Acts 13:14 ¶ But when they
departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the
synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down. 15
And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the
synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have
any word of exhortation for the people, say on. 16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his
hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. 17 The God of this people of Israel chose our
fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of
Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. 18 And about the time of forty years suffered he
their manners in the wilderness. 19 And
when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their
land to them by lot. 20 And after that
he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty
years, until Samuel the prophet. 21 And
afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a
man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up
unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I
have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfil all my will. 23 Of this
man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a
Saviour, Jesus: 24 When John had first
preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of
Israel. 25 And as John fulfilled his
course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold,
there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to
loose. 26 Men and brethren,
children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. 27
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew
him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day,
they have fulfilled them in condemning him. 28 And though they found no cause of death in
him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. 29 And when they had fulfilled all that was
written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in
a sepulchre. 30 But God raised him from
the dead: 31 And he was seen many days
of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses
unto the people. 32 And we declare unto
you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their
children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the
second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. 34 And as concerning that he raised him up from
the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I
will give you the sure mercies of David. 35
Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. 36 For
David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on
sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: 37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no
corruption. 38 Be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins: 39 And by him
all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses. 40 Beware
therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; 41 Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:
for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe,
though a man declare it unto you.
Perga was in Pamphylia. There were several places named Antioch in
the Greek-speaking world. Pisidian Antioch is near Perga on the map. Both would
be in what is present-day Turkey. This Antioch is not the Antioch called the
“cradle of Christianity”. So, it is not the same town as where the Christians
were first called as such near the modern-day city of Antakya, Turkey in
extreme Southern Turkey. Pisidian Antioch is near the present-day Isparta
Province in Turkey.
Here Paul gives a sermon in a synagogue. As they are Jews his
sermon is filled with Old Testament references. Notice in verse 19 Chanaan,
spelled with a Ch rather than just a C, gives us a clue as to the way to
pronounce the Ch in words, like a K. Again, remember my remarks about
variations in spelling.
In my comments on Genesis 15:12-16 I noted;
“God tells Abram
that his seed will be servants in a foreign land, which we know to be Egypt.
They will be afflicted for four hundred years and will serve the people of that
land. This is an about, not an exact
400 years, ten months, 23 days, and two hours type of statement.
Exodus
12:40 Now the sojourning of the children
of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
And then, Luke
recounting what Stephen said, alluding to what Moses had written from God’s
words;
Acts
7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his
seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into
bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
If I wrote you a
lesson that said, ‘in the thousand years since the Norman invasion of England,’
and then, in the lesson later wrote, ‘in the nine hundred and fifty eight years
since 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at Hastings,’ would
that be a contradiction or would you understand what I said as meaning the same
thing?
Here is Paul referring to
this bondage bracketed between the covenant and the giving of the Law.
Galatians
3:17 And this I say, that the covenant,
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect.
Rabbis have
written that the affliction begins when Ishmael, the offspring of Abram and
Hagar, an Egyptian, begins to persecute Isaac, the son of the promise. They
regarded the four hundred years to start from that point.
God also tells Abram that four generations
will come into being in Egypt before returning to the land that is promised,
The Promised Land of Canaan. For instance, Levi, Jacob’s son, and his son,
Kohath, and his son, Amram, and his son, Moses. These were four generations
that sojourned in Egypt. It is then important to see that God is talking about
two different things; four hundred years of affliction and four generations in
a foreign land. As the Bible clearly states in Exodus the Hebrews come out of Egypt
with a great deal of wealth given to them freely by the Egyptians.”
Notice verse 20 says about the space of
four hundred and fifty years. Using the typical fallacious modernist
mindset of reading the Bible like an instruction manual for your lawn mower I
have been amazed at how many Christian commentators argue about how this figure
of four hundred and fifty can be reconciled by adding this or subtracting that
trying to fit it into the timelines one derives by adding up reigns and rules.
This is nonsense. You dare deny the Holy Spirit the very same figures of speech
you use yourselves? The very same general statements that are approximations or
even hyperbole?
In verse 21 the Hebrew name Kish from 1Samuel 9:1 is
translated from a Greek derivation as Cis in English. Note also how Elijah
of the Old Testament verses like Malachi 4:5 is translated from the Greek as Elias
in New Testament verses like Matthew 11:14.
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