But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul… Acts 23:16
I wonder what the apostle Paul’s sister was like?
Paul’s sister? What sister? I never knew he had a sister!
Was that your reaction to my question? Well, sorry, but here she is – along with her son, Paul’s nephew, who plays a crucial part in the apostle’s life.
What was her name? We don’t know. Was she older or younger than Paul – a bossy big sis, perhaps? We don’t know. Had she become a follower of Jesus, like her brother? Again, we don’t know.
In fact, we know absolutely nothing about her beyond the tiny fragment of information we get in this verse. You know those stormy nights when the sky is ink-black and there is a sudden flash of lightning which, for the splittest of split seconds, shows you something you otherwise would never see? Well, I find this verse a little like that – a sudden fascinating glimpse into an aspect of Paul’s life which we had probably never so much as thought about.
What’s been going on?
Well, Paul has come to Jerusalem to worship, as any good Jew might, but some of his fellow-Jews are enraged by his presence in the temple precincts and stir up a riot against him. They want him killed as a fanatical trouble-maker.
Things get so hot that Roman soldiers have to come to his rescue. An attempt to calm things down doesn’t really succeed (chapter 22), and forty men swear an oath “not to eat or drink until we have killed him” (23:12).
The situation is grim and dangerous. But – guess what! – “the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot” and reported it to Paul who, in turn, made sure that the Roman authorities were informed. The plot is accordingly scotched, and Paul lives, as it were, to fight another day.
To me, the main value of this tiny insight is to remind us that the people we sometimes think of as great Bible heroes were in fact entirely ordinary human beings with ordinary family backgrounds.
I would love – wouldn’t you? – to see Paul and his sister playing together as children, to know what sort of relationship they had as they grew to adulthood, to know how Paul got on with his nephew (who is virtually the hero of this story). But all I can do is use my imagination.
But there can be no reason to doubt that, just like Jesus himself, they had a family background which, from the outside at least, was pretty normal and ordinary.
The same applies to other Bible figures.
We know that Simon Peter was a married man, for the gospels tell us how Jesus healed his mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31). We might wonder what his wife felt about him taking up with this strange preacher Jesus? Did she oppose or support him? Did they have arguments about Jesus? (In fact, a tiny snippet of 1 Corinthians 9 – verse 5 – suggests that she was at least happy to tag along with him in his apostolic ministry.)
We know a bit too about the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. She seems to have been quite a pushy mother determined to stand up for her boys (sound familiar?) – see Matthew 20:20-21.
So – where does all this lead us?
We need to get it into our heads that the prominent figures of the Bible are emphatically not distant and mysterious figures in stained glass windows. They are people of flesh and blood, human beings, just like you and me.
Personally, I make a point of stubbornly refusing to refer to the apostles as Saint Matthew or Saint Peter or Saint Paul or whoever. In the New Testament the word “saint” refers to any follower of Jesus – see, for example, Romans 1:7 or 2 Corinthians 1:1. Peter, Paul and the rest are no more saints than you or me, if we too love and follow Jesus.
So let this tiny glimpse into Paul’s family life lead us to see him as a man – somebody to respect and admire, by all means, but not somebody to be in awe of. And let it lead us also to recognise that we too can make a significant mark by our lives.
By the way… another question intrigues me regarding the conspiracy and the role of Paul’s nephew. What happened to those forty men who had sworn to fast until they saw Paul dead? Did they die of starvation a few weeks later?
I very much doubt it. No, they would have found a wriggle-hole out of their oath, I’m pretty sure of that.
But let them be a warning to us – don’t make rash and foolish promises!
Father in heaven, thank you that in Jesus you have made me just as much a saint as the great people of the Bible. Help me to live like one! Amen.
I wonder what the apostle Paul’s sister was like?
Paul’s sister? What sister? I never knew he had a sister!
Was that your reaction to my question? Well, sorry, but here she is – along with her son, Paul’s nephew, who plays a crucial part in the apostle’s life.
What was her name? We don’t know. Was she older or younger than Paul – a bossy big sis, perhaps? We don’t know. Had she become a follower of Jesus, like her brother? Again, we don’t know.
In fact, we know absolutely nothing about her beyond the tiny fragment of information we get in this verse. You know those stormy nights when the sky is ink-black and there is a sudden flash of lightning which, for the splittest of split seconds, shows you something you otherwise would never see? Well, I find this verse a little like that – a sudden fascinating glimpse into an aspect of Paul’s life which we had probably never so much as thought about.
What’s been going on?
Well, Paul has come to Jerusalem to worship, as any good Jew might, but some of his fellow-Jews are enraged by his presence in the temple precincts and stir up a riot against him. They want him killed as a fanatical trouble-maker.
Things get so hot that Roman soldiers have to come to his rescue. An attempt to calm things down doesn’t really succeed (chapter 22), and forty men swear an oath “not to eat or drink until we have killed him” (23:12).
The situation is grim and dangerous. But – guess what! – “the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot” and reported it to Paul who, in turn, made sure that the Roman authorities were informed. The plot is accordingly scotched, and Paul lives, as it were, to fight another day.
To me, the main value of this tiny insight is to remind us that the people we sometimes think of as great Bible heroes were in fact entirely ordinary human beings with ordinary family backgrounds.
I would love – wouldn’t you? – to see Paul and his sister playing together as children, to know what sort of relationship they had as they grew to adulthood, to know how Paul got on with his nephew (who is virtually the hero of this story). But all I can do is use my imagination.
But there can be no reason to doubt that, just like Jesus himself, they had a family background which, from the outside at least, was pretty normal and ordinary.
The same applies to other Bible figures.
We know that Simon Peter was a married man, for the gospels tell us how Jesus healed his mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31). We might wonder what his wife felt about him taking up with this strange preacher Jesus? Did she oppose or support him? Did they have arguments about Jesus? (In fact, a tiny snippet of 1 Corinthians 9 – verse 5 – suggests that she was at least happy to tag along with him in his apostolic ministry.)
We know a bit too about the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. She seems to have been quite a pushy mother determined to stand up for her boys (sound familiar?) – see Matthew 20:20-21.
So – where does all this lead us?
We need to get it into our heads that the prominent figures of the Bible are emphatically not distant and mysterious figures in stained glass windows. They are people of flesh and blood, human beings, just like you and me.
Personally, I make a point of stubbornly refusing to refer to the apostles as Saint Matthew or Saint Peter or Saint Paul or whoever. In the New Testament the word “saint” refers to any follower of Jesus – see, for example, Romans 1:7 or 2 Corinthians 1:1. Peter, Paul and the rest are no more saints than you or me, if we too love and follow Jesus.
So let this tiny glimpse into Paul’s family life lead us to see him as a man – somebody to respect and admire, by all means, but not somebody to be in awe of. And let it lead us also to recognise that we too can make a significant mark by our lives.
By the way… another question intrigues me regarding the conspiracy and the role of Paul’s nephew. What happened to those forty men who had sworn to fast until they saw Paul dead? Did they die of starvation a few weeks later?
I very much doubt it. No, they would have found a wriggle-hole out of their oath, I’m pretty sure of that.
But let them be a warning to us – don’t make rash and foolish promises!
Father in heaven, thank you that in Jesus you have made me just as much a saint as the great people of the Bible. Help me to live like one! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment