The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

141 mean is that Paul may deceive or lie. 237 The careful wording of James' recommendation is simply too explicit to allow that Paul was feigning obedience to the Law or giving mere temporary obedience to it when he felt the freedom to abandon it elsewhere. James' counsel not only involves the negative, a denial of what he teaches (21 :21), but also the positive , an affirmation of his own personal lifestyle (21 :24). 238 Paul's purification at the Temple was designed to prove not only that he did not teach Jews to forsake Moses (21:21) but more importantly that he "he himself walked orderly and kept the Law" (21 :24) . The word translate "walk orderly," crTotxiw was used in the military sense of "to be in rank" and is thus paraphrased in 21 :24 as everyone "will see that you too are in the ranks as one who keeps the law. " 239 The word translated "keep," ¢u>.acrcrw is also a strong word especially denoting the careful keeping of God's commandments. 240 Paul appealed to the Law and the prophets (Acts 17:17-18) but when on the Areopagus he related the gospel through pagan poets (Acts 17 :19-34) , becoming like one under the law to those under the law and becoming like one without the Law to those without the Law-without reference to how Paul lived . For a similar view cf. also H. L. Elli on, "Paul and the Law-'All Things to All Men '" in Apostolic History and the Gospel: Biblical and Historical Essays presented to F. F. Bruce on his 60th Birthday , eds. W. Ward Gasque and Ralph P . Martin (Grand Rapids : Eerdmans , 1970), 195-202. 237 After appealing to 1 Corinthians 9, Bruce says "A truly emancipated spirit uch a Paul 's is not in bondage to its own emancipation," Bruce , Acts , 431 , but neither Bruce ' reference nor rhetoric can answer the demands of this situation. 238 he text of 21 :24b is explicit. First the contrast i empha ized between the fal ehood and the truth "there i nothing to the things which they have been told about ou, but (a>.>.a)" then the per onal life tyle is depicted , "that even you our elf ( mhoc;) alk orderly, keeping the Law." 239 . Delling, "crTotxiw , " TDNT, 1:667-68. 2 0 • B rtr m di cu e the word in non-bibli al re k, ' The om f om q>u).a~ ' tchman' and den t th acti it or ffi f a 'to pr tect' tho wh re ciou ' at hmg,' 'b in on the 1 rt,' tr n I t d pr t ct,'' wat ho er,' 'to r for." In th L th meaning mtliar form e ul r re k, but it nth n b i n- ft n ... mm t f pr th di in I