Acts Chapter 21

What Happens:

Paul, Luke, and their group (Sopater from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Ephesus) leave Miletus and sail to Tyre on a cargo ship. Paul and his group link up with the christian community of Tyre and stay with them for seven days. The christians of Tyre feel forebodings from the Holy Spirit, and warn Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Despite the Tyrians’ misgivings, Paul is set on continuing to Jerusalem. When the time comes for him and the others to leave, all the christians of Tyre accompany them to their ship, and they all kneel down and pray together before saying goodbye.

They sail to Ptolemais and stay with the christians there for a day, and the next day sail to Caesarea, where they stay with Philip, one of the seven deacons. Philip has four unmarried daughters who can prophesy. After Paul has been there a few days, a prophet named Agabus comes and takes Paul’s belt and ties his own hands and feet with it. “In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles,” he declares. Luke, and Paul’s other friends, anxiously beg Paul not to go, but Paul’s mind is made up. “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?” he asks them. “I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Luke and the others give up trying to dissuade him, and go with him to Jerusalem. Some of the Caesarean followers come with them also, and take them to the house of a man named Mnason in Jerusalem, who had been one of the earliest converts.

The christian community of Jerusalem greets Paul and the others warmly, and Paul goes to visit James. He tells James and the city’s elders about everything he’s been doing since his last visit. The elders are very happy about all the progress Paul has been making in Greece and Asia Minor, but are concerned about some of the Jewish converts here in Jerusalem. Peter’s vision from the Holy Spirit (Acts 10) had made clear that Christians no longer have to follow Jewish dietary laws or most other Jewish laws, and a few years ago the Apostles had published a letter saying that the only laws of Moses Christians have to follow are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. (Acts 15)

But now, the Jews and Jewish converts are saying that Paul is teaching that everyone should “reject” Moses wholesale. They are rejecting not just the law but also customs and traditions. “What shall we do?” they ask Paul worriedly. “They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.” Paul takes their advice, and joins in the purification rites with the men.

When the seven-day purification rites are over, some Jews see Paul at the Temple and start shouting and getting the whole temple crowd riled up. “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place,” they exclaim. They had also seen Paul with his greek friend Trophimus earlier, and wrongly assume that he had brought him into the Temple with him. This makes them even more enraged as they accuse Paul of “defiling” the Temple by bringing a non-Jew in. The crowd seizes Paul, and the small riot quickly sparks into a large riot, and people come running in from all directions. Soon the whole city is in an uproar.

The commander of the Roman troops sends some soldiers in, and the rioters stop beating Paul when they see them. The commander arrests Paul, but when he asks the crowd what he’s done, everyone shouts different things. He has his soldiers take Paul to the barracks, and the violence of the mob is so great that Paul can’t walk through the crowd, but has to be hoisted up and carried by the soldiers. “Get rid of him!” the crowd chants.

As they are on the way to the barracks, Paul asks the commander if he can speak to him. The commander asks him if he’s the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand rebels out into the desert. Paul tells him that he’s a Jew from Tarsus, “a citizen of no ordinary city”, and asks to be allowed to address the crowd. The commander gives his permission, and Paul prepares to speak to his accusers.

Commentary:

The notes say that the warnings the Tyrians received from the HS warned them about the impending dangers that awaited Paul, and they therefore decided the danger was too great and that Paul shouldn’t go. The HS didn’t directly tell the Tyrians that he shouldn’t go.

Apparently Philip is married, if he has a bunch of daughters. We’ve never met his wife, though. Not sure what the significance is of them being able to prophesy, unless it’s supposed to mean they’re extra holy or something.

We met Agabus back in Acts 11; he predicted a famine under Emperor Claudius which eventually came to pass. It’s probably been a good 10 to 15 years in between Acts 11 and Acts 21.

I assume the James that Paul visits is the Apostle James Alphaeus. (There had originally been another Apostle also named James, but he was executed by King Herod back in Acts 12. I had actually forgotten all about that, and I don’t know if the surviving Apostles ever picked out a replacement for him. They elected a replacement for Judas Iscariot when he died, so I assume they would have picked a replacement for James too. A quick wiki turned up nothing, though.) Anyway, it’s nice to see the Apostles taking an active role again. No doubt they’ve been doing stuff of their own all this time, but since Acts focuses almost solely on Paul’s travels around Greece and Asia Minor, anything happening anywhere else is almost totally unknown. Also, where’s Peter? He’s still the leader of the Apostles, right? So why is Paul reporting to James Alphaeus instead of to him? The last time we saw Peter was back in Acts 15, when (I thought) he laid down the law once and for all that no one has to follow the now-defunct law of Moses anymore, apart from the 4 things specifically mentioned in the Apostles’ letter.

However, I’m STILL not real clear on whether the law of Moses is truly defunct now or not. I thought we had this all settled back in Acts 10, with Peter’s whole vision about most of the law being obsolete now and gentile converts being full members of the church and not just second-class citizens after the Jewish converts. And then we had Acts 15, where all the Apostles had a big get-together in Jerusalem basically reiterating the same thing. Maybe the letter they sent out only applied to the gentile converts? I.e., the gentile converts get a pass and don’t have to follow the law of Moses except for the 4 things specifically mentioned, but the Jews still have to follow it? Or maybe it’s an optional thing, where the Jews can follow it if they want, but aren’t required to? The elders also mentioned that the Jews were also dumping all the old traditions/customs along with the law, and gave the impression of being worried about losing their culture more than about following specific portions of the law.

To be honest I’m starting to get a little impatient with the whole thing and just want everybody to get on the same page already. Basically the takeaway here is that the law is a HUGE deal to the Jews, and so even though the whole follow-the-law-or-not-follow-the-law thing should have been wrapped up chapters and chapters and ages and ages ago, the controversy is still going strong. And probably will be for a while. Sigh.

According to the notes, there was a false prophet in Egypt a few years prior to the events in this chapter, described by the historian Josephus. Supposedly the leader led 4,000 followers to the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem – for what purpose, the notes don’t say (an attack on Jerusalem, maybe?) – and the Roman soldiers had killed hundreds of them. The leader had escaped, though.

We established back in Acts 12 that after Pontius Pilate, the Roman-ruled portion of Judea was governed by a string of governors, most of whom were weak and useless. The fact that the Roman legionaries are so prompt and effective here indicates that whoever is currently ruling was one of the few strong governors. Back during the death of Stephen, the Roman governor was weak and incompetent, and the Jews were able to kill Stephen with impunity. Paul gets very lucky here, because had the current Roman leader been as weak as that one (and as weak as most of them were in the post-Pilate years), he would probably have ended up killed by the Jewish mob just like Stephen, and not had anyone to save him.

Acts Chapter 12

What Happens:

While all these things are happening – Peter’s visions, the spread of Christianity in Antioch, and Agabus’ predictions of an Empire-wide famine (all in Acts 11) – King Herod Agrippa starts to harass the Christians in Jerusalem. He persecutes them, and has the apostle James, the brother of John, put to the sword. The Jewish population responds to this with great approval, and, encouraged, the king arrests Peter during Passover week. Peter is hauled off to prison and put under the guard of 16 soldiers (4 squadrons of 4 soldiers each.) The king intends to bring him out for trial after Passover. Meanwhile, the church earnestly prays for him.

The night before the trial is scheduled, Peter is asleep in jail, bound with chains, with a soldier standing guard on each side and more soldiers guarding the door. An angel appears and wakes Peter up. “Quick, get up!” the angel tells him, and Peter’s chains fall off. The angel instructs Peter to get dressed and wrap his cloak around him, and then tells Peter to follow him. Peter obeys the angel, but thinks the whole thing isn’t really happening and that he’s just seeing a vision. The angel leads him past the first and second set of guards, and then to the iron gate leading out of the prison. The gate opens by itself, and the angel walks with Peter down the length of one street. Then the angel disappears, and Peter suddenly comes to himself and realizes what has happened. “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen,” he says to himself.

He quickly heads to the house of Mary, the mother of the disciple Mark, where many people are gathered praying. He knocks on the door and a servant named Rhoda answers. She recognizes Peter’s voice and is so overjoyed that she rushes straight back into the house to scream the news to everybody (in her excitement forgetting to actually open the door and let Peter in.) The others tell her that she is crazy and that “It must be his angel.” Peter keeps knocking, and eventually they open the door and realize it’s him.

Everyone is astonished that he’s free, but Peter tells them to keep it down. Quietly, he tells them about his miraculous escape from prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he tells them, and then leaves to go into hiding. In the morning, there is mayhem among the soldiers when they realize Peter is gone. Herod Agrippa searches everywhere for him, and sentences all the guards to death.

Then, Herod Agrippa goes to Caesarea for a while. Earlier he had quarreled with the cities of Tyre and Sidon, who now join together and seek an audience with him. The cities seek reconciliation because Judea provides most of their grain and food supply. On the day of their meeting, Herod Agrippa comes in wearing expensive silver royal robes. He sits on his throne and gives a speech, after which the listening crowd shouts that he is a god, not a man. Herod accepts this praise, rather than denying it or praising the real God, and is immediately struck down by an angel. He is eaten by worms and dies.

Meanwhile, Barnabas and Saul have visited Jerusalem, and now return to Antioch, taking the disciple Mark with them.

Commentary:

So, just to refresh in everyone’s minds the soap opera of a trainwreck that is the Herodian Dynasty. Herod the Great was the king when Jesus was born. He’s the one who talked to the Three Wise Men and slaughtered a townful of 2-year olds trying to find Jesus. He died shortly after the slaughter, and was replaced by his son, Archelaus. Archelaus ruled for barely a few years before being kicked out by the Romans for incompetence, and was replaced by his younger brother Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas, who was king for most of Jesus’ life, was the one who cheated with his brother’s wife Herodias, who just incidentally was also the niece of both of them. John the Baptist had decried this as both immoral and outright illegal, and got beheaded for his trouble. Herod Antipas also participated in Jesus’ trial prior to the crucifixion (Luke 23). A few years after Jesus’ death he got politicked out of the throne by his nephew Herod Agrippa (who was also the brother of Herod’s cheating niece Herodias). Agrippa accused Herod Antipas of plotting against the Emperor Caligula, and Caligula, being friends with Agrippa, believed the charges, banished Herod Antipas to exile in the hinterlands of Gaul, and put Herod Agrippa on the throne in 39AD. (wiki) Herod Agrippa is the King Herod we finally see here. He ruled until 44AD.

ANYWAYS. Agrippa and Caligula were super-buddies (mostly because Agrippa was a giant suckup), so Caligula gave Agrippa almost all of Judea. Previously it had been split into four quarters, one of which was governed by Herod Antipas, one was governed by his brother (the one whose wife he cheated with), one was governed by some other Herodian relative, and one was governed directly by the Romans via Pontius Pilate. Caligula gave Agrippa all three Jewish sections rather than just one. (The brother and other relative were both dead at this point, so there were no rival claimants.)

The Roman section, meanwhile, had its own issues. In 37AD, after the death of Emperor Tiberius, there was a Samaritan uprising in Judea which Pontius Pilate crushed ruthlessly. This and other actions disturbed the “religious sensibilities” of his subjects sufficiently that Caligula, Tiberius’ successor, recalled him to Rome. (wiki) Caligula appointed a man named Marullus to be the new Roman prefect, but Marullus was basically just a place-holder who knew nothing and did nothing, and the real man running the place was the governor of Syria, Publius Petronius. In 40AD the Greek residents of a city in Judea built an altar to worship the emperor as a god, and the Jews promptly tore it down. Emperor Caligula took this as a personal insult, and devised a plan to replace the Temple in Jerusalem with a giant shrine to himself. The Jews were outraged, and Petronius let him know that that would be suicide. The Jewish population geared up for outright war, and the men began neglecting the harvest in order to prepare for war. According to wiki this could explain the famine mentioned here in Acts, which took place 4 years later. Petronius, who turned out to be both surprisingly good-hearted AND competent, did his best to stall for time and avoid a disastrous showdown between Caligula and the Jews. Luckily, Caligula died in 41AD, and his asinine and self-aggrandizing plan never came to fruition.

The new Emperor, Claudius, who was ALSO buddies with Agrippa, gave Agrippa the last Judean section (the Roman one, which consolidated Agrippa’s rule over all of Judea) and recalled Petronius to Rome.  (Did Agrippa have A+ political skills, or what?) Agrippa died in 44AD – which is described in this chapter – and Emperor Claudius appointed a Roman procurator named Cuspius Fadus to govern Judea, who governed for two years and was followed by a string of other governors.

The fact that the Roman governors after Pilate were basically weak figureheads who never lasted more than a year or two (sometimes only a few months) explains why the Jews were able to execute Stephen so easily. Back when Pilate was in power and the Roman position was strong, the Jews had to be careful about going through the Roman channels to use the death penalty, which is why Jesus had been executed by the Roman guards in the Roman manner (crucifixion). By the time of Stephen’s death, Pilate is long gone and the Roman position has eroded, so the Jews could basically execute Stephen with impunity. Stephen is executed by Jewish people in the Jewish manner (stoning), and there’s no strong Roman leader to care or react.

But we’re not done with the Herodians yet! Claudius split Judea back in two, and gave control of the northern half to Herod of Chalcis (who was brother of Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, and brother to Herodias). Agrippa had also had a son, Agrippa II, who was 17 at the time of his father’s death. Herod of Chalcis died in 48AD, when Agrippa II was 21, and Claudius appointed Agrippa II as the new ruler. Meanwhile, the Roman half was still governed by a series of Roman procurators. (wiki) Agrippa II lived to the ripe old age of 66 and died c. 93AD, after which Judea was consolidated permanently under the Roman procurators.

AND THEN WE ARE FINALLY DONE WITH THE HERODS, THANK GOD.

Anyway! Sorry for all the history. I had never heard of any of this stuff before, and it is pretty fascinating. The whole political situation in Judea is a maze of politics, incest, and continually asking oneself, “What the hell is going on?”

Back to our regularly scheduled chapter, we now have a hard date for this chapter: 44AD. It’s been 11 years since Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, so now we know how long the apostles have been left on their own to preach and spread the word. We already knew Acts began in 33AD, and if the current chapter takes place in 44AD, then the book is covering about a year per chapter.

We see James get killed, which is sad. He was one of the most influential apostles: He, his brother John, and Peter were often invited by Jesus to things that the other apostles were not invited to, such as the Transfiguration. Jesus sort of predicted the death of James (and John) back in Matthew 20, when he told them that they would “drink from the same cup” he did. I wonder if the surviving apostles will pick out a new apostle to replace him, like they did with Judas Iscariot.

It’s interesting that upon his release, Peter refers to “the Jewish people”, rather than to “my people”. Looks like the defining separation between Jews and Christians has pretty much taken hold. Also, it occurs to me that in the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all referred to “the Jews” in contrast to the disciples and apostles (rather than referring to them as “the other Jews”), possibly indicating that by the 50’s or 60’s  (or whenever the gospels began to be written) that the distinction between the two faiths had become such a part of everyday life that the writers unconsciously wrote about it that way even when describing events that took place long before the separation happened. Or, I could just be reading too much into a small detail. Also, if we’re in 44AD already, then it’s presumably only a few more years before the gospel writers sit down and start their writing.

According to the notes, the “it must be his angel” thing refers to guardian angels. “[It] reflects the belief that everyone has a personal angel who ministers to them,” the notes say. I suppose the angel that let Peter out of prison could have been his guardian angel.

There’s an interesting discrepancy between the print and online versions in verse 17. The print version says, “Tell James and the brothers about this.” The notes say that the “James” in question refers to a biological brother of Jesus, assuming he had any (see notes on Mark 6), and imply that the other “brothers” mentioned are additional siblings of Jesus. However, in the online version, the verse reads, “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this.” Why did the print version leave out the sisters? It’s a mystery, but luckily I have a conspiracy theory. When I read the sentence as “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters”, my initial assumption was that he was referring to the apostle James Alphaeus, and the brothers and sisters referred to members of the church. The way that people will call each other “brothers” or “sisters” if they’re part of the same group, even if they’re not blood related. A quick google shows that the early Christians did this too: 1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Peter 3:8, calling each other brother and so forth just to emphasize closeness. Also back in Matthew 12 when Jesus said that anyone who did God’s will was his brother.

But! The notes throughout the printed NIV strongly support the idea of Jesus having biological siblings. If you leave the sisters part in, the reader might draw the same conclusion I did, about it referring to the church in general. But if you refer only to brothers and James, it makes it easier to construe the sentence as talking about the supposed biological brothers of Jesus. Personally I’m dubious about the claim that the virgin Mary had other children besides Jesus, mainly because the idea is a pretty modern invention that nobody came up with until less than a hundred years ago (wiki), and it leads to Da Vinci Code scenarios of Jesus having modern blood descendants.

Maybe it’s just me, but the idea of Mary having other children besides Jesus would make it difficult for me to believe in Christianity. Because Jesus’ whole thing is that he’s unique: he’s a person, but he’s also God, and he’s the Savior of the world. He’s supposed to be special. Having siblings by the same mother would reduce Jesus’ specialness, at least to me. Giving birth to the Messiah should be a one-time shot, you know? You don’t give birth to the Messiah and then go on to have a passel of regular kids afterwards. But, it’s late and I’m probably overthinking this. (I spent three hours just on the Herod part of the post, alternately boggling at how similarly cutthroat Roman politics are to our own and going “What the hell is going on here” as I tried to figure out which Herod was which.)

Sorry for the super-long post!

Acts Chapter 9

What Happens:

While Philip is preaching in Samaria, Saul of Tarsus is still in Jerusalem, aggressively attacking the church. He goes to the high priest and gets letters of rights to take with him to the synagogues in Damascus; the letters allow him to hunt down any man or woman who follows “the Way” (i.e. Christianity) and bring them back as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Saul heads to Damascus, but on the road a bright light suddenly flashes around him. Saul falls to the ground, and hears a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asks. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” the voice replies. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The other men with Saul are quite shaken, because they heard the voice although they didn’t see anyone. Saul gets up from where he had fallen, only to discover when he opens his eyes that he is blind. The others lead him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he is blind, and doesn’t eat or drink anything.

In Damascus there is a Christian named Ananias, whom the Lord speaks to in a vision. Jesus tells Ananias to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street, where he will find a man named Saul of Tarsus praying. Ananias is to place his hands on Saul to restore his sight. Ananias is a little dubious about these instructions. “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem,” Ananias says, “And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” But Jesus reiterates his command: “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

So Ananias goes to the house. When he gets there, he says to Saul, “Brother Saul, the Lord – Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here – has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Ananias places his hands on Saul as Jesus instructed, and instantly something like scales fall from Saul’s eyes and Saul’s blindness is healed. Saul immediately gets up and gets baptized. After getting baptized he gets some food and water to regain his strength from his affliction.

Saul spends several days with the Christians in Damascus, and immediately begins preaching in all the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Everyone who hears him is quite shocked by this, knowing that he’s the one who “raised havoc” in Jerusalem and came to Damascus specifically to arrest Christians. Nonetheless, Saul continues to preach. After many days of this, the Jews have had enough and decide to kill him. However, Saul learns of their plan and foils them by sneaking out of the city at night, when they’re not watching the gates.

When Saul gets back to Jerusalem, he tries to contact the apostles, but they are justifiably afraid of him and skeptical of his supposed conversion. A Christian named Barnabas believes Saul though, and brings him to the apostles. Barnabas tells them about how Saul had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus, and had preached fearlessly in Jesus’ name there. They let Saul stay with them, and he moves freely about Jerusalem preaching about Jesus. He has debates with the Grecian Jews, but they try to kill him. When the other Christians learn about the murder attempt, they take him to the coastal city of Caesarea and then send him to Tarsus, his hometown on the southern coast of Turkey. The Church enters a period of peace and prosperity, and grows in numbers.

Peter travels to Lydda, a town about halfway between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean coast. In Lydda he finds a man named Aeneas, who is paralyzed and has been bedridden for eight years. “Aeneas,” Peter says, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas gets up. Everyone in Lydda and the surrounding region become believers after this miracle.

Meanwhile, in the town of Joppa on the Mediterranean coast, there’s a Christian named Tabitha (which is Hebrew for gazelle; in Greek her name is Dorcas, which means the same thing). She has a reputation for doing good and helping the poor. She falls ill and dies, and her body is washed and placed in an upstairs room prior to burial. Joppa is near Lydda, where Peter is, so the Christians of Joppa send two men to Peter to plead with him to come at once. Peter hurries with them back to Joppa, and goes to the upstairs room where Tabitha’s body is surrounded by mourners. Crying widows surround Peter and tearfully show him clothing and other things that Tabitha had made while she was still with them.

Peter sends all of them out of the room, then gets down on his knees and prays. Turning towards the dead woman, he says, “Tabitha, get up.” He takes her by the hand and helps her to her feet. He calls for the believers, especially the widows, and presents her to them alive. This miracle becomes known all over Joppa, and many people become followers of Jesus. Peter stays in town for some time, and stays at the house of a tanner named Simon.

Commentary

FYI, when I say that Saul was “attacking the church” (like in sentence one of the summary up top), “the church” means the entire group of Christians in general, not a building.

The notes say that Saul didn’t just hear Jesus’ voice on the road, but that Jesus actually appeared, physically. Or at least that’s what Saul seems to say in a later letter (1 Corinthians); I guess we’ll find out when we get there.

Saul’s plan for sneaking out of the city at night consisted of the other Christians lowering him in a basket through a hole in the city wall. Apparently the wall was not in good repair. And apparently the city either had no night watchmen, or had them posted few and far between on the wall, since none saw him. Also, the text describes the Christian followers who helped Saul as Saul’s followers. Either that’s a typo on Luke’s part, or Saul had some major, major rhetorical skills and charisma to convince people who were most likely terrified of him to believe that A) his conversion was the real deal and not part of a ploy to kill them all later, and B) not only was he converting for real, but he should also be their leader.

Barnabas was mentioned back in chapter 4 as one of the more well-to-do followers who sold everything he had and gave the money to the group. He was mentioned as a positive comparison to the negative example of Ananias and Sapphira, who had also sold their property but kept the money for themselves and then lied about it. Barnabas’ real name was Joseph, but the Apostles all called him Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement”. Sounds like Barnabas was a pretty positive guy in general. Anyway, it looks like Saul was able to convince even the apostles that he was sincere.

Sometimes Luke uses little transition phrases like “The Church entered a period of peace and prosperity” to denote that a length of time has passed between events. I just wish we knew how much time.

Joppa still exists, and is now a part of Tel Aviv. It’s about halfway between Azotus and Caesarea, the two towns that Philip traveled to last chapter. And of course Caesarea was also where they dropped Saul off to sail back to his hometown. Joppa is also mentioned in the Old Testament in the story of Jonah, when God told Jonah to go to Ninevah to preach, but Jonah didn’t want to and fled to Joppa instead… where he was subsequently eaten by a whale. But we’ll get to that story when we get to the OT.

Luke calls Christianity “the Way” here. I guess it makes sense, if they hadn’t invented the word “Christianity” yet; they had to call their beliefs something. The notes say the name “the Way” possibly originates from when Jesus said he was “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14) Also, at no point (so far) in the text have the Christians started calling themselves Christians yet; the text usually uses the word “disciples”, “followers”, or “believers”. I avoid using the word “disciples”, because that word was used back in the gospels to describe Jesus’ milling crowds of transient listeners, who were quite different from the current believers. “Followers” and “believers” are closer to the mark, and once again we see the baby church having a bit of an identity crisis. What to call themselves? They haven’t decided on a name yet, only referring to their belief in Jesus as “the Way”. I use the term “Christians” because A) “followers of Jesus” de-emphasizes their level of organization, and makes it sound like each follower is basically doing their own thing. But the Church  – which is a term they’ve been using for the past few years now – is turning out to be quite organized, with a hierarchy of leaders, its own communities, and its own rules (most of which we’ve so far seen only in Jerusalem, so it’ll be interesting to see if the new towns they are converting are also instilled with the same level of organization as the central community in Jerusalem). And B), it emphasizes their growing separateness from the Jews.

We’re definitely starting to see a clearer separation between the Jews and the Christians. At the very beginning, followers of Jesus viewed themselves as a subset of Judaism, and the Jews felt the same way. If you followed Jesus, you were basically a Jew who just happened to also be following Jesus; you didn’t stop being one when you became the other, you were just both. When a gentile joined the movement, they basically became a Jew, just one who believed in Jesus. But now, as the followers of Jesus gain confidence and develop a stronger identity for themselves, they’re starting to split away from the Jews. The outside world (namely, the Romans) still views the Christians as a subgroup of Judaism, but more and more the Christians (and the Jews) are beginning to view themselves as two separate and clearly defined (and perhaps not compatible) groups.

It’s also interesting that Peter is now encountering Christians just out and about in regular life – Christians whom he himself did not recruit. Before now, basically every follower that Peter has ever met was someone either he personally recruited, or that one of the other apostles had personally recruited. Now we see Christians popping up in places like Joppa, where neither Peter nor any other apostle has ever been. This seems to be a definite sign that the church is expanding. Tabitha there was probably converted by Philip when he came through. Tabitha was also probably a former Jew, since Luke gives her name in Hebrew first and then translates it to Greek; if she had been a gentile it would have been the other way around.

This is also the first time we’ve seen anyone other than Jesus raise someone from the dead. Jesus brought 3 people back to life: the daughter of Jairus the synagogue ruler (Matthew 9, Mark 5, Luke 8), the son of a widow (Luke 7), and Lazarus (John 11). This is the first time we’ve seen anyone else do it (and it’s Peter, natch.)

Acts Chapter 5

What Happens:

The apostles and all their followers live together and share everything in common, and periodically better-off followers sell their land or houses and give the money to the apostles, who then distribute it amongst the group. Two such followers are Ananias and his wife Sapphira. They sell a piece of property they own, but decide to keep part of the money for themselves, and give only the remainder to the group.

When they bring the money to Peter and the other apostles, Peter knows instantly what they have done. He exclaims, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? … You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

When Ananias hears this, he falls down dead. Everyone who sees is shocked. A few young men come forward and take the body out to be buried.

Three hours later, Sapphira comes in, not knowing what has happened to her husband. “Is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” Peter asks her. “Yes,” she lies. Peter replies, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” Immediately she falls down dead, just like Ananias. The same young men come and get her body, and bury her next to her husband. A great fear seizes everyone in the church when they hear about these events.

The people of the church usually hang out at Solomon’s Colonnade, which is a porch along the inside wall of the temple courtyards surrounding the temple. The apostles perform many signs and wonders there. However, some followers begin to get afraid of them and no longer join the group. But, the apostles are highly regarded in Jerusalem and more and more men and women join the church. People bring the sick into the streets, and lay them on mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he passes. People from the towns outside Jerusalem bring their sick as well, and all of them are healed.

The high priest and the chief priests, who are all Sadducees, hear about all this, and become very envious; they arrest the apostles and put them in jail. However, that night “an angel of the Lord” opens the doors to the jail and frees them. The angel tells them to go to the temple courts and tell people the message of the gospel. Morning finds them in the temple courtyards, just as the angel had told them, teaching everyone about the gospel.

Meanwhile that morning, the high priest and chief priests call together the Sanhedrin, which is the full council of the chief priests and Jewish leaders. They tell the guards to bring them the apostles from jail. The guards go to the jail, but find it empty. They go back and tell the council that the jail was locked and the guards were outside, but when they opened it there was no one inside. The council is puzzled and angry, and quickly discovers that the formerly-imprisoned apostles are preaching in the temple courts. The guards go and get the apostles and bring them back to the council (however, they are careful not to use force, as they’re afraid the apostle’s followers might stone them.)

The high priest sternly reminds the apostles that they had been ordered not to teach about Jesus. (Acts 4) He is also angry that the apostles have been teaching that it is because of the high priest and chief priests that Jesus was executed. Peter and the other apostles exclaim, “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead —whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The chief priests are infuriated by this, and are tempted to sentence the apostles to death, when a revered Pharisee named Gamaliel addresses the council. “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

The council is swayed by Gamaliel’s speech, and decides to only have the apostles flogged. Afterwards, they re-state their order that the apostles are not to preach in Jesus’ name, and let them go. The apostles leave rejoicing that they have been found worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. They totally ignore the council’s order and preach both in the temple and from house to house that Jesus is the Messiah.

Commentary

Was Ananias’ (and Sapphira’s) sin the fact that they kept some of the money for themselves, or the fact that they lied about it? Peter’s speech seems to indicate that it was the fact that they lied about it. So, if they had kept some of the money for themselves but been open and honest about it, would that have been ok?

Also, God apparently seriously means business. Striking them dead, what? I guess this is meant to send a clear message that the leaders of the baby church are not to be trifled with? The notes say, “If no dire consequences had followed [their] act of sin, the results among the believers would have been serious when the deceit became known. Not only would dishonesty appear profitable, but the conclusion that the Spirit could be deceived would follow. It was important to set the course properly at the outset in order to leave no doubt that God will not tolerate such hypocrisy and deceit.” I’m curious if we’ll see this (people getting struck dead or otherwise divinely punished) happen again, because human nature being what it is, some more hypocrisy and deceit is bound to happen.

Also, I guess the group of followers is officially “the church” now. So I don’t have to scramble around trying to figure out whether to call them “disciples”, “believers”, “followers of Jesus”, “followers of the apostles”, “that one group” etc. The loose-knit group of followers and disciples (led by the apostles, Jesus’ right-hand men) kind of fell apart after Jesus’ crucifixion, and even after his resurrection only numbered 120 people (way down from the thousands who had followed him at the height of his ministry.) After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the apostles did some highly successful recruiting, and within the space of a few months got the number up to 5,000. During the initial post-ascension period things looked pretty disorganized – Peter was the leader, but that was about all the organization they had. Now they’ve got some structure, a clear leadership organization (Peter at the top, followed by the other apostles, then the rank and file), everyone lives together in a cohesive and organized community (which is much different than the milling crowds of casual, often temporary followers that Jesus had preached to), and even a tiny economy. Albeit one which I would kind of hate to live under, but whatever, YMMV.

The people who are afraid to stay in the church were probably scared off by the Ananias incident. The notes say that “pretenders” and “halfhearted followers” got scared away for fear the same thing might happen to them.

Earlier we learned that the Sadducees are a Jewish sect who don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead (meaning that they were highly opposed to tales of Jesus’ resurrection), but now we learn that the high priest himself (either Caiaphas or Annas, the text doesn’t say which high priest they were talking about here), and all the other high-ranked priests, were ALL Sadducees.

Peter’s shadow can heal people? Sounds a lot like back in the gospels when a woman was healed just by touching Jesus’ cloak (Matthew 9).

The apostles said an angel freed them from jail. I wonder if “angel of the Lord” is code here for “a particularly sneaky friend who picked the lock and got us out”. It would make sense to keep the friend’s identity secret to protect him (or her) from getting in trouble too.

Not sure why the high priest would be mad that Peter et  al were teaching that it was because of him that Jesus was executed. Since it was because of him, and he had seemed pretty proud of it at the time. Also, not sure how the council was planning to impose the death sentence on the apostles, since only the Romans could apply the death penalty, and they would most likely have been unwilling to execute 12 Jews at once for fear of Jewish reprisals. Most likely this was just wishful thinking on the priests’ part, rather than anything they were seriously planning. Not that they ever really seem to “plan” much of anything; they seem very impulsive and hotheaded. Excellent traits in the people who are supposed to be running your country!

Enter: Gamaliel. The second good Pharisee that we’ve seen so far! (The first was Nicodemus.)

Also, I’d been thinking that the Pharisees were some type of chief priest or somesuch, but according to wikipedia, they were another Jewish sect. Sort of a social/political party. According to wikipedia, their main feature was a rejection of Hellenization and diehard adherence to traditional Jewish law. They apparently came mostly from the lower/working classes, unlike the Sadducees who were mainly aristocrats. Also, the Sadducees were in charge of running the temple. Which explains why the high priest and all the chief priests were Sadducees. There was also a third sect called the Essenes, who were much fewer in number than the Sadducees or Pharisees and lived in ascetic, monk-like communes. The Essenes probably wrote the Dead Sea scrolls.

According to the notes, “Judas the Galilean” mentioned by Gamaliel had led an anti-Roman revolt in 6AD. The revolt was crushed, but the movement lived on, in the form of the Zealot party/sect among the Jews. The Zealots revolted again in 66AD, and surprisingly managed to seize Jerusalem for a few years, until 70AD when Emperor Titus conquered it back and destroyed the Temple in retribution. The Zealots were often at odds with the Sadducees, because the Sadducees were cool with Hellenization and Romanization, whereas the Zealots were all about traditional Judaism, and the more hard-core the better. The Zealots and Pharisees got along pretty well because they were both traditionalists, but the Zealots loved violence and open fighting against the Romans, whereas the Pharisees were more cautious.

Acts Chapter 2

What Happens:

On the holiday of Pentecost (50 days after Jesus’ crucifixion and 10 days after his ascension), all the apostles and followers of Jesus are staying together in Jerusalem. Suddenly a violent wind comes down, and blows through the whole house. Lines of fire seem to come out of the wind and touch each one of them. They all begin to get filled with the Holy Spirit, and begin to speak in other languages.

Meanwhile, because of the holiday many Jews from all parts of the world have traveled to Jerusalem. People hear the commotion coming from the apostles’ house, and come to see what’s going on. The foreigners who go to look are shocked when they hear their own languages being spoken. Soon a sizable crowd has gathered, including Jews from Libya, Crete, the Parthian Empire, Turkey, Arabia, Iran, Egypt, and Rome. They each hear the message of Jesus being spoken in their own languages by the disciples. “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?” they question incredulously amongst themselves. “Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?” Most of them are amazed and perplexed, but a few make fun of the disciples and claim that they’re just drunk.

Peter stands up with the eleven apostles, raises his voice, and addresses the crowd. “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!” He tells them that this miraculous occurrence fulfills an Old Testament prophecy which said that “in the last days”, God would “pour out his Spirit” and cause his people to prophesy, see visions, and witness other miraculous occurrences such as the moon turning blood red and the sun going dark, before the coming of the glorious day of the Lord.

Peter tells them, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

He quotes a prophecy which said that God’s holy one would not be abandoned to the realm of death, and tells them that king David, who wrote the prophecy, is long dead, and you can go see his tomb to this day. God promised David that one of his descendants would take his throne, and David knew that this descendant would be the Messiah. David then foretold that the Messiah would be resurrected, and that even though he would die he would be raised back to life.

Peter asserts that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that the apostles were witnesses of it. Peter says that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, and has now given them the long-promised gift of the Holy Spirit, causing the miracle of languages which the crowd has seen and heard. Peter says before David died he gave a prophecy about his lord, the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of the Lord God in heaven. “Therefore,” Peter continues, “let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

The people are stricken with guilt, and ask Peter and the other apostles what they should do. Peter tells them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Peter talks to them for a long time, and at the end of the day about 3,000 people decide to get baptized. They join Jesus’ followers and devote themselves to the apostles’ teachings.

The apostles perform many more signs and wonders. All the believers live together, eat together, and share everything in common. They sell their property and possessions to give to anyone that is in need, meet together every day at the temple courts, praise God, and become pretty well-liked. More people join them every day.

Commentary:

Passover is the Jewish holiday that celebrates them being freed from slavery in Egypt. Pentecost is a Jewish holiday which celebrates God giving them the Torah, 50 days later. It’s interesting that Jesus picked that particular day to send the Holy Spirit down; his death on Passover represents people being freed from slavery to sin, just like the Jews were freed from slavery in Egypt, and his sending the Holy Spirit on Pentecost represents the idea that the old Jewish covenant from the Torah is gone now and has been replaced with the new covenant from Jesus.

At first it sounds like the lines of fire touched everyone who was in the house, and that everyone in the house started speaking other languages. But then later it says that everyone who is speaking is a Galilean, which would mean that only the apostles (who are all from Galilee, unlike the lower-level followers who are from all over Judea) got touched by the flames and can speak new languages. The text uses the word “tongues”, but that’s an old-timey word for languages. It’s obvious from context that they’re speaking various foreign languages. The other languages all the nationalities in the crowd would have spoken would have included Greek, Latin, Pamphylian (from the region of Pamphylia in modern Turkey), Median (from the region of Medes in modern Iran), Parthian, Egyptian, Phrygian, and Arabian.

I can’t say that I’ve ever spontaneously started speaking new languages anytime I’ve been drinking. I could’ve saved myself a lot of time in Spanish class if only it worked that way. Oh well.

When Peter stands up and gives a speech to the crowd, it’s a little vague as to whether there are only eleven apostles total, including Peter (which doesn’t make sense because they just picked a twelfth member a little while ago, so where’s he at?); or if Peter joins the other eleven who are already standing, making the total number of apostles twelve. I’m assuming it’s the latter.

The prophecy that Peter quotes sounds more like an end-of-the-world prophecy than anything about people speaking in tongues or whatever. Perhaps he expected the end of the world to follow pretty closely after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The last prophecy that Peter mentions, the one from David about the Messiah sitting at the right hand of the Lord, is also quoted by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The full text of the prophecy says: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'” The three gospels all quoted it in the context of Jesus being a descendant of David.

I’m not sure what to call Jesus’ followers as a group anymore. Disciples? Followers of Jesus? Believers? Christians (even though they’re still basically Jewish at this point)? Identity crisis! When it says that they all lived together and such, given that there were so many I’m assuming they would have had to occupy multiple buildings. You can’t fit three thousand people in the one house they started with, anyway. This whole occurrence took place in Jerusalem. Luke says they are becoming well liked (“enjoying the favor of all people”, he says), so apparently the Jerusalemites have gotten over their hatred of Jesus and his people. It’s only been 50 days since the crucifixion, so they’re the poster children for fickleness.

Acts Chapter 1

Introduction:

The book of Acts was written by Luke, as part 2 of his first book, the gospel of Luke. Luke was not one of the apostles, most likely never knew Jesus personally, and was probably recruited by other disciples after Jesus’ ascent. He was educated and a doctor, and was thoroughly Hellenized. It’s unknown whether he was Jewish or a gentile; if he was a gentile, then he’s the first non-Jewish author we’ve seen so far, and probably one of the first non-Jewish recruits at all.

The book of Acts covers the first 30 years of the early church, from Jesus’ ascent to heaven (which would have been in 33AD or so, not very long after his resurrection), to the disciple Paul’s imprisonment in 63AD. The fact that Luke does not include any events after 63AD (such a the outcome of Paul’s imprisonment and trial in 64AD, Peter’s death in 64AD, the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70AD, etc.), indicates that he probably wrote Acts in 63AD, the last year the book records.

What Happens:

Luke states that, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.” Luke says that after Jesus was crucified, he visited the apostles and was alive, and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days, instructing them.

On one occasion while Jesus is eating with the apostles, he gives them a command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The apostles ask if he’s going to restore the kingdom of Israel. Jesus tells them that it’s not for them to know the times and dates the Father has set. He tells them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

As soon as he says this, he ascends into the sky. As he rises, a cloud hides him from their sight. The apostles stare into the sky after him, when suddenly two angels appear and tell them that Jesus has been taken to heaven, and will come back in the same way they saw him leave.

The apostles leave the Mount of Olives, where all this occurred, and walk the short distance to Jerusalem. When they get to the house where they’ve been staying, they head upstairs to pray. All 11 surviving apostles are there: Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Thaddeus. Mary the mother of Jesus is also there, as are a few other women and Jesus’ brothers.

Peter stands up among the group of believers (a group of about 120 men), and gives a short speech. “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus – he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.” (With the reward money Judas had gotten for his betrayal, he had bought a field, but “fell headlong” and died when all his intestines spilled out. The Jews started to call his field the “field of blood” (Akeldama in Aramaic) because of this.)

Peter quotes a few psalms about enemies’ dwellings being deserted and new leadership replacing them. “Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

The group selects two men who fit the bill: Joseph Barsabbas (also known as Justus), and Matthias. They pray, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” They cast lots to see which one will be the new apostle, and the lot falls to Matthias.

Commentary

Like his first book, Luke addresses this book to “Theophilus”, which means “lover of God”. Although the first paragraph is styled as a letter, it was a common Greek literary technique to present essays or historical works in the form of dialogues or letters; possibly the Hellenized Luke was copying the Greek style rather than intending it as an actual letter. However, it’s also possible that Theophilus was a real person, and that Luke wrote specifically for his benefit.

When Jesus says that “John” baptized with water, and later when Peter refers to Jesus baptizing John, they’re referring to John the Baptist.

When the apostles ask if he’s going to restore the kingdom of Israel, they’re referring to the treasured Jewish tradition that said that the Messiah would be a conquering warlord who would defeat the Romans and make Israel independent and powerful again. Although Scripture prophesied a Messiah, it didn’t say anything about him being a mighty warlord, but the Jews pretty much figured, “How could a Messiah be anything BUT a mighty warlord?” Jesus spent a good amount of time hammering into the apostles’ heads that he was not a warlord and that his kingdom was spiritual not geographical, but apparently old hopes die hard. However, the fact that Jesus tells them that “it’s not for them to know the times and dates that the Father has set” implies that the kingdom of Israel actually will be restored at some point. Of course, the country of Israel exists now, so… there’s that.

Re Jesus’ brothers, we’ve run into this before, so I’ll just link to a couple previous places where I’ve already talked about it: Check out John chapter 2 (third paragraph down in the commentary), and Mark chapter 6 (first paragraph in the commentary).

It’s interesting that Jesus’ mother Mary is still alive (Joseph appears to be dead by now), and is still with the disciples. While Jesus was dying, he told John to take care of her (John 19), so apparently John’s been keeping his word. According to the notes, this is the last time Mary is mentioned in the bible. The other women were probably the wives of the other apostles. Peter was married, although we never see his wife and don’t even know what her name was; perhaps some of the other apostles were married too.

Matthew wrote that Judas committed suicide by hanging, rather than him dying an accidental death by falling. The notes say that possibly Judas’ hanged body fell from the rope, and split open. I doubt anybody actually witnessed Judas’ death, and whoever the unfortunate person(s) were that found the body probably just guessed at what happened, and the rumors started flying. Nothing gets the rumor mill churning like a death mystery.

It’s interesting that the apostles don’t completely fall apart now that Jesus is gone. They clearly believed that he was alive; none of them have given into despair, and even their initial indecision when Jesus first appeared has apparently given way to total confidence that Jesus is alive and that he wants them to continue spreading his message. We don’t see any of the apostles say, “Ok, well, I loved Jesus and everything, but he’s gone now, so I think I’m gonna leave all this preaching stuff behind and go home. He’ll understand.” You’d expect an un-confident group to slowly break up and each one leave one by one, but instead of doing that, the apostles just replace their missing member and keep on trucking.

So the takeaway here is that whether or not Jesus was really resurrected, the apostles themselves clearly believe that he definitely was; if they had simply stolen the body and then spread rumors that he was resurrected, that would be the perfect set-up for the one-by-one falling-away scenario. Try getting 11 people to all agree on the same lie. Inevitably some would break rank, forget, say “screw this” and go home, etc. And since lie-based groups aren’t exactly motivational or cohesive, each person would probably fairly quickly each go their own way, and the group would dwindle until boom, no more group. Does any of that even make sense? Moving on!

A group of 120 sounds like a lot of people. Were they all in the house when this was happening? If so, it must have been a big house. Also, Peter is definitely the leader here. Also, I didn’t know that there were that many non-apostle followers who had been with Jesus since the very beginning.

“Apostolic ministry” is a fancy phrase. It’s one of those phrases that you hear so often in prayers that it starts to lose all meaning, and people just sort of use it as a meaningless filler phrase. But, apparently “apostolic” means that the person or action so described is basically following in the footsteps of the apostles. “Ministry” apparently involves teaching/preaching. Probably everyone else already knew this stuff except me. I’ve heard the words before, but like I said they were in a pretty meaningless context.

This is also the first time we see anyone other than Jesus pick out an apostle. This has interesting implications for the future, because it means the apostles can replace themselves. If they couldn’t, then once the last of the original twelve died, there’d be no more apostles, and the church would be without leaders (at least, without apostle leaders). But since they can select new ones to replace the ones that have died, the apostles (as a group) could conceivably pretty much last forever.

John Chapter 20

What Happens:

Early Sunday morning (three days after Jesus’ crucifixion the Friday before), Mary Magdalene goes to visit Jesus’ tomb. When she gets there, she sees that the stone that had been covering the entrance has been moved away. She runs away and finds Peter and John, and anxiously tells them that someone has taken Jesus’ body out of his tomb, and she doesn’t know where they’ve put him. (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24)

Peter and John run to the tomb to look for themselves; John runs the fastest and gets there first. John hesitates at the entrance; he peers inside and sees Jesus’ burial linens on the ground, but doesn’t go inside. When Peter gets there, he enters the tomb. He sees the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head, which is now folded up and set on the floor, separate from the other linen. John finally enters the tomb too; neither he nor Peter understand what has happened. (Luke 24)

Peter and John go home, but Mary Magdalene stays outside the tomb, crying. While she’s weeping, she looks into the tomb, and suddenly sees two angels dressed in white sitting where Jesus’ body had been. They ask her why she is crying. “They have taken my Lord away, and I don’t know where they have put him,” she tells them. At this she turns around, and there behind her is standing Jesus; but she doesn’t recognize him. (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24)

“Why are you crying?” the incognito Jesus asks her. “Who is it you are looking for?” Not recognizing his face, Mary thinks he must be the gardener. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus calls her by her name, and she suddenly recognizes him and is overcome with happiness. Jesus tells her she can’t hold on to him, because he has not yet returned to the Father. He tells her to go tell the disciples that she has seen him. (Matthew 28, Mark 16)

That evening, the disciples (all the apostles except Thomas, and some of the lower-level disciples) are at a house, with the doors locked for fear of the chief priests’ followers. Jesus comes in and exclaims, “Peace be with you!”, the traditional Hebrew greeting. He shows them his scars from the cross on his hands and the scar in his side. The disciples are overjoyed. (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24)

Jesus tells them, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” He breathes on them, and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Meanwhile, the apostle Thomas wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus appeared. The other disciples tell him that they’ve seen Jesus, but he doesn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” A week later the disciples are in the house again, and Thomas is with them. Although the doors are locked, Jesus comes in among them. He greets them, and says to Thomas, “Put your fingers here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” (Matthew 28)

Jesus tells him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus does many more miraculous things in the presence of his disciple, which John says he has not recorded in his book. He writes that he has written what he has so that the reader will believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

Commentary

I think it’s humorous that Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize Jesus and mistook him for the gardener. Sounds like a mistake I would make. It seems that Jesus concealed his identity intentionally; not sure why. John doesn’t say where exactly the apostles & crew were actually staying; I gathered it was the same house they had the Last Supper in, but that’s just a guess. The chief priests and their followers must have been riding high after successfully getting Jesus crucified. The apostles clearly feared that some of them might try to break in.

For some reason John doesn’t describe what happened when Mary went and told the disciples Jesus was alive. He just cuts from Mary leaving the tomb that afternoon, straight to that evening when the disciples see Jesus for themselves at the house. It’s interesting that Jesus got in past the lock.

I’m curious as to where Thomas was, and why he wasn’t with the others. He was the only one missing.

John only mentions Mary Magdalene going to the tomb, but she tells the disciples that “we” found the body missing, so she must have had someone else with her. Matthew and Mark said another woman (also named Mary, the mother of the apostle James) went with her to the tomb. There’s some other discrepancies between the four gospels too. Matthew wrote that Mary and Mary went to the tomb, experienced an earthquake at the tomb, and an angel appeared. Matthew said that there were guards posted at the tomb, who passed out in fright when they saw the angel. John does not mention any angels or guards. Mark and Luke wrote that the two Marys were going to the tomb to anoint the body with spices, but John wrote that Nicodemus and Joseph had already done that, prior to Jesus’ burial. Maybe they were going to do it again? I don’t really know anything about Jewish burial practices. John did write that Joseph and Nicodemus had to prepare the body in a big hurry because of the Sabbath, so maybe Mary and Mary were going back to re-do it properly, now that there was time.

Mark said that at the tomb was “a young man in a white robe”, which could be an angel although he doesn’t come out and say so. Mark includes the part of the story that John left out – the disciples’ reaction to Mary Magdalene’s news when she got back from the tomb. Mark said that they didn’t believe her. Luke wrote that the two Marys took a whole passel of women with them to the tomb, rather than just going by themselves. According to Luke, only Peter went to the tomb to look at it for himself, rather than him and John both going. Like Mark, Luke also described the disciples’ reaction to Mary Magdalene’s assertion that Jesus is alive as one of skepticism. Also, in the other three gospels, Mary recognized Jesus right away. Only in John’s account does she not. In Luke, Mary doesn’t see Jesus at the tomb at all.

So the main gist is that: Mary Magdalene and at least one other woman (most likely Mary the mother of the apostle James) go to the tomb Sunday morning, and discover that the rock has been rolled off the entrance and the tomb inside is empty. When they turn to leave the tomb, Jesus appears. They are overcome with joy, and he tells them to go tell the others.

Re: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” So, the apostles have the ability to forgive sins in Jesus’ place? That’s interesting. The KJV rendering of this verse says: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Also, the implication is that whatever sins they DON’T forgive are not just sins they simply don’t know about (and thus can’t forgive because they don’t know), but rather are sins that they do know about and have consciously chosen not to forgive for whatever reason (lack of repentance on the part of the perpetrator, perhaps.)

Re Doubting Thomas, I think he’s gotten kind of a raw deal. All of the other apostles got to see Jesus’ scars – Jesus showed them to prove himself when he first got there. But when Thomas wants to see the same thing, he gets labelled as a doubter. Matthew described some of the other apostles as being “doubtful”; in Mark, the apostles disbelieved Mary, and when Jesus appeared to some other disciples, they didn’t believe them either; in Luke, the apostles had him eat some dinner to prove he wasn’t a ghost. There’s a lot of doubt going around is what I’m saying, and it’s hardly fair to Thomas that he alone gets singled out even though everyone else was just as doubtful as he was.

John Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A few days after Jesus’ encounter with John the Baptist, Jesus, his mother Mary, and a few of his disciples are invited to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. During the wedding feast the wine runs out, and Mary worriedly tells her son, “They have no more wine.” Jesus replies, “Why do you involve me? My time has not yet come.” Yet Mary tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby are half a dozen large stone jars, and Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars with water. Then he tells them to draw some out, and take it to the master of the banquet. They do so, and the master of the banquet tastes the water which has turned into wine. The servants know that this drink was water five minutes ago, but the master has no idea, and compliments the bride and groom on the fine quality of wine they’ve chosen to serve. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” This is Jesus’ first miracle, and his disciples put their full faith in him.

Later, he goes down to Capernaum with Mary, “[his] brothers”, and his disciples. On the holiday of Passover he goes to the Temple in Jerusalem, and finds lots of people selling sheep, cattle, doves, and acting as money lenders and exchangers on the temple grounds. Outraged at the desecration of the temple, Jesus makes a whip out of cords and drives all the merchants out of the temple. He scatters the money lenders’ coins and overturns their tables. He shouts, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19) His disciples suddenly recall a prophecy that says the Messiah will be overcome with “zeal for [God’s] house”.

The Jews demand of Jesus, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (Matthew 26, Mark 14) The Jews are disbelieving and say that it took 46 years to build the place, there’s no way anyone could build it in three days. But Jesus really meant that his body was the temple, and that he would die and be raised to life again in three days. While Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover feast he does various “miraculous signs” which cause people to believe in him. However, Jesus “[does] not need man’s testimony about man, for he [knows] what [is] in a man.”

Commentary

Jesus seems to have been reluctant to do anything miraculous before the start of his official ministry, but when his mother asks him to, he performs a miraculous work anyway. The fifth commandment says that you should “honor thy father and thy mother”, which Jesus appears to be following here. He’s initially hesitant to do anything, but when his mother asks him, he decides to honor her wishes and change the water to wine, and saves the banquet in the process.

I’m curious who the wedding was actually for; it must have been some friend of Jesus’ family for them to have been invited, but the story never names names. It’s also interesting that the master of the banquet is sober enough to be able to tell the difference between good quality wine and crappy wine. He was a more discerning man than most people probably would have taken him for.

Re: going to Capernaum with his “brothers”. Matthew and Mark also mentioned Jesus’ supposed brothers, but if Mary were really a Virgin, then she couldn’t have had children. There are two possible explanations for this. The first is that Aramaic referred to both direct siblings as well as cousins and other close relatives as “brothers”, just like many languages do today. Therefore, the “brothers” mentioned here would be Jesus’ cousins rather than biological siblings in the English meaning. The second possibility is that since Joseph was much older than Mary, he could have had children by a previous wife; if the first wife died, the young Mary could have been his second wife. The “brothers” of Jesus would therefore have been his step-brothers, children from Joseph’s first marriage. The fact that Joseph disappears from the gospel record extremely early supports the theory that he died very early in the story and therefore must have been much older than Mary at the time, who lived well after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

It’s also interesting that Jesus already had disciples so early, despite not having started a public ministry yet. The presumption is that disciples so far consist only of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, whom Jesus recruited personally, but the text never says.

Also: John never describes Jesus’ birth or childhood at all, which is somewhat unusual, given the emphasis that Matthew and Luke placed on Jesus’ birth. (Mark left out Jesus’ birth and started with his adult baptism.) However, John does state clearly that Jesus was born to Mary via God. This leads to the interesting idea that Jesus basically got to pick out his own mother. Why did he pick Mary? She was just a poor carpenter’s wife, but God/Jesus obviously haven’t cared about riches throughout any of the gospels; if anything, riches are to be avoided not sought. Mary must have been a woman of very high integrity and virtue to be chosen by God to bear Jesus. Not to mention, not only did she just carry him around for 9 months, she also raised him. In Luke, when Jesus was twelve years old, she is described as searching frantically for him when he runs off to the temple without her or Joseph’s consent. She (and Joseph) obviously raised him until he was age 30, when he left home and started his public ministry. This means that Mary’s burden was much greater than just incubating a fetus for nine months; she also raised, nurtured, and formed the child for thirty years, until he struck out on his own. However, Mary seems largely ignored by many denominations; growing up Baptist, the Virgin Mary was mentioned only at Christmas, and the rest of her role as Jesus’ mother was totally ignored. In retrospect that viewpoint seemed to stem from anti-Catholicism (we don’t like Catholics, Catholics honor Mary, thus we should ignore Mary), but it’s still sad that they would denigrate the Biblical story for politics.

Re: “saving the best till now.” It’s unclear whether this might be a veiled metaphor for Jesus himself. The other prophets (Elijah, John the Baptist, and the rest) have been the “choice wines” brought out to the people till now, whereas Jesus is the best wine brought out at the very last, when most guests are too drunk to appreciate it.

Re: God’s house turning into a market. I’ve been to churches where they had a gift shop running inside the church, and always wondered if they’d read this verse. Other practices, like charging a dollar to light a memorial candle, are a little more ambiguous, but having straight-up stores inside a church seems like a direct violation of what Jesus is trying to accomplish here.

John never says what “miraculous signs” Jesus does (besides the wedding at Cana) to attract these new followers. The statement that Jesus “knew what was in a man” makes it sound like Jesus was well aware of the worldly and cynical influences on people.

John Chapter 1

Introduction

The gospel of John was written by the apostle John, one of the very first followers that Jesus chose. During Jesus’ ministry John played a leadership role among the other apostles, usually second only to Peter. The book of John was probably written anywhere from 5oAD to 85 AD. The later date is the more commonly accepted view; Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian and teacher who lived from 150 to 215AD, wrote that John was the last gospel written, and that John wrote it specifically to supplement the other gospels. The more highly developed theology in John as compared with the other gospels supports this view.

Chapter 1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning.” All God’s creation was made through and with the Word, and the Word is the light of all people. “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” A man called John the Baptist came to teach all people about that light. He wasn’t the light himself, but he came as a witness to teach about the “true light that gives light”. Although the Word or the light partook in the making of the world, the world did not recognize him. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

John the Baptist has testified that Jesus, “who came from the Father, full of grace” is the one “who comes after me [but] surpass[es] me because he was here before me.” The Law was given through Moses, and grace and truth were given by Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God’s only begotten Son has made him known. While John the Baptist is travelling around Jerusalem preaching about the upcoming arrival of Jesus, some people ask him if he’s the Messiah. John says no. They ask if he’s the prophet Elijah, reborn. John says no. Well, he’s at least a new prophet, isn’t he? John says no again. He says that he only a “voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”(Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3)

They ask him why he baptizes people, if he’s not a prophet. He replies that he baptizes with only water, soon one will come whose sandals John is not worthy to untie. (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3) The next day after this encounter, Jesus approaches the Jordan River, where John is. John sees him coming and exclaims, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John says that this is the man he’s been talking about, and who is the reason he’s been baptizing with water so that Jesus might be revealed to Israel. John asserts that he saw the Holy Spirit come down from heaven in the form of a dove and rest on Jesus, and God told John that although John baptized with water, Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit because he is the Son of God. (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3)

The next day John sees Jesus again, and points him out to two of his followers. When the two followers hear who Jesus is, they follow him; Jesus turns and asks them what they want; they ask where he’s staying, and they spend the day together. That evening, one of the two, Andrew, runs to find his brother Peter, called Simon, and tells him that he’s found the Messiah. Andrew brings him to Jesus, and Jesus looks at him and says, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas.” (Cephas is Greek for “Rock”; “Peter” is Latin for “Rock”.) (Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, Luke 6)

The next day, Jesus finds Philip, and tells him to “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip runs and finds Nathanael, also called Bartholomew, and excitedly tells him that they’ve found the one Moses and the prophets foretold: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. “Nazareth!” Bartholomew exclaims. “Can anything good come from there?” When Jesus sees him, he tells him that he’s a true Israelite; Bartholomew asks him how he could know this, and Jesus tells him, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Bartholomew is amazed, and tells Jesus that he’s truly the Son of God and the King of Israel. Jesus gently rebukes him: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that. … I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the the Son of Man.”

Commentary

Why didn’t every apostle write a gospel? Seems like it would have been a good evangelization tool. We only have four books about Jesus’ life: 2 written by apostles, 1 written by a lower-level disciple, and 1 written by a late-comer who joined the Christian movement after Jesus had already ascended to heaven. Why didn’t the other Apostles write anything about Jesus? Memoirs of being with him, stories about his life, a list of sayings, anything. Jesus told them to “go and preach to all nations“, so you’d think that writing down info or stories about Jesus and circulating copies would have been a pretty good evangelization tool to use. Literacy seems to have been widespread (Jesus was taught to read and write, and he was just a poor carpenter’s son. There’s tons of graffiti in Pompeii (c. 79AD) written by people of even the lowest social classes), so the written word was commonplace and seems like it would have been a highly mobile and useful way of getting the word out, just like it is now. But few of Jesus’ followers seem to have done so. Did they think that Mark and Matthew had pretty much said it all, and opted to distribute those writings instead of writing their own? This seems doubtful, since Luke, a late-comer who joined Christianity after Jesus had gone to heaven, wrote his book after Matthew and Mark had written theirs, implying that he thought their accounts could use some back-up. The apostle John wrote his book last of all, so neither Matthew, Mark, or Luke’s book must have seemed sufficient to him. So that explanation is out. Were Jesus’ followers convinced that the end of the world would soon be upon them, and they didn’t bother to write anything down because they thought judgment day would happen in their lifetimes and thus any writings would be pointless? Or, did other Apostles or disciples write about Jesus, and their accounts either A) have been lost through time, or B) were known, but were left out of the Bible for various reasons? I don’t know enough about the history of the Bible to know.

Anyway, on to the actual book! The Word, apparently, is Jesus. “In the beginning” is a deliberate echo of the first sentence of Genesis (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”), by which the reader is to understand that Jesus was not just an especially blessed person, but was in fact part of God, and who had existed since the beginning of time, not just since 0AD. I don’t know why Jesus is called a “word” instead of, say, “a Son” or whatever. I guess Jesus was the Word that God spoke when he was creating (since God basically spoke everything into existence, e.g. he said the words “let there be light” to make light suddenly appear, etc.), which is all super metaphysical and esoteric. The takeaway from this verse, I guess, is that God and Jesus are one being.

Re: “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” I heart this verse, and it’s interesting that the darkness hasn’t “understood” the light.

Re: “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Well, that’s interesting. So is that the point of baptism, then? To receive Jesus so that you can become an adopted child of God? Can you believe in him and get adopted without being baptized or anything? What’s the whole deal with being adopted, anyway? God made everything so people are his creations, right? Why do we need to be adopted if we’re already his creations? So many questions! The only thing I can think of is that our sin has separated us from God and so we would need this adoption to overcome that separation. But that doesn’t entirely make sense either, since of course people go on sinning even after they’ve accepted Jesus; it’s just human nature.

The description of the Word as “full of grace” is reminiscent of the angel’s greeting to Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” (Luke 1:28) However, other translations translate “full of grace” as “thou who art highly favored” instead.

Re: He “who comes after me [but] surpass[es] me because he was here before me.” Older people were generally considered a higher rank than the younger, so by conventional standards John the Baptist would have outranked Jesus, since John was the older of the two. However, John denies this, saying that Jesus was actually the oldest of all, since he had existed from the beginning of the world.

Re: “The Law was given through Moses, and grace and truth were given by Jesus Christ.” Well, that’s interesting. It implies that the Law did not contain the fullness of truth. What little we’ve seen of the Law has made it seem micromanagey (eg rules about donating spices, etc), and it definitely has sounded more legalistic than grace-filled. Which leads to the inevitable questions of, why did God establish those laws in the first place? Why not start off with loving and grace-filled laws from the get-go?

Re: “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Is that what the Resurrection accomplished, then? Jesus’ death took away the sins of the world? I have to admit I was pretty confused by what the Crucifixion and Resurrection actually accomplished, from Jesus’ point of view. The “lamb of God” thing is another reference to the Passover Lamb, whom Jesus represents. While the Jews were slaves in Egypt, an angel told them to put lamb’s blood on their door posts so that the devastation about to strike the Egyptians would see the blood and “pass over” the Jews. In an analogous way, anyone protected by Jesus’ blood will be spared as well.

What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?

It’s unclear who the two followers of John the Baptist are, who leave him to follow Jesus. One of them is obviously Andrew; the notes say that the other is the apostle John, the author. That would make sense in light of the other gospels; in the others, Peter, Andrew, James, and John are the first four disciples chosen by Jesus. So for Andrew, Peter, and John to be the ones in this story would make sense. However, in the other gospels it describes the four as being recruited while they were out fishing, and doesn’t mention them as being followers of John the Baptist. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have been, though. It actually makes more sense that way, really; in the other accounts they’re described as getting up and leaving their homes and livelihoods the moment Jesus asked them to. If they were already followers of someone who thought very highly of Jesus, like John the Baptist, then their willingness to drop everything and follow him makes more sense than if Jesus were a complete stranger. It’s unusual that Andrew is the one depicted as recruiting Peter, when usually Peter is shown as the one in the leadership role.

Simon was Peter’s Hebrew name, which means “God has heard”. “Cephas” is Greek for Rock; “Peter” or “Petra” is Latin for the same thing. Luke also described Jesus as giving Peter the name Peter.

Peter and Andrew’s father was named John. This is totally unrelated, but I find the occurrence in the gospel of people with the same names to be a pretty realistic detail. Peter and Andrew’s father is named John, another apostle is named John, one of Jesus’ predictors is named John. In real life, we meet people with the same names all the time. I went to school with 14 girls all named Amber (the teachers had fits trying to remember who was who), and have met countless Jennifers, Jessicas, Rachels, etc throughout my life. One of the hallmarks of fiction, on the other hand, is that no one ever shares a name. The Wheel of Time series has over 2,000 named characters, all of whom somehow have totally unique names. George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series is four books long and he’s never repeated the same name twice. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy never re-used a character name. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the Harry Potter series ever gave any characters the same first name, and that series carried on for 10 years and 7 books. The use of unique names for characters, so that readers can remember them more easily, is one of the trademarks of fiction. The fact that the gospels consist of people who often have the same first name (there were no last names then) as other people, just like real life, makes it sound much more realistic.

I don’t get what the deal is with the Nathanael/Bartholomew double-naming, though. At first I though one was his Hebrew name and one was his Greek name, like with Peter. Actually, one name is Aramaic and one is Hebrew. Nathanael is Hebrew for “Gift of God”. Bartholomew is Aramaic for “Son of talmai”, which scholars say could either mean “son of furrows (talmai)” in Aramaic or “son of Ptolemy (talmai)” in Hebrew. All of the other gospels refer to him as Bartholomew. I refer to him as Bartholomew throughout the story, for continuity.

Luke Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Jesus calls the twelve apostles together. He gives them the power and authority to drive out demons and heal the sick, and tells them they are going to go out and preach the message of the kingdom of God. He tells them not to take anything for the journey – no bread, no money, no extra clothes,etc. They are to find one house to stay at the entire time they are in each town. If the townspeople don’t welcome them, they are to “shake the dust off [their] feet… as a testimony against them” and leave. The apostles head out, and preach from town to town.(cf Matthew 10, Mark 6)

Herod hears word of the apostles and their message, and also hears a flurry of rumors that people are saying about them: that John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and is preaching, or that it’s the ancient prophet Elijah who has reappeared, or that other ancient prophets have come back to life. Herod scoffs, knowing that he beheaded John the Baptist, but is curious nonetheless. (cf Matthew 14, Mark 6)

The apostles come back, and tell Jesus about all the stuff they did. Jesus and the apostles all head to the town of Bethsaida, but people find out where they’re going and a crowd follows them. Jesus welcomes the crowd, and begins teaching them about the kingdom of God. He also heals all the sick among the crowd. He preaches until late in the afternoon, when the apostles come up to him and ask him to send the people away so that everyone will be able to find some food. Jesus tells them to give the people something to eat. The apostles tell him that they only have five loaves of bread and two fish, unless Jesus wants them to go purchase food for all five thousand people. Jesus tells them to have the crowdspeople sit down in groups of fifty. Jesus then takes the apostles’ meager amount of food, prays, breaks the bread, and then begins to pass it out. The food miraculously becomes enough to feed everyone there. (cf Matthew 14, Mark 6)

Later, on another day when they’re alone again, Jesus asks the disciples who people say he is. The disciples tell him that people think he’s John the Baptist come back to life, or the prophet Elijah, or some other ancient prophet come back from the past. “But what about you?” Jesus asks. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answers that he is the Christ, the Savior. Jesus orders them not to tell anyone of this truth. Jesus then warns them that he will suffer and be rejected, will be killed, and after three days will rise back to life. He says that anyone who would follow him “must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Anyone who is ashamed of Jesus, Jesus will be ashamed of when the glory of the Father appears. “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” (cf Matthew 16, Mark 8)

Eight days later, Jesus takes Peter, John, and James with him onto a mountain to pray. As Jesus is praying, he suddenly becomes as bright as a flash of lightning, and Elijah and Moses appear beside him. They talk with Jesus for awhile, and speak about his upcoming departure for Jerusalem, and what it will bring. Peter, James, and John have been dozing while Jesus prayed, and when they wake up they see the brightness of Elijah and Moses talking with Jesus. Elijah and Moses make to leave, and Peter blurts out that this is an auspicious occasion, and that they should build three monuments in honor of it, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While Peter is speaking, a cloud comes down from the sky and covers the mountain and the voice of God speaks, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” Elijah and Moses disappear, and Jesus and the three disciples are alone. (cf Matthew 17, Mark 9)

When they come back down off the mountain, a man approaches Jesus and begs him to heal his son, who is possessed by a demon which causes him to have terrible seizures and convulsions. The man says that the disciples had tried healing him already, but hadn’t been able to do it. Jesus is a little frustrated by the disciples, and asks, “How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” He orders the boy to be brought to him, and while the boy is walking over the demon throws him into another convulsion which makes him fall to the ground. Jesus rebukes and removes the spirit and heals the boy, and everyone is amazed. While everyone is marveling, Jesus takes the disciples aside and warns them that the Messiah (i.e. himself) will be betrayed. But the disciples don’t understand what he’s talking about. (cf Matthew 17, Mark 9)

Later on, the disciples are arguing among themselves about which of them will be the greatest. Jesus hears them, and grabs a child, saying, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all – he is the greatest.” John tells Jesus that they had seen a man casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but they made him stop because he wasn’t a disciple. Jesus tells them not to stop him, “for whoever is not against you is for you.” (cf Matthew 18, Mark 9)

Jesus and the disciples start to head to Jerusalem. They have to travel through the region of Samaria to get there, and it is a journey of a few days. At the end of the first day as they’re preparing to stop for the night, Jesus sends a few followers to the Samaritan village on the road ahead of them to go ahead get things ready for their arrival, and for them to stay the night. However, the village does not welcome the followers; the Samaritans are not Jews and don’t like Jews, and when they find out that the group is heading to Jerusalem for Passover refuse to let them stay the night. James and John are outraged, and ask Jesus if he wants them to call down fire to destroy them. Jesus rebukes them and says no, and they simply go to another village.

While they’re walking down the road, a man comes up and asks to join them, saying he will follow Jesus wherever he goes. Jesus replies that foxes have holes to sleep in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. A second man comes up, and Jesus tells him, “Follow me.” The man says ok, but that first he has to bury his dead father before he can go. Jesus tells him to let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead, and that he should come and proclaim the kingdom of God. A third man comes up, and tells Jesus that he’ll follow him, but that first he has to go back and say goodbye to his family. Jesus replies that, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (cf Matthew 8)

Commentary

Here we are at the apostles’ mission trip again. Matthew talked about the same trip  (in fact he spent an entire chapter building up to it, and gave it by far the most attention of any of the writers so far. Which I suppose is to be expected since he would have been the only one who actually participated in it. Matthew was one of the apostles himself, whereas Mark was a small-time disciple who didn’t get invited to any of the cool stuff, and Luke was a late-comer doing research after Jesus was already gone.) But anyway, despite all the build up to it, Matthew never mentioned anything about how the trip actually went. What towns they went to, how the message was received by people, how long they were gone, etc. Nope, nothing. Mark’s account was little better; he gave a much-abbreviated version of the story, and tossed in a sentence about how the apostles healed some people while they were missioning. Luke here says that the apostles “told Jesus” about everything they did, but doesn’t bother to relate any of their doings to the reader.

But, I’m a little confused. Because the apostles went around preaching “the news of the Kingdom of God”; this “news”, from what I understand, consists of A) Jesus being the Messiah/Savior, and that therefore everyone should B) repent and be baptized. Yet, AFTER the apostles get back from preaching this all over the region, Jesus tells them that he’s the Messiah/Savior and to keep it on the down low, i.e. not tell anyone. Did I miss something here? Did they only preach part B (that everyone should repent and be baptized, but leave out the part about Jesus being the Savior) while they were out preaching? If so, why?

In Matthew, after Peter tells Jesus that he believes Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus then gives a speech about Peter being “the rock on which he will build his church” and gives him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Luke here didn’t include that, though. Neither did Mark, actually, but in Mark’s case I got a vibe that Mark simply didn’t like Peter because he left all the cool Peter stories out. The latter part of Jesus’ speech here (“take up your cross” etc) is almost verbatim from Matthew.

I really like Peter. I can really empathize with him here – you know how when you’re tired and just can’t keep your eyes open even though you know you really should, so you guiltily sneak a nap anyway? And that awkward moment when you wake up and realize that while you were sleeping something very big happened and you completely missed it? And that uncontrollable urge that makes you feel like you just have to “say something” when you wake up and see it, but you have no idea what’s going on so you just blurt out the first thing that pops into your sleep-deprived brain? Yeah, poor Peter. Luke inserts a parenthetical note that Peter didn’t know what he was saying, and God basically interrupts him and tells him to shush. Poor guy.

Also, according to the bible notes, instead of monuments Peter wanted to build “shelters”. I should mention here that I think Matthew and Mark also used the word “shelter”, but the notes on those verses said that they were talking about tabernacle-style memorial type things (the tabernacle being a fancy holy tent from back in the ancient days), so that’s how I summarized it, because “memorial” or “monument” is a little more clear than just saying “shelter”. However, here in Luke the notes change their tune and now say that the shelter/tabernacle memorial things are actually literal shelters, i.e. temporary houses. The notes say that Peter wanted to build the temporary houses/shelters for Moses and Elijah to be able to stay longer. I don’t know why the notes for the same verses in Matthew and Mark would interpret it one way, but then in Luke interpret the same essentially identical passage a different way. I don’t know which interpretation is the true one, although I’d lean towards the monument/memorial understanding, since if he was talking about literal dwellings then why build three? Why not just build one for all three of them to share? But if they’re monuments, then it makes sense that each would get their own. Anyway, it’s important to note that the actual text of the Bible hasn’t changed (this story is pretty much verbatim between Matthew/Mark/Luke), but that only the notes have changed.

The story about the Samaritan village is one of the few that are unique to Luke and not repeated from one of the other gospels. I had to smile a little at the conceit and indignation of John, when John asked Jesus if Jesus wanted him to call down fire on the village, rather than Jesus being the one to call the fire. Particularly given that they couldn’t even heal the epilepsy kid in the previous story, but now he’s confident enough to call fire. I guess anger does things to your confidence levels.

According to the notes, the whole fire-from-the-sky thing is a reference to an Old Testament story about the prophet Elijah. The story, which took place quite a few centuries before the time of Christ, says that King Ahaziah of the region of Moab (a territory which included part of present-day Samaria and had been conquered by Israel) decided to rebel against the Israelites. But, Ahaziah falls and injures himself. He calls some of his followers and tells them to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of the pagan cities, and ask him whether he’ll survive. The Israelite prophet Elijah hears this and reacts with anger, asking whether there’s no God in Israel, that the king has to go off and consult with pagan gods? Elijah tells the messengers that the king will get a message from a god alright… a message from the real God, who says that if Ahaziah gets out of his bed, he will die. The messengers go back to Ahaziah, who responds by sending an army after Elijah. Elijah calls down fire on the army, and they all die. The king sends a second army and Elijah calls down fire to destroy them as well. Long story short, Elijah spares the third army sent and eventually the king dies. (2 Kings 1)

Fun facts!: As you may have guessed “Baal-Zebub” is where we get the English word “Beelzebub”. The Philistines and various other non-Israelite tribes worshiped (among many others) a god named Baal-Zebul, which meant “Baal the Prince”. The Israelites changed it to “Baal-Zebub”, which means “Lord of the flies”, as a put-down against him. Later, William Golding stole the name to use as the title for a pretty good dystopia novel.

Re: the three guys who come up and want to follow Jesus but all have stuff to do first. This story is basically verbatim from Matthew 8, but when I went to link back to it I noticed that my summary of that chapter hadn’t included it (it had the part about the teacher of the law asking to join the group, but accidentally left out the bit about the foxholes and birdnests etc, and about the second follower who wanted to bury his father.) I went back just now and added it. I don’t know why I left it out; sometimes I get tired and my eyes just skip over things, and sometimes I don’t know that something will be important later and summarize a little too much.

Anyways, Jesus sounds like he’s in a super hurry here. Don’t go back to tell your family good bye? They’ll think you’ve just abandoned them; I guess Jesus figures the hubby and wife can compare stories once they’re in heaven, and that heaven is more important anyway? And let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead? Ouch. It never actually says whether any of the three join the group or not; back in Matthew it implied that the first guy did and that the others didn’t.