Israel “Instantly” Serving God. The Signifcance Of Paul’s Defense Before King Agrippa
A fascinating and much misunderstood passage is found in the Book of Acts 26:6-7, “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.” (KJV) A number of critics have claimed this verse precludes the idea of scattered Israelites, including the lost ten tribes of the House of Israel, existing outside of Palestine, because they think that only the Jews in Palestine were immediately worshipping God.
The word “instantly” in the King James Text causes some confusion because it can have three meanings. According to Webster’s 1828 First American Dictionary, it can denote: first, “immediately without any intervening time;” secondly, “with urgent importunity;” and thirdly, “with diligence and earnestness. Acts 26.” Webster’s thus indicates that “earnestness” is the meaning of the English word in this key verse.
The word “instantly” is translated from a Greek word, “ekteneia” (Strongs G1616). According to the authoritative Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, editor Gerhard Kittel, says, “…the Christian must be constantly aware that he has not yet reached the goal. Instead of a condition of Christian action we thus have an attitude…this word…first means ‘endurance’ (LXX Judith 4:9; 2 Macc. 14:38; 3 Macc. 6:41), which comes to be thought of as an attitude…” (ii:464)
There is no question that Israel’s lost tribes, even in their paganized state, had a definite form of religion with an earnest attitude of worship and endurance. Yet in their Gentilized condition they still retained vestiges of their Old Testament religion and culture, as is made abundantly clear in our studies, “The Old Testament Roots of Norse, Greek and Celtic Mythology” published in three parts. Jewish historian, Moses Margoliouth, in his classic work, “Antiquity of the Jews in Britain” (1846), gave similar evidence that Israel expatriates in the British Isles did indeed retain Hebrew messianic hopes and remnants of biblical worship.
The Cambridge Greek Testament adds, “Paul himself knew that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Cf. also 2 Chron. 31:1 for evidence of the existence of some of the ten tribes after the Captivity. In T. B. Berachoth 20 a Rabbi Jochanan says ‘I am from the root of Joseph.’” The Jews knew that the ten tribes still existed in the world outside of Jewish Palestine.
Eighteenth-century expositor, Thomas Coke, gave Luke 2:36 as evidence to claim that there was a largescale return of the House of Israel after the Babylonian exile of Judah five centuries before Christ: “And there was Anna, a prophetess, a daughter of Penuel, out of the tribe of Asher (she is advanced in her many days, living with a husband seven years from her virginity.” This verse, however, actually disproves Coke’s argument, for the very singular mention of only one person, Anna, is the “exception that proves the rule” that there was no large general return of the House of Israel from exile. The ten tribes were not included in the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, were not exiled to Babylon, and therefore did not return from there.
The meaning of Acts 26:7 is made clear in a literal translation, the Rotherham Emphasized Bible, which states, “unto which hope , our twelve-tribed nation, with intensity, night and day, rendering divine service, is hoping to attain—concerning which hope, I am being accused by Jews, O King!” The Apostle Paul does not intend to imply that every individual Israelite in the world, nor each and every one of the 12 tribes was reverently serving God in Palestine. He is only acknowledging that Israel remains, as he says in his own koine Greek words, a “dodekaphulon hemon” (twelve-tribe) nation composed of twelve individual tribes, not just one amalgamated, united and fused solitary tribe called the Jews. If all of Israel’s tribes had been merged and indistinguishable into the Jewish nation, Paul would not have referred to Israel as still being twelve tribes!
Yet there is another important statement Paul is making, to quote from another literal translation, the Concordant Version: “And now, in expectation of the promise which came by God to our fathers, I stand being judged, to which our twelve-tribed people, earnestly offering divine service night and day, is expecting to attain. Concerning which expectation I am being indicted by Jews, O King!” The fulfilment of “the Promise,” the earthly physical Messianic Kingdom composed of the reunited twelve tribes of Israel, was not then a current reality but a future expectation. That future fulfilment would be at the return of the Messiah at the end of the age.
Thomas Coke also made these interesting remarks: “…many of them [the ten tribes] who did not return to the land of Canaan, did nevertheless entertain hopes of the coming of the Messiah, and of a resurrection and future state of happiness.”
This overlooked and extremely important point is raised in the Biblical Background Commentary (Intervarsity Press), which states, “Two of the most basic future hopes of most Jews were the resurrection of the bodies of the righteous and the restoration of the twelve tribes at the same time.” The coming of Messiah and establishment of His Kingdom with the resurrection of the dead was an end of the age event; and they are inextricably tied with the return of the lost ten tribes and reuniting of the Israel nation. This is made clear in Ezekiel’s important prophecy of the two sticks, ten tribe Israel and two tribe Judah, being reunited under “David’s greater son” the Messiah at His return. (Ezek. 37:15-28)
This truth is also confirmed in the Believers Bible Commentary: “The patriarchs of the Old Testament died without seeing the fulfillment of this promise. Does this mean that God would not carry out the terms of the covenants? He would most assuredly do so! But how could He do it when the fathers were already dead? The answer is, ‘By raising them from the dead.’ Thus, in a very direct way, the apostle links the promises made to the Old Testament saints with the resurrection of the dead.” Again, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel, including the restoration of the twelve tribes, would occur only at the return of Christ.
We see that the Apostle Paul intertwined four important events: Israel’s return, the Second Coming, the resurrection of the dead, and the establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom. These are all indivisibly linked in the Apostle Paul’s defense before King Agrippa.
The Believer’s Bible Commentary continues: “The apostle pictured the twelve tribes of Israel as earnestly and ceaselessly serving God, hoping to see the promise fulfilled. This reference to the twelve tribes is important in view of the current teaching that ten of the tribes of Israel have been ‘lost’ since the captivity. Though they were scattered among the Gentile nations, the Apostle Paul saw them as a distinct people, serving God and looking for the promised Deliverer.”
To summarize, this key verse in Acts provides clear biblical evidence on two important and widely misunderstood points: First, that the ten tribes neither died off nor amalgamated out of existence, but were distinct tribes in new homelands afar off. The story of the migrations and new settlements of lost Israel is told in the wonderful book by WH Bennett, “The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel” available from CBIA. Secondly, the reuniting of the “two sticks,” Israel and Judah, would take place only at the end of the age at the time of Messiah’s return. The modern followers of Judaism, therefore, do not—indeed cannot—represent the sum total of the physical descendants of Israel in the world today.
