Paul’s Four‑Point Confession and the Message of Salvation in Pisidian Antioch

Lectio Divina

19th Oct 2026

Fr Pat Collins CM

Commentary 23 on the Acts

Last week we looked at the first part of Paul’s first missionary sermon, which was given in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch in modern-day Turkey. What we have in this reading is the final section of that sermon to the Jews of Galatia. Paul addresses both Jewish descendants ("sons of the family of Abraham") and God-fearing Gentiles, stating that the message of salvation is sent directly to them. As Paul came to the heart of his sermon, he appealed respectfully and urgently for a hearing. "Men, brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles," he said, "it is to us  that this message of salvation has been sent." Then he presented a four-point Christian confession like that in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: 1) 

1] Jesus was crucified. The leaders and residents of Jerusalem did not recognise him as the Messiah. By condemning an innocent man and asking Pontius Pilate to execute him, they unknowingly fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies read every Sabbath. As it says in v. 27 "in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath" For example, in Is 53:1-4 we read, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”

2] They "laid him in a tomb"

3] "God raised him from the dead“ The key point made by Paul was the assertion of the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead. The contrast between what human beings did to Jesus and what God did is evident. The resurrection of Jesus is part of the divine plan of salvation. Luke stresses that salvation, which is available to Israel and all human beings, comes precisely through the resurrection of Jesus.  As St Paul said in 1 Cor 15:14, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

4] “For many days he was seen by those who had travelled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem," who are "now his witnesses to our people.” Speaking about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, St Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:1-8,  “He appeared to Cephas (Simon Peter), then to the Twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

To support this four-point confession, and to demonstrate the fulfilment of what God has promised, Paul cited three OT passages full of messianic meaning for Christians and also for some Jews. The first is Psalm 2:7: "You are my Son; today I have become your Father", which Paul used to bind together Judaism's confession and Christianity's confession. In the second, Luke juxtaposed Ps 2:7 with 2 Samuel 7:6-16. Both portray God as speaking of his "son," and it was undoubtedly this that brought the two passages together. Paul is bringing these two "son" passages together as the substructure of his argument in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch; and in so doing he is joining OT redemptive history and the history of Jesus, understanding both as having messianic significance.  His approach and method were highly appropriate to his synagogue audience. Two final comments.

Firstly, Paul separates the actions of the residents and rulers of Jerusalem from the Jewish audience in Antioch. He places the blame for Jesus's condemnation on the Jerusalem authorities who failed to recognise Jesus, rather than condemning all Jewish people everywhere.

Secondly, It is fairly obvious that this part of Paul’s address contains the kerygma (the core apostolic proclamation of the gospel).