In this daily Bible reading Paul is brought before the chief Jewish priest and high Council to speak to them. The council was non-receptive to Paul and struck him in the face when he started to speak. However, Paul was clever and perceive that the council was comprised of both Pharisees and Sadducees.
The Pharisees believed in life after death. The Sadducees did not. So Paul said to them, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead.” This statement caused a dissension in the group and resulted in a great uproar.
This event demonstrated a method that Paul used to spread the Gospel. He started on common ground with the people. He perceived where they were in their beliefs and used that as a starting point for his discussions. For example, when Paul spoke to the Greeks in Athens, he had noticed that they had a statue to an ‘unknown God.’ Paul used this to assert that the real God is the Greeks’ ‘unknown God.’
With the Jews, Paul’s main starting point in his discussions was the Book of the Law. This is equivalent to our current Bible’s Old Testament. Both Paul and the Jews believed in the truth of the Book of the Law. Paul would then focus on the prophecies in the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus, proving that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. This required Paul to be well trained and knowledgeable of the Old Testament, and he certainly was.
