CLASS NOTES FOR BIBLE EXAM #3

New Testament (10-29-02)

You always have the same God, but acting in a new way

Marcionites write off the OT God – they say the Father of Jesus is nicer

Those who wrote the NT see God as the same God – you can’t understand who Jesus is
without knowing the OT God

See chapters 24 & 26 of Matthew – judgment scenes like the OT God

Jesus damned a lot of people – we’ve tamed Jesus

Palestine
1. Held by the Ptolemies until 198 BCE – they lost to Seleucids
2. Antiochus IV Epiphanes 175-163
- defiled Temple in 167

Maccabean Revolt
1. Mattathias in Modin
2. His son, Judas Maccabeus becomes leader – 166-160
3. John Hyrcanus, grandson of Mattathias, leader and eventually king, 134-104

They refused Greek culture, but John Hyrcanus is a Hellenized person

- all the court documents were in Greek by John’s time
Israel is genuinely an independent nation at this time
- does not pay taxes to anybody

Politics in Palestine
1. There is unrest after the death of John Hyrcanus in 104 BCE
- assassinations – these went on everywhere
- civil war ensues and both sides appeal to Rome
- Rome calls for a cease-fire
- the Roman Senate debates and considers claims of both sides
- some side with one group, others side with the other and one thinks
they’re going to lose, so they send a message to start fighting again
- Rome says, you violated our cease-fire, so the other guys win
- they send in a general, Pompey (one of the original Triumvirate)
2. Pompey sacks Jerusalem in 66 BCE and Jewish independence is over
- the new ruler is a vassal who reports to the governor of Syria, who used to be
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 king of the Seleucid Empire
- back to where they started at beginning of Maccabean Revolt

3. Power now is with the governor of Syria, Antipater

- The Jews are not happy and don’t like being under someone else
- they were convinced that the political power they had gained was what
the prophets said they ought to have, that the Kingdom of God was
coming
- now it was taken away by the Romans
- Pompey toured Jerusalem, entered the Temple and went into the Holy of Holies,
so Jews hate Romans
- He didn’t take or damage anything, but this happened only 100 years after the
Temple was defiled
- the Jews never forgave the Romans and hated them as long as they were in
control
- there were regular revolts

4. Revolt at Antipater’s death - one of the bigger revolts

- he willed his territory to his 2 sons
- Jews thought it was a good time to revolt, no one in power
- Judeans kill one of the sons and the other escapes to Rome and puts on a big
show in the Senate, brought in his father’s crown and said it’s yours to
do with what you will
- So Rome sends him back with soldiers and they re-establish order
- This was Herod the Great – given power
- In Matthew, Jesus was born under him and he killed all the babies
- Subdues the revolt, even the descendents of Mattathias

5. Reign of Herod the Great 40 – 4 BCE

- was a good ruler in many ways - ruled in Palestine
- built cities from nothing
- built the Temple in Jerusalem – took 30 years – he paid for it
- Herod was half Jewish but not religious
- expected to keep the Romans happy
- He makes a lot of stupid mistakes, or to aggravate people
- Temple was magnificent – enormous – to honor the God of the people of Judea
- Decides to put a Roman eagle over the Temple gate

- It’s an abomination – no graven images - and the people hate Rome, so the
people take it down
- Herod rounds up people and executes them
- He had the Roman army come in at night with banners flying in Jerusalem and a
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 riot ensues – lots of people executed
- People hate him despite any good things he did
- He keeps things in turmoil
- Cruel in his personal life – gets paranoid and has most of his family executed –
the 3 sons he has left are in jail and on his deathbed, he ordered their
execution, but this was not carried out
- When he died, his sons took over
Herod Antipas – until 39 CE – Jesus on trial
Deposed by his nephew
Philip - ruled a good section of Palestine until 33 or 34
Archelaus – in Judea, so bad the Romans banished him to Gaul and the
the territory was given to Syria, after 10 years of ruling;
In Luke, Archelaus ruled Bethlehem, so Family moved to Nazareth
No one liked these guys because they represented the Romans
There were constant revolts going on
- especially at time of feasts
- small groups felt anointed by God to get rid of Romans and they always lost

3. Judea in the hands of a procurator in 6 CE (a sub-governor)

- riots and revolts
- dangerous place to be
- people thought God wanted them to re-establish their theocracy
- figured God would win it for them, esp on Passover since God had beat
Pharaoh on first Passover
- every Passover, someone would attack the Romans and die
- they thought God would free them and the prophecy of God’s kingdom would
come true

4. The Jewish Revolt 66 – 70 CE

- biggest revolt yet
- Roman general was sent – Vespatian
- eventually, his son Titus was in charge
- Jerusalem was sacked at end of this war, Jerusalem wiped out
- Temple destroyed in 70 CE
- the Jews believed God would re-establish the kingdom, so Romans got rid of
their center of worship
- Romans did not allow them to rebuild
- there was no more sacrificial system to this day and the Temple never rebuilt
- this was the most traumatic event for Judaism and Christianity in that day

5. Bar-Kokhba Revolt 132-135 CE

- they lost to the Romans again
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 - Rome said no more Jews allowed to live in Judea
- the Jews were expelled

The Jews in the rest of the empire were just trying to live in peace, not seen as problem
By the 1st century CE, more Jews live outside of Palestine than in it
They were minorities in their cities

From 66 CE – no Jewish state until after World War II

From 70 CE – no Jewish temple

Jesus is raised in and lives in this political turmoil

When Jesus says the kingdom is at hand, it was very dangerous thing to say
People understood him to be political
He dies as a political revolutionary – crucifixion used for them, to show others not to be a
Revolutionary
Romans thought he was a political figure
Calling people to think in different terms, but it was hard for people in their context to
Understand
Jesus says don’t tell I’m the Messiah – people will get the wrong idea
There were various ways people envisioned a Messiah
No one thought the Messiah would be a Galilean peasant who would be executed by the
Romans

Gospels as Ancient Biographies (10-31-02)

Important to know what kind of literature something is
Ancient biographies are very different from modern ones
- were about a person

1. Portrays a type of person, who you were, not details of your life
- details were not important to ancient biographies
- Lives of the 12 Caesars – lots of incorrect details – what they showed was what
kind of person you exemplified, for example, Greedy or Virtuous
2. Aim more important than factual correctness
3. Many want to mold character
- read it and try to be like them
- look at how a person personifies ambition, or another quality
- don’t expect you to change, you are who you are as you’re born – Hercules as
a baby was already wrestling snakes and winning
- no concern for factual data
- they let you see who Jesus is
- theological writings
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Gospels
1. Give context to give meaning
- to understand a particular thing about who Jesus is
- written differently to different audiences – Gentiles or Jews
- each gives a particular impression of who Jesus is
- chosen for canon because they give the best Christian theology, not the best
facts

2. Often want to limit meanings

- stories get repeated
- you know what it meant by how you tell the story
- for example, Jesus saying what comes out of a person, not what goes in makes
you unclean – story is different in Matthew and in Mark
- gospel writers wrote stories in ways to interpret a certain way
- must read the stories in context of their gospel to get meaning

3. Not strict chronological or historical accounts

- there were people who saw Jesus who were still around when the gospels were
written, so the writers couldn’t make up something
- Matthew and Mark have this story in middle of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee,
where it belongs. Jesus has been out preaching and has become well
known, then comes home
- Luke tells stories in different order than Matthew and Mark
– very first story of Jesus is Jesus getting run out of Nazareth
- because it sets up the whole theme of Jesus’ ministry
- doesn’t follow chronologically as Jesus has just been baptized
- Luke puts in a little line to imply that Jesus had been in his
ministry
- Luke intentionally put story in wrong order, had read Mark
- more important to make the theological point, not to be chronologically
and historically accurate
- wants you to understand the right things about Jesus, so that’s the way
he tells the stories

4. Episodes sometimes are symbolic

- not all stories can be taken literally exactly as told
- Jesus having to heal a guy twice to cure blindness, on way to Jerusalem
– symbol of having to heal the disciples of their blindness of his ministry
– they keep not getting it
- this story doesn’t show Jesus as really powerful - so it’s probably symbolic
- gives a hint of what’s coming
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 - All 4 gospels work this way - collected sayings and stories of Jesus, then
arranged them and told them so you get the right picture of who Jesus is,
to make their own theological point

5. Each gospel has its own understanding of Jesus

- different perspectives and different things to say
- not contradictory
- need to see them each as independent writers to get their point of who Jesus is
- what to believe to be a Christian
- sometimes gospels do something radically different from the others
- what we do is smooth over the differences between the gospels and miss the
point each one is trying to make
- first step is to read them as independent writers

Luke researched – talked to eyewitnesses, preachers and read other writings about Jesus
- he will write an “orderly account”
- will show you who he understands Jesus to be
- Luke has excellent writing skills

Mark - perspective on who Jesus is

1st gospel written
You can tell by what they leave in and leave out what the writer’s perspective is

Mark has no birth story, no genealogy

Jesus’ ministry is the most important, not this other stuff – ministry starts right off the bat
Mark ends where Jesus’ ministry ended
- Jesus’ ministry tells you who he is
- main point of Mark

1. Written for Gentile audience, so Jews & Gentiles are equal in the kingdom of God
- explains Jewish customs
- gives special attention to Gentiles in the stories, all over the place
- non-Jews are important parts of stories
- Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee for the first few chapters, then crosses the
Sea of Galilee to a Gentile area (Decapolis)
- A whole section where Jesus crosses back and forth, doing for Gentiles what he
did for Jews on the other side of the Sea
- Gerasene demoniac is the first contact with Gentiles – an exorcism
- Jesus’ first miracle for Jews was an exorcism, then for Gentiles
- Jesus feeds 5000 Jews, then does same for Gentiles
- to show equality in the kingdom, Gentiles are just as important to God as Jews
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 - the centurion at the foot of the cross is the one who says this was the Son of God
- nobody else got it - the one guy who finally figures out who Jesus is
- the kingdom is about Gentiles

2. Coming of the kingdom means the defeat of evil

- exorcism is the first miracle in Mark
- demon possession was the worst evil someone could suffer
- Jesus faces down this personal evil and defeats it easily
- exorcism stories in Gospels follows standard ancient form of this type
- these are very easy for Jesus – usually hard for others
- Jesus pushes back the borders of the place where evil rules
- 1st century people saw world as ruled by forces of evil
- this is the mission of Jesus – he easily expands the realm where God rules and
pushes back the evil that rules the world - demons, sickness, etc.

3. How Mark uses parables

- Mark is shortest gospel
- not as many as Matthew and Luke
- 4 parables in the early part of Mark, rest is narrative more or less
- in Mark, parables were used to hide meaning because he figures you will decide
Jesus is or isn’t the Son of God right off the bat
- those with faith will get more faith
- those without faith will be more confused the more they hear
- also gives the meaning so you can be an “insider”
- parables in Mark do NOT help people “get it” easier - instead hides meaning

4. Messianic Secret – in Matthew & Luke too but not as much

- Jesus constantly hides his identity
- demons are the first to recognize Jesus and even they aren’t to tell who Jesus is
- doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s done (miracles)
- constantly saying “don’t tell anybody”
- raises girl from dead, says don’t tell
- transfiguration on mountain, tells disciples not to tell anyone
- because Jesus would have been misunderstood – Messiah was a political idea
to most people - people would have picked up their swords to fight for,
him, and Jesus didn’t want that
- or to show why the government didn’t know who he was

5. Relationship to the Law

- some think Mark says Christians don’t have to pay attention to the Law
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 - this is a significant MISreading of it
- shows Jesus breaking the Law – not ritually washing hands, no food laws, etc.
- some say Jesus was saying no to the law, but he sends a healed leper to the
priest and offer sacrifices, per the Law
- human need overrides Sabbath law – picking grain to eat
- Jesus says they misunderstood what the Sabbath was for when criticized
- Jesus didn’t say you didn’t have to keep the law
- sometimes another part of the law is more important, such as human
need over Sabbath
- Mark’s audience was Gentile and didn’t keep the law
- there was a big controversy in early Christianity about Gentiles and law keeping
- (later, Paul tells Gentiles they are not allowed to keep the law)
- Mark has Jesus give paradigm of how to keep it, matter of balancing things
- you don’t disregard the law
- Jesus gives new ways to think about the law

6. Disciples do not understand

- they get called insiders in chapter 4, but it’s down hill from there
- they just don’t get it
- they ask questions – what does he mean?
- the disciples don’t reappear after Peter denies Jesus – they run away and don’t
even see the resurrected Jesus
- perhaps presented as an example of how Christians really are – but look what
God did with them (readers would know that the Spirit touched them later
and they did marvelous things)
- God forgave them and did great things through them –“so God can do this with
me too”

7. Intercalation – an important literary device

- when Jesus has to try twice to heal the blind guy, it was right before leaving
the northern area to go to Jerusalem
- then everything is “on the way….”
- then when he gets to Jerusalem, he heals a blind person
- trip begins and ends with healing a blind man

- sometimes, 2 stories are put in together

- Jesus on the way to heal Jarius’ daughter, then a woman touches his robe and is
healed – says her faith healed her – servants come and say daughter died
and he says, “have faith”
- story means have faith in Jesus – get this from how the stories are put together

8. Mark writes around 70 CE – Temple fell that year – devastating for Jews & Christians
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 - Mark explains why
- what are we supposed to think when the only Temple to our God is destroyed?
- Mark helps readers understand:
Jesus goes to the Temple everyday in Jerusalem
Fig tree with no figs – so Jesus tells it to die (Mark says it wasn’t the
season for figs) – goes to Temple and turns over the tables – they go back
to tree and it’s dead
Fig tree = temple
Jesus was closing the Temple, not cleansing it – it’s no longer bearing fruit and its
time is over
Importance of story is that Jesus closed it – 60 years before the Romans do
Jesus goes back to Temple the next day – (5 UK football stadiums would fit in it)
and predicts its destruction – so the fall of the Temple is not devastating to
us
Combination of stories gives meaning and theological statements so you can see
Meaning
Stories do not mean things by themselves

What we need to know is “what does it mean?”, not exactly what was done or
said or the data – gospels give interpretation

Mark – continued (11-7-02)

Disciples do not understand
Intercalation is an important literary device
No resurrection appearances

There are 3 endings to Mark – but the abrupt ending is probably the actual ending
- the other 3 seem to be added to fill in what’s there
- best manuscript evidence has Mark end at chapter 16, verse 8:
where the women run away from the tomb afraid and said nothing
- resurrected Jesus never really seen in Mark, if you don’t count the others

Begins with Jesus’ ministry and ends with it – Mark quits with the ministry of Jesus
- everything you need to know about who Jesus is, you already have
- look at Jesus’ ministry to know Jesus, according to Mark

1. Mark presents Jesus as a person of power (always on the go, active, is on the ball)
- talks about Jesus in the way Romans envisioned important people (busy!)
- 1st part: everything happens immediately – a key word in Mark, Mark’s fave
- word is dropped in NRSV a lot
- 2nd part: on the way – moving, busy – does amazing, powerful things along the
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 way
- Jesus as recognizable person of position and power

2. Jesus’ identity is seen in his ministry in Mark

Synoptics = same basic outline of life of Jesus as compared with John

Matthew - very different from Mark, although many of same stories & order
1. Written for Jewish Christians
- presents Jesus as Messiah of Judaism, as most important identity of Jesus
- genealogy of Jesus gives him the right Jewish credentials
- Jesus fulfills the promises attached to the Messiah

2. Matthew emphasizes keeping the law to church for Jewish Christians

- the law is in full effect for his church
- many Christians in 1st century continued being good Jews

3. Great Commission – teaching them to obey everything God commands, the law
- at end of Matthew - “make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey
all I have commanded you,” sends out disciples
- you follow commands of Jesus to do what God wants you to
- story in Mark about what goes in your mouth doesn’t make you unclean
- they don’t eat unkosher food - this story means something diff to Matthew
- Matthew’s church keeps the law carefully
- Jesus never said “don’t keep the law”

4. Kingdom of Heaven – Matthew

Kingdom of God – Mark

Matthew means the same thing as Mark, but in Judaism, Jews had ceased using the name
of God, to not take name of Lord in vain, hesitant to mention God by name
- so instead of “God,” Matthew uses Heaven
- doesn’t mean angels playing harps, etc.
- this helps us see who Matthew is writing for: Jewish Christian community
who continues to keep the law

5. Matthew has material Mark doesn’t have

- why Matthew ends up being a lot longer
- genealogy, birth
- lots of parables
- lots of discourses - talks a lot
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 - sits down and teaches at length, then story picks up where Mark left off

6. Arranged in a series of narratives and discourses

Mark – going someplace
Matthew – Jesus does something, then sits down and teaches
Narratives – stuff Jesus does
Discourses – talks

Luke and Matthew have these discourses that Jesus says that Mark doesn’t have
Think that Mark was written first
– then Matthew and Luke wrote after that, based on Mark and “Q”

“Q” is a hypothesized list of sayings of Jesus

- long list of sayings that help you remember what the next one is
- last word of one line is first word of next line
- Matthew and Luke have Q and arrange the sayings based on that
into long discourses of Jesus
- these circulated without a context
- Not arranged by context but by how you can remember them easily
- Matthew picks the ones that go nicely together but not in order
- We don’t know what Q actually was or if it was – we are pretty certain it
exists
- Q is first letter of German word for source = quelle
- Matthew and Luke have sayings of Jesus that are word for word,
and others that are not exactly matching

6. How to live Christian life – sermons

- sermons get arranged by Matthew
- Matthew composed the Sermon on the Mount
- Jesus didn’t say it as written in Matthew
- likely that Jesus did go onto a hill and say some of these things
- Sermon on the Mount – probably a collection of sermon points
Matthew 5
- first discourse in Matthew is Sermon on the Mount

7. He introduces Jesus as the authoritative interpreter of the Law in Sermon on Mount

- Jesus will tell you how to keep Law and how to please God

8. Jesus fulfills the Law

- Jesus will tell you how to fulfill the Law
- law doesn’t go away because Jesus now saves you
- not one crossing of “t” of the law will go away until the world comes to an end
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 - the Law is a great blessing, not seen by Jews as burden
- Jesus tells you how to keep it
- Jesus – 1st law – don’t murder = don’t hate!
- He explains what it means
- straighten out hatred before worshiping God at the Temple
- made the law harder to keep because it’s easy to hate, but not to murder

When Jesus interprets the Law, Matthew wants you to understand that the
meaning was embedded in the commandment

Adultery – deals with thoughts as well as actions, no lust, seeing people as things for your
own enjoyment
Love neighbor = everybody in the whole world, not just those like you
Point is to get to the true intention of the Law, what God has always intended

Jesus lets you know what it really means

Does not say Law is abolished in Mark either
NT Christianity does not abolish the Law
- NT does NOT say let’s get away from legalistic Judaism
- makes it way harder to obey the Commandments

Matthew’s church sees the Law as a good thing when understood correctly
- deals with how you understand God’s will
- how you get to what God intends for your life

Beatitudes, Lord’s Prayer brought together by Matthew to make the Sermon on the
Mount

Luke – Sermon on the Plain

- many of the same things appear there
- but not in same order

Grouping of these sayings may have been traditional since Matthew and Luke both use
them

(Paul says Gentile Christians are not allowed to keep the law, only Jewish Christians
- God saves Jews as Jews and Gentiles as Gentiles)

(Genealogies in Matthew and Luke trace Jesus through Joseph

- only Luke comments on it, “son of Joseph, as supposed”)

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Primary point of Matthew’s gospel is theological, not historical
- Matthew doesn’t care where Sermon happens
**They tell you Jesus is uniquely from God
– if you get this, you get Matthew’s point
- from birth stories, an aggressive way to make this point
- among the Jews, this is a strange thing to say
- among Greeks, gods were having babies with humans all the time
Matthew cemented that identity for Jesus as from God, he is truly the Son of God

Fulfillment quotations
- Matthew says, this was done to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet
- example: “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” Hosea 11 – not a prediction
but an account of when God brought Israel out of Egypt
- Matthew quotes passages and says they’re about Jesus, when they fled to Egypt

Jesus – obedient child of God, unlike Israel

Israel – disobedient child of God
- Jesus fulfills for Matthew who Israel was supposed to be, in his person

“Immanuel” – Isaiah 7
- Matthew brings this passage into the narrative
- “God is with us”
Matthew does this to help you understand who Jesus is
- Jesus fulfills 5 scriptures just being born and going to Egypt
Everyone fulfills the scriptures in Matthew, even Herod
- All accords with what God intends to do
- Fits the pattern of the same God of Israel who has always acted
- God has the same character – acts the same way in the world
- repetitions of acts of God, by using OT passages
Matthew reads his perspective, the life of Jesus, into the passages
– is aware of his doing this
- bringing new meanings to the OT texts
- these were the only scriptures they had and read them in light of who Jesus is

Questionable whether Matthew the disciple (aka Levi) is the actual author, probably not
- Matthew himself worked a lot with Jewish Christians

Unique Features of Matthew – genealogy

1. Genealogy begins with Abraham
- traces ancestry to the earliest guy who’s Jewish
2. Genealogy goes through David and the kings
- qualified to be Messiah, king of Israel based on ancestry
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 - these guys have to be ancestors of the Messiah
- Matthew looked at who Jesus is, and said, these guys have to be his ancestors
- didn’t go tracing it
- makes a theological point
3. Birth through Joseph’s perspective - Joseph is star of the show
- God talks to Joseph, angel comes to see Joseph in dream
- Joseph was about to divorce her as fiancee
- Marriages were contracts between families
- To get out of engagement – legal proceeding
- Mary is pregnant – not his kid
- Angel appears to Joseph in a dream – says child is from God
Jesus born in Bethlehem in Judea
Magi – astrologers looking out at stars
- new star = king has been born (per his genealogy)
- shining over the coast of Palestine – so they go to see King Herod
- the people involved here are the wealthy, powerful, royal
- Herod – where’s you’re new kid? He doesn’t have one
- Magi say we have seen his star
- Where born? Down the road in Bethlehem
- Herod tells them to go find baby and asks them to let him know where is
- Herod has already executed most of the people in his family
- Magi bring gifts of gold, incense, myrrh
- they have a dream and go home a different way, away from Herod
- So Herod doesn’t find out where Jesus is

Angel tells Mary & Joseph to get away to escape Herod

- they go to Egypt
- Herod has all babies killed – age 2 & under (fulfills a scripture)
- picked 2 years old because of time Magi told him
- Mary & Joseph were in Bethlehem for 2 years
- Herod dies
- they go home, angel tells Joseph OK to go in dream

3 Herods take over:

- in Judea – Archelaus
- since Archelaus is ruling in Bethlehem, they decide not to stay and move to
Nazareth in Galilee

Things that happen around Jesus fulfills scriptures

- God is acting in all this to fulfill God’s promise

Story now turns to John the Baptist baptizing in Jordan River

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 - Jesus is now an adult

Same outline ensues:

ministry in Galilee
trip to Jerusalem
a week in Jerusalem
execution of Jesus

Trial and Resurrection

Matthew adds to Mark that Judas hung himself - to fulfill scripture

Jesus before Pilate

- takes place at night
- Pilate’s wife needs a dream – dreams Jesus is innocent – Pilate washes hands
- one thing they forgot: if we kill him, he promised to come back from the dead,
so they put soldiers at tomb so his disciples don’t steal the body
- angel rolls back stone, soldiers run away
- women come to the tomb to finish embalming him
– Jesus is risen, angels tells them Jesus will see you in Galilee
- women are afraid but full of joy
- they run into Jesus and he sees meet you in Galilee
After Jesus raised, Roman guards say he came back to life
- they are paid off to say they feel asleep and the disciples stole body
- and that’s the story some people still tell today
- soldiers could be executed for this, so makes their story less credible

Matthew has Jesus meets disciples in Galilee and gives them the commission
Commission emphasizes obedience
The way to go about pleasing God, how to keep the law

Matthew’s theological picture of Jesus:

Who Jesus is – how Jesus affects relationship between God & humanity
All stories told to make the theological point, not historical
Object: get point across so you understand who Jesus is

Luke (11-12-02)

Has his own way of approaching who Jesus is

The best educated of the Gospel writers

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 - he alters his style to fit what he’s quoting, whether Septuagint, poetry or fancy
Greek
Luke was 2nd generation Christian
Gentile, like Mark, but unlike Matthew

Dedicates his work and tells how he did it

- talked to various folks
- wrote “orderly account”

Luke must have been wealthy – but it’s possible he wasn’t

- could have been a bright slave
- these were personal physicians, house philosophers, etc.
- wealthy folks sent bright slaves to school
- many famous philosophers were ex-slaves

Luke talks against the wealthy – one piece of evidence of idea that he’s an ex-slave
- he would have been smarter than his owners and may have resented them
telling him what to do

Tradition says Luke was a physician who traveled with Paul

- not sure if this is true, or even if he knew Paul
- the writer of Acts (same as Luke) didn’t really know Paul – he sounds different
in his letters than in Acts
- Luke wrote Acts

Luke wrote for the Gentile community, same as Mark

- he approaches from outside Judaism
- has similar concerns as Mark did, in some ways
- has a global viewpoint, beyond Judea, more clearly than others

1. Fulfillment of prophecy
- In Matthew, everything Jesus does fulfills scriptures
- this is God acting in the world, happening the way God planned
- fulfillment automatically happens
- even as a baby, Jesus fulfills scriptures without trying to!
- In Luke, a different way of seeing fulfillment
- Jesus fulfills scriptures on purpose
- even says so, “to fulfill scripture”
- Jesus knows what his job is, so he does it
- Spirit of God leads him to do things
- Luke explains why Jesus did these things and makes connection between
Hebrew scriptures and Jesus
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 - Jesus knew the scriptures

2. Ministry of Jesus is the working out of God’s plan for world redemption
- everyone has a part to play in God’s plan
- everyone acts out their part of the script
- God has laid out the plot and now the characters must do what they’re supposed
to do

- God’s plan foretold and prefigured in scripture: God acted this way then and
now
- Luke understands himself to be writing a history as the Deut. Historians did,
giving a theological reading to it
- “Salvation History” - story of how God has acted among us (doesn’t mean how
people get saved), aka Holy History (in German)
- Luke divides history into different eras – God acting in different ways in the
different eras
- Moses, life of Jesus, time after Jesus of church
- same God, same character, but different ways of acting in the
world

3. How Jesus is primarily seen:

Matthew – Messiah
Mark – Son of God
Luke – Son of God, but different from Mark’s idea

Jesus is the Son of God, according to Luke

- has a special and more intimate relationship with God than anyone else has ever
had
- he is unlike any other person
- the fulfillment of the destiny of humankind
- what God intended us all to be, but never were
- why his genealogy goes all the way back to God

Genealogy in Luke 3
- goes all the way back to God
- we are all children of God, but Jesus is the only one who acts like it
- who we were intended to be, like the archetypal human being
- Jesus makes that relationship possible for us
- this is all added meaning to term “Son of God”

4. Specially interested in outcasts

- poor, women – more than any other gospel
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 - one of Jesus’ main reasons of his ministry was to restore their full humanity,
as people of God, children of God
- Jesus gives special care to 2nd class people, the oppressed – he came for them
- look in Luke to find these places....chapter 4 is his baptism

5. Jesus gets baptized at the beginning of his ministry

- this sets the agenda for his ministry, why it comes first in Luke
- Jesus went to Nazareth after being baptized
- Jesus reads the scroll in the synagogue: “he has been anointed to bring good
news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind and let the
oppressed go free, and declare the year of the Lord‘s favor...this
has been fulfilled in your hearing”
– this was God’s agenda for Jesus’ ministry
- everyone felt oppressed under the Romans and the people liked what he said
- but Jesus reminded them what Elijah did during the drought - he went to a
Gentile’s home to live, and that the only leper Elisha healed was a
Gentile
- he said to the congregation, you aren’t the ones I came for and they got mad
and tried to kill him
- he said he didn’t come for the nice religious people, they aren’t the focus of
the attention of God and they thought they were
- he said it was those people who they weren’t interested in and didn’t want
whom God was interested in
- that’s how Luke starts out Jesus’ ministry

6. Stories that emphasize who Jesus came for:

John the Baptist said Herod was wrong for marrying his brother’s wife
- John hollers at Herod whenever he’s out in public
- John gets thrown in jail and doesn’t understand why he‘s been there so long
- so he sends his disciples to Jesus and asks, are you the one?
- Jesus has them spend the day with him, and says, you have seen the blind
healed, the possessed released, and good news to the poor - so that’s
how you know he is the one

Story of the Good Samaritan

- “Good Samaritan” is an oxymoron to Jews
- Good religious folks ignore the poor while the Samaritan takes care of him
- Jesus tells a story about who is your neighbor to a religious person who has
kept the law
- the wrong person is the hero of the story
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Story of the birth of Jesus
- Mary and Elizabeth are the focus (instead of the men as in Matthew)
- In Matthew, Magi were told of Jesus’ birth – these were rich guys

- In Luke, shepherds – 3rd shift shepherds at that – were told and they find Jesus
in a stable, in a feeding trough
- Luke is the only gospel with a stable
- identifies Jesus with the poor because the rich would have been able to find a
room
- Matthew: big expensive gifts for Jesus the king
- Luke: Jesus is for the poor

Mixing the stories dilutes their meanings

Be clear as you preach and teach these texts of the meanings of each story
- Jesus was identified with the poor even at his birth
- He spends time with women and 2nd class citizens – tax collectors & sinners
(technical term for those who don’t follow all the purity laws)
- Jesus knows this will get him killed by being for these folks

5. Luke is part of a 2-volume set – Acts is part 2

Luke shows Jesus as fulfilling the scriptures to show Christianity as an outgrowth of

Judaism
- this gives it credibility, even though written for Gentiles
- 1st century people liked old stuff and ideas

Luke starts in a definite place, with prediction of John the Baptist

- old couple with no kids
- Zechariah was a priest and his turn in rotation to serve at Temple came up
(they had too many priests)
- angel appears and says he’ll have a son
- Zechariah doubts this so the angel makes him unable to talk until the baby is
born
- an angel visits Mary and says she’ll have a baby
- she goes to see Elizabeth and E’s baby jumps in her womb
- Mary says the Magnificat, with same theme of the poor and oppressed as in
the rest of Luke, the taking down of the haughty and raising up poor
- John is born, his father can’t talk, so Elizabeth names him John
- usually the father named the baby
- the people ask him what name is and he writes, “his name will be John”
- Zechariah can finally speak and the first thing he says is the Benedictus 1:68
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 a great blessing to the Lord
Jesus is born
- the times do not match in the gospels
- Quirinius was never governor when Herod was king
- Luke dates everything by empire dates, rather than by local dates,
meaning this was not just a local phenomenon – connects to Roman
person

In Luke, the Family lives in Nazareth

- they have to go to Bethlehem for the census
- the town is full so they have to sleep in the barn, perhaps was a cave
- identifies Jesus with the poor because rich person would never have had to
do this
- Jesus was born there
- shepherds come after being told about Jesus by angels

In Matthew, Herod kills babies 2 years after the Magi come

- usual Christmas story with shepherds and Magi works only if family lived in
stable for the next 2 years
- the family goes to Egypt and returns to Bethlehem, then decide to live in
Nazareth
In Luke – the family is already from Nazareth

Not trying to be historically precise, but are trying to show the meaning of Jesus’ life
- each gospel gives important readings of Jesus’ life but are different

Jesus is born, then they go to Jerusalem on the way home from Egypt
- first born son is taken to Temple for dedication and make sacrifice
- Luke likes to show characters as pious, following the law
- Simeon, an old man, reveals Jesus is Messiah
- he had been promised he would not die until he saw Messiah
- Anna, the prophetess recognizes Jesus
- she always stayed in the Temple
- a man AND a woman identify Jesus - a balance that Luke wants you to see

They go home from Jerusalem to Nazareth

The story skips to when Jesus is 12

- they go to Jerusalem for the Passover
- on the way home, they discover he’s missing
- they find him at the Temple
- he says he’s in his Father’s house about his Father‘s business
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 – smart aleck answer, then it says he is obedient
- but it lets you know Jesus is the Son of God

At age 30 – he is baptized

Genealogy is given – Jesus as Son of God and David

Doesn’t match the genealogy in Matthew once you get to David
- different list of ancestors
Matthew matches Jesus with kings
Luke – traces through those who restored the Temple after the Exile

2 different traditions that Luke found:

- the ancestry of Jesus
- the birth of Jesus
Includes both for theological, not historically correct reasons
They tell important things about who Jesus is

There were many understandings of Messiah in the 1st century

Nobody had the idea of an executed peasant except the Gospels

Sign of the resurrection was God’s vindication of Jesus’ ministry

- God really was with Jesus
Jesus didn’t accomplish what people expected the Messiah to do
Resurrection was the only evidence of Jesus as Messiah

Do the stories of Jesus ring true to who God is and reveal the love of God
- how God acted in the life of Jesus
Seen differently in each gospel
- each one has something important to say of who Jesus is and what God
accomplished through Jesus

#1 criterion for being in the canon was connection to an apostle

What do the apostles say it means – that was the most important thing

Events by themselves mean nothing

- mean something different to different people
- humans give events meaning, we ascribe meaning – what it is to be human

What does it mean when Jesus says “a person sowed seed….”

- Mark tells you
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Gospels arranged so that a limited meaning is expressed
- so that a more precise meaning is given

Jesus exorcising demons with 2 groups watching

- one says he’s got a devil
- the other says he’s got the power of God
We have to assign the meaning

Faith of church is what the apostles say life and death of Jesus mean
- did not rely on historical or Jesus’ own interpretation of himself
When we tell stories, we leave out information
Everything we know about Jesus is interpretation and theology
The search for the historical Jesus is irrelevant
-those who do and write about it have Jesus end up being just like them
Christianity is not based on history but on the meaning of events in Jesus’ life, as the
apostles determined

Luke’s story of the end of Jesus’ life

- has an extra trial with Herod Jr. who is glad to see Jesus, but Jesus won’t do any
tricks for him
- Luke has Jesus executed between two thieves and one gets saved
- another marginalized person
- theft was an act of insurrection, which is why these guys were crucified
Jesus dies and is raised
Walks to Emmaus and the guys don’t recognize him
- Jesus breaks bread with them and disappears
Back in Jerusalem, Jesus pops into the room, eats something

Luke has something added

- Jesus is transformed in the resurrection
- eats and yet can move like a spirit

Others were brought back from the dead in the Bible and it didn’t change the world,
so this transformation was important
Something big and important and new in the world - resurrection

Ending of Luke - Chapter 24, verse 44 (11-14-02)

Reiterates what scripture has said about Jesus
Luke says the old writers say they talked about Jesus

Being the presence of the resurrected Jesus “opened” the scriptures

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 - gave a new way of reading them
- new meaning to OT passages
- with these new meanings, these scriptures become “ours”

Jesus meets them in Jerusalem after his resurrection in Luke

- in Matthew and Mark, he meets them in Galilee
- Luke says Jerusalem because it is the center of the presence of God
- the Temple still functions for Luke as where God dwells
- Jesus ascends and the disciples go back to the Temple, praising God - NOT
to Galilee

Matthew doesn’t have a temple emphasis because its leadership was bad and it was
destroyed
Luke stays with it even though it was destroyed

John

Not a Synoptic Gospel - it’s very different

Synoptics are similar in outline and basics
- early ministry in Galilee
- trip to Jerusalem
- the Passion

John has:
- 3 cycles instead of 1 of Jewish feasts
- several trips to Jerusalem instead of one
Jesus is in Jerusalem a lot and also in Samaria (he wasn’t there much in
the Synoptics)
- Jesus’ ministry lasts 3 years
- Chasing people out of the Temple comes early in his ministry in John
- John tells different stories, has different sources

John comes from more than one person

- the 2nd or 3rd edition is what we have
- a community put it together, proof is the ending which was written by an editor
- other evidence is the end of chapter 14 where Jesus says, “let’s go” and they
don’t go until chapter 18
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 - chapters 15-17 are from the 2nd edition

Comes from a circle around the Beloved Disciple

- like-minded, had same perspective

Got their information from the Beloved Disciple

- there is nothing in John to show that he read any of the synoptics
- some stories overlap but are told very differently
- no literary relationship with synoptics

John draws from other sources

- wedding at Cana named as 1st sign or miracle
- then there are several more miracles
- another sign comes and is called “2nd sign”
- so this shows there was a “signs” edition
- the discourses come from another source

Not from the synoptics

Who wrote John?

- 1st draft was from the Beloved Disciple
- tradition says John but scholars say no because Beloved Disciple doesn’t show
up until chapter 13

- if he were John or one of the 12, it would be strange because John stories are left
out of the synoptics, and even his brother James left out
- John was from Galilee, and the book is concerned with Jerusalem
- from a person of Judea, not John
- we don’t know who wrote the core of the book or the 1st draft, only that he
was called the Beloved Disciple
- someone who believed in Jesus and was pleased to be his associate
- whoever it was, they became a leader in the church, had a community
around him

Chapters 7-8 have copying mistakes

- woman caught in adultery story
- all early manuscripts do NOT include it
- this story was added 400 years later
- probably was written in the margin, then later added to text
- it’s in our Bible because the Textus Receptus had it and also the Vulgate
- KJV based on Textus Receptus so it was included

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Unique features of John: the whole thing
- arrangement of stories
- the stories included
- where he begins - at eternity: in the beginning was the Word...
- pre-existence of Christ
- the only one that does this
- one idea that it was written last because this theological idea developed later
- seen also in Philippians 2 - the hymn in it is earlier than the gospels
- it attributes this same idea to Christ
- 15-20 years after Jesus’ death this was taught
- in John, Christ is equal with God in eternity and in creation
- says Jesus was equal with God, so it’s not exactly monotheist
- difficult idea to work out
- trinitarian formulas were developed to deal with it
- John presents us with significant problems in thinking consistently about
who God is and how God was related to Christ
- sometimes have to reframe what John was thinking about because
it doesn’t fit the usual categories we deal with
- he wasn’t the only person to have this idea
- prologue may have been separate at first, from others

They didn’t see it violating the idea of one God - “I and the Father are one.”

John also sets out stark dualism

- people of light vs. people of darkness
- Gnosticism: John is not from this tradition, but some of his ideas became
part of it

Jesus is a different kind of teacher here

- no snappy answers
- long discourses instead
- someone asks a question - he gives a cryptic answer
- no one understands it
- so he goes into a long discourse about it
- ambiguous answer
“Born again” could also mean “born from above”

Point of discourse is to explain it to the reader

- the writer has someone ask the stupid question for you

Seen in stories of Nicodemus, Nathaniel, and woman at the well

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No one could have caught onto his first answer

How Jesus identifies himself

Calls himself “I am he”
- could mean in Greek “I am”
- so Jesus is using the same term as the one for God in Pentateuch
- identifies himself very closely with God and that gets him into trouble,
that is what caused his death

Bad guys in John are “The Jews”

- unfortunately, John was used later for anti-Semitism
- the problem is that the writer was Jewish
- so being Jewish was OK
- the book reflects an inner-family argument

“Jew” = Judeans Greek word

- in John, it’s a good thing to be an Israelite or a child of Abraham
- so him saying “The Jews” was not racial prejudice

Something happened to Jewish Christians that turned them against their fellow Jews
- chapter 9, story of man born blind
- verse 22, parents were Jewish and part of synagogue
- shows that John’s church was thrown out of synagogue
- these were Jewish Christians who still went to synagogue, kept laws
- harsh language against the Jews reflects that experience of being thrown out
- they made claims about Jesus in the synagogue (perhaps) and were expelled
- writers and editors of John were Jewish

The 12 disciples represent all of Israel, as if Israel were restored

Acts
Part 2 of Luke-Acts
- there are thematic similarities
- story of the early church, where started and how spread
- 30 years are covered
- it’s a selective history
- Luke chose episodes to give the reader a particular understanding of how
God works in the church

2 kinds of purposes to Acts:

1. Apologetic
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 - give reason or defense for believing in God
- comes from Greek word for “defend”
- same root as “apology”
- Luke gives defense for existence of Christianity

He presents a defense for Christian readers to use:

a. Christianity is NOT new
- ancients liked old stuff, believing that gods and humans were closer
together in the distant past
- humans got worse and things got bad
- solutions could be found by going back to earliest beginnings

- Christianity attached to Judaism by Luke

Luke says it was the correct development of Judaism,
so it is as old as Judaism
- people respected Judaism only because it was old
there still was anti-Semitism though
- this gave legitimacy to Christianity

b. Christianity is not a threat to the Roman Empire

- Romans heard Christians say “Jesus is Lord”, but they were to say
“Caesar is Lord”
- Also heard them say the kingdom of God would take over the world
- This sounded dangerous
- they were a weird fringe group of the weird Jews
- No one really paid a lot of attention to Christians until there was a fire
in Rome under Nero. It started near the palace. People thought
Nero started it - he was known as nuts. So he decided to blame the
Christians because no one liked them and they were a small group.
- even though it wasn’t true, Nero’s accusation lent a bad name to
Christians and made people suspicious of them
- Nero killed a few Christians himself
- Luke shows a lot of Christians coming before Roman judges, and they
are always found innocent, to show they are not a threat
- when before other judges, were found guilty
- says that qualified Roman officials have examined us and found us not
guilty - we’re not out to take over the Empire, we’re not dangerous
- this was so Christian readers could respond to questions from others

2. Broadly theological purposes

- Luke wants to present the history of the church as the acts of God in the world
- theological stories: interprets events so you understand God and the church,
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 salvation history, the way God acts in the world - theology

Judaizers:
- talks about how the church could spread as it does, helps church reject the
Judaizers who said even Gentile Christians had to keep the laws and
convert to Judaism (circumcision, food laws, Sabbath)
- this was the biggest battle of the early church and it had to move beyond
Judaism
- Jesus as Messiah became a sect within Judaism
- the message went beyond Judea - spread to a Samaritan and then to Gentiles
- this was a real struggle in that Jews saw themselves as the people of God and
that someday everyone would convert to Judaism
- the Jews felt that people would come to them, but the new radical idea
was that the Christians would go out to the nations
- this struggle went on for 400 years

Acts says God approved of this expansion

- Gentiles are legitimately Christian as well as Jews

Main characters of Acts

- Peter - in the 1st half - God present among the Jews
- Paul - in the 2nd half - God present among the Gentiles

Look at Acts:
- Peter stories - he raises dead guy, etc
- Paul stories - he does the same things Peter does
God does the same things through Peter and Paul
- there had been question if Paul was a legitimate apostle
- Acts says he was

Peter - apostle to the Jews

Paul - apostle to the Gentiles

Acts says the church is a mixed community and that Judaizers are wrong

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HIGHLIGHTS OF ACTS (11-19-02)

First part of Acts is a rerun of the end of Luke

- resurrected Jesus appears to disciples
- taken up into heaven
- disciples go back to Jerusalem
They need to choose a new disciple to take place of Judas
- so they have 12, representing 12 tribes of Israel
- they narrow it down to two guys, roll holy dice, Matthias is chosen

Pentecost is the day the church begins

Acts presents it as an eschatological event, an event of the last days
- this is the time God will act in a new and final way
- the coming of Christ started this time period
- the beginning of the church is the next step
- Peter quotes Joel – in the last days, God will pour our spirit on all flesh
The big evidence of this was that God’s Spirit was given to ALL of God’s people that
day, just as Joel had said
- before this, only a few people had the Spirit, e.g. David
- identifying mark of who is Christian
- you receive it when you become a Christian
- a time of new activity by God among God’s people
- it comes through accepting Jesus as Lord & Messiah, repentance and baptism

That first day, 3000 became Christians and devote themselves to apostles’ doctrine and
fellowship
- Luke wrote Acts and he was always on the side of the outcasts and 2nd class, and
against the influential
- so he has them form an ideal community, where they had all things in common,
they sell what they have and share it
- the result is that more people are converted every day
- this is the only time he presents the church in this way
- because it didn’t always happen that way and it didn’t work
- the Jerusalem church eventually ran out of money
- the ideal thing Christians do is share their possessions

Nature of speeches in Acts

- remember how the words of the prophets were passed on by their followers,
and the way the gospel writers construct Jesus’ speeches for certain
occasions
- same as for these speeches
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 - nobody remembered exactly what Peter had said on Pentecost, just as we don’t
always remember what is said in sermons
- speeches in Acts are all compositions of Luke – he could have used ideas from
the actual sermon or talked to others who heard it, or got the scripture used
- all ancient historians made up speeches when writing about others; they would
write what they thought the person might have said; historians even
advised others to do this
- Peter explains what is happening, that it is God’s Spirit causing the behavior,
people thought they were drunk, it is the last days, with God’s Spirit
- Luke wrote sermons for Paul in Acts which do not match ideas in Paul’s letters
- Luke expresses his own theology but puts it in the mouths of others
- people may have remembered a phrase or theme from a sermon Paul gave or
who were at Pentecost and perhaps Luke used those to write sermons and
speeches
- so these are theological statements, explaining who God’s people are, how the
Spirit moves among God’s church, how the purposes of God are being
fulfilled in the way that the church moves
- these were not historical speeches, they are theological, to tell you about God
and God’s interaction with the world and in the church

More and more Jews begin to listen in Jerusalem and Judea, nowhere else
- people were there from all over the world because it was Passover
- they stay because of becoming Christian, sell their possessions
- keeps them in Jerusalem and Judea
- the gospel was only in Judea at this time

Then church experiences opposition:

- Stephen gets stoned to death (first Christian martyr)
- the people go home and begin to teach about Jesus in their synagogues

A lot of the people went to Samaria

- Samaritans are not Jews, but half-Jews and don’t do things just as Jews do
- not seen favorably by Jews
- Philip the deacon went there and preaches, everybody believes
- he baptizes Samaritans but they don’t receive the Holy Spirit
- early Christians believed you received the Spirit of God at baptism, often
speaking in tongues
- but the Samaritans didn’t get the Spirit, even though they had the same
confession
- so they call upon the apostles for help and Peter & John come
- they listen to what they believe and lay hands on them
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 - then they get the Spirit
Apostles had to validate Samaritans being in the church
Somebody had to say it was OK for Samaritans to be Christians
- up until then, only “good faithful Jews” were
- these Samaritans recognized Jesus as the Messiah
- Samaritans had their own temple and claimed to be the people of God
- they did worship same God and used most of same scriptures
Still makes good sense to conduct ministry within Judaism

Conversion of Saul – who becomes Paul

The most important story in book of Acts after chapter 2 is the conversion of Cornelius
- he is a good man, gives alms, prays to God
- angel shows up when he’s praying one day and says to send for a man named
Peter in Joppa and he will tell you what I want
- at the same time, Peter is taking a nap on the roof of the house and has a dream:
a sheet comes down from heaven, full of unclean animals. A voice says,
kill and eat. Peter says, no, I’ve never eaten anything unclean. Voice
says, what I say is clean, don’t you say it’s unclean. He awakens, goes
back to sleep and has this dream again. He ends up having it 3 times.
- he goes downstairs, and Cornelius’ people arrive and ask for him, saying an
angel says he’s to come and see Cornelius
- he goes with them but says he’s not really supposed to be with them, but had
a dream, so it should be OK
- Cornelius meets them outside as they arrive
- Peter preaches to Cornelius and his family and the Holy Spirit comes onto them
just like it did on the apostles at Pentecost
- Peter thinks if God accepts them, we should too
- so he baptizes them

This is a momentous event in Christianity

- the first time a Gentile becomes Christian
- every detail intends to say this is what God wants
- Peter, known everywhere as the Apostle to the Jews, takes in this first Gentile
- Cornelius is a good man, well known for his philanthropy
- the Spirit came down on Cornelius BEFORE his baptism
- it was all God’s doing
- Peter’s dream only convinced him to go talk to them, not to make them Christian

Then Peter must go back to Jerusalem and face the church there
- he took Gentiles in without converting them first to Judaism, for the first time
- if they had been converted to Judaism before baptism, no problem
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 - but this was a problem
Jerusalem church meets him and says, how could you have done such a thing?

Luke spends a lot of time and space on this story – tells it twice here and a 3rd time in
Acts 15
- Luke says the whole church rejoiced
- the time when the first Gentile comes in
- all the details matter
- this is an important story, who characters are (if Paul let them in, they would
have thought, well of course Paul would let them in)
- especially important that Peter let them in – apostle to Jews
- it wasn’t Peter’s decision – it was God’s decision
- he had to take them after God did
- it was an act of the Spirit that God accepted the Gentiles
- the turning point in what Christianity was to be

Caused quite a stir, but was somewhat acceptable because it was just one family
Cornelius and family were like Gentile mascots of the church, showing the church’s
broad-mindedness
What happens when you get too many Gentiles?

Then Acts switches to Paul and his mission

- nothing more about Palestine in Acts, it’s about the rest of the world from here
- Barnabas goes and finds Paul
- Antioch church sends Paul & Barnabas to the southern coast of Asia Minor
- they convert a lot of Gentiles and these are starting to outnumber Jews
- several churches of Gentiles
- Jews wondered what was going to happen to their movement
- Gentiles don’t keep the law, and this was a problem – they didn’t do the things
that the Jews felt made you Christian
- Paul and Barnabas return and some people come to Antioch and insist that
Gentiles convert and be circumcised and take up the law

So the Jerusalem Council aka Apostolic Council called – Acts 15

- verse 5 mentions Pharisees who became Christians, who said Gentiles must be
circumcised and keep law of Moses
- being Jewish and being Christian was seen as compatible at first
- should non-Jews be made to convert, be circumcised, keep the laws?
- Peter tells story of Cornelius and said we can’t go against God, who gave them
the Holy Spirit, so we can’t impose law on them now
- then Paul and Barnabas talk about how the Spirit came on all the Gentiles when
they preached to them
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 - James who is mentioned here is the brother of Jesus and is the leader of the
Jerusalem church (the disciple James had been executed by now)
- he quotes scripture that says the Word of God would go out from Jerusalem
and all the Gentiles will call upon God and God will claim them as God’s
people
- James says the Gentiles should not have to convert because of his take on this
prophecy, what it means
- so the Jerusalem church agrees that you can have Gentile mission

Paul tells this same story in Galatians 2 where 2 missions are set up:
- Paul says he went, by revelation from God
- he says they shake hands and create two separate missions:
Paul to preach to Gentiles, Peter to Jews

Two very different branches of Christianity:

1. Jews who kept the law of Moses as Christian way to conduct their lives
2. Gentiles who intentionally do not keep law and their way of being Christian
They recognized each other but did their own thing
Acknowledged that different contexts called for different ways of living out the Gospel
- a lesson in how ecumenism does and doesn’t work
- Jews and Gentiles lived out gospel in different ways

Jews and Gentiles didn’t always get along as well as indicated in Acts
Galatians church had both kinds in it
- this caused difficulties
- how do you eat together? How do you fellowship together?
- problem with eating affected Lord’s Supper

This council authorized the mission to Gentiles that does not bind Law of Moses on them
- a letter was sent saying to reject the culture around idolatry (not eating meat
sacrificed to idols, not drinking blood, nothing strangled, and no
fornication)

Story turns to focus on mission of Paul:

Paul leaves Antioch behind, no longer a missionary from their church
- goes around Asia Minor, then Macedonia and Greece, then to Ephesus
He then revisits the cities on second trip and takes up a collection for the Jerusalem
Church
- takes money to Jerusalem
- wants to keep bond between Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity
- wants Gentile churches to demonstrate that they know they owe Jews because
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 gospel began with the Jews

In Jerusalem, he told it would be good for him to go to the Temple, to put down rumors
- but he is arrested for supposedly taking a Gentile into the Temple
- Acts says he didn’t
- he is imprisoned and eventually goes to Rome and is in prison there 2 years
- story of Acts stops there because it’s likely Paul was executed, and Luke never
shows Christians being found guilty by Roman judges
- there is an unlikely theory that Paul went back to Asia Minor

Acts tells story of the progress of Christianity through this area of the world
and it followed that first part of Acts where Jesus says I want you to be witnesses
in Judea, Samaria and the rest of the world
They end up covering the rest of the world
God has a hand in all of this
- God’s Spirit coming in the beginning of the church
- this is an eschatological community
- an act of God that Gentiles come in, with support from experience of God’s
Spirit and from scripture, here’s what the prophets meant
– spread of Christianity throughout the Gentile world

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