“How did St. Paul save himself when angry Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to kill him when he returned to Jerusalem?” Teaching about Jesus threatened the incomes of those in the Jerusalem Establishment. They were worried when thousands and thousands of their donors, and some of them, began to follow Jesus. Acts 22:30 and 23:6-11 tell how Paul got the Roman Tribune to “to determine the truth” by “ordering the whole Sanhedrin to convene”.
How did St. Paul defeat the Jerusalem Establishment! “Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees. So he called out before the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead. When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the group (the entire Jewish Sanhedrin!) became divided.” Since the Pharisees recognized resurrection, angels, and spirits, they said, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”
When “a great uproar occurred”, the commander was “afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, and ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul.”
Paul had done such a good job standing up for Jesus that: “The following night, the Lord stood by him and said: ‘Take Courage. For just as you have borne witness to My cause in Jerusalem, you must also bear witness in Rome.”
Why did God choose Paul? Paul had learned a lot about how Rome worked when he met Lydia on his journey to Phillipi. Her Jewish family of tentmakers had been exiled from Rome. While staying in her house, she and her household became Catholic, and he learned a lot about people and institutions in Rome from her. That helped him work effectively there for Jesus and the Catholic Church, whose headquarters St. Peter would soon move to Rome.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “When God sent Paul to Rome / He was sending him home. / And to Heaven.”
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