Acts 17:7

Acts 17:7. These all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar. It is observable that the complaint did not touch the real ground of discontent, viz. the supposed injury which the teaching of Paul would do to their religion.

Such a charge would never have been listened to; it would have been treated by these politarchs of Thessalonica just as a similar accusation was disposed of by Gallio the proconsul of Achaia (Acts 18:14-16). The Jews here charged Paul and his companion with a political offence of a like nature to the crime of which Jesus was accused before Pilate. It was a vague but not uncommon accusation in those days which charged an obnoxious person with treason against Caesar. The decrees here referred to were the Julian ‘Leges Majestatis.' The accusation, as we shall see in the next clause, seems to have been based upon certain often-recurring words used by Paul in his preaching at Thessalonica respecting the kingdom of Christ. This appears again and again in his two epistles to this church.

Saying that there is another king, one Jesus. The royal state of Christ's second advent seems to have been a favourite topic with Paul in his preaching in this city. We gather this from the two epistles to the church of Thessalonica, in which doubtless the salient points of the oral teaching of the great apostle were briefly reviewed. Compare, among many passages, such statements as are found in 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:5. Gloag suggests that the title ‘Lord' so frequently given by Christians to their great Master may have given occasion to the charge, so often apparently repeated, that the disciples of Christ were really asserting His claim to the kingly office.

The title ‘king' (βασιλεύς) was applied byGreeks to the Roman emperor. No Latin, however, termed the Cæsar rex.