Commentaries and Podcasts

Book of Acts Chapter 26 - Christogenea Internet Radio 01-10-2014

Discussing Acts chapter 25, we saw that upon the assumption to the office of procurator in Judaea by Porcius Festus, he reviewed the case of Paul of Tarsus whom Felix had left bound. Festus then admitted that Paul had done nothing worthy of death or bonds, but would not release him since he did not want to show the Judaeans any disfavor. Paul was therefore compelled to appeal to Caesar, since Festus only offered him a trial in Jerusalem which Paul, being a Roman citizen, could not be compelled to accept. Ostensibly, Paul was destined to go to Rome, as we had been informed by the account in Acts. But if Paul had submitted to the Judaeans then by no means would he have escaped with his life, since the Judaeans were desiring to kill him unlawfully if they could not have their way with him otherwise.

When Herod Agrippa II arrived in Caesareia, evidently to see the new procurator, Festus told Agrippa of Paul, and Agrippa is portrayed as having exclaimed that he had been wanting to hear Paul speak. Certainly, accounts of the episodes related to Paul's arrest and of his defenses before the Hebrews and before Felix must have been heard by Agrippa in Jerusalem. With Agrippa wanting to hear Paul, and with Festus being in need of an account of the charges against Paul so that he could write to Nero explaining why Paul had been sent to him, Paul is therefore given an opportunity to address not only Agrippa, but “the commanders and eminent men of the city”. Since Caesareia was a large city there must have been a considerable crowd present in addition to those whom Luke mentioned specifically. Further evidence of this is seen in Acts 25:23, where Luke says that Agrippa, who being the king of a neighboring country is actually a visiting dignitary, along with his sister (or perhaps his sister-wife) Bernika, had entered into the auditorium “with much fanfare”, as Luke described the event.

Book of Acts Chapter 25 - Christogenea Internet Radio 01-03-2013

In Acts chapter 24 we saw that Paul was imprisoned in Caesareia for two years following his arrest in Jerusalem. The Roman procurator, Felix, was a man of noble Greek birth who was married to a Jewess not even half of his age, and he was a very corrupt man according to three historical witnesses: the Roman historian Tacitus, the Judaean historian Josephus, and Luke himself here in the Book of Acts. Felix's corrupt ways eventually cost him his long-held post as the procurator of Judaea, where he was succeeded by Porcius Festus. This Festus was procurator until 62 AD, when he died in office.

Porcius Festus, being of the Roman gens Porcia, was descended from a notable family. He was related to Marcus Porcius Cato, a plebeian farmer born about 234 BC, who became the Roman statesman commonly known as Cato the Elder, and his great-grandson, Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis who was born circa 95 BC, and became the Roman statesman commonly known as Cato the Younger. Cato the Younger's son, also named Marcus Porcius Cato, was a supporter of Brutus and Cassius, and he was one of Caesar's assassins. There were other politicians in the family.

Book of Acts Chapter 24 - 12-27-2013

As we saw last week in Acts chapter 23, after a plot against Paul's life was revealed to the Roman military tribune, Paul is sent under arms and cloak of night to the residence of the Roman procurator in Caesareia. Upon his arrival there the procurator accepted Paul as his prisoner, when he declared that he would hear his case. This is in spite of the fact that Paul had not violated any Roman laws, but as the Roman commander had written to the governor, he found the Judaeans “accusing him concerning inquires of their law, and having not one accusation worthy of death or of bonds.”

XXIV 1 And after five [A has “some”] days the high priest Hananias came down with some [the MT wants “some”] of the elders and a certain orator Tertullos, who appeared to the governor against Paul. 2 And upon his [B wants “his”] being called, Tertullos began to accuse him, saying: “Having obtained much peace on account of you, and reforms coming to this nation by your foresight, 3 in every way and in every place we approve, noble Phelix, with all gratitude.

Rather than reforms the Majority Text has accomplishments; or worthy deeds in the King James Version. The text of the Christogenea New Testament is in agreement with the Codices Sinaiticus (א), Alexandrinus (A), Vaticanus (B) and Laudianus (E).

My Yamaha studio headset must have a short in the microphone cable. I had to scramble to find a replacement headset minutes before the program, and the inexpensive Logitech I found produced a much narrower band and a much lower volume level. The recording was terriblly low, and Audacity was used to enhance it as best as I thought possible.

Book of Acts Chapter 23 - Christogenea Internet Radio 12-20-2013

In our presentation of Acts chapter 21, we illustrated just how politically volatile the Judaean population was at this time, which is 57 AD, and how prone they were to riot, especially in defense of their religious exclusivity. The Judaeans had been pressured by the Romans on several occasions over the decades from Tiberius to Nero, to add elements of Roman paganism and emperor-worship to their temple and religious life, and they had thus far avoided doing so, either by political means or by civil disobedience and threats of insurrection. From the pages of Josephus, we saw how not long before this very time of Paul's arrest in Jerusalem, ten thousand Judaeans were killed on a feast day in a tumult which was sparked by a single act of profanity on the part of one Roman soldier, an act which was seen by the masses as an insult to their nation and their religion. It is illustrative of the tensions which existed between the Judaeans and the Romans. Flavius Josephus later saw this as the signal event building up to the revolt against Rome and the beginning of the end for Jerusalem. Little did he know that it was long ago prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures that such a thing would happen, but for a different reason: it was truly the result of the rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah of Israel. Yahweh God is indeed the author of history, although He uses means by which to accomplish His will that are not often perceived by men.

Book of Acts Chapter 22 - Christogenea Internet Radio 12-6-2013

With Acts chapter 21, we left Paul in Jerusalem after having seen the apostle James, and undergoing a purification ritual in the Temple. Spotted in the Temple by certain Judaeans who knew Paul from his ministry in Asia, upon their having accused him of defiling the Temple Paul was arrested in the ensuing commotion. Given the violent climate in Judaea at the time, as we exhibited in the last segment of this presentation from the pages of Josephus, Paul's arrest more than likely saved his life. Here, upon his arrest, Paul is about to be brought into the Roman military encampment, under the custody of the commander, who is a chiliarch - a sort of lieutenant commander of a legion whom the Romans called a military tribune, as we would transliterate the title into English. We will begin with the last paragraph of Acts chapter 21, which we reserved for this presentation since it better fits the context of Acts 22.

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.