Commentaries and Podcasts

Book of Acts Chapter 16, Part 2 - Christogenea Internet Radio 10-18-2013

In the first part of Acts chapter 16, we saw that Paul of Tarsus departed from Antioch with his new companion Silas to embark on what would be his second recorded missionary journey. Ostensibly, however, it is really his third missionary journey, since when he departed from Jerusalem for Tarsus after the dispute with the Hellenists as it is recorded in Acts chapter 9, it is made manifest later that he had spent at least some portion of that time proselytizing in Tarsus and other places in Kilikia. This is made evident at Acts 15:41, where embarking on this journey with Silas it says there that “...they passed through Suria and Kilikia reinforcing the assemblies.” The beginning of Acts chapter 16 brought Paul and his company once again through Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Then, being prevented by the Holy Spirit to enter either Asia Minor or Pamphylia, they traveled into the Troad and crossed into Makedonia. Here they are found in Philippi, which was a Roman colony.

Book of Acts Chapter 16, Part 1 - Christogenea Internet Radio 10-11-2013

After the events recorded in Acts chapter 15, Paul of Tarsus is the central figure throughout the balance of the narrative of the book. This is not because the other apostles did not do anything, but rather simply, it is evident at this point that the lives and missions of the apostles diverged completely, and Luke may well have had no records concerning the others before finishing his work as we have it. In the rest of Acts, we have only one other appearance by the apostle James, where Paul meets with him in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 21.

[I had originally expressed the thought that perhaps the apostle Philip may have been the Philip mentioned in Acts chapter 21:8, however this cannot be the case. There the Philip mentioned is called “one of the seven, and therefore must be the Philip of Acts 6:5, not the apostle. I must apologize for the oversight. (WRF, 11-20-2013)]

In his epistle to the Galatians, we see that by the time that he wrote that letter, Paul had come to consider it hypocrisy for Judaean Christians to remain bound to the laws of Moses, especially those which forbid them from having communion with the uncircumcised Christians of the Nations. However two things are entirely evident. The first is that Paul, circumcising Timothy here, could not yet have challenged Peter on his following James in that respect, as we see that Paul records in Galatians chapter 2. The second is that Paul, circumcising Timothy “om account of the Judaeans”, could not yet have come to that understanding himself, or he too would have been guilty of the same hypocrisy of which he later accuses the other apostles.

Book of Acts Chapter 15, Part 2 - Christogenea Internet Radio 10-04-2013

In the first part of our presentation of Acts chapter 15, we saw that there was a dispute at Antioch between Paul and Barnabas, primarily, on the one side, and certain Judaizers who had come from Jerusalem on the other, who insisted that those who were turned to Christianity should be circumcised and instructed to keep the Mosaic Law. Disputing these things, Paul and Barnabas then agreed to bring their case before the elder apostles in Jerusalem for a decision concerning these matters.

Later, in Jerusalem, upon hearing their arguments the apostle Peter spoke, professing that the people of the Nations received the gift of the Holy Spirit apart from any rituals whatsoever, and therefore it was not necessary for those turned to Christianity to perform such things. For this reason, Peter's conclusion was that the Nations should not be compelled to submit to the yoke of the Mosaic Law, where he said “Therefore now why tempt Yahweh to place a yoke upon the necks of the students which neither our fathers nor us have been able to bear? ” While later in his epistles Paul gives even greater Scriptural reasons for the passing of the Mosaic Law, we can see that the Book of Acts records a religious transition, and Peter's conclusion is justified, since upon investigation it is indeed supported by the Law and the prophets.

Book of Acts Chapter 15 - Christogenea Internet Radio 09-27-2013

The end of Acts chapter 14 leaves us with Paul and Barnabas in Antioch in Syria after having returned from their first Christian missionary journey in Anatolia. On their first journey they did not venture far, travelling through the island of Cyprus and the Anatolian provinces of Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia. Western and Central Anatolia at this time was ruled by Romans, predominately settled by Greeks, and also contained populations of Phrygians, Phoenicians, Lydians, Galatians, and other White but non-Greek peoples.

Luke, the author of Acts, is said by the earliest Christian writers to have been a Greek from Antioch, which certainly seems to be true. Therefore he may have been with Paul on his first missionary journey, since the point of departure for that journey was Antioch, however it cannot be told from the accounts provided. It is even more likely that Luke was an actual eyewitness to the events described here in Acts chapter 15, since with all certainty Luke is in the company of Paul in Acts chapter 16, where he writes in the first person in Acts 16:10. That account describes Paul's second missionary journey, for which Antioch was the point of departure once again.

Book of Acts Chapter 14 - 09-20-2013

XIV 1 And it happened in Ikonion that upon them entering into the assembly hall of the Judaeans and speaking thusly, that a great multitude of both the Judaeans and the Greeks were believing.

Ikonion, or Iconium as it is popularly spelled in modern times, is the principle city of Lycaonia (Lukaonia). Diodorus Siculus says little concerning the Lukaonians, as does Strabo, who only says that they are “barbarians” (non-Greeks) and he tells us that neither they nor their country are mentioned by Homer (Geography 12.3.27 and 14.5.27). The name Lukaon from which it is apparently derived belonged to several early heroes of Greek writing, including a son of the Trojan King Priam, and the district may have been named for one of them. There is no mention of Lycaonia in Herodotus. The city of Iconium itself was a Greek city-state which was said in legend to be founded by Perseus, an early mythological figure of the Danaan Greeks who was also said to have vanquished the former population. However Xenophon, writing in the early 4th century BC, calls Iconium “the last city of Phrygia” in his Anabasis (1.2.19). In more ancient times, the land apparently belonged to the Phrygians, who were related in the ancient Greeks poets to the Lydians. The Lydians are mentioned as Lud, the son of Shem, in Genesis chapter 10, and again in Isaiah 66:19 as one of the places to which Yahweh would send the dispersed of the children of Israel. By the end of the 7th century BC, most of Phrygia had been destroyed by the Kimmerians, who were indeed a group of the dispersion of Israel. At the end of the 3rd century BC the area was settled by the Galatae, and Galatia was to its north. These were also descended from the dispersions of Israel, and Galatae was in early times a general name given to the Germans and Gauls by the Greeks. Trojans, Phrygians and Galatians would all have been considered as barbarians to Strabo, however the principle residents of the city itself appear to have been Greeks. Strabo calls Iconium “a town that is well settled and has a more prosperous territory than the” plateaus of the Lycaonians. We shall see later in this chapter that some of these “Barbarians” are found in Lystra, another city in which Paul preaches.

Book of Acts Chapter 13, Part 2 - 09-13-2013

Last week presenting part one of Acts chapter 13, due to its great length we were impelled to leave off in the middle of Paul's address to an assembly of Judaeans in Pisidian Antioch. This address began in verse 16 of the chapter, and in it Paul's primary task was to explain that the ministry, death by crucifixion, and subsequent resurrection of Yahshua Christ was indeed the fulfillment of the scriptural promises of a Savior and King to the children of Israel. Presenting the beginning of Paul's discourse last week, we read from 2 Samuel, Jeremiah chapter 30, Hosea chapter 3, and Isaiah chapter 53 in order to show just some of the many scriptures which support Paul's assertions. Part of Paul's challenge was to convince the Judaeans dispersed throughout the oikoumene that this is true, that Yahshua Christ was indeed the fulfillment of these promises found in Scripture, and in every place which he visits, he uses the local assembly-halls of the Judaeans in order to introduce himself to the Judaeans and to the people.

Book of Acts Chapter 13 - Christogenea Internet Radio 09-06-2013

It has been nearly a month since we presented Acts Chapter 12 here. In that chapter we saw the murder of the elder James, the son of Zebedee, and the arrest and miraculous escape of the apostle Peter. Both the murder of James and the arrest of Peter were on account of the political motives of Herod Agrippa. Upon the escape of Peter, we are also introduced to the apostle Mark. Towards the end of the chapter we see the death of Herod Agrippa, who did not deny himself when the people extolled him as a god, and the cause of his death as recorded here in Acts we also saw corroborated by the Judaean historian, Flavius Josephus.

XIII 1 And there were throughout the assembly which was in Antiocheia prophets and teachers, namely Barnabas and Sumeon who is called “Niger” and Loukios the Kurenaian, and Manaen a childhood companion of Herodas the tetrarch, and Saulos.

The Codex Laudianus (E) and the Majority Text have “certain prophets and teachers”; the Bezae (D) has “prophets and teachers among them”; the text follows the Codices Sinaiticus (א), Alexandrinus (A), and Vaticanus (B). Antioch was 300 miles north of Jerusalem. It was on the Orontes river and about 20 miles upriver from the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria. It was not far from the sites of ancient cities such as Arpad, Qarqar, Hamath and Carchemish. However it seems to have been a new city founded by Seleucus Nicator, a Greek king of the early Hellenic period, around 300 BC.