The Role of Jews in Paul’s Persecution

In Damascus the Jews conspired to kill Paul (Acts 9:23).

In Pisidian Antioch, “when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed” (Acts 13:45).

In Iconium, “the disbelieving Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers” (Acts 14:2).

In Lystra they stoned him and left him for dead (Acts 14:19).

In Thessalonica, “the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar” (Acts 17:5).

And “when that Paul was preaching in the city of Beroea they went there also, “agitating the multitudes” against Paul (Acts 17:13).

In Corinth, the Jews “opposed him and blasphemed” (Acts 18:6). Later, “the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the [Roman] judgment seat, saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” (Acts 18:12-13). When this failed, they turned on Sosthenes and beat him (Acts 18:17).

In Greece, the Jews made a plot against him (Acts 20:3).

In Miletus, he reminded the Ephesian elders of the assembly how they had seen him serving the Lord with all humility and many tears, and they had seen how severely tested he had been “by the plots of the Jews” (Acts 20:17-19).

In Caesarea, Agabus prophesied that “the Jews at Jerusalem” will seize Paul and “deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles” (Acts 21:11).

In Jerusalem, Jews stirred up the entire crowd by falsely accusing Paul (Acts 21:27-29). “They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. . . . As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Immediately he took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul” (Acts 21:31-32).

Paul testified, but when he said the Lord had told him ‘I will send you far away to the Gentiles,’ the Jews “lifted up their voice, and said, ‘Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!’ As they cried out, and threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air, the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that” (Acts 22:21-24).

The next day, the Roman commander brought Paul to the Jews to find out what he was being accused of. “When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks” (Acts 23:10).

“When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty people who had made this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, ‘We have bound ourselves under a great curse, to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.’ But Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, and he came and entered into the barracks and told Paul” (Acts 23:12-16).

Having been informed, the commander “called to himself two of the centurions, and said, ‘Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen, and two hundred men armed with spears, at the third hour of the night.’ He asked them to provide animals, that they might set Paul on one, and bring him safely to Felix the governor,” (Acts 23:23-24).

Felix told Paul, “ ’I will hear you fully when your accusers also arrive.’ . . . After five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with certain elders and an orator, one Tertullus. They informed the governor against Paul” (Acts 23:35-24:1). They said, “For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we arrested him” (Acts 24:5-6).

Paul was kept under arrest for two years. Then “Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and desiring to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in bonds. Festus therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. Then the high priest and the principal men of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they begged him, asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way. However Festus answered that Paul should be kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to depart shortly. ‘Let them therefore”, said he, “that are in power among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong in the man, let them accuse him.’ When he had stayed among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he sat on the judgment seat, and commanded Paul to be brought. When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing against him many and grievous charges which they could not prove. . . . But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, ‘Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and be judged by me there concerning these things?’ ” (Acts 24:27-25:9).

Since the Jews “plotting to kill him on the way” (Acts 25:3) Paul was forced to appeal to Caesar. A few days later the Roman officials concluded that “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar” (Acts 26:32).

Although the following does not involve Paul, it is further proof of the key role of Jews in the persecution of first century Christians (many of whom, like Paul himself, were former Jews).

In Jerusalem King Herod had James “when he saw that it pleased the Jews,” he arrested Peter as well (Acts 12:1-3).