Philip Fogarty SJ • June 21, 2018

The Acts of the Apostles

Philip Fogarty SJ sets the context of the disputes out of which arose the idea that the preaching the gospel of Jesus and his resurrection was not just for the Jews but for “all the nations”. At the centre of this is St Paul and the story is told by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles.

There is a common, though false, perception that Jesus, during his lifetime, established a new Church and endowed it with its own sacraments, liturgy, priesthood and hierarchy. However, Jesus was not a founding figure in that sense. His mission was primarily to the people of Israel who already had their own scriptures, feasts, liturgy and priesthood, and he did not set out to replace them.

For a time after the resurrection, some synagogues accepted Jewish believers in Christ in their midst. But the fact that Gentiles and hated Samaritans were being accepted into the Christian community, and intermingled with Jewish Christians who still frequented the synagogue, may well have contributed to a growing hostility from Jewish leaders.

Furthermore, when Christians came to speak of Jesus as divine, fierce debates took place with those Jews who thought that the followers of Jesus were abandoning belief in the one true God by making Jesus into a second God. (John’s Gospel, written somewhere between 80 and 110 A.D, noted that the ‘Jews’ [the synagogue leaders, not the people as a whole] agreed among themselves that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah [the Christ] would be put out of the synagogue.’ (Jn 9:22)

So the formation of the Church as a separate group, distinct from Judaism, came about gradually and only then did it develop its own sacraments, separate liturgy and priesthood based on the teaching of Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles is the first sustained narrative of the Church’s beginnings, and the second volume of a two-part story, the first part being Luke’s Gospel. Both were written somewhere around 85 AD, give or take five to ten years, probably in a Gentile area of Greece that had been evangelised by Paul or his disciples.

Luke’s purpose in writing his two part narrative was to reassure his patron, one Theophilus, (Lk 1:1-4: Acts 1:1) and the largely Gentile readership that he represented, ‘that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed’ (Lk 1:4).

One such ‘truth’ was that Gentiles, as well as Jews, were to receive the blessings promised by God to ‘Abraham and his descendants forever’ (Lk 1:54-55). Gentiles would, in effect, become part of God’s people, and the Acts of the Apostles celebrates the successful acceptance of the Gospel by Gentiles, especially through the preaching of Saint Paul.

However, the success of the Gentile mission posed a serious problem: if Gentiles accepted Jesus as God’s emissary, and Jews in large measure did not, did this mean that God had abandoned his Chosen People, and given up on ‘the promises he made to their ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever’ (Lk 1:55).

If this were the case, could not God be accused of deception and disloyalty?

Furthermore, if God was prepared to abandon the ‘People of the Promise’, might God not reject the Gentiles even more easily at some future date?

Luke set out to show how God, in and through Jesus, continued to fulfil his promises to the Jewish people, and that a great number of Jews did in fact accept Jesus (Acts 2:41). By showing that the Christian community was essentially a ‘restored and renewed Israel’, Luke was able to show that the mission to the Gentiles was not a replacement of God’s care for Israel but a legitimate extension of it.

The Acts of the Apostles continues the story of Jesus into the story of the early Church, from its birth at Pentecost, to its success among the Gentiles all the way to Rome, the very heart of the Empire. The active agent in the growth of the church is the Holy Spirit who replicates in the lives of the Apostles and the Christian community the pattern of life and love first exemplified in Jesus. God’s Spirit, working in and through human freedom, especially in people such as Paul, did not cease its activity at the death of Jesus but continues it in the life of the Christian community in each succeeding generation.

Paul enters Luke’s story at the moment that the deacon Stephen is being stoned to death, an action of which he fully approved (Acts 8:1). Paul was probably born in Tarsus in modern Turkey somewhere between the years 5-10 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Unlike many Jews, he was also a Roman citizen. In his day, Jews born outside of Palestine often had two names, one Greek, or Roman, the other Semitic. So Paul was known as Paul or Saul, after the first king of Israel. He was well educated, able to write good Greek, had basic rhetorical skills, and, in his letters, he quotes from the Jewish Scriptures that were written in Greek.

Paul learnt a trade as a tentmaker, a skilled craft with skins involving leatherwork, the making of tents and awnings. As a tradesman he would have been among the lower social classes, but a step up from people who had become citizens by being freed from slavery. When he was in his twenties, after a solid upbringing in Tarsus, he may well have gone to Jerusalem to study Jewish law. Was it then that he joined the party of the Pharisees?

Paul may well have been the instigator of the event that led to Stephen’s stoning. He says of himself in his letters, ‘I am a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee; as to zeal a persecutor of the church’ (Philippians 3:5). In Galatians he wrote, ‘You have, no doubt, heard of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it’ (Gal 1: 13).

Why was he trying to destroy the new-born Church? Probably because he saw the followers of Jesus as proclaiming a message that was contrary to the Pharisees’ interpretations of the Law of Moses, the so-called ‘tradition of the elders’, and, in particular, because of the notion that Jesus was the God-approved Messiah, a man condemned to death by the Jewish authorities as a blasphemer.

Luke tells us that after Stephen’s death ‘a severe persecution began against the Church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.’ Paul, in the meantime, was ravaging the Church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, and committing them to prison.

By Webmaster July 12, 2025
To help sustain and nourish the faith of Christian seafarers; To encourage the Christian seafarer to witness to his faith; To dialogue with non-Christian religions; To promote justice for those seafarers who are being exploited.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
Taking place at Ampleforth College from Friday 22nd - Monday 25th August , the Youth 2000 Summer Festival provides young adults (aged 16-35) from across the UK the opportunity to come together and explore faith, build relationships and find hope. This four-day festival includes great speakers, social time, break-out sessions, Daily Mass, 24/7 Adoration and much more! Register at: youth2000.org/events/summerfestival2025. Tickets are also available for priests, religious, families and groups. For more information, email: events@youth2000.org .  If you would like to know more or fancy meeting up at Y2K (Saturday only), please contact Gill in the Parish Office or speak to Lauren Rayner (our flautist at Sunday morning Mass).
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
OLK HEALING SERVICE: The next Healing Service will be on Tuesday 15th July at 7pm in St Mary’s Catholic Church, Horsforth. This is a beautiful opportunity to pray for healing for yourself or others, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual. Remember Jesus is alive, and miracles can and do happen! Everyone is welcome, including non-Catholics and those of no faith - all that is needed is an openness to Jesus.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
: Our new Marian Garden is starting to take shape and the statue of Mary is now firmly in place. You can see the garden adjacent to the car park and through the Parish Centre windows. We are looking for contributions of plants especially of the perennial variety. If you would like to contribute or offer help for the care of the garden please speak to or contact Andrea Nicholls via the Parish Office. The Marian Garden will be blessed by Father Steven on the 20th July at the Parish Picnic.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
OUR PARISH PICNIC – THIS WEEKEND! Sunday 20 th July, 12 to 3pm in the Parish Centre/Garden – Join friends (and make new ones), at our Parish Picnic. You can find sign-up sheets for our bring and share picnic food in the Narthex – We would especially like to encourage our parishioners from different continents to bring and share their traditional food for us all to sample. Please see poster in the Narthex for more details. All are welcome. The Parish Social Events Team would welcome any help with the set up and clear up of this event. (Saturday evening set up). SUMMER RAFFLE: 🎟️ Tickets on sale at £1 per strip. GUESS THE NAME OF THE TEDDY : 🧸 Why not try your luck at guessing the teddy’s name – the winner gets to give teddy a new home. £1 per guess. HOW MANY SWEETS ARE IN THE JAR? : 🍬 Are you up for the challenge of guessing how many sweets you think the jar might contain? £1 per guess. All winners will be announced at the Parish Picnic. All proceeds go towards our Parish funds. Please contact Annette Allsop on 07717756770 for more details
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
Sunday 20th July 2-4pm You are invited to enter the beautiful house and grounds of The Briery for an afternoon of fun and entertainment. Receive a glass of fizz on arrival, browse and shop at the many stalls; craft cards, jewellery, Fairtrade, books, cakes, tombola…and then enjoy a delicious cream tea.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
As Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem, he is confronted by a scholar of the law who wants to test him. The lawyer asks what we must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks the expert to answer this question, “What is written in the law?” The man is caught and responds with Deuteronomy 6:5. Love of God and love of neighbour are what is required for eternal life. Jesus' response is simple, “Do this and you will live.” The lawyer tries another question: Who is my neighbour whom I must love like myself? This was a trick question. Jesus responds with the parable, the Good Samaritan. The traveller in this parable is identified only as “a certain man.” Luke uses this phrase in many of his parables so that the audience, could identify with the man. After an attack from bandits, a man is left for dead, naked and bleeding on the side of the road. A priest comes along, instead of helping, he crosses the road. Another religious person comes along. His reaction is the same as the priest's. Both choose to not find out if the man is alive. A third comes along. Instead, he is a Samaritan, an Israelite's most hated neighbour. The Samaritan goes over to the injured man, cleans his wounds, puts him on his own animal, takes him to an inn to recover, and promises to pay all his expenses. The hated enemy is the compassionate neighbour in this parable. Jesus has demolished all boundary expectations. It is not social definitions such as class, religion, gender, or ethnicity that determines who is our neighbour. A neighbour is a person who acts with compassion toward another. The point becomes not who deserves to be loved as I love myself, but that I become a person who treats everyone with compassion. When Jesus asks the lawyer who was the neighbour in the story, he can't bring himself to say it was the Samaritan. All he says is that it was “the one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus' response was similar to that of the first discussion: “Go and do likewise.” The lawyer, and we, know what is right. The key is to do it.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
This year our retreat at The Briery will take place over the weekend of 31 October to 2 November . The cost will be in the region of £190 -£200 which includes all meals from Friday teatime to Sunday Lunch. If you think you may be interested then please contact Christine Szczepanski via the Parish Office.
By Webmaster July 12, 2025
There will be a series of special Jubilee Masses in some of the churches in the Deanery.  Parishioners are encouraged to go to some or all of these Masses and so become ‘pilgrims’ in this Holy Year whose theme is Pilgrims of Hope. Jubilee Masses are: Tuesday 15 July - St John’s Normanton; Tuesday 9 September - St Michael’s Knottingley. All Jubilee Masses start at 7.00pm
By Webmaster July 4, 2025
Free Guided Tours will take place on the following dates, starting at 1.30pm: Sat. 12 July; and Sat. 23 August. The tours last about 1 hour. No booking required. On arrival, please gather by the Baptismal Font at the back of the Cathedral.
More Posts