Law of Witnesees - Acts 18:4-6

While Paul was working as a tentmaker in Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” The “Greeks” probably meant gentile adherents to Judaism without actual conversion, and because the audience at the synagogue would have been familiar with the scriptures, Paul probably used the scriptures to “prove” to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. This wasn’t a one time event, but he did it every week. Routine is important, and I guess that’s a lesson for me because I’ve been slacking on this blog and my personal scripture study for the first time in many years and I’ve really felt it. I’ve had a lot of major life changes recently and they’ve been great additions and I’m grateful, but I’ve spent more time than I needed to “adjusting.” So I’m going to try to take Paul’s example and be consistent in my scripture study again.

Paul worked and taught alone until “Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia,” and it was at that point that “Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.” It would appear that the Paul was more mild in his interactions until his companions got there, then at that point was prompted by the Spirit to testify boldly to the Jews and devout Greeks of Jesus’ Messiahship. This begs the question, why wait until Silas and Timothy got there to prompt Paul to preach boldly? I can think of a couple of reasons, just speculating.
First, Paul appeared to have a very strong personality, so his way of teaching might have been perceived as harsh by some people and their rejection of the gospel might have been a rejection of Paul as a person just as much as a rejection of his message. Silas and Timothy appear to have more temperate personalities so when they showed up, anyone who didn’t like Paul’s teachings because of the messenger, could have heard the same teachings in different ways from Silas and Timothy, therefore they would have had the opportunity to appreciate the whole message instead of just Paul.
The second, and probably most important reason that Paul had waited to boldly testify to the Jews and believers until Silas and Timothy arrived comes back to the Jewish law of witnesses in which the testimony of two or three men establishes truth. Paul teaching the gospel alone had no authority to insist that those in the audience accept his words as truth because by the law in which Jehovah himself had set forth, he was the only person claiming this information as truth. The people could not have been held accountable for rejecting the gospel with Paul as their only witness and teacher. Only the addition of one or two more men professing the same message could have satisfied the law of witnesses and made the people’s rejection serious business.
So all of this is coming together to make sense with what happens next. Paul “was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.” Paul had been spending weeks with the Jews and believers in this synagogue, or at least this city so they have had plenty of time to ask him questions, hear what he has to say and judge for themselves. Silas and Timothy showing up and confirming Paul’s teachings now fulfills the law of witnesses and justifies Paul in moving on from them and ridding himself of their sins.
It’s an excellent example that God obeys law and makes no exception based on what he knows people will do later. God would have been totally reasonable to say “they aren’t going to accept the gospel anyway, leave them alone and teach the gentiles.” It would have meant that some of the accepting gentiles would have gotten the gospel that much sooner and had that joy and hope in their lives. But God can not thwart the rules just because he knows that when the witnesses finally do get there that the Jews will reject the message anyway. It would be like if God had treated Laman and Lemuel like apostates their whole lives just because he knew that they would become murderous monsters later. If God had done that then it could be argued that their poor treatment from heaven contributed to their wayward path. Because God blessed them when they were righteous and withdrew when they were not, that landed accountability for their horrific behavior later squarely on their own shoulders.