• “He Reasoned With Them From the Scriptures”
    “Bearing Thorough Witness” About God’s Kingdom
    • Paul and Silas seeking refuge in a gated courtyard to escape an angry mob. A man speaks to the mob through the gate.

      “They . . . were seeking to have Paul and Silas brought out to the mob.”​—Acts 17:5

      10 Luke tells us what happened next: “The Jews, getting jealous, gathered together some wicked men who were loitering at the marketplace and formed a mob and proceeded to throw the city into an uproar. They assaulted the house of Jason and were seeking to have Paul and Silas brought out to the mob. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the city rulers, crying out: ‘These men who have overturned the inhabited earth are present here also, and Jason has received them as his guests. All these men act in opposition to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus.’” (Acts 17:5-7) How would this mob action affect Paul and his companions?

      11. What charges were brought against Paul and his fellow Kingdom proclaimers, and what decree might the accusers have had in mind? (See footnote.)

      11 A mob is an ugly thing. It rushes with the fury of a swollen river​—violent and uncontrolled. This was the weapon that the Jews employed to try to rid themselves of Paul and Silas. Then, after the Jews had thrown the city “into an uproar,” they tried to convince the rulers that the charges were weighty. The first charge was that Paul and his fellow Kingdom proclaimers had “overturned the inhabited earth,” though Paul and his companions had not caused the uproar in Thessalonica! The second charge was far more serious. The Jews argued that the missionaries proclaimed another King, Jesus, thereby violating the decrees of the emperor.a

      12. What shows that the charges against Christians in Thessalonica could have brought serious consequences?

      12 Recall that the religious leaders brought a similar charge against Jesus. To Pilate they said: “We found this man subverting our nation . . . and saying he himself is Christ a king.” (Luke 23:2) Possibly fearing that the emperor might conclude that Pilate condoned high treason, he sentenced Jesus to death. Similarly, the charges against the Christians in Thessalonica could have brought serious consequences. One reference work states: “It is hard to exaggerate the danger to which this exposed them, for ‘the very suggestion of treason against the Emperors often proved fatal to the accused.’” Would this hateful attack prove successful?