Commentaries and Podcasts

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.

Book of Acts Chapter 17 - 10-18-2013

As a youth, it is fully evident that Paul of Tarsus had a solid education in Scripture, or at least as good an education as could be obtained in first century Judaea, as he himself professed that he was educated “at the feet of Gamaliel”. However what is not explicitly confessed in his own words, but which is certainly manifest throughout his epistles, is that Paul also had a solid education in the profane writings of the Classical world. Paul quoted writers such as Aratus and Epimenides, and possibly also Euripides and Heraclitus, and he drew analogies from Homer and from Xenophon. However this education in the Classical literature did not merely assist his rhetorical skill or his writing ability.

More importantly, Paul understood the origins of the nations of Europe in a way that only those who have deeply studied both Scripture and the Classical literature can understand. A study of the Book of Acts and Paul's epistles demonstrates as much, but one can only see it if one has also studied the things which Paul had studied. While not all of the writings which Paul had available are also available to us, many of them are indeed, and with them, we find the proofs of the Christian Identity message. Here in Acts chapter 17, and in Paul's message to the Athenians, we shall see a good part of those proofs.

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.