To Put A Face To The Name

In the New Testament, we see different people who either knew Jesus personally or followed Him after His resurrection. The names of some of these people are well known, others are somehow overlooked, but all of them were real people, with their own stories, challenges and decisions. Today, we will try to see some real people of the New Testament in their original first-century context, which might deepen and enrich our understanding of their stories and help us face our own challenges

The Secret Visit

One of the most intriguing stories in the gospels is the story of the secret meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus. Who was Nicodemus? Sometimes, Christian preachers describe him as a cowardly Pharisee who didn’t want to admit publicly that he believed in Jesus and therefore came at night. There are other equally plausible explanations of this night visit: maybe, it was Jesus’ safety that Nicodemus was concerned about?  Indeed, what do we know about this Pharisee?

Unfortunately, for many Christians, the word “Pharisee” became a synonym for ‘hypocrite’, but it’s important to know that it was the sect of Pharisees that was the closest to Jesus’ teaching! In Matthew 3, we read that “many of the Pharisees” came to John the Baptist; doesn’t that mean that many Pharisees were sincere in their search for God? Probably, one of those sincere and earnest seekers was Nicodemus, or Nakdimon Ben-Gurion, who is mentioned in the Talmud as a rich merchant of the first century.

We have to understand that even though the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinical Judaism, was written much later, it still contains many authentic historical accounts from the time of the Second Temple. Therefore, when the Talmud calls Nakdimon a ruler in Jerusalem, it implies that he was a rabbi and a member of the Sanhedrin. Interestingly, the Talmud describes him not only as a righteous man, but also as a very rich man. However, that apparently changed.

In John 3, Nicodemus-Nakdimon came to Jesus at night. However, after Jesus’ death, he openly identified with the followers of Jesus: he came together with Joseph of Arimathea, another disciple of Jesus from the rich ruling class (John 19:39). Did Nicodemus pay a heavy price for his faith? Indeed he did: it seems that, as a result of his profession, poverty came upon him and his family! The Babylonian Talmud records that Rav Yochanan ben Zaccai saw the daughter of Nakdimon struggling with extreme poverty. Therefore, before we decide to judge, let us try to understand better the challenges of the first-century Jewish followers of Jesus.

Did Stephen Know his Bible?

According to most Christian traditions, Stephen is considered the first martyr. Stephen is first mentioned in Acts 6 as one of seven deacons appointed by the Apostles to distribute food to poor members of the community. Since another deacon, Nicholas of Antioch, is specifically called “a proselyte”, it’s assumed that Stephen was Jewish. Was he, indeed? Maybe, we can gather some hints from his famous speech in Acts 7.

Stephen was accused of having spoken blasphemy by declaring that Jesus would destroy the Temple and change the customs of Moses. He was taken to the Sanhedrin, and when asked by the high priest, he made a long speech in reply, reviewing Jewish history from the time of Abraham. Some details in his speech, however, are remarkably different from the traditional biblical text. Why? Didn’t Stephen know his Bible?

For instance, Stephen says that Abraham went to Canaan “when his father was dead”. According to the Torah, Terah was 70 when Abraham was born and 205 when he died (Genesis 11:26, 32); therefore, he was still alive and well when Abraham, at the age of 75, obeyed God’s call and went to the Land. However, the Samaritan Pentateuch says that Terah died at 145, not 205 – so maybe this was the text that Stephen used?

Based on this and some other peculiarities of Stephen’s speech, many scholars believe that Stephen was a Samaritan. Tensions between the Jews and Samaritans were particularly high then, so if Stephen was indeed a Samaritan, it would be an amazing testimony of the uniting power of the message of Jesus. These important details, even though they were obvious to the contemporaries of Jesus, are completely lost to modern readers.

The Prophet in Antioch

In Acts 13:1, among the prophets and teachers of the Antioch congregation, we find “Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch”. Manaen is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Menachem (Comforter). Who was this Menachem? Surprisingly, we discover references to this man in different texts of the time, and probably, the first thing we should understand from all these references is that the man was important.

Joseph Shulam, a founder and a director of the Netivyah Bible Centre in Jerusalem, tells us that it is written in the Babylonian Talmud: “Hillel and Menachem did not differ. Menahem left, Shammai entered.” In order to understand this quote, one has to know the history of the Second Temple period: Hillel and Shammai were well-known rabbis in this time, and they were co-heads of Great Beit Din, or Sanhedrin.  Does this Talmudic text say that before Shammai joined Hillel, Menachem was Av Beit Din, along with Hillel?

Some scholars have interpreted this text as depicting Menachem’s departure to join the Essenes. Thus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus may have been referring to the same person: “There was one of these Essenes whose name was Menachem.” Josephus writes that Menachem led “an excellent life” and that God gave him a prophetic gift: he prophesied Herod’s ascension to the throne when “he was a child” (Antiq.15:10:5).

Thus, Shulam concludes, all three texts seem to speak of the same Menachem who was connected to “Herod the tetrarch” and had a prophetic gift. First, together with Hillel, Menachem served as co-head of the court; then, his spiritual quest probably took him to the Essenes; then, finally, this boyhood companion of Herod Antipas became a follower of Jesus and one of the leaders in the Antioch congregation – and thus we meet him in the book of Acts, among the prophets and teachers of the Antioch congregation, under the Greek name of Manaen.

The Courageous Boy

In Acts 23:16, we meet “the son of Paul’s sister” who tells Lysias about the plot and helps to save Paul’s life: So when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul…  Although Luke writes about it in such a casual manner, as if his reader is well acquainted with Paul’s family, we actually wonder: Who was this nephew? Paul’s family lived in Tarsus; why was his nephew in Jerusalem to begin with? How did he know about the plot? And how did he enter the Roman barracks?

First of all, let us try to figure out how old this “son of Paul’s sister” was. The Greek word used in verse 17 usually refers to a young man. However, since “the commander took him by the hand” (Acts 23:19), he is likely to have been quite young – a child, not an adult. According to Acts 22:3, Paul grew up in Jerusalem “at the feet of Gamaliel”, so Paul’s nephew may have been following in his footsteps.

If this is the case, the uncle and his nephew may have been very close. That would explain the boy’s daring expedition to save Paul’s life. Since he was a child, his presence would not have alarmed the plotters—perhaps that’s why he knew about the plot. Since he was a child, he could enter the Roman barracks easily; in those days, it was common for prisoners to be fed by their family, and a child would be considered a family member.

However, the most important point is this: since he was a minor (קטין), according to Jewish law, he was wholly exempt from any criminal responsibility, and therefore wasn’t legally responsible before the Sanhedrin. Knowing these details of the Jewish first-century environment makes our understanding of the New Testament deeper and richer.