Videos—3MJ: Return (Judea)
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Return—Judea: Rhodes
Luke’s command of the Greco-Roman world of his day as evidenced in Acts is unquestionably impressive. Of the abundance of his references in passing, 30 countries, 50 cities, many islands, and 60–100 persons are exclusive to Acts in the Bible. His grasp of local politics, customs, seafaring, culture, and the Mediterranean world is masterful and puts him in an elite category of cosmopolitan writers from the ancient world. Of the many islands mentioned by Luke, one quite famous is the island of Rhodes, almost always included on any tour group’s cruising itinerary.
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Return—Judea: Caesarea
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Caesarea: Herod's Port City
Many of the spectacular ruins in Israel today are the result of the building programs of Herod the Great. Herod entertained grandiose Hellenistic aspirations, and constructed monuments and cities to match. Judea had no natural harbor, so Herod used Roman engineering to create the largest manmade harbor of the ancient world, and a fine city as adornment. He named his capital Caesarea after his patron, the emperor Augustus. The city became known as Caesarea Maritima, “Caesarea by the Sea,” to distinguish this port city from Caesarea Philippi, the city built later at ancient Pan by Herod’s son, Philip the Tetrarch, also named after Augustus.
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Caesarea: Roman Governors
Judea became an imperial province after Herod’s son, Archelaus, who ruled Judea from 4 B.C. to A.D. 6, was banished to Gaul by Augustus after only ten years. The Roman governors took up residence in Herod the Great’s capital city of Caesarea, using Herod’s former palace as residence and governmental headquarters. Caesarea also is where we meet the Roman governors Felix and Festus, before whom Paul defended himself in Acts, as well as a defense before Agrippa II, Herod the Great’s great grandson.
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Caesarea: Pilate Iinscription
During excavations at Caesarea an inscription was found at the theater with the name of Pontius Pilate. This inscription is our only archeological confirmation of the existence of Pilate. Only during Jewish festivals, when Jerusalem crowds swelled and unrest seethed under the surface, did the Roman governor temporarily live in Jerusalem to command his troops in station at the Antonia Fortress adjacent to the temple. Such a festival time is when we meet Pilate considering the case of Jesus before the fickle Jerusalem crowds, who only a week before had acclaimed Jesus the royal Son of David in the Triumphal Entry into the city.
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Caesarea: Early Church
Caesarea figures prominently into the story of the early church in Acts. Philip the Evangelist lived here after the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. Cornelius the centurion was converted here, who, as a “God-fearer,” became the paradigm of Pauline conversions on Paul’s missionary journeys. Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, ruled Judea and lived in Caesarea when attacking early church leaders, such as having James the brother of John murdered and imprisoning the apostle Peter.
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Caesarea: Herod's Port City
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Return—Judea: Jerusalem
The assumption often is made that God’s will was for Paul to go to Jerusalem. That assumption is wrong, but you have to love the text (read carefully) to hear what Luke actually says. Luke makes clear from the beginning of Paul’s work that God never wanted Paul in Jerusalem. Even shortly after the Damascus Road, God clearly told Paul he must avoid public activity in Jerusalem. Paul’s private visits to salute leaders of the Jerusalem church were not problematic to God’s purposes. However, Paul’s public preaching and testimony in Jerusalem were problematic to God’s purposes, and God told Paul so. In a vision in the temple soon after the Damascus road vision—a vision Paul himself relates but is almost completely ignored by readers of Acts—God made clear to Paul that Paul’s testimony in Jerusalem never would serve God’s purposes. Thus, God told Paul to leave Jerusalem immediately, and that command was God’s on-going divine mandate over Paul’s life (Acts 22:21). When Paul insisted on going to Jerusalem at the end of the 3MJ, therefore, he was out of God’s will. In fact, The Holy Spirit made patently clear to Paul that God’s “stay out of Jerusalem” mandate was still in place even while Paul was on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4). God’s will for Paul, instead, was Rome (Acts 23:11). Jerusalem, then, as Luke tells the story, was Paul’s self-willed, destructive, and disastrous detour in the divine itinerary west to Rome.
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