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Bible Resource Spotlight: After Acts

Mike Nappa — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 12:00:16 +0000

Reader Appeal: Bible teachers, students, Bible Study Nerds

Genre: Christian History

FBSN Rating: B

Dr. Bryan Litfin is a theology professor at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He also holds a Ph.D. in the field of ancient church history and a master’s degree in historical theology. So, you know, he’s a big ol’ Bible Study Nerd—and he really gets into researching ancient biblical events and people.

In his book, After Acts, Litfin puts his full nerdiness on display by digging into church history after Jesus’ resurrection, trying to determine what really happened and what simply became legend in the lexicon of our faith. As he says:

“Peter was crucified upside down,” you hear in a sermon, “according to tradition.” “Paul went to Spain,” the pastor says on another day, “according to tradition.” Thomas founded the Indian church, Mary lived in Ephesus, the original apostles became martyrs—all according to this vague yet authoritative source called “early church tradition.” But what exactly do we mean by this term? Where do these ancient traditions come from, and how reliable are they historically?

Litfin’s question offers a fascinating premise for a book on church history, and he ably investigates answers as they relate to several key figures of our faith.

After Acts researches the historical records regarding the lives of all four gospel writers, as well as Peter, Paul, James, Mary, Thomas and others. Litfin explores the common assumptions we have “according to tradition” and tries to determine how reliable that tradition is when compared to the evidence. For instance, it’s very likely that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was cared for by the Apostle John in her later life, but very unlikely that she lived in Ephesus with him. Also, history indicates that Simon Peter was indeed crucified under Nero’s persecution, and even likely buried “in a grave now located beneath the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica,” but there’s scant evidence to show that he “considered himself the preeminent authority figure of the Roman church.”

The strength of After Acts—its dependence on provable, historical investigation—is also one of its few drawbacks, though. Sometimes the details of research are, well, boring to read. For example, Litfin opens the book with an extensive, three-page timeline of significant dates, followed immediately by page after page of term definitions (“apostle” “church fathers” “orthodoxy” “Gnosticism” and so on). While that background information may be important, filing the first 25 pages of After Acts with such dry reading makes it tempting to put this book aside before you even get to the good stuff. And make no mistake, the following chapters of Litfin’s book are “good stuff,” but you have to get to them to find out, and some just won’t make it. You might want to consider treating the early pages of this book as a skip-able appendix—something to refer back to if you have questions along the way during your reading of the body of the book.

In all, though, After Acts is well worth the time spent (even the boring parts). Recommended for any Bible Study Nerd interested in learning more about the differences between “church tradition” and the legacies of our Christian faith.

After Acts by Bryan Litfin

(Moody Publishers)

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Bible Resource Spotlight: Reformation Commentary on Scripture, New Testament III: Luke

Mike Nappa — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 12:00:14 +0000

Reader Appeal: Pastors, Teachers, Seminary Students

Genre: Commentary

FBSN Rating: A

The risk with Christian history and theology is that voices from our shared past are often drowned out by the voices of today’s popular thought leaders and megachurch pastors. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with listening to modern theologians. It’s just that sometimes we overemphasize to current at the expense of the past.

In Reformation Commentary on Scripture, New Testament III: Luke, editor Beth Kreitzer aims to expand our view beyond just today.

This commentary series, according to general editor Timothy George, “seeks to introduce its readers to the depth and richness of exegetical ferment that defined the Reformation Era.” In other words, Kreitzer’s Luke collects the wisdom of pastors, teachers, priests, and leaders of the Reformation and places it in reader-friendly segments that cover every major passage of the good doctor’s gospel. The sheer scope of that task is daunting to say the least, and all the more impressive because the finished work is both insightful and accessible for even the novice Bible Study Nerd.

Kreitzer has collected excerpts of sermons, commentaries, treatises, and confessions from the foremost theologians of the 16^th century, translated many into English, and organized them into easy-to-follow commentary that takes us from Luke 1:1 all the way to Luke 24:53. This includes several schools of exegesis from medieval times, including Biblical humanism, the Wittenberg school, Strasbourg-Basel tradition, Anabaptist thought, Genevan reformers, the Zurich group, and more. It also includes biblical insights from well-known Reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and Huldrych Zwingli, as well as lesser-known thinkers like Lancelot Ridley, Johann Gerhard, Katharina Schütz Zell, and others. The result is fascinating, like a glimpse of both the past and the future. These people literally changed the world with their thinking, and it’s sometimes exhilarating to follow their chains of thought in reference to specific passages from Luke—and to see how that might apply to us today and tomorrow.

In addition to the Reformers’ commentary, Kreitzer offers helpful background on the history of the Reformation and biographical sketches of its major influences, both people and documents. Subject and Scripture indexes round out the tools provided for the reader.

In all, this is a well-researched, surprisingly interesting, unique commentary on the gospel of Luke. It’s a worthy volume to add to the shelves of any pastor, teacher, or Bible Study Nerd.

Reformation Commentary on Scripture, New Testament III: Luke edited by Beth Kreitzer

(IVP Academic)

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Matthew 11:1-19; Jesus and John the Baptist (Inductive Studies)

Mike Nappa — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 12:00:44 +0000

“Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

It’s interesting that John asked an academic question, recorded in Matthew 11:3, and Jesus responded with a legal answer (Matthew 11:4-6). John’s question really only required a yes-or-no reply, but instead of giving that simple solution, Jesus convened an impromptu, informal court—right there in front of God and everybody.

Figuratively speaking, to answer John’s great question, Christ took off the cloak of Rabbi and put on judicial robes instead. “Go back,” he instructed the Baptist’s disciples, “and report to John what you hear and see…”

Exhibit A: “the blind receive sight,”
Exhibit B: “the lame walk,”
Exhibit C: “those who have leprosy are cleansed,”
Exhibit D: “the deaf hear,”
Exhibit E: “the dead are raised,”
Exhibit F: “the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Anyone familiar with Old Testament prophesies of Isaiah—and John was—would recognize fairly quickly that each and every one of these miracles was overwhelming proof of the promised Messiah, the Coming One. In this way Jesus conclusively and forcefully answered John’s faith crisis by placing the Baptist squarely in the jury box and saying essentially, “Look at the evidence, Cousin. You’ll find the truth in there. ”

Why did Jesus change the parameters of John’s simple question into something of a courtroom drama? The author of Hebrews gives us a clue: “Faith,” he said, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV, italics mine).

Perhaps John needed more than a simple assent regarding what he couldn’t see; perhaps he needed evidence of those unseen things. Jesus gave to John substance on which to pin his hope and clear evidence to believe. In doing so, he gave to John the gift of real, unshakeable faith—a faith that would endure in the depths of prison, a faith that would remain strong even when the executioner came to bring a savage end to John’s earthly life.

See also: Isaiah 29:18, 35:5, (blind see); Isaiah 35:6 (lame walk); Isaiah 53:4 (lepers healed); Isaiah 29:18–19, 35:5 (deaf hear); Isaiah 26:18–19 (dead raised); Isaiah 61:1 (good news preached to poor).

[GSM, 107-108]

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Matthew 11:1-19; Jesus and John the Baptist (Bible Difficulties)

Mike Nappa — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 12:00:43 +0000

When John the Baptist was in prison and heard that Jesus was nearby, he sent his disciples to ask of Christ himself: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3).

Why did he ask this question?

Legendary preacher John Wesley explained John’s question as a manipulative teaching exercise. John sent his disciples to ask this question of Christ, Wesley decided, “Not because he doubted himself, but to confirm their faith.”

Huh.

I suppose that contrived explanation could be true; after all John Wesley has been right on many other counts. But it appears that there was really only one (obvious) reason why he asked the question: John wanted to know if Jesus was the one who was to come.

You see, John the Baptist was, in some ways, a victim of his own mistaken expectations. Jews of his time—John included—expected a militaristic Messiah, a political power who would rain judgment down on enemies of righteousness. John himself had preached that the Messiah’s “winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17). John’s faith in the Messiah was defined by his expectation of God’s judgment on evildoers—especially folks like Herod Antipas and all his minions. But Jesus didn’t fit those expectations, and meanwhile John sat decaying in prison, waiting for Christ to wreak his wrath.

Theologian George A. Buttrick explains John’s predicament this way: “The waiting fretted his soul…Doubt grew chiefly on the fact that Christ did not fulfill either the hope of the Messiah as nationalistically interpreted, or the picture that John himself had drawn.”

Bravo for John that, instead of stewing in doubt and frustration, he decided to go directly to the source of faith to find out for himself the answer he needed. When he heard that Jesus was nearby, he sent his disciples to ask of Christ: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). I wonder if you and I would have the courage to do the same with Jesus today.

[GSM, 104-106; CBC, 925; IB7, 379]

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Matthew 11:1-19; Jesus and John the Baptist (Historical Backgrounds)

Mike Nappa — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 12:00:42 +0000

Matthew 11:2-3 reported that, while in prison, John the Baptist heard about what his Jesus was doing, and wanted to know more. What Matthew didn’t report was the conditions John endured in prison.

Historians tell us that John the Baptist was imprisoned in the castle fortress of Machaerus, located just east of the Dead Sea in Judea. King Herod Antipas (also known as Herod the tetrarch) had committed sins of marital corruption and John the Baptist preached publicly against the king’s immorality. Antipas exacted vengeance, locking John up indefinitely in the dungeon of his fortress.

Although we don’t know exactly what John’s prison cell in Machaerus was like, we can make a reasonable guess about this kind of “Roman hospitality” based on the Tullianum prison in the center of the city of Rome (where Simon Peter would later be jailed). The only prison in Rome proper, Tullianum was “a conical, windowless chamber of rough-hewn tufa, the only entrance to which is a hole in the floor of the room above.” According to historians, “Prisoners were flung through this hole into the prison, and on occasion left there to starve and rot.” A Numidian king named Jugurtha was imprisoned here in 104 BC, and his first comment was that it was unbearably cold.

In Machaerus, it’s likely that John’s prison cell was comparable to Tullianum—and the Baptist suffered more than a year imprisoned there, until he was unceremoniously decapitated in his cell simply to please the whims of Antipas’ cruel wife, Herodias (Matthew 14:1-12).

[GSM, 101-102; ZB1, 71; ARF, 78]

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Matthew 10:1-42; Jesus Sends Out the Twelve (Bible Difficulties)

Mike Nappa — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 12:00:07 +0000

Matthew 10:23 quotes Jesus as saying to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” This appears to be a reference to the second coming of Jesus—and it clearly didn’t happen. So…how do we make sense of that? Theologians offer several theories:

Jesus was promising to appear to his disciples after he raised himself from the dead. This interpretation assumes “Jesus was promising that the disciples would witness the eschatological coming of the Son of Man…at his resurrection.”
Jesus was promising to return to his disciples as the living presence of his invisible Holy Spirit, a promise which was fulfilled dynamically at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13).
Jesus was indicating a “continuing mission” to Israel over the ages, and was offering “comfort to the mission-disciples about their ultimate salvation unto the end…the mission to Israel will not conclude before the Son of Man returns. There will be a continuing mission to Israel alongside the mission to the Gentiles.”
Jesus was referencing his future second coming, millennia away, but “he was not saying that the Twelve would personally see this. Rather, he means to instill a sense of urgency in the mission to Israel by stating that it will not be complete by the time of his return.”

[HAC, 78-79]

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Matthew 10:1-42; Jesus Sends Out the Twelve (Historical Backgrounds)

Mike Nappa — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 12:00:06 +0000

“They will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues…”

Don’t gloss over Jesus’ promise of flogging that’s recorded in Matthew 10:17—you can be sure his disciples didn’t. Here’s what happened when one of Jesus’ disciples was flogged in a synagogue:

Any person—man or woman—deemed guilty of entering the temple while unclean would be subject to the punishment of flogging. After Acts 10:9-16 happened (when God lifted the ban on eating certain meats), synagogue officials would have deemed most Christians guilty of being unclean.
After the synagogue officials had passed judgment, Jesus’ disciple was stripped to the waist and made to lie down, or crouch low to the ground. His or her hands were tied to a pillar for the duration of the flogging.
Four people were required to conduct the flogging. A hazzan (“administrator”) did the actual whipping. A second person counted the number of blows. A third person gave the commands. And a fourth person read aloud Deuteronomy 28:58-59 while the beating took place.
The hazzan would use a sturdy leather whip for the flogging. This was usually a whip made of four plaited thongs attached to a handle.
The standard number of lashes was 40, though most often one of Jesus’ disciples was whipped 39 times (known as 40 less one). This was done just in case the hazzan and/or the counter lost count sometime during the bloody delivery of punishment.
One-third of the lashes (about 13) were delivered to the disciple’s chest, and the remainder (about 26) were delivered to the back.
If Jesus’ disciple appeared near death as a result flogging, the hazzan was supposed to stop. In spite of that, “there are records of people dying” from a synagogue flogging.

[ZB1, 69]

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Matthew 10:1-42; Jesus Sends Out the Twelve (Cross-Reference Comparisons)

Mike Nappa — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 12:00:05 +0000

So…were there really 13 apostles of Jesus?

The New Testament gives four separate listings of Jesus’ inner-circle disciples, a group of men known as “the Twelve.” The list in Matthew 10:2-4 claims to be a complete summary of “the names of the twelve apostles.” That list includes:

Simon (who is called Peter)
Andrew
James son of Zebedee
John
Philip
Bartholomew
Thomas
Matthew the tax collector
James son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus (sometimes written as Lebbaeus)
Simon the Zealot
Judas Iscariot (the betrayer)

Mark’s list (in Mark 3:16-19) is identical to Matthew’s except that the order of the names is changed. But a question arises in the lists found in Luke 6:14-16 and Acts 1:13. In these lists, 11 of the 12 are the same as those in Matthew (though Judas Iscariot is left off the list in Acts). The name of Thaddeus, though, is not included by Luke in either his gospel of the book of Acts (which Luke also wrote). Additionally, another name—“Judas son of James”—is added to the list of apostles in both of Luke’s books.

So what gives? Where there really 13 apostles? Most Bible historians think the answer is no.

The literary and historical evidence suggest that, just as Simon was also called Peter, Judas son of James was also called Thaddeus—a nickname that he preferred exclusively after Christ’s death and resurrection. As such, most theologians believe Biblical mentions of “Judas son of James” and “Thaddeus” actually refer to the same person. Dr. Michael Wilkins comments, “After the name Judas became stigmatized because of the traitorous Judas Iscariot, Judas the son of James changed his name to Thaddeus. In that case, Matthew and Mark provided the safer and alternative name, while Luke stuck with the controversial name.”

[HAC, 75-76]

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Matthew 9:35-38; The Workers Are Few (Word Study)

Mike Nappa — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 12:00:19 +0000

Matthew 9:36 reports this of Jesus, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them…” (italics mine). That two-word phrase the NIV translates as “had compassion” is actually just one word in the original Greek: splagchnízomai—and it means more than we might assume.

Our tendency is to look at Matthew 9:36 and think that Jesus “felt sorry” for the people. That is, he felt sympathy and wanted to help them—but he was also somehow separate from their suffering. As one theologian describes it, “God’s mercy on the miserable…acts of healing [that] grew out of his attitude of compassion.” His divine hand was reaching in from the outside to alleviate pain, we think.

There is a measure of truth to that thinking, but it’s not entirely correct. The more accurate interpretation of splagchnízomai is that Jesus not only saw and sympathized with their suffering, but that he experienced it emotionally within himself as well. You see, splagchnízomai connotes more than just sympathy or even basic empathy; it means literally “to feel deeply or viscerally, to yearn.” Synonymic meanings include “a feeling of distress from the ills of others…to suffer with another.”

In other words, Jesus didn’t simply feel sorry for those in misery, he incarnated their misery into his own being. He suffered alongside them, in both their physical and spiritual anguish. It was out of that shared suffering that he enacted his compassionate acts of healing—physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual—that changed people forever. That’s a heartbreakingly beautiful truth: Our God cares for us because he knows, literally, our pain (see Isaiah 53:3).

The even better news is this: Christ still splagchnísthḗsomai (“will have compassion”) on you and me today. He knows intimately what we suffer—and he’s willing to help. Somebody say Amen!

[NIB, 741-742; CWD, 1306]

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