Acts 13:4-12 | Head-to-HeadSýnishorn

Head-to-Head with Rome?

Acts 13 (and the pattern it sets up) is not what we’d expect. The Jews always stood in distinction to the nations around them. The nations were the ones who were constantly threatening and oppressing them. Opposition to God and the people of God was from the outside. (Though as we saw in yesterday’s reading, a closer reading of the Old Testament shows that far more often opposition came from within.) So we would expect that in Acts, Paul and the early Christians would face their strongest opposition from Rome.

Not so. Here in Acts 13, it’s a Roman governor who comes to believe.

Luke describes Sergius Paulus as an intelligent man, one who wanted to hear the word of God. This was not a man looking to persecute Christians. This was not a man diametrically opposed to their message.

It’s not the only instance. In Acts we see that it’s a Roman centurion who is the first person named to receive the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles (Acts 10). Later it’s a detachment of Roman soldiers who guarantee safe passage for Paul (Acts 23). We see that it’s Roman governors who listen to Paul. It’s a Roman governor who gives Paul a hearing and listens with a certain responsiveness to his message (Acts 24), and later, a different governor who listens to his witness and protects him with due process of law (Acts 25-26). It’s Roman citizenship that protects Paul (Acts 16; Acts 22) and it’s the Romans who bring him to Rome where he witnesses in the heart of the Empire with a certain level of freedom (Acts 28).

This is not to say Rome should be thought of as an ally of Christ’s kingdom or as a friend. According to history, Rome would later kill Paul, and Peter, and enact various persecutions against the Christians from the time of Nero and through the next three centuries. It’s Rome who’s pictured as a beast in league with the devil in Revelation. And we see the emperor Claudius expel the Jews from Rome (Acts 18) over what the Roman historian, Suetonius, will say was due to disturbances instigated by “Chrestus” (The Twelve Caesars: Life of Claudius 25.4). But not here. Not always. Not exclusively.

While it’s inevitable that the gospel of Jesus will bring us head-to-head with those who oppose it, we should be careful never to demonize people, lump people into one category, take an adversarial relationship towards those “on the outside,” or think in terms of us versus them. People (and life) are more nuanced than that. The point of the gospel is not to dominate or overrun those who stand against it. The point of the gospel is to bring hope and love, salvation and forgives, to those who stand against it. Rome is not the enemy. Because those who have not yet come into Christ’s kingdom are not the enemy. God loves those who don’t yet believe, even those who stand against him. There are Romans ready to believe.

It’s here in Acts 13, that for the first time, Saul is called Paul. Saul is a Jewish name, named after King Saul of old. Paul is a Greco-Roman name. There’re all kinds of interesting theories on the name change.

• Is Paul now going by his Greek nickname? It was common for Jews of the day to have two names—a name by which they were known among their Jewish people and a name by which they were known in the outside world (think of how many immigrants simplify their name to more Anglo-sounding conventions).
• Was he shifting to another one of his legal names? It was also typical for a Roman citizen to have at least three names. Perhaps it’s similar to someone going by their middle name instead of their first.
• Did he shift from Saul to Paul because is sounds similar and would sit better in a Gentile audience? It’s possible that the translation of “Saul” into Greek ears carried a bad connotation (it unintentionally would be heard as “effeminate”).
• Does Paul adopt the name of this Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus? Perhaps as a testimony to his conversion or to his missionary work among the Romans?

Acts doesn’t tell us. But what we do see is that from here on out, he goes by the Gentile name, Paul. Paul is not afraid to associate with the Gentiles, or even be known as one of them.

We shouldn’t either. Don’t create head-to-head tensions where they don’t need to exist. Love outsiders like Jesus did. God works powerfully when we reach out to people instead of rushing to go head-to-head.