Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea because of a vow he had taken.

//Ever wonder about this vow made by Paul? I wish Paul himself had written about this vow, but he didn’t, so we’re left to speculate. So speculate I shall.

“’Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies,” says Leviticus 21:5. But non-priests were free to cut their hair, and in fact, it became a way of mourning or sealing a vow to God in times of distress. Like wearing sackcloth and ashes. To underscore the vow, Israelites cut the hair off their head and burnt it at the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Paul appears to have made a vow in Corinth and sealed it with a haircut at Cenchrea. He was about to embark on a lengthy journey which would eventually land him in Jerusalem. His purpose was to deliver a collection of money needed by the Jews there, but his friends begged him not to go, knowing the danger. But Paul had made a vow and wouldn’t listen. He seemed determined to go personally to the Temple in Jerusalem, perhaps carrying his hair to be burned.

You know the rest: He was captured, taken to Rome, and probably was never again a free man. There, in Rome, he was beheaded.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again.

★★★★★

Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, along comes Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic Culture and Rhetoric at the University of California.

You think Christianity’s unique contribution to Judaism was the introduction of a god-man? Wrong. Could it be the idea of a suffering savior? Wrong again. Maybe that Jesus rejected Jewish dietary laws and Sabbath restrictions, freeing us from the Law? Hardly; Boyarin paints a very Jewish Jesus in his reading of the Gospels, certainly a Jesus who keeps kosher.

Christianity’s one claim to fame may be the insistence that the Messiah had already arrived, but that’s about the extent of its uniqueness. Otherwise, Christianity is a very Jewish offshoot of a Jewish religion. Boyarin draws from texts like the Book of Daniel and 1st Enoch to explain the title Son of Man (which, it turns out, is a much more exalted title than Son of God) and in turn to expose the expectation of many first-century Jews of just such a divine savior.

This is a fascinating, controversial book presenting a very different look at Jesus as one who defended Torah from wayward Judaic sects (the Pharisees), rather than vice versa. I don’t think the arguments are fully developed yet, but certainly Boyarin introduces “reasonable doubt” against traditional scholarship. Let the arguing begin.

But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”

//Paul, before the Sanhedrin court in Jerusalem, drew the ire of the high priest Ananias by claiming to be doing the will of God. So Ananias gave him a whack across the chops, and Paul responded that God would strike Ananias down. Paul was right.

Ananias developed a reputation for greed, violence and coercion with the Romans. This association with the Romans did not enamor him to Jewish nationalists, the Zealots, when war broke out with Rome. According to Jewish historian Josephus, the Zealots burned Ananias’ house and he was forced to flee to Herod’s palace. He was trapped while hiding in an aqueduct there on the palace grounds and killed.

Impressive forecast! But lest we give Paul too much credit, it must be remembered that these words in the book of Acts were written twenty or more years after Ananias died.

★★★★

Harper One appears to be doing a reprint of Rob Bell’s works, and sent me a nice little stack of books. So I’m beginning with Bell’s Cinderella work, Velvet Elvis, published back in 2005. I had actually never read it before. Had heard it talked about, but never turned the cover. It turns out to be a good book, but I really didn’t enjoy it as much as I did Bell’s latest, Love Wins. I’ll review that one shortly.

Velvet Elvis is written in a style exactly like I expect the young mega-church pastor to preach: friendly and colloquial, somewhat meandering, common-sensical. I don’t quite get the “Velvet Elvis” part, so let’s ignore the title and just say his is common-sense Christianity. It’s not terribly controversial (it’s actually more conservative than I expected), and it’s not theologically probing, but it’s clear Bell can think for himself … or rather, he can unthink some of the stray ideas that have led many Christians away from simply living a Christian life. I absolutely love this observation early in the book about what happens when you try to follow Jesus:

Over time when you purposefully try to live the way of Jesus, you start noticing something deeper going on. You begin realizing the reason this is the best way to live is that it is rooted in profound truths about how the world is. You find yourself living more and more in tune with ultimate reality. You are more and more in sync with how the universe is at its deepest levels.

What is Bell talking about? He’s talking about what it means to be a disciple of a first-century Rabbi who sees potential in each of us, and calls us to live like him. He’s talking about what happens when you quit pushing your religion on your neighbors and dwell like Christians among them. He’s talking about what happens when you view God’s dream for mankind as one of him coming down to make his home with us, rather than us peering into the heavens with a forlorn hope of rapturous escape. He’s talking about compassion, goodness, simplicity, all the things that can make this world a better place for all of us.