• “Hear My Defense”
    “Bearing Thorough Witness” About God’s Kingdom

    • Many Still “Zealous for the Law” (Acts 21:20b, 21)

      6. What problem did Paul learn about?

      6 The elders then revealed to Paul that there was a problem in Judea that involved him personally. They said: “You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the Law. But they have heard it rumored about you that you have been teaching all the Jews among the nations an apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to follow the customary practices.”a​—Acts 21:20b, 21.

      7, 8. (a) What mistaken view did many Christians in Judea have? (b) Why did the mistaken thinking of some Jewish Christians not amount to apostasy?

      7 Why were so many Christians still zealous for the Mosaic Law, well over 20 years after it had been abolished? (Col. 2:14) In 49 C.E. the apostles and elders meeting in Jerusalem had sent a letter to the congregations explaining that believers from among the nations did not need to submit to circumcision and come under the Mosaic Law. (Acts 15:23-29) However, that letter had not mentioned Jewish believers, many of whom did not understand that the Mosaic Law no longer applied.

      8 Did that mistaken thinking disqualify such Jewish believers from being Christians? No. It was not as if they had once been worshippers of pagan gods and were now continuing to follow the religious customs of their former faith. The Law that was so important to those Jewish believers had originally been given by Jehovah. Nothing in it was demonic or wrong in itself. But that Law had to do with the old covenant, whereas Christians were now under the new covenant. The observances of the Law covenant were now obsolete as far as pure worship was concerned. Hebrew Christians who were zealous for the Law lacked understanding and confidence in the Christian congregation. They needed to bring their thinking into line with the progressive revelation of truth.b​—Jer. 31:31-34; Luke 22:20.

  • “Hear My Defense”
    “Bearing Thorough Witness” About God’s Kingdom

    • b A few years later, the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Hebrews, in which he proved the superiority of the new covenant. In that letter, he clearly demonstrated that the new covenant made the old covenant obsolete. In addition to providing convincing arguments that Jewish Christians could use to answer their Jewish detractors, Paul’s powerful reasoning doubtless strengthened the faith of some Christians who were putting too much emphasis on the Mosaic Law.​—Heb. 8:7-13.