Bible Study on Acts 18, verses 1 to 16, Paul in Corinth

 

Acts 18:1 ¶  After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; 2  And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. 3  And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers. 4  And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. 5  And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. 6  And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

 

I already spoke about Corinth’s predominant sexual sins in the worship of Aphrodite/Venus. Corinth had been an ancient city-state in Greece well-known in antiquity. Then, upon its conquest by the Romans in 146BC it was completely destroyed, the men killed and the women and children sold into slavery. It became a rebuilt colony of Rome in 44BC because of Julius Caesar and prospered as a trading and administrative center, becoming the capital of the Roman province of Achaea. It was mainly populated by Romans, Greeks, and Jews.

 

The expulsion of the Jews from Rome is also mentioned by the Roman historians Suetonius and Cassius Dio and a later Christian historian, Paulus Orosius. Jews had been expelled twice previous to this for their aggressive missionary efforts to gain proselytes among the pagans. However, it is clear that many returned each time. No expulsion efforts were ever watertight and foolproof.

 

Here is proof that Paul supported himself not by offerings, although he was allowed to and would insist on that point in 1Corinthians 9, but as a tentmaker, a skilled craftsman. He found kindred spirits in Aquila and Priscilla, a husband and wife team. Paul also admonished Christians to;

 

1Thessalonians 4:11  And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12  That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

 

Paul again argues with the Jews on every sabbath gaining converts among Jew and Gentile but eventually the stubbornness of his people, the Jews, causes him to declare that from then on he will go to the Gentiles, implying that he is not going to preach to the Jews anymore. Of course, we know he does not follow this declaration to the letter as he has a great burden for the Jewish people.

 

Romans 9:1 ¶  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3  For I could wish

that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5  Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

 

Acts 18:7 ¶  And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. 8  And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. 9  Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: 10  For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. 11  And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

 

Here is the beginning of the Corinthian church to which two letters were written that are found in the New Testament with problems and issues that still face the church in America today. The Lord tells Paul that He has many people that will be saved in Corinth so for a year and a half Paul teaches and establishes the church in Corinth.

 

Acts 18:12 ¶  And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, 13  Saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. 14  And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: 15  But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. 16  And he drave them from the judgment seat. 17  Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.

 

Remember, Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. Gallio, according to sources, was the elder brother of the Roman philosopher, Seneca the Younger, who became the tutor of the future emperor, Nero, under whom Paul will be executed according to tradition. Gallio was born Lucius Annaetus Novatus but was later adopted by a Roman Senator named Junius Gallio as a protégé changing his name to Junius Gallio. He became deputy or proconsul of Achaia in AD51 according to these sources.

 

Gallio was apparently not a confrontationalist and did not want to get involved in this dispute between the Jews and Paul. John Gill noted in his commentary that Seneca said of his brother that, “he was a very modest man, of a sweet disposition, and greatly beloved.” Gill also quotes another Roman writer who called him, “mild and gentle in his speech.” Gill’s commentary is free online so you can verify my quotes if you like.

Bible Study on Exodus 22, verses 16 to 24, witchcraft and bestiality

 

Exodus 22:16 ¶  And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. 17  If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. 18  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. 19  Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. 20  He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed. 21  Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 22  Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. 23  If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; 24  And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

If you remember the fierce and treacherous vengeance enacted by the children of Jacob over Dinah’s rape we can see a modification which would prevent vendettas and blind retribution. Remember that custom dictated that such a crime was against the family, the tribe, and the idea of the rights of the woman were not necessarily part of it.

A man who seduced an unmarried woman was required to ‘make it right’ by marrying her. If her father refused the offer of marriage he had to pay a dowry. It appears from another context that the dowry was a price paid to the father.

1Samuel 18:25  And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

Verse 18 has to do with the treatment of witches. First, suffer in this context means to allow or permit. See an earlier example;

Exodus 12:23  For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

A witch, in the Bible, is much more than a folk herbalist or some suburbanite American teen who plays with sticks and worships nature. A witch in the Bible was someone who communed with spirits, tried to speak to the dead, and did other idolatrous things that were in opposition to God’s will that He alone should be trusted and relied upon. Note here the context in the following verse as synonyms to witch are presented.

Deuteronomy 18:10  There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11  Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

So, we see a witch is linked with those who offer human sacrifice, or read the guts of a dead animal to tell the future, a conjurer who looks for special times like when the stars are lined up or some type of combination of dates and portents in the sky making a desired thing propitious like today’s fortune-teller, someone who uses chants and spells to try to attain a desired end, or who tries to consult with spirits of ancestors dead or other spirits to learn information that is not available to others. God regards these occultic practices as opposed to our acceptance of His sovereignty alone.

Magicians and conjurers often believed they could control the gods with spells and chants. The magicians in Egypt claimed to be able to compel the highest gods to do their bidding and even threatened them with destruction if they didn’t comply. In India sorcerers were said to be able to command their trinity of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu with their incantations. Of course, the God of the Bible would reject such nonsense even if some Christians today believe that things like the so-called Lord’s Prayer entitles them to something.

This can be extended to us today in regard to a Christian seeking special power of his own, trying to exercise a “gift” he or she pretends to, seeking power for themselves to glorify themselves. Beware of the Christian who emphasizes a special and powerful gift that is unique to them placing them on a higher level than others, which, while we all have our own special gifts, none of them make us more important than another. We are none of us shamans or wizards. See Romans 12. For instance, beware of the person who insists they can tell by a handshake if a person is saved or not or the one who just knows in their heart, they say, your spiritual condition just by meeting you without you saying a word or doing a thing. The witch or wizard seeks power, special spiritual power for themselves, apart from God even if they use God as an excuse to hide their wickedness behind.

God also likens disobedience to Him as witchcraft.

1Samuel 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Witchcraft is also linked by association, for Christians, for everything from rivalries based on envy, emulations, to a party person, or reveler. It is a work of the flesh, not appropriate for Christians although we aren’t called to kill anyone for such things.

Galatians 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Remember that what is shown here in Exodus is the civil Law and the ceremonial Law for the ancient Hebrews, not God’s commands for the Christian after Christ’s resurrection. No Christian is justified in killing a witch.

Verse 19 showed that bestiality was forbidden. This being stated reveals to us that it was practiced. Not only did ancient Canaanite religion promote heterosexual and homosexual temple prostitution apparently bestiality was not uncommon.

Leviticus 18:23  Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

Leviticus 20:15  And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.16  And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Deuteronomy 27:21  Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

There are Hindu depictions of bestiality, for instance, on the temple complex at Khajuraho in India, implying sex with gods who have taken on the form of animals although some Hindu scriptures forbid such practices.

Some authors have pointed out that cave drawings indicate that bestiality was not uncommon among primitive man. We who believe the Bible know that any cave dwellers were part of the dispersal of families around the world initiated by God at the attempted building of Babel.

Ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Rome all had proscriptions against it while, at the same, time regarding such practices in their mythologies and perhaps some religious practices. Ancient Greece did not have restrictions against it. Some Arab tribes practiced it as a cultural custom.

Verse 20 condemned idolatry. For the Christian, the Holy Spirit goes even further to say that covetousness in the context of sexuality is a form of idolatry.

Colossians 3:5 ¶  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

So, you can see the link between covetousness, idolatry, adultery, and fornication as the dissatisfaction with one’s own mate is a sign of a wicked heart and even, if you will, false worship.

Mercy and acting charitably toward foreigners, widows, and orphans: the politically powerless, was an essential standard. So it is the basis of religious practice for the Christian as far as God is concerned.

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

A stranger is a foreigner or alien.

Genesis 17:8  And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God…12  And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

Genesis 23:4  I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Exodus 2:22  And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

Exodus 12:19  Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

You can see by God’s threat here that He is adamant that such people as these not be abused in any way lest His wrath be incurred on the abuser.

Bible Study on Acts 17, verses 32 to 34, some mocked

 

Acts 17:32 ¶  And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. 33  So Paul departed from among them. 34  Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

 

Resurrection from the dead was not unheard of in Greek mythology. In fact, there are many instances of heroes being resurrected from the dead and made immortal. There is no need to go into a list here. But, of course, the Epicureans would find such a belief to be pure fantasy but it would not be impossible for the Stoics to consider a proposition such as this that was not unheard of in Greek mythology. The only two converts here mentioned by name are a man and a woman as representative of those Greeks who came to believe on Christ and were saved.

 

Bible Study on Exodus 22, verses 1 through 15, laws of property

 

Exodus 22:1 ¶  If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. 2  If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. 3  If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. 4  If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double. 5  If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. 6  If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

Laws regarding theft, including theft of growing food and damage to property are covered here. Again, this was to be the law that governed the Hebrew people. This can be thought of in the context of God’s standard set forth in the Ten Commandments, further defined and illuminated by Christ and by the apostle, Paul. This is part of the law for governance of these people on a day to day basis, but it does further illuminate God’s standard in the Ten Commandments of not stealing, on a practical level.

Exodus 22:7 ¶  If a man shall deliver unto his neighbour money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief be found, let him pay double. 8  If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges, to see whether he have put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods. 9  For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour. 10  If a man deliver unto his neighbour an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast, to keep; and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing it: 11  Then shall an oath of the LORD be between them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbour’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good. 12  And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. 13  If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn. 14  And if a man borrow ought of his neighbour, and it be hurt, or die, the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good. 15  But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good: if it be an hired thing, it came for his hire.

Here are laws of responsibility and accountability for using the property of others.

Bible Study on Acts 17, verses 22 to 31, Paul preaches to Greeks on Mars Hill

 

Acts 17:22 ¶  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25  Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. 30  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

 

In many locations in the ancient Roman world there were altars and monuments to an unknown god or goddess. Christian writers like to say that Epimenides, a pagan poet and philosopher that Paul will quote in his argument, told the Athenians that the way to end a plague centuries before was to build an altar to a god they had not offered sacrifices to although this is a legend which the writer Pausanias said was a different person in a different city. What I can verify, though, is that the Greeks worshipped a dozen main gods and many lesser gods. The Unknown God was sometimes sworn to by the Greeks and even had a temple dedicated to him. Just think of it, that there was a god and the Greeks didn’t know what his name was. Paul tells them that this is the God who created all things who they did not know.

 

Fundamentalist Christians insist that Allah is a devil and that the Muslims offer worship to this devil. However, Muslims and Arab Christians say Allah to mean the God who created everything and none of them imagine they are worshipping a devil and we shut off all conversation when we say something like that. Paul, if alive today, would not only argue with them that Allah was the same God as the God of the Bible but he would go on to explain who Jesus is, the visible image of that invisible God. I daresay that Paul would probably be able be able to quote from the Koran in his arguments if it happened today using their own words against their argument like a good lawyer. We are going to see that Paul had no problem using a nonbeliever’s system of belief against that nonbelievers own argument.

 

Paul declares that the true God does not reside in a temple like the pagan gods. His glory filled the Hebrew temple but God’s abode is in Heaven and yet He is omnipresent or everywhere. Paul explains who the real God is. He explains that all men, and that would include everyone from the pygmy in Central Africa to the Scottish Highlander are made of one blood and that their dispersal around the world was by His will. The American racist who strangely uses this verse about God setting the bounds of their habitations in wanting to relocate American Blacks to Africa would not even consider that first, most Black people’s ancestors were kidnapped and brought here by immoral and violent means and secondly, that by that argument he should return to the Europe his ancestors left.

 

The Greeks considered Zeus, their highest god, to be the creator of heaven and earth. Apart from the myths about him and other gods mating with human women, an obviously contrived cultural reference to actual history when the sons of God came to earth to mate with human women in Genesis Zeus was considered an ideal. According to one source; “Zeus is understood to be the absolute good; he is ungenerated, everlasting, the father of himself, the father and pre-eminent creator of all other things.”[1]

 

But Zeus has a problem in that he is confined by his all too human passions. Still, Paul will use him as representing the true God in type, and we all know that types fall apart at some point.

 

Paul quotes two pagan poets here. In verse 28 he quotes from a poem by the Greek philosopher Epimenides, and his poem Cretica spoken to Zeus, which Paul also quotes in Titus 1:12.

 

 

They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one,
Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.
But you are not dead: you live and abide forever,
For in you we live and move and have our being.[2]

 

For we are also his offspring is said to be a quote of a line from the Greek poet, Aratus, in his poem, Phenomena. Remember that they thought of Zeus as the greatest god.

 

From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed;

full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places of men;

full is the sea and the havens thereof; always we all have need of Zeus.

For we are also his offspring; ...[3]

 

Please do not make the mistake of some liberal Christians who say that because Paul quoted these pagan poets that they were inspired by God. The text doesn’t say that and Paul is merely using their own words in his argument, not imparting divine inspiration to a pagan. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. The heathen world on a regular basis emerges accidentally with the truth.

 

Paul makes His point, a very important point, that God has been relatively patient with mankind and his fantasies until now but that it is time for mankind to repent or change their minds, turn from their idolatry, and turn to the true God through Christ the Messiah, that man whom he hath ordained.

 

1Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

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[1] Judith Herrin, Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) Kindle Edition. P.295.

 

[2] Harris, J. Rendel, (Oct 1906). "The Cretans always liars", The Expositor, Seventh series. 2: 305–17 as referenced by www.wikipedia.com at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimenides (accessed on 12 July 2020).

 

[3] Aratus, Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron, Translated by Mair, A. W. & G. R. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129 (London: William Heinemann, 1921), https://www.theoi.com/Text/AratusPhaenomena.html. (accessed on 12 July 2020).

Bible Study on Exodus 21, verses 22 to 36, causing a miscarriage by accident

 

Exodus 21:22 ¶  If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23  And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, 24  Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25  Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26  And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. 27  And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake. 28  If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit. 29  But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. 30  If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. 31  Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him. 32  If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. 33  And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein; 34  The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his. 35  And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide. 36  Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.

Verse 22 shows that accidentally causing a miscarriage of a pregnancy that does not also result in the death of the mother is not punishable by death. It also underscores, under ancient custom, the fact that women had few rights on their own but that their treatment was an extension of their husband’s rights. We saw how Dinah’s rape in Genesis was avenged because of the disgrace it brought on the family, not because it was a crime against Dinah. The woman had few rights apart from her relationship with her father or her husband. In a tribal society, the sense of self-identity and self-worth of many people is swallowed up in the identity and worth of the group.

Punishment was to be equal among Hebrews of any rank; an eye for an eye. However, disturbingly, the exception was that if a servant was injured they must be set free, extended even to knocking out a tooth. There is nothing here about a servant being treated on an equal footing with a master.

A domestic animal that killed a person was to be killed itself. However, if the owner knew the animal was dangerous the owner is also put to death although he could ransom his way out of the sentence. It did not matter if the victim was male or female, an equal value was placed on a woman’s life. If his animal injured another man’s servant he had to pay restitution.

If an animal fell into a pit a man dug he had to pay the owner for it if it died. If one man’s animal killed another man’s animal the living animal must be sold and the money divided between the two as well as the carcass of the dead animal. But, if he knew the animal was dangerous he was required to pay for the dead animal.

Laws of responsibility, blame, guilt, and punishment are controlled vengeance. It would not be hard to imagine this wandering group of ex-slaves descending into nothing but vendettas and anarchy without order or any future. God providing standards, modifying existing customs, and making the Hebrews accountable to His law could provide a stable base for society.

I’m going to avoid the many sermons that this passage brings to mind in order not to slow down the narrative but just think of parallels in the world of the spirit. Do ordinances and commandments for this world reflect anything that is going on in the spiritual world, do you ever wonder?

Bible Study on Acts 17, verses 10 to 21, search the scriptures daily

 

Acts 17:10 ¶  And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12  Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. 13  But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. 14  And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. 15  And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.

 

Here are mentioned the Bereans who are an example of to all of us. They not only received the word but searched the scriptures every day to make sure they were being told the truth as opposed to just hearing their favorite celebrity preacher and taking his word for it. We would do well to do what they did if we were not so lazy spiritually. And we are commanded to do so.

 

1John 4:1 ¶  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

 

There are many warnings given about false teaching and false prophets and teachers in the New Testament.

 

Again, women play an important part in moving God’s plan of reconciliation of mankind forward.

   

Acts 17:16 ¶  Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17  Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18  Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19  And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20  For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. 21  (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

 

Epicureanism was a philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome based on the writings of a philosopher name Epicurus who lived after 300BC. It was a challenge to the philosophy of Plato and then by Paul’s time was a challenge to Stoicism. Epicurus taught atheistic materialism so today he would have been one of those people who insist that the greatest good in life is to seek to be happy, to enjoy oneself, and also that there is nothing outside of the material world so any god is a physical being only. As Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson would say in the TV series, Cosmos, that it, the cosmos or universe, “is all that is or was or ever will be..”

 

The Stoics, on the other hand, are often mistaken for Christians in that noted Stoics believed that virtue was real happiness, along with self-control and fortitude in the face of pain and suffering. Stoicism was founded a little later than Epicurus’ time by Zeno of Citium. Make no mistake about it, though, Stoics were far from Christian. Like Epicureans and most so-called intellectuals today they were humanist who valued human will and the ability to conquer negative and damaging emotions as the greatest good. To the Stoic the universe and nature were god but they could consider non-physical entities as being real so they were not purely limited by the physical. We use Stoic today for someone who endures pain and misfortune well. Understand that for both of these philosophies as for all philosophies and religions there would be wide variations in belief.