BEMA Episode Link: 138: Unclean Sheets
Episode Length: 44:52
Published Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 01:00:00 -0700
Session 4
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings meet Saul, persecutor of Jesus, and wrestle with the questions of his identity and his experience; they also encounter the entrance of some unlikely characters into God’s narrative.

Discussion Video for BEMA 138

The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Oxford University Press (NRSV)

Transcript for BEMA 138

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

BEMA Episode 138: Unclean Sheets - Study Notes

Title & Source Summary

Episode: BEMA 138 - “Unclean Sheets”
Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings
Primary Focus: This episode examines two pivotal stories from Acts 9-11: Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road and Peter’s vision of the sheet with unclean animals. The discussion centers on whether these events represent conversions or deeper revelations within the existing Jewish faith narrative, challenging traditional interpretations that separate Judaism from early Christianity.

Key Takeaways

• Saul’s transformation may be better understood as repentance rather than conversion - he remained a Jew following the same God with new understanding rather than switching religious systems

• Peter’s vision was about people, not food - the sheet with unclean animals was preparing Peter to accept Gentiles, not declaring all foods clean for consumption

• Early Christianity remained fundamentally Jewish through Acts 9-11 - the first major Gentile inclusion (Cornelius) was groundbreaking precisely because the movement had been entirely Jewish

• Oral law (Halakhah) versus written Torah distinction is crucial - many restrictions on Jewish-Gentile interaction came from oral traditions, not biblical commands

• The New Testament addresses one central question: Should Gentiles follow Torah, and if so, how? This tension between Jewish and Gentile believers shapes much of the apostolic writings

Main Concepts & Theories

Conversion vs. Repentance Framework

Marty challenges the traditional “conversion” narrative by arguing that Saul didn’t switch religious teams but gained proper understanding of his existing faith. Key evidence:

  • Saul was trained under Gamaliel the Elder (grandson of Hillel), giving him impeccable Jewish credentials
  • Jesus claims Saul was persecuting Him personally, suggesting Saul’s zeal was misdirected, not fundamentally wrong
  • The question becomes: “Did he switch teams, or did Saul/Paul end up following the same God, with the same faith but a new understanding?”
Oral Law (Halakhah) vs. Written Torah

The distinction between God’s written commands and human interpretations proves central to understanding Peter’s vision:

  • Written Torah: The 613 commandments given by God, including dietary laws
  • Oral Torah (Halakhah): Human interpretations and applications, including the tradition that Jews shouldn’t eat with Gentiles
  • Jesus often upheld written Torah while challenging problematic oral traditions
  • Peter’s struggle involved oral law restrictions on Gentile association, not biblical food laws
The Cornelius Encounter as Paradigm Shift

This represents the first major Gentile inclusion without requiring full Jewish conversion:

  • Occurred in Caesarea Maritima, a thoroughly Roman (not Jewish) city
  • Cornelius was already a “God-fearer” - a Gentile attracted to Jewish faith
  • The shock of Jewish believers when Gentiles received the Holy Spirit demonstrates how Jewish the early movement had been
  • Peter had to defend his actions to the Jerusalem church, showing internal tension
Jewish Context of Early Acts

The episode emphasizes maintaining Jewish perspective throughout Acts:

  • Pentecost was a Jewish festival (Shavuot) experienced by Jews
  • All early believers, leadership, and conflicts were internal Jewish matters
  • The 3,000 converts at Pentecost were Jews, not Gentiles
  • Even persecution under Saul targeted Jewish followers of Jesus in synagogues

Examples & Applications

Historical Context Applications
  • Caesarea Maritima: Built by Herod the Great to honor Caesar, representing Roman values rather than Jewish ones - providing the perfect setting for the first major Gentile inclusion
  • Damascus Letters: Saul’s authority from the high priest to arrest believers in synagogues demonstrates that early Christianity operated within Jewish institutional structures
  • Gamaliel’s Influence: As grandson of Hillel (the rabbi Jesus most often aligned with), Gamaliel represents mainstream Jewish thought, making Saul’s background more compatible with Jesus’s teachings than typically assumed
Modern Application of Oral vs. Written Law
  • Christian Traditions: Modern Christians also have “oral laws” - unwritten interpretations and practices that sometimes overshadow biblical commands
  • Cultural Barriers: Like Jewish oral law creating barriers with Gentiles, modern church traditions can create unnecessary barriers to including different cultural groups
  • Authority Questions: Jesus’s authority to critique oral tradition while upholding written Torah provides a model for evaluating religious practices
Translation and Interpretation Issues
  • “Jews” vs. “Judeans”: The Greek term ioudaio likely refers to residents of Judea (including Sadducees and Herodians) rather than all ethnic Jews, affecting how we understand who opposed Jesus
  • Food Laws Misinterpretation: The common reading that God declared all foods clean ignores Peter’s own interpretation of his vision and the textual context

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

Timeline and Historical Questions
  • Dating Paul’s conversion in relation to Jesus’s resurrection and the development of the early church
  • Relationship between Jerusalem church and Diaspora churches - extent of tension and eventual resolution
  • Archaeological evidence for Jewish-Christian communities in the first century
Theological Development
  • Romans 11 and the grafting metaphor - how Gentiles join the existing Jewish “tree” rather than God planting a new one
  • Galatians and Paul’s Gospel development - how Paul worked out the inclusion of Gentiles theologically
  • The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) as the formal resolution of Gentile inclusion questions
Comparative Religious Studies
  • Modern Jewish-Christian relations and how this historical understanding might bridge contemporary divisions
  • Other religious conversion narratives and how they compare to the repentance model proposed for Paul
  • Role of oral tradition in various religious systems and its relationship to written scripture
Hermeneutical Questions
  • Methods for distinguishing cultural context from universal principles in biblical interpretation
  • Role of Jewish context in interpreting New Testament passages typically read from Gentile perspectives
  • Authority structures for evaluating traditional interpretations against textual evidence

Comprehension Questions

  1. Analysis Question: According to Marty’s argument, what is the key difference between viewing Saul’s Damascus road experience as a “conversion” versus a “repentance,” and what implications does this distinction have for understanding the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity?

  2. Contextual Understanding: Explain the difference between written Torah and oral law (Halakhah) as presented in the episode, and demonstrate how this distinction affects the interpretation of Peter’s vision about clean and unclean animals.

  3. Historical Significance: Why was the inclusion of Cornelius such a paradigm shift for the early Jewish believers, and what does their shock at Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit reveal about the nature of the early church up to that point?

  4. Interpretive Skills: How does Peter himself interpret his vision about the sheet with unclean animals, and how does his interpretation challenge common Christian readings of this passage regarding food laws?

  5. Application Question: Based on the episode’s discussion of how oral traditions can sometimes create barriers that God wants removed, what parallels might exist in modern church practices, and how should contemporary believers evaluate inherited traditions?

Brief Personalized Summary

This episode fundamentally challenges the traditional Christian narrative that sees early faith as quickly separating from Judaism. Instead, it presents a picture where the first major struggle involved Jewish believers learning to include Gentiles in their existing faith community. Paul’s transformation appears less like switching religions and more like gaining proper understanding of his Jewish faith through Jesus. Peter’s vision addressed human relationships, not dietary laws - preparing him to break down artificial barriers created by oral traditions rather than biblical commands.

The most striking insight is recognizing how thoroughly Jewish the early church remained through Acts 11, making Cornelius’s inclusion genuinely revolutionary. This perspective has profound implications for how we understand the relationship between the “Old” and “New” Testaments, suggesting continuity rather than replacement. The episode sets up crucial questions about Gentile inclusion in God’s ongoing Jewish story that will shape the rest of the New Testament narrative. Understanding these dynamics helps explain much of the tension visible in Paul’s letters and provides a framework for reading the New Testament as an internal Jewish discussion about including the nations, rather than as the birth of a separate religion.

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