And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.
Acts 17:8 belongs to the account of Paul and Silas's visit and work in Thessalonica. They arrived still showing the effects of the shameful treatment suffered in Philippi, which they explained without exalting themselves and instead magnified God who had delivered them. In Thessalonica Paul used Old Testament prophecies to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.
The apostles' success in gaining large congregations, including leading women of the city and multitudes of Gentiles, filled the Jews with envy. The Jews were themselves under Roman suspicion with restricted liberty after raising an insurrection in Rome not long before, and they saw a chance to re-establish favor and bring reproach on Christians by presenting the new leaders as stirrers of tumult and insurrection. They excited a worthless mob with cunning falsehoods to make a noisy assault on the house of Jason to seize Paul and Silas for the authorities, but friends had hastened the apostles out of the city toward Berea, so the disappointed mob seized Jason and his brother and dragged them before the authorities.
The complaint was that the men who had upset the whole world had come there and acted against Caesar's decrees by proclaiming a different king named Jesus, which the Jews interpreted to mean that Christ would come a second time in that generation and reign on earth as king over all nations. The people and the rulers of the city were troubled because they credited this determined charge, and since Paul and Silas were not found, the magistrates believed it and placed Jason under bonds to keep the peace. By this outcome the persecuting Jews gratified their malice, regained confidence as loyal citizens, and transferred to the converts to Christianity the suspicion that had rested on themselves.
Acts 17:8 belongs to the account of Paul and Silas's visit and work in Thessalonica. They arrived still showing the effects of the shameful treatment suffered in Philippi, which they explained without exalting themselves and instead magnified God who had delivered them. In Thessalonica Paul used Old Testament prophecies to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.
The apostles' success in gaining large congregations, including leading women of the city and multitudes of Gentiles, filled the Jews with envy. The Jews were themselves under Roman suspicion with restricted liberty after raising an insurrection in Rome not long before, and they saw a chance to re-establish favor and bring reproach on Christians by presenting the new leaders as stirrers of tumult and insurrection. They excited a worthless mob with cunning falsehoods to make a noisy assault on the house of Jason to seize Paul and Silas for the authorities, but friends had hastened the apostles out of the city toward Berea, so the disappointed mob seized Jason and his brother and dragged them before the authorities.
The complaint was that the men who had upset the whole world had come there and acted against Caesar's decrees by proclaiming a different king named Jesus, which the Jews interpreted to mean that Christ would come a second time in that generation and reign on earth as king over all nations. The people and the rulers of the city were troubled because they credited this determined charge, and since Paul and Silas were not found, the magistrates believed it and placed Jason under bonds to keep the peace. By this outcome the persecuting Jews gratified their malice, regained confidence as loyal citizens, and transferred to the converts to Christianity the suspicion that had rested on themselves.