Commentaries and Podcasts

Book of Acts Chapter 7 - 06-28-2013

As it is recorded in Acts chapter 7, before his stoning the martyr Stephen offered an apology (which is a defense) of his Christian beliefs, where he attempts to demonstrate to the council and to the people thata the hope of Israel rests upon the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which were perpetuated and transmitted through Moses to Israel, and which had nothing to do with the temple or the works of the hands of men, and everything to do with kinship, brotherhood, and the counsel of God which men have perpetually rejected. Since the authority of the high priests was connected to the institution of the temple, and the allegiance of the people had long been to the institution of the temple, rather than to the Word of God, Stephen was slain for his profession of the Christian message which was unpopular with these traditionalists of the time, and which was hated most of all by the Canaanite-Edomite aliens among the chief people of the city. In the last segment of this series, we began our presentation of Stephen's apology by discussing certain of the events of the Scriptures which he cites from a historical viewpoint. Among other things, we discussed the dating of the Exodus and the reckoning of the years of Israel's captivity in Egypt. Here we will continue our discussion from where we left off last week, at Acts 7:23, and the call of Moses is still Stephen's topic:

Book of Acts Chapters 6 and 7 - 06-21-2013

VI 1 And in those days with the multiplying of students, there was a murmuring among the Hellenists towards the Hebrews, because in the daily administration their widows were neglected.

The phrase “in those days” tells us only that what is transpiring is some time after the first Pentecost. It is evident that a functioning Christian community has been established. Many of those who have come to this community since that Pentecost have sold farms and estates, things which usually take some time to accomplish. As it was established here in the very first segment of our presentation of Acts, and as we hope to explain again when we arrive at the appropriate portions of the narrative, the chronological details left to us in Acts and in the epistles of Paul, when compared to what we know from history, tell us that Paul's conversion must have most likely taken place in 34 AD, and therefore the events related in these earlier chapters of Acts all transpired over the two year period which began with the Pentecost of 32 AD.

Book of Acts Chapter 5 - 06-14-2013

In our presentation of the last chapter of Acts, chapter 4, along with some appropriate passages from the historical works of Flavius Josephus, it was demonstrated that twelve members of a certain family, all of them of the sect of the Sadducees, had held the high priesthood for most of the time – perhaps as much as three-quarters of it, from about 6 AD up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This was the family of Annas and his son-in-law, Caiaphas, who were the high priests known from the accounts of the Gospel. An argument was also presented, contrasting two statements in Acts chapter 4, that these men were most probably Edomites rather than Israelites. Those two statements are found at verses 6 and 23. In verse 6 speaking of those opposed to the apostles and listing their leaders the account adds that they were joined by “... as many as were of the race of the high priest”. Later in the chapter, in verse 23, in contrast to those who persecuted the apostles we read that upon the release of the apostles “...they went to their own countrymen and reported as much as the high priests and the elders said to them. ” It was established that in other writings of Scripture the apostles considered all Israelites to be of their own race, yet in Acts chapter 4 we see that such was not true of the high priests, whom the apostles considered to be of a distinct race. Therefore it seems that the high priests of the time, while they were certainly Sadducees, were also very probably Edomites.

Book of Acts Chapter 4 - 06-07-2013

We are going to begin this presentation by reading a passage from Josephus, from Antiquities Book 14, where Josephus also quotes some passages from Strabo and accepts Strabo's remarks with approbation. Strabo died about 12 years before Josephus was born, and Josephus was very much acquainted with his writings. We are doing this so that the scope of the political power held by the leaders of the temple in Judaea may be understood, and so that the size of the diaspora of Judaeans (which is not to be confused with the much earlier and much larger dispersions of Israel) may be more accurately perceived. By this we shall understand the daunting challenge which the apostles had in presenting the Gospel, which was indeed controversial and threatened the credibility of a long-established and very powerful political and religious institution:

Book of Acts Chapter 2, Part 3, and Acts Chapter 3 - 05-17-2013

This is our fifth installment on the Book of Acts, and we are not quite through Chapter 2. To this point in this chapter of Acts, we have seen that the outpouring of the Spirit which occurred at this first Pentecost was in fulfillment of the prophecy found in Joel chapter 2, which Peter quotes. However it was also the beginning of a fulfillment of a prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 44, where Yahweh says to the dispersed children of Israel “3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: 4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” Furthermore, it was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Ezekiel chapter 37, where it says in part “9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” The children of Israel are the “slain”, because they were under the penalty of death in the law when Yahweh cast them off from His presence. Of course, all these things were only promised to the children of Israel, and cannot be applied outside of that context with any justice. We have also seen that this deposit of the Spirit at the first Pentecost and thereafter was only a beginning, a deposit, as Paul called it, and the early rain which James referred to. Now we await the fulfillment, the redemption of our bodies, the latter rain that brings the fruit to its perfection.

Book of Acts Chapter 2, Part 2 - 05-10-2013

In the last segment of our presentation on the Book of Acts, we left off our discussion with Peter's quote from Joel chapter 2, and how we believe that James and Paul saw that prophecy of Pentecost in relation to the history of the ekklesia of God: that the endowment of the Spirit in the apostolic age was merely a deposit of that which all Christians should now expect: a greater outpouring of the Spirit of Yahweh culminating in the restoration of our race to the glorified state of our first parents which was also evident at the Transfiguration on the Mount as attested to in the Gospels. James referred to these two outpourings of the Spirit with his mention of the early and the latter rain. Paul tells us what to expect in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where he says: “51 Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. 52 In an instant, in a dart of an eye, with the last trumpet; for it shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 This decay wants to be clothed in incorruptibility, and this mortal to be clothed in immortality. 54 And when this decay shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then the word that has been written shall come to pass: 'Death has been swallowed in victory.' 55 'Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?' 56 Now the sting of death is guilt, and the power of guilt is the law; 57 but gratitude is to Yahweh, in whom we [the children of Israel] are being given the victory through our Prince, Yahshua Christ.” Here in the next part of his discourse, we continue Peter's appeal to the multitude at Judaea, to consider all of the things which had recently transpired there in connection with Yahshua Christ.

Additionally, in relation to where we left off in the first part of our presentation of Acts chapter 2, we shall quote here from Isaiah chapter 44: “1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: 2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: 4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” Where we see the phrase “all flesh” in Acts 2:17, the reference is to all Israelite flesh, as that is the context of the original passage in Joel.

Book of Acts Chapter 2, Part 1 - 05-03-2013

There is something which I forestalled discussing in the opening segments of this series, and that is an exposition of the ancient manuscripts which attest to the antiquity and the content of the Book of Acts. For the translations found in the Christogenea New Testament, only manuscripts which are dated to the 6th century and earlier were even considered in the reading. Of these, there are eleven ancient papyri, and 6 of these (those listed below in bold type) are dated by archaeologists to the 3rd century AD. [The manuscript numbers employed here are those of the Gregory-Aland system employed in the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.]

P8, P29, P33, P38, P45, P48, P50, P53, P56, P57, and P91.

Many of the papyri represent only fragments containing portions of the text of Acts. While the uncials were produced with more durable material, many of them are also incomplete or even represent mere fragments. For examples among the papyri, P8 contains all or part of about 28 verses from Acts chapters 4, 5 and 6. P29 contains parts of 3 verses from Acts chapter 26. P45, which dates to the 3rd century, contains larger portions of 13 different chapters of Acts, from chapters 4 through 17, as well as large portions of each of the Gospels. P45 is part of a collection of manuscripts called the Chester Beatty Papyri. A companion manuscript, P46, contains large portions of nine of Paul's epistles, and it is esteemed to date to about 200 AD.