Episode 24: The Lynching of Stephen before Saul of Tarsus

The growing sect of the Nazorean continued to add new members, creating logistical challenges for the movement. Seven men were appointed to help matters. With Pilate removed, leaving Judea without a procurator, the crowd in Jerusalem was stirred up to the point of stoning Stephen, one of the seven. The recently installed high priest was then removed by Lucius Vitellius, governor of Syria, who would not tolerate such mob action.    SHOWNOTES That some priests joined the sect of the Nazorean (Acts 6:7) That the twelve were to be part of ruling God’s people at the end times, sitting on twelve thrones (Matt 19:28; LK 22:30).  The story of the seven and the stoning of Stephen is told in Acts 6-7.  That descendants of Jewish slaves became emancipated Roman citizens (cf. Philo, Legatio ad Gaium, 23 (155)). That one who blasphemes shall be brought outside the city and stoned to death (Lev 24:14-15). “Whenever we crucify criminals…[we place them] where the greatest number of people can watch and be influenced by this threat; for every penalty is aimed not so much at the offense, as at its exemplary value." (Quintilian, Declamationes maiores 274.13) Saul, born in Tarsus but raised in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3) Saul as a “skēnopoios” by trade, which can mean tentmaker, but also one who works with any type of leather. (Acts 18:3-4) That Saul's sister lived in Jerusalem and she had a son, who was close to Saul in his early years (Acts 23:16).  Saul being from the tribe of Benjamin: Jewish identity was connected to the twelve tribes, the twelve sons of Jacob, aka Israel, son of Rebecca and Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah. Of the twelve tribes, ten settled in the north, which was known as Israel, and two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, settled in the south, known as Judah. After a brief period of a united kingdom of the twelve tribes from the time of Saul, the first king, to David and his son Solomon, the kingdom was divided into the north, aka Israel whose capital was Samaria and the south, aka, Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. The northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria in about 722 BCE and many of those people (tribes) were ‘lost’ as they were deported or otherwise assimilated into Assyria. Judah, the southern kingdom, was conquered and brought into exile by Babylon in about 586 BCE. Only when the Persian king Cyrus defeated Babylon were the exiles allowed to return to Judah. At that time they rebuilt the temple and recommitted themselves to following God’s Law, aka Mosaic Law, in part so that they would not suffer another defeat such as that experienced at the hands of the Babylonians. That Paul traced his lineage to the tribe of Benjamin indicates that his ancestors were of the southern kingdom of Judah.