Jerusalem? What history did they have together? Why did the believers cherish Jerusalem? Why does the Bible say “Go up to Jerusalem,” or “Go down from Jerusalem?” What was this revelation that Paul had? How would this form of communication from God continue throughout his ministry? Who was Agabus? What did he prophesy? What was significant about the famine relief being sent to the elders of the Messianic community and not to the apostles?

REFLECT: In Paul’s day, the question was, “Can these Gentiles really be believers?” Today the question, by far too many Gentiles, is, “Can these Jews really be believers?” Why do you think that’s the case? Paul saw to it that relief was sent to the suffering Jews by Gentiles, what are Gentiles doing today to send relief, either physically or spiritually, to suffering Jews? After all, Paul would later write, “To the Jew first and then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16 NIV).

After an absence of more than a decade, Paul journeys to Jerusalem in the company of Barnabas and Titus with a collection for famine relief.

48 AD

Then, fourteen years after his encounter on the Damascus Road (to see link click Ai – A Harmony of Acts 9 and Galatians 1), Paul went up again to Jerusalem (2:1a). Try to understand the significance of Yerushalayim for the believers. They cherished the Holy City, not only as the place of the Temple, as the place of the Master’s tomb, and as the capital of the future Messianic Kingdom, but also as the home of the apostles. The City of David was where the elders and the original apostles could be found. No doubt that they had a synagogue of their own in Tziyon. They had an academy of learning, I am sure. They had their own beit din (court of judgment), and they had James (Ya’akov) the just, half-brother of Yeshua.

Paul took with Barnabas, the one who had vouched for him on his last visit, and Titus with him (2:1b). Barnabas was a Jewish believer who had good credentials among the Gentiles. He was a veteran apostle and had been very influential since the years of Messiah’s death and resurrection. Titus represented the opposite: a proselyte at the Gate (see the commentary on Acts Bb – An Ethiopian Asks about Isaiah 53) from Antioch. He was uncircumcised and seemingly had no plans to do so. He was one of Paul’s Gentile disciples.

I went up to Jerusalem: No matter where one is coming from in their travels, it is always up to Yerushalayim. It may not always be physically up if you were coming from Nepal, for example. But it is certainly up in the sense of a spiritual pilgrimage, and drawing close to God’s presence. Leaving the Holy City is always referred to as going down from Tziyon.

Because of a revelation (2:2a). A revelation is something revealed from heaven. After the first encounter on the Damascus road (Acts 9), revelations like that directed Paul’s life. The Master appeared to Him in the Temple (Acts 22:17-21); a vision in prison (Acts 23:11); and the Ruach Ha-Kodesh prevented him from entering Bithynia, but wanted him to go to Macedonia instead (Acts 16:6-10).

Now at the end of the first year of the co-ministry of Barnabas and Sha’ul, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:27). Now a prophet was one who received direct revelation from God. The early Messianic Community had prophets, like Judah and Silas (15:32), and the church at Antioch had prophets like Lucius the Cyrenian, Simeon called Niger, Manaen (13:1). For one to be a prophet one had to give a near historical prophecy. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and predicted through the Ruach that there was going to be a great famine over all the Roman world. The Greek word for world used here is oikouméne, which means the inhabited world, or the Roman world. Indeed, this took place during the reign of Claudius (Acts 11:28), who was emperor from 41 AD to 54 AD.

Contemporary records demonstrate that a series of famines affected Mediterranean agriculture during his reign. In the winter of 40/41 AD Rome experienced such a lack of food that stores were only stocked for a week. This crisis continued at least into Claudius’ second year 41/42 AD. Yerushalayim’s status as the “navel of the earth” unfortunately does not include the advantages of a city endowed with natural resources or trading materials. The mountains yield only stone in large quantities and most raw materials are lacking. More significantly, Jerusalem naturally possesses only one real water source, the spring of Siloam (Second Kings 20:20; Second Chronicles 32:2-4; Nehemiah 3:15; Isaiah 8:6, 22:8-11; John 9:7ff).

In times of famine grain supplies were the first to be affected, and here too Tziyon is ill-served by its geographical location, the soil in the surrounding area is notoriously poor in quality. The City’s chief requirements had to be imported from Galilee, Samaria and the Transjordan. However, the capital produced fruits and vegetables, such as olives, dates, vines and honey. While Jerusalem enjoyed a high standard of living, her citizens also suffered from a higher cost of living than the rest of the country. In times of drought and famine, these prices soared and the City experienced special hardships. Any severe disturbance to the wheat and barley production and/or transport could cause the price to escalate more than sixteen times. Only a few exceptional urban centers in the ancient world depended upon foreign imports for their food. Unfortunately, Jerusalem was one of them. In time of need, aid from the diaspora provided a vital source of sustenance, and the Diaspora communities felt a strong sense of responsibility to the believers in Judea.⁴²

The prophesied famine came to Judea in 44 AD and lasted for three years until the end of 46 AD. The Talmud refers to it as “the years of scarcity.” Josephus reports that food was scarce, extremely expensive, and many people died as a result. The poor in Jerusalem were especially hard hit. Sharing all things in common, selling their property and possessions and sharing them with all, as any had need (Acts 2:44-45) had taken its toll. The impoverished community did not have the means to lay up provisions for themselves. In keeping with our Lord’s teachings about giving one’s wealth to the poor, the early Jewish believers came to be known as the evyonim, meaning the poor ones. They would be the hardest hit by the coming famine.

So, following Joseph’s example of preparing for a seven-year famine (see the commentary on Genesis Kq – Joseph and the Famine), the disciples of Antioch decided to send relief to those kedoshim (brothers and sisters) living in Judea, each according to his ability. The Talmud preserves several similar instances of collections for charity in the Diaspora. So the Messianic community in Yerushalayim sent Barnabas a teacher in Antioch, and the church at Antioch sent the Messianic community in Jerusalem relief from the famine. This is in keeping with Romans 15:25-27, when the Gentiles receive spiritual blessings from the Jews, they are obligated to share their material blessings with them. This they did, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Sha’ul (Acts 11:29-30). This is the first use of the word elders. They did not send relief to the apostles, but to the elders. This shows that Acts is a transitional book, and the leadership in Jerusalem was being transformed from apostles, which ended with the death of John around 98 AD, to elders, which is a permanent office.

After Paul’s First Missionary Journey (see the commentary on Acts Bm – Paul’s First Missionary Journey), Paul and Barnabas collected funds from the church in Antioch for their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. The gift served a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it provided for the Jerusalem brothers and sisters much as the careful preparations of Joseph had provided for his brothers (see the commentary on Genesis Lt – Joseph Reassures His Brothers); on the other hand, the collection was a dose of spiritual reality to the Jews in Jerusalem that the Gentiles were actually their spiritual brothers and sisters.