Hot answers tagged acts
10
Was the Luke of Colossians the author of Luke/Acts?
Probably. As the two volumes do not themselves include the author's name, we can't be sure that the author was named Luke at all. However, Luke is only mentioned 3 times in Paul's letters and there is no indication there that he was a particularly prominent personage. Therefore, any external evidence ...
9
I had to outline Stephen's speech to see if he answered the question directly:
Abraham was given a promise of a land.
His father stood in the way. So Abraham did not receive the inheritance.
Joseph was given the promise of a kingdom.
His brothers stood in the way. So he did not get the kingdom he looked for (asking for his bones to be carried out of ...
9
This is an interesting question that seems to divide people. The two major opinions are that it either is ("almost certainly") the same event or that it is ("absolutely") not the same event.
The people who believe it is not the same event seem to be the most vocal since (1) they have textual discrepancies on their side and (2) they are going against the ...
8
Abstract
Using (or calling on) the name of Jesus was a sign of his early followers. It was both a literal term (in that Christians used the name to perform miracles) and figurative one (as it strongly identifies Jesus' followers).
It's probable that this way of identifying believers comes from the first volume of Luke-Acts:
John answered, “Master, ...
8
They are stoning him, and as such take him outside the city to a pit. There, they will strip him and hurl rocks on him until he dies. They are to aim for the chest, but precision is impossible.
Under Jewish law,* the criminal was to be stripped (Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:4), but here the executioners strip themselves. The obvious reasons are that it was hot ...
8
I. Howard Marshall gives a concise statement of the options for harmonization in his commentary:
It is quite possible that Matthew or Luke is simply reporting what was commonly said in Jerusalem, and that we are not meant to harmonize the two accounts. If we do try to harmonzie (sic) them, the following possibilities arise: (1). Judas hanged himself ...
7
First of all, the believers in Acts 1 had not yet received the Holy Spirit. However, their trust was placed in something they knew of God:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
(Proverbs 16:33 ESV)
Other Old Testament verses that refer to this practice include Proverbs 18:18 (settling a quarrel or choosing between ...
7
vv. 16-18 The believers in Philippi continued to meet at a specific place for public prayer and discourse. One day, while on their way to this location, Paul and companions were met by a slave girl who had a πνεῦμα πύθωνα (lit. “python spirit” or “spirit of divination”). Python spirits were associated with a trance-like, or ecstatic, state in which someone ...
7
Acts 7 takes 8 to 9 minutes to read out loud and most of it is Stephen's speech. So that's a fairly long answer to the question "Are these things so?" However, Acts 6:8-15 makes clear that this speech is essentially Stephen's defense against a charge of blasphemy. From that perspective, he wasn't give much time at all.
So what are we to make of this ...
7
The ambiguity actually comes in to play because προσκαρτεροῦντες is a present participle. The present tense has so many different categories, such as descriptive, iterative, durative, tendential, historical, futuristic that there is some ambiguity. These categories come from a perceived need to fit the Greek language into English terms in order to understand ...
6
Stephen's long and meandering history may not appear to have a point, let alone answer the charges leveled against him. But Stephen is indeed addressing these charges:
“This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the
law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will
destroy this place and will change the customs ...
6
Why Stop the Girl?
It seems as though the testimony of a competitor would be the ultimate advertising. (Imagine a picture of Bill Gates happily using an iPad.)
Something that Paul could not accept in her testimony of them was that she left out something very important—the definite article. This is a time when the Greek leaving it out is important (unlike ...
6
No. You'd have to ignore Acts 1:1 which states first that it is a sequel to a prior account and secondly names Theophilus as the intended audience. That is the same person named in Luke 1:3.
Acts 1:1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach,
Luk 1:1-4 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an ...
6
The bridge that connects Jesus the Nazarene as "Yahweh" is Isaiah 8:13-14, which both Paul (in Romans 9:33) and Peter (in 1 Peter 2:6-8) use to make the nexus between "calling on Jesus" and "calling on Yahweh" to be saved.
First, in Psalm 118:22 we find an unqualified mention of a stone "which the builders rejected" that in turn "became the chief ...
6
Short Answer: Abram did indeed depart from Haran after his father died, as the Old Testament indicates, and as the New Testament explicitly claims. (Terah was 130 years old when Abram was born.)
Good question. (This happens to be one of the most commonly asked -- and addressed -- "discrepancies" in Scripture.)
The problem is in the modern Western reading ...
6
As the text says, Avram was 75 when he left Haran. So, either Terach was 130 when Avram was born, or Avram left while Terach was still alive.
The medieval commentator (and compiler), Rashi, argues for Avram leaving during Terach's lifetime, based on Gen 12:4:
and Terah died in Haran: [This happened] after Abram had left Haran and had come to the land ...
5
The ESV offers a good essentially literal translation, rendering the verse this way:
But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading
men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and
drove them out of their district.
Acts 13:50
Looking at the following items I found, I think that we can conclude ...
5
1Sa 9:2 And he had a son, whose name [was] Saul, a choice young man,
and a goodly: and [there was] not among the children of Israel a
goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward [he was] higher
than any of the people.
Php 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, [of] the
tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; ...
5
I don't have a problem with a change like this. The concept behind "brother" in these contexts is "fellow member of the covenant community." Originally, it applied to Jews only. Then very early Christians began referring to themselves as "brethren" both amongst themselves and to Jews. Acts 1:16 is a great example of that, but there are others in Acts ...
5
Judicial execution around that time was very rare and on the decline. Rabbi Akiva (c. 40-137 CE) said that a court that ever executes is bloodthirsty; Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, dates uncertain but in the generation before R. Akiva, said a court that executes once in 70 years is bloodthirsty (Makkot 1:10, Babylonian Talmud).
Capital punishment was legal ...
4
If you follow the pronoun 'they' backwards, you finally discover who was being referred to in:
1.15 ¶ And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
So 'they' the 120 were all together. But did 'they' get the Spirit?
Peter quotes Joel to say that the prophecy was ...
4
Why is this spirit giving positive witness to Paul's claims?
Frank Luke has some intriguing arguments that her witness was flawed. However, it would seem odd if this were a sort of pluralism; would the way of salvation not have been unique to Christian theology? In other words, even if the phrase has some grammatical indefiniteness, I find it difficult to ...
4
The Greek word translated "coats" in the NRSV is himation <2440>:
Although the above image shows Zeus naked under his himation, it was more usual for them to be worn over a chiton <5506> or tunic. One common translation of the word is "cloak", which gets across the idea that these are optional outer layers designed more for warmth than for modesty. ...
4
Both Psalm 69 and Psalm 109 are psalms of David. Both are, as well, psalms of vindication. In Psalm 69, David's enemies seek to destroy him without cause (v4), so David prays out against them that God would vindicate him against them. Similarly in Psalm 109, David has been betrayed by his friend(s). Therefore, David prays that God would destroy his enemies.
...
4
For context, the statements about the burial come in the middle of a speech given by Stephen during his trial before the Sanhedrin. Thus it is not the Book of Acts per se stating these things, so much as recording what Stephen said. That said, interpreters have tried to make sense of Stephen's apparent mistake here for as long as there have been ...
4
Stephen's interpretation is called "telescoping," conflating two very similar accounts into one. Telescoping was not an unusual phenomenon in the Land at the time. (Bruce, FF. The Book of Acts: New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT), pg 137, note 35). The account says nothing about Luke (the author) except that he was very careful to allow ...
3
Hellenism arose in Judaism during the time of the Greek empire, particularly under Alexander the Great. Initially the Greek and Jews seemed to get along well, but eventually religious tensions among Jews arose over the matter. Rabbi Ken Spiro gives an overview of the history:
[After Alexander the Great was impressed and spared Jerusalem]
The initial ...
3
As you know, Jesus died on Pessach. This is one of the three feasts Jews are commanded to go to Jerusalem. So Jews from all over the world were present at the time of Jesus' dead and resurrection, and many of them gave their lives over to Christ. So Hebraic Jews would be inhabitants of Israel, while Greek Jews would be the rest from all over.
After they ...
3
To understand these passages, it is necessary to understand the way covenant functions in relation to individuals and groups in the Scripture.
The Biblical mindset does not seem to be troubled by the same stark one/many dichotomy that plagues Western philosophy. Read through the Scriptures and you will find many instances that are unsettling to our Western ...
3
Could they have innovated separately?
Certainly, but they didn't as "apolgias" were common in those days. Unbiased accounts of history are as much a myth then as today. They did not report just to report. History was written for a purpose. Luke tells us straight out in Luke and Acts that he is writing to show what Jesus began to do and teach and what ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
