Euangelion
Luke reports that during Paul’s time in Thessalonica, local Jews rounded up an unruly mob and seized Paul’s host, Jason and some other believers, and dragged them before a crowd on the grounds that:
These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus. (Act 17:6-7 NIV).
The actual charge looks a bit garbled to some commentators who have long struggled to identify what the actual offence was. However, C. Kavin Rowe in his book World Upside Down (p. 97) provides great clarity as to what the problem was:
Indeed, the political problem in Acts’ version of the events in Thessalonica is unambiguous: there is a rival King. Lest there remain any doubt, Luke’s careful use of heteros should remove it. It the eyes of its opponents, Christian proclamation positions a King inescapably over against Caesar. There is another King. Precisely in such counter-claims, argue the opponents, do the Christians run afoul of the dogmata Kaisaros. Surely this is really the only sensible way to take the Greek sentence: the practice against the decrees of Caesar is saying that there is a contender for the imperial throne, namely, Jesus.
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