Ancient Truth: Acts: Ancient Truth, #2

By Ed Hurst

The Bible is Ancient Truth, but must be read in its own ancient context to be fully understood. Even the people among whom Jesus lived no longer understood their own Hebrew heritage because the leadership had embraced Western intellectual assumptions which were then foreign to Scripture. Where we stand today is even more foreign. The burden of responsibility is upon us to travel back into that world, to the context in which God chose to reveal Himself. This volume examines the Book of Acts in light of those Hebrew mental assumptions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ed Hurst
• Release date: Nov 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301693832

Ed Hurst

Born 18 September 1956 in Seminole, OK. Traveled a great deal in Europe with the US Army, worked a series of odd jobs, and finally in public education. Ordained to the ministry as a Baptist, then with a non-denominational endorsement. Currently semi-retired.

Book preview

Ancient Truth: Acts

By Ed Hurst

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 by Ed Hurst

Copyright notice: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior – be sure your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23)

Permission is granted to copy, reproduce and distribute for non-commercial reasons, provided the book remains in its original form.

Cover art: A section of the ancient diolkos, the freight wagon track across the Corinthian Isthmus. Image courtesy of www.HolyLandPhotos.org.

Other books in this series include Ancient Truth: The Gospels, by the same author. Get your free copy at Smashwords.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Ancient Truth Series

Introduction to Acts

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Introduction to the Ancient Truth Series

Mankind is fallen, in need of redemption. The one single source is the God who created us. He has revealed Himself and His will for us, the path to redemption. The pinnacle of His efforts to reveal Himself came in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Most of us understand easily enough that Divine Son was born into a particular historical and cultural setting, one that is frankly foreign to us, and we to it. The distance is more than mere years of time, or language and culture, but a wealth of things that fall between Him and us. At a minimum, we could point out the Post-Modern culture, Victorian feminism, Enlightenment secularism, European feudalism, and Germanic tribal mythology – so much we can point out without much difficulty. What no one in our Western world today seems to realize is the single greatest barrier to understanding Christ is the thing which lies under all of those obscuring layers of influence: Western Civilization itself.

That is, the ancient Classical Greco-Roman world is built essentially on Aristotle and Plato. Those two are not simply alien to the people of the Bible, but their basic view of reality is frankly hostile to that of the Bible. Aristotle rejected Hebrew Scripture because he rejected the underlying worldview of the people God used to write that Scripture.

This book is not a long academic dissertation on the differences; that has been very well covered by far better qualified writers. But this should serve as notice to the reader how our Western intellectual heritage, including our basic assumptions of how a human can know and understand and deal with reality, is not what’s in the Bible. If you bring that Western intellectual heritage to Scripture, you will not come away with a proper understanding of God’s revelation. If the rules, the essential assumptions, by which you discern and organize truth about your world, remain rooted in the West, you will not fully understand the precious treasure of truth God left for us in the Bible.

We do not need yet one more commentary on the Bible from a foreign Western intellectual background; we need something that speaks to us from the background of the Hebrew people. God spoke first to them. He did not simply find the Hebrew people useful for His revelation; He made the Hebrew people precisely so He would have a fit vehicle for His revelation. Bridging the divide between them and us is no small task, but to get readers started down that path, I offer this series of commentaries that attempt to present a Hebrew understanding for the Western mind. Not as some authoritative expert, but I write as another explorer who reports what he has found so far. I encourage you to consider what I share and heed the call to make your own exploration of these things.

A note about Scripture translations: There are dozens of English translations of the Bible. None of them is perfect, if for no other reason translation itself is shooting at a moving target. More importantly, it is virtually impossible to translate across the vast cultural and intellectual gulf between that of current English-speakers and those who wrote the Bible. This author recommends the New English Translation, AKA the NET Bible – http://netbible.org/

Introduction to Acts

We could easily call this book 2nd Luke. He is the author, dedicated it to the same fellow who sponsored his Gospel, and continues directly from the end of it. Everything we could say about him still applies. The author is well educated, has an analytical mind, and gives a great deal of emphasis to what can be known legitimately of the subject matter on a human level. However, the obvious intent is to justify believing in a higher plane. The writings are dedicated to some sponsor named Theophilus. There are two primary possibilities. First, the sponsor is an investigating magistrate trying to understand the defense claims in Paul’s trial before Caesar. The second is a commission from a wealthy new believer who seeks to know more details of this whole story of Jesus and His Apostles, and the message they all taught. It’s possible there may be something of both scenarios, as the writing could easily serve both purposes equally.

The research Luke did for this narrative was conducted and the material compiled during the same period he worked on his Gospel. Acts simply carries the story forward into the immediate period following the Ascension. We could also call it the Acts of Peter and Paul, since they are the prime movers in the narrative. Peter fulfills his call as the leader of the Apostles until it was simply too dangerous for him to be the front man. The danger is the transition to a man who struggled hard to make it even more dangerous, until a miracle leads him to change sides. Luke’s narrative relates how these men passed the baton from Christ to the Christians at large across the Empire.

However, we find at 16:10 Luke suddenly includes himself by shifting from the third person plural (they) to the first person plural (we). Thus, when Paul had his vision of the Macedonian call from Troas, we safely assume it was at Troas Luke joined the mission. Naturally, there is no explanation for this, but the most obvious assumption is Luke responded to Paul’s message much the same as the first apostles who left their fishing boats.

The substance of the book can be summed up thus: This is how the gospel of Jesus Christ went from a tiny sect of Judaism to a global faith embracing all mankind. From a handful of Jewish men, mostly with rather poor education, this faith was adopted by a very politically powerful and well-educated Pharisee who was the perfect man for carrying such an oddball minor Eastern sect across the Empire to become the religion that shook Rome to its core.

Chapter 1

Luke mentions Jesus in His resurrected form remained for some 40 days on earth. During that time, He met with His disciples extensively in Galilee, after which they returned to Jerusalem. What Luke and John seem to emphasize was the critical importance of their understanding how the Old Testament prophesied of His death, burial for three days, and His resurrection. They were taught quite a bit during this time based on their changed understanding of these things. Still, they did not have the Spirit. This Jesus assured them would come very soon, describing it as a baptism in fire.

But because they lacked that illuminating Presence, they still stumbled over their impression the Kingdom was meant to be a human political order on earth. Was Jesus about to set Israel free from Roman domination? They had no doubt He could. Jesus had already told them repeatedly this was not in the plans, but their minds were not ready for it. Instead, He pointed them back to the fundamental principle of believers living under various human governments. God retains full authority over such things, had long since ordained how it would all turn out and when, and seldom deemed it necessary to inform humans of his plans. Instead, they were to focus their minds on the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the mission which paid little heed to governments among men – to carry the gospel across all national borders to all men.

It almost seems as if we can see them hiking out of the northeastern gate of the city, across the Kidron, up the long sloping road to the pass between two peaks on Mount Olivet. As they crossed the zenith, they started down the slope toward Bethany, Jesus walking firmly in the lead. Except He doesn’t head down the road to Bethany, but simply steps off into the air and floats away into the clouds, turning to raise His hands and bless them. As they stood there watching for one last glimpse of their Master, they are told