Abstract

DU TOIT, Philip La G.. Was Paul fully Torah observant according to Acts?. Herv. teol. stud. [online]. 2016, vol.72, n.3, pp.1-9. ISSN 2072-8050.  https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i3.3396.

This article primarily examines the question if the Acts of the Apostles portrays Paul as being fully Torah observant. This question secondarily coheres with the question if it can be derived from Acts whether it was expected of all Christ-believers from the loudaioi to fully adhere to the Torah, or that such a belief was universal in the early church. The conclusions on all of these questions are negative. These conclusions are reached by way of analysing these claims against the text of Acts (mainly 15:1-35; 16:3; 18:18; 21:17-26; 21:39; 22:3, 23:6 and 26:5) in comparison with the principle Paul laid out in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 to be everything to everyone. The latter principle is found to be compatible with the narrative in Acts, although the difference in the approaches of Luke and Paul is acknowledged, especially in terms of their portrayal of the Mosaic Law.

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