Provocation to Zeal

In a superb Biblical Horizons lecture, Jeff Meyers pointed out that Jerusalem’s Jews become more intensely hostily to the gospel through the course of Acts. Priests and the council attack the apostles at the beginning, but let them go with a warning. Finally, they join to stone Stephen, and the action moves away from Jerusalem for most of the book. Finally, Paul returns to Jerusalem in the final section, and everyone’s become ravenous: He is arrested by a bestial mob in the temple, forty men take a vow to kill him, and the Jews are plotting to use Roman power to destroy Paul.

Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles is a provocation to jealousy in the sense that it aims to turn the Jews to Jesus so they can share in the riches of the fulfilled promises to Abraham. But Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles is also a provocation to zeal. Jews become zealots in the full sense of the word because of Paul’s ministry.