Week 49

Reading

Day 1: Acts 21:37-23:35

Day 2: Acts 24:1-26:32

Day 3: Acts 27:1-44

Day 4: Acts 28:1-31, Ephesians 1:1-2:22

Day 5: Ephesians 3:1-5:14

Day 6: Ephesians 5:15-6:23, Colossians 1:1-23

Day 7: Colossians 1:24-4:18

Preview

Hard Questions

1. (Acts 28:3-4) “But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, ‘No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.’” “Justice,” the snake bite, the ending of Mark
2. (28:11-15) “After three months we sailed in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the Twin Brothers, which had wintered at the island. And landing at Syracuse, we stayed three days. From there we circled round and reached Rhegium. And after one day the south wind blew; and the next day we came to Puteoli, where we found brethren, and were invited to stay with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome. And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.” Luke the great historian/documentarian. Also, notes re: physical areas, place names, etc. Ex. The Bible vs the Koran or the gnostic gospels/literature. Things written centuries after the fact by people who don’t live in the area don’t have this degree of geographical knowledge or detail.
3. (28:17-20) “And it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them: “Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason therefore I have called for you, to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” Paul’s posture toward his Jewish contemporaries, the relief this kind of attitude was for my Catholic friends in Mexico.
4. (Eph. 1:10) “dispensation of the fullness of the times”? Also 3:2. The word is oikonomia, from which we get economy, and the idea is like setting a house in order, arranging, or administering. God has completely organized and arranged the times with the purpose of bringing everything under Christ. We see this word in 3:2, and the idea is of a stewardship, of someone entrusted with keeping the house in order.
5. (Eph. 4:9) “descended into the lower parts of the earth”? Per Harold W. Hoehner’s commentary on Ephesians in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: “The genitive ‘of’ can be taken in three ways: (1) ‘Into the lower parts, namely, the earth’ (a genitive of apposition). This would refer to Christ’s incarnation, His ‘descent’ to the earth. (2) ‘Into the parts lower than the earth’ (a genitive of comparison). This would mean that Christ descended into hades between His death and resurrection. (3) ‘Into the lower parts which belong to the earth’ (a genitive of possession). This would refer to Christ’s death and His burial in the grave. The third view best fits the context because in His death Christ had victory over sin and redeemed those who would be given as ‘gifts’ to the church” (634).
6. (Eph. 5:21ff) Paul’s revolutionary address of the “lesser” before the “greater.” Also in Colossians 3:8-4:1

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