One in a Million

 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,  Acts 26:17  NASB

Rescuing – Imagine yourself to be Paul standing before Agrippa.  You are giving a defense of your Messianic beliefs.  You begin with a description of your past affiliation with the Pharisees, your zealous commitment to the Jewish way of life and your behavior toward those who claimed Yeshua as Messiah.  Then you speak of your encounter with the risen Messiah on the Damascus road.  Just like Moses, in the encounter you ask, “Who are you, Lord?”  And just like Moses, the Lord gives you an assignment.  “Stand up.  I am appointing you minister and witness.”  Then comes this verse, a quotation from the words of the risen Yeshua.  Do you find something odd here?  In what sense is Yeshua rescuing Paul from the “Jewish” people and the Gentiles?  Frankly, that doesn’t make any sense at all.  Did Paul need to be delivered from the Jews and the Gentiles?  Hardly!  At this point, he was enthusiastically endorsed by the Jews and, as a Pharisee, he had no dealing with the Gentiles.  Rescued?  No, I don’t think so.

Let’s look at the Greek text to see why the NASB (and nearly all other translations) choose words like “rescuing” or “delivering.”  First, we must note that Yeshua did not speak Greek to Paul on the road.  Whatever Greek word is used in this text in Acts is a translation of some Hebrew word.  Secondly, we should note that Paul speaks Hebrew to Agrippa, so there is no possibility that Paul himself translated the Hebrew to Greek for Agrippa’s benefit.[1]  The premise of Paul’s defense is that Agrippa is a Jew and will understand these Jewish things.  The verb in question, rendered rescuing by the NASB, is exaireo.  Thayer’s lexicon notes two possible uses; the first in the sense of “take out” (found in Matthew 5:29) and the second as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew bahar, meaning, “to select or choose after careful consideration.”  Thayer actually cites Acts 26:17 as an example of this second usage.  And that makes perfect sense.  Yeshua HaMashiach does not rescue or deliver Paul from his own people or from the Gentiles.  At this point, neither group poses any threat to Paul.  Yeshua selects Paul from (out of) the Jews and the Gentiles and sends him on a mission (the next verse).  Thayer’s lexicon and the Hebrew vocabulary demonstrate that exaireo should be understood as the combination of ek (out) and haireomai (to take for oneself).

This makes Paul’s argument even stronger.  He compares his “heavenly vision” to that of the Jewish prophets, called by God to complete a task.  His description of this task (“open their eyes”) reminds Agrippa of the strong prophetic tradition of the Jewish people.  Paul declares that he is doing nothing more or less than what he is called to do.

This raises the question, “Why does the NASB, NIV, ESV, NKJV, NRSV, KJV and even Young’s Literal translate this verb as the sense of deliverance or rescue?”  The answer is replacement theology bias.  In the minds of all of these translators, Paul is commissioned to bring the Christian message to both Jew and Gentile.  Therefore, he must be rescued from his Jewish heritage and Jewish way of life.  Paul doesn’t know it, but “Jesus” is introducing him to the Christian religion.  With this preconception, “rescue” is what’s needed.  This denies everything Paul says about his own views and his own behavior but it doesn’t matter.  What matters is recruiting Paul as the first Christian missionary.  The fact that translating the verse this way ignores the sense of the verse, the Hebrew vocabulary and the alternative Greek meaning is irrelevant.  Theology trumps translation.

Topical Index:  rescuing, exaireo, Acts 26:17