A Light to The Gentiles

Third Tuesday after the Epiphany

Thanks to April for her comment. It's not every blog that has a daughter's psychological analysis of her father.  I think her analysis is right on target, probably helped by the fact that she has known me longer than any other reader of this blog.

Next week I'll talk more about my shift from a life of action to a life of contemplation. I really miss public speaking. Coronavirus has forced me to move a little more quickly and easily down this contemplative path. There are simply no opportunities to speak now. More on this next Monday.

Back to Acts. Please read Acts 13:44-52.

Paul was an intense man of action, a great public speaker (despite his modest disclaimer in 2 Corinthians 10), a superb Biblical scholar and writer, and the greatest witness to the Christian faith. He was all the things I've wanted to be, only to a far greater extent than I could ever imagine.

 

In our text today, we find Paul moving from the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia into the public square on the following Sabbath. Paul will stay committed to his fellow Jews first, but his success is with the gentiles. Paul's quotation of Isaiah 49:6, from the second of the four "servant songs" in Isaiah, shows his own understanding of his mission, "I have set you to be a light for the gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." This verse has at least three meanings. In its own context in the Babylonian Exile (586-538 B.C.) it's prophesying that God's servant chosen people, the Jews, will be the light to the gentiles.The early Christians thought of the servant prophesied in Isaiah as being fulfilled in the person of Jesus. In our scripture for today however, Paul applies this verse to himself. Although he will never neglect his fellow Jews, his mission, as God has defined it, is to the gentiles.

Let's pause for a moment to reflect on the word gentiles (ethnoi in Greek, goiim in Hebrew). The word has two meanings. It can  mean "gentiles," as it does here. It can also mean "nations." If you look back in an NRSV Bible to Isaiah 49:6, you will find that the NRSV has translated it there as "nations." Paul has taken his meaning for the word not from the original context, but from his own context. 

Paul's and Barnabas's bold preaching stirs up opposition among the Jewish religious authorities, who have them run out of town. From there they move on to the next town, Iconium. They leave in their wake a bunch of new converts, who will be able to form an ongoing church. On to Iconium.

 

Faithfully,

Christian