Acts 17:1-9 meaning

In Acts 17:1-9, Paul plants a church in Thessalonica before he is driven out of town by those hostile to the gospel. Paul, Silas, and Timothy are spreading the gospel in Macedonia, which is in Northern Greece (See Map). This is the furthest west from Jerusalem that the gospel has spread. The first major city of Macedonia which the gospel team visited was Philippi, where a woman named Lydia and her household believed in the gospel.

Also in Philippi, Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl, which led to his and Silas’ arrest. While they were imprisoned, God sent an earthquake, which created the opportunity for Paul to share the gospel with his jailer. The jailer and his household believed. The magistrates of Philippi hurried Paul and his team out of town when they realized they were Roman citizens and had been unjustly imprisoned. Before leaving, Paul encouraged the new church of the Philippians.

From Philippi, they go westward:

Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews (v. 1).

Nothing of incident is reported as happening in the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia by Luke, the author of Acts. These cities are noted probably to provide further details of Paul’s journey; Luke’s mission statement for his written gospel and this sequel book of Acts is to provide accurate, chronological details, “the exact truth” of what happened (Luke 1:1-4).

After having traveled through the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia (See Map), Paul and company reach Thessalonica . Here they will plant a church, which will be the recipient of two church letters which were preserved in the New Testament (1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians).

Luke notes that in Thessalonica there is a synagogue of the Jews, which is an important detail because this is where Paul always starts his preaching in each town he comes to: And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them (v. 2).

There is not always a synagogue of the Jews in every city across the Roman Empire. Jewish tradition required a population of at least ten Jewish men to start a synagogue. The Jewish population was miniscule in Philippi, where Paul had just come from, in which case Paul went to a river where believers in God gathered on the Sabbath.

But if a synagogue was present, it was Paul’s mission strategy, or Paul’s custom as Luke phrases it, to go there first. Paul’s intent was to always start by offering the gospel to them—the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, those who were seeking after God and were possibly open to hearing the word of God about the Messiah, Jesus. The reaction is usually mixed, where some Jews and proselytes immediately believe and are eager to learn more, and other Jews stir up persecution against Paul.

Paul has a good run for a little while in Thessalonica, where he is able to teach the gospel on three separate Sabbaths:

and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures (v. 2).

Paul’s method for teaching the gospel is twofold. He relies on his own personal testimony (he saw and spoke with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and many times since) as well as the experiences of the men who knew Jesus, the apostles and disciples of Jerusalem. As evidence that what he is saying is true, Paul has his own firsthand experience with Jesus and the firsthand witness of many other people.

But Paul also uses the Scriptures, the word of God from years past, to demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah whom God foretold through His prophets. The Scriptures at this point in time referred to books from the Old Testament, as the New Testament was still being written during Paul’s lifetime (to which he contributed nearly 25%).

Paul was trained as a Pharisee and was an expert scholar of the Old Testament. For three Sabbaths in the synagogue of the Jews, Paul reasoned with the Thessalonian congregation about Jesus:

explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ” (v. 3).

The Scriptures Paul cited were all the prophecies written throughout Israel’s history, where God the Father encouraged and warned His people that one day He would send a Christ (the Greek word for “Messiah”—one who is anointed by God for a special purpose) to rescue the world from its sin, and then rule as a King over all people (for example: Daniel 7:13-14, 9:24, Psalm 16:9-11, Deuteronomy 18:15-16, Jeremiah 31:31).

This promised Christ, the Christ, was Jesus, and the Scriptures prove this. Using the Scriptures, Paul was explaining to his listeners by giving evidence from the various prophecies that the expected Christ had to suffer. This came as a surprise to the Jews of the first century, even though they eagerly waited for the Messiah. They hoped for a Christ/Messiah who would overthrow the Romans and give Israel back to the Israelites.

It was true that the Christ was prophesied to rule over Israel forever, and all the nations of the world. The Christ was to be the Son of David, and rule over the throne of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13). That was and is a promise yet to be fulfilled (as of this writing).

The Scriptures also foretold that the Christ had to suffer (Isaiah 42:1-4, 53:3-12). While He would suffer for the sins of the world and be rejected by His own people, He would also rise again from the dead to prove He was the Christ and inaugurate a new eternal life which all who believed in Him could receive.

The Scriptures also predicted this, as Paul showed to the Thessalonian Jews. The picture from the scriptures showed both a suffering Messiah and a kingly Messiah. Both were to be fulfilled in one person, Jesus the Christ.

After giving evidence from the Old Testament prophets about what the Christ would do when He came to Israel, Paul then explained how “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” This Jesus suffered and rose again from the dead. Paul had seen and talked with Jesus after He resurrected, as had hundreds of others (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Jesus fulfilled these prophecies.

The reception to Paul’s three sermons at the synagogue in Thessalonica was positive. His preaching was persuasive:

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women (v. 4).

Luke notes that some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas. This refers to the Jews, specifically the males, and that only some of them were persuaded implies only a fraction of the larger population.

But in addition to these men, there was an outsized reaction from the Gentiles in the synagogue, those who followed or who had converted to Judaism and worshipped the true God: a large number of the God-fearing Greeks were also persuaded by Paul’s preaching and believed in Jesus. Further, a number of the leading women in the synagogue also believed. These were the women who were influential and respected in that community.

In Acts 20, Luke names a couple of Thessalonian believers, Aristarchus and Secundus, who join Paul on the journey back to Jerusalem during his third missionary trip (Acts 20:4). Aristarchus had travelled with Paul for some time and survived a riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:29). He is also with Paul during his house arrest in Rome years later, mentioned in two epistles which Paul wrote during that time, where he is described as Paul’s “fellow prisoner,” and sends his greetings to the recipients of both letters (Philemon 1:24, Colossians 4:10).

Based on Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, there were also believers from among the Greeks who turned from idol worship to faith in the one true God:

“For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come."
(1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)

It may be that these former idolators were among the God-fearing Greeks; perhaps they were Greeks who believed in Yahweh as one of many gods but were not fully persuaded that He was the only living, true God until they heard the gospel of Jesus. But this interpretation is uncertain, for it seems that if God-fearing Greeks were allowed by the Jews to attend the synagogue every Sabbath, the same Greeks would not be practicing idolatry on the side.

It is perhaps more probable that the former idolators mentioned in Paul’s letter who believed in Jesus were from among the general population of Greeks in Thessalonica. They may have come to faith and joined the new Thessalonian church through hearing the gospel from their God-fearing neighbors, or perhaps Paul also preached in the market place and Luke simply does not make note of it in this account of Acts 17.

However, while some of the Jewish men, a large number of Greeks, and a number of the leading Jewish and God-fearing Greek women became believers, the other Jews in Thessalonica did not. These Jews, motivated by jealousy, react with swift and strong opposition to the new community of Christians:

But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people (v. 5).

The Jews obviously does not refer to every Jew, since Luke just listed the groups of Jewish men and women who believed in Jesus. But the Jews is a categorical name frequently used in the gospels and Acts to describe the majority of Jews or the Jewish leadership. The Jews of Thessalonica were jealous.

We can only guess what they were jealous of, but jealousy/envy is referenced several times in the New Testament as being a root cause for resistance to Jesus the Messiah and His gospel (Matthew 27:18, Acts 13:45). The Sadducees in Jerusalem—the chief priests—are described as having been envious of Jesus (Mark 15:9-10). In their case, their jealousy dealt with Jesus’s threat to their own political power (John 11:47-48). It could be that the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica had a similar jealousy, that the gospel of Jesus would free people from being under their rule and authority.

These Jews in Thessalonica round up a mob to do their will. Luke writes that they sought out some wicked men who were in the market place. The word translated wicked is the Greek word “ponēros.” In some contexts, “ponēros” can be translated as “diseased,” describing someone’s physical health. These men were morally diseased. They were of low character. We might call them “riff-raff,” “scoundrels,” or “degenerates.” They were apparently men sitting around the market place with nothing productive to do, waiting for anyone to prompt them to cause trouble.

Having formed a mob of wicked men, the Jews and their thugs went throughout the city stirring up chaos. Luke describes their actions as having set the city in an uproar (v. 5). This mob of Jews and wicked Gentile men go to the house of a man named Jason. Luke has not mentioned a man named Jason until now, but we see that in verse 7 “Jason has welcomed” Paul and his team, meaning he was hosting them in his house, just as Lydia had hosted the missionaries in her house in Philippi (Acts 16:15).

The mob crowds outside the house of Jason, attacking it. They were shouting, in an uproar, and were possibly throwing rocks at the walls of Jason’s house, and banging on the door with their fists. Their purpose was such that they were seeking to bring them out to the people. Here, them refers to Paul, Silas, and Timothy. The mob’s violent intent was to take Paul and his team by physical force and bring them out to the people, possibly to stone them to death.

But Paul and his team are hidden, or are not in Jason’s house. The mob does not discover where they are and is unable to seize them. Instead, they attack the missionaries’ host, Jason:

When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities (v. 6).

Since they cannot find Paul, Timothy, or Silas, they settle on grabbing Jason and some brethren, some of the other believers at Jason’s house during this incident. The mob begins dragging these believers and takes them to the local leaders of Thessalonica, the city authorities.

The mob then makes an accusation against Jason and the other believers whom they have captured. Standing before the city authorities, they begin shouting,

“These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus” (vs. 6-7).

In this accusation, there is an implication that the Jews of Thessalonica had heard of Paul. Paul’s reputation as a preacher of Jesus had preceded him. Paul, Timothy, and Silas are described as men who have upset the world. We do not know what exactly is meant by this statement. These men had probably heard lies mixed with truth about Paul. We do know that their accusation is that the status quo has been threatened (an accusation that was actually true, in a spiritual way.)

The spread of the gospel in the book of Acts is always done through persuasion and sometimes through miracles that attest that those preaching are sent by God (1 Thessalonians 1:5). There is no coercion. The apostles and evangelists do not demand faith from others; they only teach, reason, and persuade.

Paul’s recent trouble in Philippi may have reached the ears of the Thessalonians. In Philippi, he cast a demon out of a slave-girl, and her masters made sure he was jailed for doing this.

Paul and his missionary team were innocent of any accusations about upsetting the world in the way human revolutionaries are prone to. But as a matter of changing men’s minds, the gospel certainly does upset the world. The world is at enmity with God (James 4:4, John 15:18-19). The gospel frees men from slavery to the world and its system of sin and exploitation (Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:2). By preaching the gospel message, Paul has upset the world. It began with Jesus Christ the Son of God dying and resurrecting, and the world order has been upset ever since.

Paul’s enemies, while they do not have Paul in custody, describe the trouble with him and his team. These preachers have upset the world, and they have come here to our city of Thessalonica also. They are going to upset our order, our way of doing things. This is the danger of Paul and his team: they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus (v. 7).

The assertion is that Paul and his team are treasonous because they act contrary to the decrees and laws of the emperor, Caesar. Caesar is the all-powerful autocrat among men, the political head of the Roman Empire. Caesar is the highest human authority on earth at that time.

Again, there are lies mixed in with the truth. Paul, and all the apostles, advocated the obedience of human laws. They taught that believers in Jesus, wherever they lived, should obey the governing authorities, and that human authorities are in their position of governance only because God has put them there. If they are wicked tyrants, God will deal with them in the judgement.

But there is nothing in Jesus’s teachings or His apostles’ that leads believers to think they don’t have to follow the law of the land, or that they can act contrary to the decrees of human kings (Matthew 22:15-22, John 19:11, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17, Titus 3:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Paul was careful to obey local laws and to work within the legal system to his advantage. On several occasions, he appeals to his own civil rights as a Roman citizen to avoid physical punishment, sham trials, and a possible assassination attempt (Acts 22:24-29, 25:7-12).

The only instances in which the apostles openly defy authorities is when they tell the priests and rabbis in Jerusalem that they will not be silenced, that they will always preach the gospel, because they fear God more than man (Acts 4:18-20, 5:29). But in doing so, the apostles do not seek to topple the Jewish leadership, nor do they seek to start a fight with Rome. They peacefully preach the good news of Jesus Christ under the lead of the Holy Spirit. They practice a peaceful form of civil disobedience only when the laws of men contradict the commands of God.

The truth, however, in these Thessalonians’ accusation is that Paul absolutely does teach that there is another king, Jesus. Jesus is the King of kings, having been rewarded rulership over all the earth forever by God the Father because of His obedience unto death on the cross (Matthew 28:18, Philippians 2:5-11).

This claim of kingship was largely what helped put Jesus to death in the first place. The Jews here in Thessalonica are doing just as the Jewish leaders did in their prosecution of Jesus before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate (John 19:15). In an effort to destroy Paul, the Jews sided with Caesar over God (John 19:15). Just as the leaders in Jesus’s time did not joyfully receive their Messiah king, these Thessalonian Jews prefer Caesar over another king, Jesus.

Jason, whom the mob seized, is a stand-in for Paul at this spontaneous trial, since they could not find Paul. The mob points to Jason’s partnership with the alleged treasonous troublemakers who have come to town, Jason has welcomed them (v. 7). Jason is accused of aiding and abetting these men who are loyal to another king besides Caesar.

Their accusation has a powerful effect on those listening. Not only the city leaders, but the crowd that has gathered to hear what is going on—all are outraged at the news that Paul and his team are in town:

They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things (v. 8).

Thessalonica is now a dangerous place for Paul, Timothy, and Silas. The crowd is against Paul, meaning the regular people gathered at this scene. The city authorities too are decidedly in opposition to Paul, and they wield the legal power to hunt the missionaries down, imprison them, and pin some kind of criminal offense upon them. At the least, they can always accuse Paul of disturbing the peace.

Essentially, the entire city has been stirred up to deal with the problem of Paul. It speaks poorly of the Thessalonians’ discernment and general interest in truth. But this situation is exactly what Jesus warned His followers would happen, and that they would be blessed and rewarded for being faithful through it (Matthew 5:10-12, 10:16-18).

Jason and his fellow believers were probably terrified at being dragged to the authorities, but they are not made to suffer much more. Instead, they are able to pay some form of bail money to avoid imprisonment and buy time to safely deport Paul:

And when they (the city leaders) had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them (v. 9).

It is debated what the pledge was; perhaps it was a pledge to send away Paul and his teammates, since that is what ends up happening.  Perhaps it was a pledge to behave. It would be easy for Jason to pledge that they would be peaceful since that had been their practice. Paul has committed no crimes. He has not even taught publicly, but exclusively in the privacy of the synagogue. Jason and the others have not disturbed the peace, the rabble rousers have.

Jason had merely given room and board to three Jews from out of town, nothing more. But in an effort live at peace with all men (Romans 12:18), Jason is obliged to give a pledge to the city authorities.

Though he had to suffer the humiliation of being dragged before the authorities and slandered, threatened, and shaken down for a payout, Jason does not disavow his faith, as far as we can tell. He gives a pledge to ensure that he and the other believers who were arrested are released, so that he can then make sure Paul and his team leave town safely.

It is clear that the hostile Jews and the wicked men they stirred up are out for Paul’s blood. The fact that in the following section Paul leaves secretly by night indicates the serious threat upon his life, as well as the continued persecution from these Thessalonians, who will follow his tracks to Berea to menace him there as well. Jason thus maneuvers to protect his fellow believers and the missionary team, so that they can live to preach another day wherever the Spirit leads them next.