Chapter 20

The Roman Church Acts

Going on the Offensive

Artist depiction of a community of Ebionites carrying on the traditions of the Essenes and first Christians

By 150 CE, there were many competing branches of Christianity around the Mediterranean and stretching eastward. The four most popular of these were the Marcionites, the Gnostics, the Roman Church, and the Ebionites, though many others existed in smaller numbers.¹ Certainly the Ebionites had by far the greatest claim to be the direct descendants of the original founders of the religion, but by this period these Jewish Christians had had their numbers obliterated by the wars with Rome—and were not replenishing their communities nearly as fast as the more aggressively proselytizing Gentile forms of the faith. But for someone living at this time it would have been difficult to predict with any certainty which of the other three main branches of the religion would go on to out-compete the others to eventually become “mainstream Christianity”—or whether any form of Christianity would even exist in another hundred years.

Artist depiction of Marcionite Christians at worship

Naturally, the Marcionites, Gnostics, Ebionites, Roman church, and other sects each saw themselves as the only true form Christianity, viewing all the rest as misguided at best. So why was it that within the next 200 years the Roman church came to dominate all others? Why did their particular theology, attitudes, and worldview become the unchallenged standard in the West for the next 1,600 years—and remain the largest Christian denomination in the world to this day?² It clearly has nothing to do with their fidelity to the original founders of the religion, for in that case the Ebionites (who carried on the traditions of James, Peter, John the Baptist, and the Essenes) would have carried the day.

The key to their eventual supremacy began to develop in the mid-100s CE, with the Roman church cultivating and then taking to an extreme a severe intolerance for all other forms of the faith. It adopted a supremely competitive attitude, seeing Marcionites and Gnostics as existential threats that must be defeated. Strategies to bring this about were then consciously adopted.

Artist depiction of Irenaeus, the first known member of the Roman church to write systematic condemnations of heresies

Outwardly, this manifested in the pouring of resources into propaganda campaigns against their perceived enemies—those preaching “another Jesus” as the apostle Paul had once put it. The Roman church drew stark lines in the sand between what they deemed orthodoxy (“correct belief”) which must be defended at all costs, and heresy (“false belief”) which must be vanquished.

In defining orthodoxy, the Church of Rome was forced to confront doctrinal disunity within its own churches, and in what must have been a fraught series of compromises, adopted a somewhat inclusive attitude that would unite their many affiliate communities around the Mediterranean even at the expense of enshrining doctrines that were, to varying degrees, messy, or even blatantly contradictory.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ 2.5

Comparison of the approximate dates each gospel version was written.

In an aggressive attempt to seize control over the story of Jesus Christ on Earth—and establish a history of the early church that demonstrates its inevitable move from Jerusalem to Rome, the Church commissioned the writing of an epic two-part work—a direct challenge to the first “New Testament” collection that Marcion had established among his churches.³ In fact, the first half of this work simply appropriates the second-written gospel—the very one used by the Marcionites—and adds just three and a half chapters to its beginning, altering little else.⁴ The result can hardly be considered a truly new gospel—what we might have labeled version 5.0—and could more accurately be labeled instead The Gospel of Jesus Christ 2.5. It is known to us today as the Gospel of Luke.

Cousin John Gets a Birth Narrative

Artist depiction of the author of the revised and expanded version of the second gospel

The most significant revisions come at the very start. Whereas the original version of the second gospel began with Jesus suddenly appearing in Capernaum in Galilee where his ministry begins, this revised version instead begins with an introduction containing a dedication of the book to a certain Theophilus—most likely not a specific person, but taken literally, a “God lover”. The author then acknowledges that multiple other accounts of the life of Jesus have already been written, and claims that he has investigated them all to determine the truth, and presents it here.⁵

Artist depiction of an angel appearing to Zechariah the priest, the father of John the Baptist

Co-opting what may be material from a Jewish-Christian gospel that no longer survives—such as the Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Nazarenes, or Gospel of the Hebrews⁶—the story is told of the birth of John the Baptist, featuring an annunciation by an angel. Aping several different stories from the Hebrew scriptures, John’s father Zechariah expresses disbelief that his infertile wife Elizabeth could ever bear a child at her advanced age. He leaves his angelic encounter struck dumb, unable to speak until the birth of the child.⁷

Artist depiction of the angel Gabriel telling Mary she will soon be impregnated

Six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, another angel, specified here as Gabriel—known originally from The Book of Watchers and later featured in the book of Daniel—appears in Nazareth to Elizabeth’s cousin, a virgin named Mary who is engaged to a man named Joseph, who is specified to be a descendant of King David. Correcting the third gospel’s oddity of having the angel tell Mary that her child will be named “Emmanuel”, here his prophesied name is the much more expected “Jesus”. In language that is more reflective of Jewish-Christian concerns than Gentile, the angel states that “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”⁸

Artist depiction of pregnant Mary visiting her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and bursting into song

After the Holy Spirit impregnates Mary, she hurries off to visit Elizabeth. Upon arrival, almost as if in a musical, Mary breaks into song, praising God in an original hymn. She then stays with her cousin three months. What her fiancé Joseph is doing during this time is left untold. Similarly, when John the Baptist is born, his father regains his voice and immediately breaks into song, with another Jewish-Christian hymn, praising God for bringing them “salvation from all our enemies, and from the power of all those who hate us.” John is then said to have grown up in the wilderness, away from the public,⁹ possibly an allusion to the historical John having been raised in one of the desert camps of the Essenes.

A New Birth Narrative for Jesus

At this point, language evocative of Jewish-Christian concerns seems to give way, and the author may be segueing from his dependence on a previous source to now writing in his own voice. His narrative of the birth of Jesus seems intended to fully replace the one introduced in the third gospel (known to us as Matthew) with which it is entirely incongruous.

Map with two stars marking Bethlehem in the south and Nazareth to the north

Both writers of the competing nativity stories began with the same dilemma: how to structure the story so that Jesus can be born in Bethlehem (like a proper Jewish messiah), but also be from Nazareth in Galilee as was established tradition since the first gospel was published half a century before. Whereas the third gospel’s author presented Joseph and Mary as residents of Bethlehem who only later settled in Nazareth after their time in hiding in Egypt, this author instead presents Joseph and Mary having always lived in Nazareth, and invents a plot device to bring them to Bethlehem.

Coin minted during the reign of Octavian “Augustus” Caesar

We are told that, at this time, Caesar Augustus called for a census of the entire Roman Empire for the purpose of accurate tax assessment.¹⁰ While such tax censuses were taken at the formation of each Roman province, there is no record of any Empire-wide census having ever occurred. Further, the gospel author claims that to abide by the census, everyone in the Empire had to travel back to the city of their birth.¹¹

Artist depiction of nine-month pregnant Mary being taken on a days-long journey on a donkey

This is the device that gets Joseph and his wife back to his ancestral home of Bethlehem—though it’s unfathomable that he would force his 9-month pregnant wife on a journey of several days riding on the back of a donkey. There is also no record of any Roman policy that would force people to travel such great distances to register for a census, nor should we ever expect to find such record for the simple reason that such a policy would cause chaos and grind whole economies to a halt.¹²

Artist depiction of shepherds directed by an angel to behold the newborn messiah

The seed of the idea for such a plot device almost certainly came from the author’s having read the works of the historian Flavius Josephus who mentions that the Roman governor of Syria conducted a province-wide census in 6 CE. This will be the first of several times this author uses details from the writings of Josephus to shape or simply add historical-sounding details to his narrative.¹³ Choosing such a date for Jesus’s birth places it some 10 to 12 years after the birth of Jesus presented in the third gospel.

Artist depiction of Simeon and Anna with the baby Jesus at the Temple

It is only in this telling of Jesus’s birth that there is “no room at the inn”, causing Mary to have to give birth in a manger. And only in this telling does an angel appear to nearby shepherds, beckoning them to visit the newborn savior.¹⁴ This contrasts with the third gospel’s visitors to the baby Jesus being Persian astrologers instead. When he is 40 days old, Joseph and Mary follow Jewish ritual by taking their child to the Temple in Jerusalem. There a holy man named Simeon proclaims that the baby will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” Similarly, an elder prophetess named Anna “spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.” His parents then take him back home to Nazareth where he is said to grow up strong and full of wisdom.¹⁵

Artist depiction of 12-year-old Jesus amazing the rabbis in the Temple

In the only instance of a story in the New Testament in which he is neither a baby or an adult, this author presents a single tale of the precocious 12-year-old Jesus and his family coming to Jerusalem for Passover. When the festival ends, his parents have made a day’s journey toward home when they notice that their son is not with them. After another day’s travel back to the holy city, they spend three more days searching everywhere for their son. Finally, they discover him in the Temple courts discussing the Law of Moses with rabbis, amazing the elders with his questions and his understanding. When Joseph and Mary ask their son why he has treated them like this, disappearing for days and causing them great fear, the pubescent Jesus’s only response is to ask, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”¹⁶

Baptism and a New Ancestry

It is here that the author begins his use of the second gospel—the one used by Marcion—but because that gospel said nothing of Jesus’s baptism by John, and this author wishes to reinstate it, he alters its first line:

The Second Gospel	The Gospel 2.5
In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pilate was governing Judea, Jesus came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee.¹⁷	In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar…the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.¹⁸

Artist depiction of John the Baptist preaching to a crowd

The author then copies the story of John the Baptist’s preaching to the crowds from the third gospel, though adding some original material in the form of ethical teachings, with John declaring, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” He tells tax collectors, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to”; and soldiers, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”¹⁹

Immediately after the scene of Jesus’s baptism, the author decides to insert a genealogy of Jesus markedly different from the one introduced in the third gospel, and clearly intended to “correct” its perceived deficiencies. Whereas the third gospel traces the Lord’s lineage back to the ancient patriarch Abraham, this author one-ups his predecessor by tracing it all the way back to the very first man, Adam. Neither genealogy can be taken as anything remotely historical, and they disagree with each other in several important ways, to the point where modern Christians wishing to harmonize the accuracy of both have been forced to posit that one the genealogies is Joseph’s ancestry and the other Mary’s, though absolutely nothing in the text suggests this. And this is not to mention the absurdity of both genealogies focusing on Joseph’s royal ancestry when they both also make abundantly clear that Joseph is not the biological parent of Jesus.²⁰

Artist depiction of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness

Following these “begats”, the narrative continues where it left off, with Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. The text describing the three temptations is copied straight out of the third gospel, though for reasons that can only be guessed at, the latter two temptations have had their order swapped. Then, with the addition of a segue about Jesus returning to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit”, we return to the point where the second gospel’s narrative begins. From this point forward the author copies that gospel nearly word-for-word, straight through to the end—including its signature presentations like the Sermon on the Plain, its many unique parables including Lazarus and the Rich Man, and its unique post-crucifixion appearances, like that to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.²¹

The Acts of the Apostles

The second half of this epic two-part work is presented as a sequel to the first, and it picks up the narrative right where the Gospel 2.5 left off, and purports to tell the stories of the first Christian apostles in the 10 to 20 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. For the Roman church it was a major opportunity to shape that history to their own benefit.

Artist depiction of the self-proclaimed “apostle to the Gentiles” Paul preaching his unique version of the gospel message in Athens

More than anything else, Acts seems to have one overriding agenda: the rehabilitation of Paul. We’ve seen that in actual history, from the earliest years of the Christian religion there was a chasm of enmity and distrust between its founders Peter and James and the self-appointed apostle Paul who hijacked the movement with his own set of incompatible teachings, openly disdained the “false apostles” from Jerusalem, and who repackaged Christianity as something like a Graeco-Roman salvation religion which he successfully established in various Gentile cities across the empire.

Artist depiction of a reconciled Peter and Paul embracing

The Roman church at some point came to see itself as having been established by Peter, and to this point had held Paul at arm’s length. They did not go so far as the Ebionite Christians who denounced Paul as “the enemy”, but Paul’s extreme popularity among the Marcionites and Gnostics—and surely some within their own ranks—must have made the Apostle to the Gentiles a dangerous figure who must be handled with care. With this newly written history book, the Church of Rome managed to go from fearing Paul to controlling him, making him a mouthpiece for their own doctrines. Above all, the glaring rift in the earliest church was neatly paved over, and the apostles Peter and Paul were now made to speak with a single voice, in utter harmony on every issue.

It is because this book is so thoroughly agenda-driven that scholars have long recognized it to be of only occasional use as a means to determine the actual history of the times and people it describes. Its author, as noted, is familiar with the works of Flavius Josephus, and sprinkles his narrative with historical details from his writings. But he routinely shows himself ready to alter or ignore actual history wherever it suits him²²—and like all the gospel writers, is, of course, utterly credulous toward all manner of miracles said to be worked by the apostles, angels, God, or the Holy Spirit.

What Happened to James?

Artist depiction of the disciples witnessing the resurrected Jesus ascending into the heavens

One of the first pieces of surprising new information offered by Acts is that, after his death, Jesus spent a full 40 days appearing to and eating with his disciples in Jerusalem.²³ Either this statement was intended to discredit the post-resurrection scene by the seashore at the end of the fourth gospel, or else that ending had not yet been added to that gospel. At the very end of the first part of this two-part work, Jesus was depicted as teaching the disciples how to read the Hebrew scriptures so that they can understand how all its writings are actually all about him.²⁴ This peculiar manner of reading the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms is the same that we first saw among the pesharim (“interpretations”) writings created by the Essenes in the Dead Sea Scrolls, using out-of-context passages to discern information about the messiah and the imminent End of Days.

Artist depiction of Judas tripping over a rock in the potter’s field

After Jesus ascends into heaven, Acts relates that the disciples went back to the upper room in Jerusalem (where the Last Supper had been held) where they engage in constant prayer along with Jesus’s mother Mary and his brothers. Alas, this is the very last mention of Jesus’s family members in Acts or the New Testament as a whole. Peter—the perceived founder of the Roman church—now stands up and takes charge. He relates the story of Judas Iscariot’s death, though his telling jumbles the details of the one presented in the third gospel in which Judas feels remorse, returns his ill-gotten silver, and hangs himself, with the returned money being used to by a “potter’s field” to bury the homeless. Acts instead says nothing about Judas feeling remorse, and instead states that it was Judas himself who bought a field with his ill-gotten silver, and that while walking there he tripped and fell headfirst such that his torso burst open with all his intestines gushing out.²⁵

Artist depiction of the disciples casting lots to choose a replacement for deceased Judas Iscariot

Peter tells his fellow disciples that they must now select a replacement for Judas.²⁶ Why it is important to keep their number at twelve is not said. Do they continue to maintain this number after each subsequent loss of a disciple? If so, Acts doesn’t give any indication of that—even though the deaths of others among the twelve disciples are later recounted.

Drawing straws or sticks is the modern equivalent of drawing lots

Could this be a glimmer of actual history in which the earliest Christians were Essenes, known from their writings to have had a governing body known as The Twelve? Quite possibly. Lending some credence to that idea is the method Acts portrays the disciples using to select the replacement disciple: the drawing of lots. This is a ritual we’ve seen was used in the Hebrew scriptures to determine God’s will on important matters, and was used by the Essenes to determine membership in their communities.²⁷ It was also—as described by Flavius Josephus—the method used by the messianic revolutionaries to choose a replacement high priest during the First Jewish-Roman War, and it was the method used to determine an order by which Essene soldiers will carry out mass suicide rather than surrender to Rome.

For unexplained reasons, only two men are in contention to replace Judas—a certain Matthais and a certain Joseph Barsabbas—neither of whom have been mentioned before. Considering what we know about James the Just, a founder of the faith—the bishop of the original Jerusalem church, and “bishop of bishops” overseeing all the earliest Christian communities, it would be very much expected that a history of the earliest Church would put a great focus on such a key and central figure. But the author of Acts seems to have little use for James in his retelling of history. If there existed a story of James being elected as leader of the earliest church, it seems here to have been intentionally overwritten with an entirely inconsequential account of a choice between two unknown men who don’t feature in the rest of the story in any way.²⁸ For the author of Acts, it is only Peter who leads the church from the start.

Pentecost

The Jewish holiday Shavuot (“Pentecost” in Greek), which occurs 50 days after Passover, is both a harvest festival and a celebration of God’s giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Acts tells us that the disciples of Jesus were still holed-up together that day when suddenly they heard the sound of a violent wind coming from heaven. “Tongues of fire” filled the room and rested on each of them, filling them with the Holy Spirit and instantly bestowing upon them fluency in all languages—this being demonstrated by their subsequent outdoor interactions with fellow Jews from all around the Empire and beyond.²⁹

Artist depiction of the apostles miraculously able to preach in every language

This miraculous occurrence is said to fulfill a “prophecy” from the ancient book of Joel, which is quoted at length. We thus see that even when purporting to recount church history, the author is less dependent on actual events, and more piecing together imagined history out of bits of scripture removed from their original context. In what is the first of many entirely implausible mass conversions, a short speech then given by Peter is said to convince 3,000 onlookers to join the church.³⁰

Preaching at the Temple

Artist depiction of Peter preaching to crowds in the Temple

Though we know from other sources that James the Just made a habit of preaching at the Temple in Jerusalem,³¹ Acts again ignores him, saying that it was Peter and John who went to the Temple each morning to preach to the Jews about Jesus. Their tone is more accusatory than welcoming. “You rejected the holy and righteous one and asked that a man who was a murderer be released to you,” they shout at the crowd, “You killed the author of life.”³² The two disciples’ words anger the Sadducees who see to it that they are arrested, but we are told that 5,000 of their listeners were converted. After some threatening words from the authorities, Peter and John are released.³³

Communism in the Early Church

Artist depiction of Ananias putting aside a few coins before giving everything he owns to the church

Revealingly, Acts makes plain that the earliest Christian community held all money and possessions in common so that none lacked for anything. Predating Karl Marx by over 1,800 years, Acts informs us that “to each was given according to their needs.” In words precisely matching the descriptions of how Essene communities operated, all converts to the faith were expected to sell their land and everything they owned, “and bring the proceeds from the sales and place them at the apostles’ feet.”³⁴

Artist depiction of two early Christians digging a shallow grave for Ananias at Peter’s direction

The way Acts presents it, this rule was not merely on pain of excommunication, but on pain of death. We are told that a couple named Ananias and Sapphira became initiates in the faith, and accordingly sold their property. But Ananias secretly withheld a portion of the proceeds and placed the rest at Peter’s feet. Peter, presumably through some spiritual power, knows that something has been held back, and accuses him harshly, immediately after which Ananias drops dead. Three hours later, the innocent Sapphira arrives and Peter accuses her as well. She drops dead as well. Their bodies are hastily thrown into graves dug outside. This incident is said to cause great fear among the whole church.³⁵

Stephen the Martyr

Artist depiction of Stephen lecturing at and accusing the Sanhedrin

A convert named Stephen who “has the face of an angel” is said to be performing great wonders and miracles while preaching among the people. But certain Jews from Alexandria and Cyrene report him to the authorities for speaking blasphemy and he is arrested and brought before the Jewish High Court.³⁶ Asked to explain himself, Stephen launches into a very long speech that retells the narrative of the books of Genesis and Exodus to a council of men who have likely spent their entire lives studying the Hebrew Scriptures and would not have needed or appreciated a refresher course. Stephen then turns angry and accusatory, shouting, “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit like your ancestors did! They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One whose betrayers and murderers you have now become!”³⁷ The slander that the Jews killed their own prophets is often repeated among early Christians despite having no basis in scripture or history. It is, of course, also equally preposterous that any ancient prophets predicted the coming of Jesus.

Artist depiction of Stephen being stoned to death as Paul looks on

Offended by this brash upstart, the high court follows the Law of Moses by ruling that he be executed for blasphemy. They take him outside the city where a crowd begins throwing stones at him. The author puts in Stephen’s mouth very similar last words to those of Jesus in part one of this two-part work: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then, falling to his knees, he roughly quotes Jesus’s follow-up last words: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”³⁸ This, it may be remembered, was originally attributed to James the Just, who was recorded as having said just before his execution, “Father, forgive them! They do not know what they are doing.”

Paul and Simon Magus

Artist depiction of people’s cloaks being laid at the feet of Paul

Those Jews who took part in the stoning of Stephen are said by Acts, for unknown reasons, to have laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Paul.³⁹ This is our first introduction to the famous apostle in any narrative outside his own letters which were written a century beforehand. Young Paul is said to be leading a violent persecution against the church, going house to house arresting men and women and throwing them in prison.⁴⁰

Just after he is introduced, the story of Paul is interrupted by the description of the apostle Philip’s journey to Samaria to preach the gospel. In that region, we are told, a man named Simon had won followers and made a name for himself, amazing the locals with his sorcery. But Philip performs his own wonders, healing the sick and exorcizing the demon-possessed. His miracles and preaching convert many to the faith, including Simon, who is baptized.⁴¹

Artist depiction of Peter refusing Simon Magus’s offer of money

Hearing of this success in Samaria, Peter and John arrive and begin laying their hands on the locals to impart to them the Holy Spirit. Wishing to wield such powers as well, Simon offers the disciples money in exchange for this ability. For this, Peter upbraids him and advises him to repent.⁴² The end of the account is ambiguous about whether Simon repents and remains in the church, and that is the last we hear of him in Acts or the entire New Testament.

But this same character—most often referred to as Simon Magus (“Simon the Magician”)—plays a significant role in multiple other early Christian writings where he is portrayed as an archrival to the apostles, the leader of his own popular religious movement in which he is a messiah figure. In other writings he is credited as the founder of Gnostic Christianity.⁴³ Perhaps most shockingly, in the Jewish-Christian work, The Memoirs of Clement, the name Simon Magus is used as a clear stand-in for the apostle Paul, who is described as the enemy of Peter and the Jerusalem church. Though this work is often considered to have been put into writing later than Acts, its traditions about Paul being equated with Simon Magus may well be older.⁴⁴ Such a thing would make some sense of the writer of Acts briefly introducing Paul, but then interrupting the narrative with a story that goes out of its way to firmly establish Simon as a wholly different person. This would act as another step in rehabilitating the reputation of Paul to make him acceptable to the Roman church.

Artist depiction of Jesus appearing to Paul on the road to Damascus

When the narrative returns to following Paul, he is still making dire threats to murder the disciples, and he gets permission from the high priest to chase them down in Damascus. It is along the way to that city that he undergoes his famous conversion, having a vision of Jesus who temporarily blinds him. When his vision returns, Paul becomes as rabidly enthusiastic about preaching the gospel of Jesus as he had been about killing Christians.⁴⁵

A Series of Improbable Events

As previously noted, one of the main goals of Acts is to create the impression—contrary to actual history—that Peter and Paul shared an identical set of beliefs and concerns. Primary among the many examples of this disingenuousness is Peter’s rooftop vision of a tablecloth descending from heaven covered in non-kosher animals, with a voice beckoning him to “slaughter and eat!” Peter protests that he has never eaten foods forbidden by Jewish law, but the voice tells him that God is now making all foods acceptable for consumption.⁴⁶ The notion that the earliest Jewish apostles like Peter received such a vision is fairly ludicrous, for even the letters written by Paul undermine this idea, not to mention that the Jewish-Christian followers of James and Peter continued strictly following Jewish dietary laws—some even living as vegetarians as did many of the Essenes.⁴⁷

Artist depiction of Paul shouting at Bar-Jesus on Cyprus

In one of Acts’s most puzzling stories, the apostle Paul is said to travel to the island of Cyprus where he comes across a magician and false prophet named Bar-Jesus (“Son of Jesus”) and a Roman official named Sergius Paulus. Immediately after mentioning these oddly familiar-sounding names, the author for the first time equates the apostle’s Hebrew name Saul with its Greek form Paul, as if it is somehow relevant to this particular story. Bar-Jesus attempts to keep Paulus from being converted by Paul. Then Paul, who until recently had been a violent persecutor of Christians himself, lays into the false prophet, shouting, “You who are full of all deceit and all wrongdoing, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness!”⁴⁸

Artist depiction of Bar-Jesus temporarily struck blind by Paul

He then temporarily strikes him blind, just as Paul himself had been recently struck blind. This does not lead to Bar-Jesus’s conversion, but Paulus is suitably amazed and becomes a believer.⁴⁹ Could this awkward story be an “overwrite” of a more original story in which it is Paul the apostle who gets converted on Cyprus and has his name changed? It’s anyone’s guess.

The narrative follows Paul as he continues his proselytizing journey into Asia Minor. In an amusing episode in the city of Lystra, after the performance of a healing miracle, Paul and his traveling companion are mistaken by the crowds for the gods Zeus and Hermes and rush to offer animal sacrifices to them.⁵⁰ Next, the author of Acts gives his account of what has been called the Council of Jerusalem, convened to settle the dispute over whether Gentile converts to the faith need to become circumcised and live by the Law of Moses.⁵¹

Artist depiction of the gathered apostles at the Council of Jerusalem

It is only in this scene that James is depicted accurately in his place as leader of the original church of Jerusalem. Concluding the deliberations, he calls for the issuing of a letter to foreign churches putting forth the minimal requirements for Gentiles to join the church.⁵² We earlier saw that this letter was, in fact, most likely the document known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and represented a compromise which allowed Gentiles to join the faith and participate in the rituals of baptism and the Eucharist, yet still specified that full adherence to the Law of Moses is required for attaining the “perfection” one needs to acquire salvation. Since the Roman church disagreed with that stipulation of The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, it mentions nothing about it here.

All Paul Now

Artist depiction of Paul fleeing for his life from an attempted stoning.

Halfway through the book of Acts, apropos of nothing, the narrative abruptly switches from being told in the third person to being told in the first person. Peter is not mentioned in the story again, leaving his ultimate fate unknown. The stories that follow tell the tales of Paul’s adventures preaching the gospel throughout Asia Minor and into Greece. Miracles abound including the apostle’s arrest and miraculous jailbreak facilitated by an earthquake, and his survival of being stoned by those who did not appreciate his proselytizing.⁵³ At Athens, Paul engages in debate with philosophers,⁵⁴ and while attempting to convert Jews living in Macedonia, Paul becomes angry at their lack of belief, shouting at them, “Your bloody downfall will be your own fault! I am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!”⁵⁵

Artist depiction of Paul encountering a group of Jews that know only the baptism of John

Intriguingly, Acts presents a set of Jews—an Alexandrian named Apollos and an unnamed group in Ephesus—who “had been instructed in the way of the Lord” yet “only knew the baptism of John”.⁵⁶ The latter group even states that they have never even heard of the existence of the Holy Spirit.⁵⁷ This group may represent Essene communities abroad who revere John the Baptist, but have yet to be exposed to Paul’s unique take on the Son of God. It should be remembered that “Essenes” was strictly an outsider’s term for the sect, and so we shouldn’t expect it to be used within Christian writings. Essenes referred to themselves with terms overlapping with the self-designations of the earliest Christians—The Way, The Poor, The Saints, etc.

Artist depiction of men speaking in tongues as Paul lays his hands on them to impart the holy spirit

The men in Ephesus, immediately upon receiving the Holy Spirit from Paul, begin “speaking in tongues”.⁵⁸ Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians about this same phenomenon, saying that each person who receives the Spirit will receive a gift which could manifest as wisdom, special knowledge, the power to heal, the ability to prophesy, to speak in tongues, or to interpret tongues.⁵⁹ Also known as glossolalia, this practice is still encouraged in many Christian denominations. It is generally performed as such: one member of a congregation feels the Spirit come over them and begins babbling incoherent nonsense syllables. Another congregant similarly feels the Spirit unlock their ability to instantly translate aloud the other’s gibberish utterances into a comprehensible message from heaven.⁶⁰

Modern photo of a man speaking in tongues at a Christian event with a second man translating into English

Even Paul himself seems to want to put a damper on the number of church members breaking out into such fevered blathering. He emphasizes in his letters that it is more blessed to prophesy in plain language or be an interpreter of tongues than it is to be a babbler with no one to translate. In order of greatest importance to the church, Paul lists: apostles like himself, prophets, teachers, those who heal, those who help, those who guide, and least of all those who speak in tongues. “No one understands them,” he says, “they utter mysteries by the Spirit…Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.”⁶¹ The Roman church, in its growing obsession with orthodoxy and stamping out heresy would soon discourage glossolalia which dangerously allowed the commonfolk to receive messages from the Spirit that might contradict established doctrine.

How It Ends

Artist depiction of Paul’s shipwreck while en route to Rome

The rest of Acts follows Paul through his return visit to Jerusalem during which he is arrested for bringing Gentiles into the inner court of the Temple,⁶² followed by his cushy house arrest in Caesarea⁶³ in which he befriends Roman and Jewish politicians⁶⁴ of the highest rank⁶⁵—men who we know from Flavius Josephus were on the cusp of waging brutal war against revolutionary messianic Jews like those in Peter’s and James’s church. Finally, Paul’s journey to Rome is related, including his shipwreck⁶⁶ that is remarkably similar to the one Josephus related in describing his own trip to Rome a few years before Paul’s. The last scene in Acts depicts the apostle Paul under lax house arrest in Rome, able to gather large crowds at his house to whom he continues proselytizing day after day, for two years.⁶⁷ His ultimate fate, like Peter’s, is left untold.

Continue Reading:

Chapter 21: Gospels Galore

Footnotes

1
Ehrman, B. (2005). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford University Press.
2
“Pubblicati l’Annuario Pontificio 2021 e l’Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2019” (2021). L’Osservatore Romano.
3
Tyson, J. B. (2006). Marcion and Luke-Acts: A Defining Struggle. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
4
BeDuhn, J. (2013). The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. United States: Polebridge Press.
5
Luke 1:1-4. The Bible. New International Version.
6
Gospel of the Ebionites. North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/gospel-of-the-ebionites/
7
Luke 1:5-64. The Bible. New International Version.
8
Luke 1:26-33. The Bible. New International Version.
9
Luke 1:39-80. The Bible. New International Version.
10
Luke 2:1-3. The Bible. New International Version.
11
Eisenman, R. H. (1998). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. United Kingdom: Penguin Publishing Group.
12
Eisenman, R. H. (1998). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. United Kingdom: Penguin Publishing Group.
13
Mason, S. (1992.) Josephus and Luke-Acts. Josephus and the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers.
14
Luke 2:8-15. The Bible. New International Version.
15
Luke 2:22-40. The Bible. New International Version.
16
Luke 2:41-50. The Bible. New International Version.
17
BeDuhn, J. (2013). The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. United States: Polebridge Press.
18
Luke 3:1-3. The Bible. New International Version.
19
Luke 3:11-14. The Bible. New International Version.
20
Davidson, P. (2014). Luke’s Genealogy Compared with Matthew and the Old Testament. Is That In the Bible? https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/lukes-genealogy-compared-with-matthew-and-the-old-testament/
21
BeDuhn, J. (2013). The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. United States: Polebridge Press.
22
Hornik, H. J. & Parsons, M. C. (2020). The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries. United Kingdom: Wiley.
23
Acts 1:3-4. The Bible. New International Version.
24
Luke 24:45-48. The Bible. New International Version.
25
Acts 1:12-18. The Bible. New International Version.
26
Acts 1:21-26. The Bible. New International Version.
27
Pfann, S.J. The Essene Yearly Renewal Ceremony and the Baptism of Repentance. University of the Holy Land. https://www.uhl.ac/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Baptism.pdf
28
Eisenman, R.H. (1998). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Penguin.
29
Acts 2:1-11. The Bible. New International Version.
30
Acts 2:16-41. The Bible. New International Version.
31
Eisenman, R.H. (1998). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Penguin.
32
Acts 3:12-15. The Bible. New International Version.
33
Acts 4:4-21. The Bible. New International Version.
34
Acts 4:32-35. The Bible. New International Version.
35
Acts 5:1-11. The Bible. New International Version.
36
Acts 6:8-15. The Bible. New International Version.
37
Acts 7:1-53. The Bible. New International Version.
38
Acts 7:54-60. The Bible. New International Version.
39
Note: Before his conversion to Jesus worship, Acts refers to Paul as Saul, but for simplicity’s sake, I refer to him consistently as Paul throughout this book.
40
Acts 8:3. The Bible. New International Version.
41
Acts 8:4-13. The Bible. New International Version.
42
Acts 8:14-25. The Bible. New International Version.
43
Ferreiro, A. (2005). Simon Magus in patristic, medieval, and early modern traditions. Brill.
44
Eisenman, R.H. (1998). James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Penguin.
45
Acts 9:1-28. The Bible. New International Version.
46
Acts 10:9-16. The Bible. New International Version.
47
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2007, January 4). Ebionite. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ebionites
48
Acts 13:4-10. The Bible. New International Version.
49
Acts 13:11-12. The Bible. New International Version.
50
Acts 14:8-18. The Bible. New International Version.
51
Acts 15:1-2. The Bible. New International Version.
52
Acts 15:13-21. The Bible. New International Version.
53
Acts 16:6-40. The Bible. New International Version.
54
Acts 17:16-34. The Bible. New International Version.
55
Acts 18:5-6. The Bible. New International Version.
56
Acts 18:24-25. The Bible. New International Version.
57
Acts 19:1-3. The Bible. New International Version.
58
Acts 19:4-7. The Bible. New International Version.
59
1 Corinthians 12:1-11. The Bible. New International Version.
60
Davidson, P. (2018). Biblical Tongues and Modern Glossolalia: From Pentecost to Pentecostalism. Is That In the Bible? https://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2018/08/13/biblical-tongues-and-modern-glossolalia-from-pentecost-to-pentecostalism/
61
1 Corinthians 14:2-20. The Bible. New International Version.
62
Acts 21:17-32. The Bible. New International Version.
63
Acts 23:12-35. The Bible. New International Version.
64
Acts 24:24-27. The Bible. New International Version.
65
Acts 25:22-27. The Bible. New International Version.
66
Acts 27:27-44. The Bible. New International Version.
67
Acts 28:23-31. The Bible. New International Version.