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NASB | Acts 16:3 Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 16:3 Paul wanted Timothy to go with him [as a missionary]; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek. |
Bible Question: What is the reason for paul's circumcising Timothy (Acts 16) |
Bible Answer: Hi, D-Eagle... Luke gives us the answer in the second half of the verse, "because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek." The Biblical scholar J. S. Howson wrote on this question, "Had Timothy not been circumcised, a storm would have gathered round the apostle in his farther progress. His fixed line of procedure was to act on the cities through the synagogues; and to preach the Gospel to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. But such a course would have been impossible had not Timothy been circumcised. He must necessarily have been repelled by that people who endeavored once to murder Paul because they imagined he had taken a Greek into the temple (Acts 21:29). The very intercourse of social life would have been almost impossible, for it was still 'an abomination' for the circumcised to eat with the uncircumcised." This had nothing to do with a kind of saving or sanctifying efficacy (cf 1 Corinthians 7:19). This was a simple expediency that opened doors for Timothy's ministry that would otherwise have been closed at that time. In another incident, Paul's refusal to bow to the demands of the Judaizers (Galatians 2:3) was a response to an issue that struck at the very core of the Gospel itself. In Him, Doc |
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iktoose | ||
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birdy Chickster | ||
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MrsDean | ||
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D-Eagle | ||
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DocTrinsograce | ||
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Val | ||
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DocTrinsograce |