November 2013

Book of Acts Chapter 21 - Christogenea Internet Radio 11-22-2013

Presenting these last three chapters of Acts, chapters 18 through 20, we discussed where Paul had written each of the seven of those of his surviving epistles which were written while he was a free man. The first epistle to the Thessalonians was, no doubt, the earliest of Paul's surviving epistles and was written in Corinth (Acts 18, 1 Thessalonians 3:6). The second epistle to the Thessalonians followed the first in short time and was very likely also written from Corinth during Paul's long sojourn there. The epistle to the Galatians was written during Paul's stay in Antioch which is described in Acts 18:22-23, where he also had his final meeting with Peter described in Galatians chapter 2. It could not have been written before that time. Paul visited the Galatians soon thereafter, and his epistle reflects an anticipation to visit them in its fourth chapter (4:18, 20). The epistle which we know as 1 Corinthians was written from Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8, 19), during the three-year period that Paul stayed in Ephesus described in Acts chapter 19. The second epistle to the Corinthians was written as Paul journeyed from Makedonia to visit Achaia for the last time, and before he reached Corinth for his final visit there. This was fully elucidated last week as we discussed the circumstances of Paul's travels in relation both to the circumstances of his ministry and to the things which he wrote to them in that epistle. The first epistle to Timothy was written from Greece around this same time, as the circumstances indicate in conjunction with Paul's own comment at 1 Timothy 1:3. Finally, the epistle to the Romans was written from the Troad, during Paul's stay there described at the beginning of Acts chapter 20, which is evident from both the lists of men who were with Paul provided in Acts 20 and Romans 16, and also from Paul's comments concerning his ministry and his plans to visit Rome which were made in Romans chapter 15 (15:22-28).

Book of Acts Chapter 20 - 11-15-2013

In Acts chapter 19 we saw that Paul of Tarsus had spent nearly three years in Ephesus, which was the capital city of the Roman province of Asia. Paul was the founder of the Christian assemblies in Asia, where we saw in both Acts chapters 18 and 19 that there were only adherents to the teachings of John the Baptist who preceded him at Ephesus. That also helps to establish that, like many other prophecies of Scripture, in some respects the prophecy concerning John also fulfilled itself as a process, over considerable time, and not only during the years of John's baptism ministry. As we have seen with both Apollos and with the men of Ephesus, the ministry of John was still paving the way for Christ, well over thirty years after his death.

Ephesus would later be the home of the apostle John, after he was released from captivity on the isle of Patmos, and according to many early Christian writers it was the place from where he penned both his Gospel and the Revelation. However John's time in Ephesus follows Paul's sojourn there by nearly 40 years. In the Revelation, in the message to the assembly at Ephesus, Paul's ministry was given approbation by Christ Himself, since only that Gospel professed by Paul could have been the “first love” of the Ephesians, and by John's time they had gone astray.

Book of Acts Chapter 19 - Christogenea Internet Radio 11-8-2013

XIX 1 And it came to pass, with Apollos being in Korinth, Paul had passed through the highlands to come down into Ephesos and finding certain students 2 then said to them “So believing have you received the Holy Spirit?”

The Codex Sinaiticus (א) has Apelles here rather than Apollos, as it alsoreads at 18:24. The phrase τὰ ἀνωτερικὰ μέρη is from ἀνωτερικός (510), “upper, inland” and μέρος (3313) “a part, share” (Liddell & Scott) and in the plural here it is “the highlands”, but literally either “the upper parts” or “the inland parts”, since in the Greek view of geography to go inland from the sea was to go up. The Codex Vaticanus (B) and the Majority Text want the word for “down”.

The Codex Bezae (D) has many readings not only in Acts, but throughout the New Testament, which diverge sharply from the other ancient manuscripts even if the differences are usually not very significant in their actual meanings. However evidently it was not alone. The papyrus P38, found in Cairo Egypt where it was purchased by the University of Michigan in 1924, is esteemed to date from about 300 AD and in it is preserved only small portions of Acts chapters 18 and 19. This papyrus has readings very similar to the Codex Bezae, and it agrees with the Codex Bezae here where they read verse 1 thus: “And Paul wishing by his own will to go into Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit said to him ‘Return to Asia’, and passing through the highlands he came into Ephesos...” However this papyrus does not always agree with the Codex Bezae. They immediately diverge, where the Codex Bezae continues 2 with “and upon finding certain students” (as the Codex Laudianus and the Majority Text also have that clause) and then going into verse has “he said to them” (as the other manuscripts generally agree), after the word for Ephesos P38 has instead only “and” to finish verse 1, and then “he said to the students” to begin verse 2.

Book of Acts Chapter 18 - Christogenea Internet Radio 11-1-2013

The end of Acts chapter 17 leaves off with Paul in Athens after his speech on the Hill of Ares. His words were mocked by many of the Athenians, but did not fall on entirely deaf ears, since Luke tells us that “some men joining themselves to him believed”, one of them being a jurist of the Areopagos, which was the famous court held on Ares' Hill, who must therefore have been an influential man.

Two elements of Paul's address to the Athenians are important enough to mention once again. The first is that the Athenians, mocking Paul for talking about a resurrection of the dead, were actually also denying many of their own most ancient beliefs, reflected in the early poetry and literature of Athens down through the Tragic Poets and the writings of men such as Apollodorus of Athens, who lived only two centuries before Paul.

More importantly is the substance of Paul's address to the Athenians. These men were Ionian Greeks, descended from the Japhethites of Scripture, the sons of Javan mentioned in Genesis chapter 10. The identification is certain when the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Persian inscriptions mentioning the Yavana, or Ionian Greeks, and the ancient historical records are all compared.