Now having passed through Amphip'olis and Apollo'nia, they came
to Thessaloni'ca. A Jewish synagogue was there and Paul, as was his custom,
attended for three Sabbaths arguing from the scriptures, explaining and proving
to them that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. He said, "This
Jesus, of whom I am teaching, is the Christ." Some were persuaded joining
Paul and Silas along with a great many devout Greeks and not a few of the
leading women. But the Jews were jealous. They hired some layabouts in the
market, and gathering a crowd together, proceeded to unsettle the city,
attacking the house of Jason to bring them out to face the people. But when they
could not find them, Jason and some of the brethren were dragged before the
city authorities. They cried, "These men who have turned the world upside
down have now come here, and Jason has received them; and they are all acting
against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." When
they heard this, the people and the city authorities were disturbed. But when
bail had been taken from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
In a Nutshell
The work continued through Macedonia. At a synagogue at Thessalonica Paul spent three weeks teaching. Jews who opposed the message worked hard to discredit the movement. But the church was established in the midst of suffering by new converts.
Questions
Why does Luke tell us about the "bail"?
The story of the spread of the gospel also becomes the story of the founding of the church in various places "to the ends of the earth". It is the story of the people involved and Luke tells us of the tension that was generated by the opposition to the message. The accusation of the Jewish opponents of Paul and Silas seems to have been a formal statement of some kind.
These men who have turned the
world upside down have now come here, and Jason has received them; and they are
all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,
Jesus.
Maybe this is a view expressed to the Thessalonica city authorities based upon communications received through the synagogue network. Clearly, there were Jewish interests which not only wanted to be free of this message and its messengers, but to suppress it and wipe it out. The second half of the statement reads as an appeal to the authorities to clamp down hard on the movement.
The only other reference to a Jason is in Paul's greetings at the close of his letter to the Romans where he is mentioned along with Timothy (16:21). At this point in his story it seems as if Jason was one of those who had accepted the good news. We do not know for sure that he was not Jewish but from his Greek mythological name we can conclude he had some relation to the many devout Greeks who had believed. But no sooner had he believed than he was called upon to cover for his fellow believers, Paul and Silas, who had fled the mob. And more than that. He had to put up bail, a kind of cash security payment that seems to imply that the believers in that place would not engage in any the subversive activities of which Paul and Barnabas had been accused.
This then was a church begun under incredible threats, persecution and violence. Jason was made to pay for his faith out of his own pocket. The cold hard cash is testimony to his faith.