The Theosabes

Barnabas and Paul arrive in Pisidian Antioch and follow their typical script. They immediately find their Jewish brethren and join them in fellowship and worship at the local synagogue. After the normal synagogue service, visiting guests are invited to share a word of encouragement with the people gathered there. This is a basic gesture, especially for visiting teachers — let alone the fact that Paul is a student of one of the most renowned Jewish teachers of their day. I’m sure people couldn’t wait to hear from Paul.

And hear from Paul, they do.

We are told Paul stood up and motioned with his hand for the assembly’s attention. One thing to notice is this thirteenth chapter of Acts seems to signify the arrival of Paul as a teacher. Prior to the story of Pisidian Antioch, Luke is very intentional to say “Barnabas and Saul/Paul,” which would signify Barnabas is the leader (by putting his name first). After this story, it will become, for the rest of the book of Acts (with one exception), “Paul and Barnabas.”

This story appears to be a defining moment for Paul. It seems the church in Antioch sent Paul out with Barnabas as his teacher, and it is in this story where the roles switch. Barnabas will give Paul the nod, Paul will seize the moment, and Barnabas will become the student. Incredible humility.

Paul stands up and begins his presentation, “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God…”

Now wait a minute. We have to unpack a lot of context in this brief address.

We need to expound on the rabbinical climate of Asia Minor in the first century. Decades before the ministry of Jesus, the Jewish world in Asia Minor was having to figure out what they did with the Gentiles in their synagogues who wanted to worship the God of Israel. While this was not a problem in the world of Judea and Jerusalem, the rest of the Roman world was a different story. We are told by modern scholars that the population of Asia Minor was somewhere close to 20% Jewish.

That’s significant — one out of every five people.

Folks knew about the Jews; people in Asia Minor had exposure to the Jewish faith. And some of them really liked it. They learned to love the God of Israel and to love His words. They came to synagogue and tried to find a place of worship. And the Jews had to figure out what to do with that.

Is it acceptable for a Gentile to worship the God of Israel? All Jews were in agreement. “Of course.”

But one rabbi said, “Hey Gentiles, we are glad you are here. We love that you love the God of Israel. But it won’t do you any good unless you convert, take on circumcision (and the rest of the law that it represents), and become Jewish.” If you're thinking that such a position sounds a lot like Shammai, then you’re dead on.

But the other rabbi — indeed, a guy by the name of Hillel — said, “Gentiles, we are thrilled you are here and we love that you love the God of Israel. You are welcome to worship God and you can even find justification. If Abraham was justified by faith before he was circumcised, so can you!” Now, Hillel would have remained quite steadfast that these Gentiles were not Jews; they were not brothers in the family of God, but they were welcome to be distant cousins.

This is all well and good, but what does this have to do with the story of Pisidian Antioch? Well, Pisidian Antioch sits on the edge of the region known as Galatia. While almost all of Asia and Asia Minor was very Hillel driven (which makes sense; a Jewish world finding its place within a Roman context would like to lean toward inclusion), the region of Galatia was very definitely Shammai country. As we mentioned in the last post, Galatia was very rugged, primitive, “off-the-beaten-path,” backwoods territory. The Jewish population that settled there purposefully did so NOT to assimilate into a Roman context. There are six quotes from Galatian rabbis in the Mishnah and all six of them are Shammai quotations.

So this argument created three different people groups referenced in the land of Asia Minor within a Jewish context. There are people the Jews would call “brothers”; this indicated they were fellow ethnic Jews. They also spoke of “children of Abraham”; this was a designation given to proselytes — converts who were not born Jewish but had decided to take on circumcision and follow the law and become completely Jewish. Then there was a group of people who were called in the Greek theosabes; it’s a term we translate “God-fearer” or “God-fearing Gentiles.”

The Jewish argument was swirling about the theosabes. What do we do with the God-fearing Gentile? Everybody agreed about the “brothers” and the “children of Abraham,” but what do we do about the theosabes? It’s impossible to know which direction the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch leaned, but it’s safe to say the cultural argument was a tense one.

We also know that, whatever their position, Paul references the presence of all three groups more than once. When Paul stands up and says, “Men of Israel (Jews) and you Gentiles who worship God (theosabes),” that tells you that you have a little bit of everybody in the room.

Paul will later address all three groups directly. If Acts 13:26 is translated correctly (as it used to be in the 1984 edition of the NIV), it will read, “Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles…”

Brothers (group one), children of Abraham (group two), and you God-fearing Gentiles (group three).

Paul has some good news that’s going to stir the pot. What will their reaction be? I think we may be surprised.