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The BibleTexts.com Bible Commentary Copyright 1996-2005 Robert Nguyen Cramer THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES |
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A Translator's Handbook on the Acts of the Apostles, by Barclay M. Newman and Eugene A. Nida (New York: United Bible Societies, 1972, page 83) comments:
Both the background and the exact meaning of the expression times of spiritual strength are difficult to define. The word translated spiritual strength occurs only here in the New Testament and in the Septuagint (Exodus 8:15). Its meaning is given as "breathing space, relaxation, relief." This expression does not appear in rabbinic literature, and as it stands is evidently not a Semitic idiom. However, most commentaries believe the phrase to mean those periods of refreshment during which God strenghtens the human spirit.
Obviously this passage does not refer to physical rest but to "rest for your spirits."
To those translating the Bible into many languages, A Translator's Handbook on the Acts of the Apostles instructs:
Where it is necessary to make a distinction in the use of Lord when it refers to God or Jesus, it is certainly possible in verse 20a to employ "Lord God."
The second purpose to be accomplished through the repentance and turning to God is God's sending Jesus. This may be made very clear in some languages by saying "Do this so that the Lord will send a time of renewal for your spirits and so that he will also send Jesus." The introduction of "also" is simply a way of indicating that there is a dual purpose.
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Bruce Metzger (Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition, NY: United Bible Societies, 1994, page 315) comments:
Ver. 37 is a Western addition, not found in [many reliable very early manuscripts, from 3rd century onward], but is read, with many minor variations, by [one 6th century manuscripts and a few later minuscules]. There is no reason why scribes should have omitted the material, if it had originally stood in the text. It should be noted too that ton Iesoun Christon [found in Erasmus' so-called Textus Receptus, upon which the KJV's NT is based] is not a Lukan expression.
The formula pisteuo ... Christon was doubtless used by the early church in baptismal ceremonies, and may have been written in the margin of a copy of Acts. Its insertion into the text seems to have been due to the feeling that Philip would not have baptized the Ethiopian without securing a confession of faith, which needed to be expressed in the narrative. Although the earliest known New Testament manuscript that contains the words dates from the sixth century (ms. E), the tradition of the Ethiopian's confession of faith in Christ was current as early as the latter part of the second century, for Irenaeus quotes part of it (Against Heresies, II.xii.8).
Although the passage does not appear in the late medieval manuscript on which Erasmus chiefly depended for his edition (ms. 2), it stands inthe margin of another (ms. 4), from which he inserted it into his text because he "judged that it had been omitted by the carelessness of scribes (arbitror omissum librariorum incuria)."
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This passage was neither in the original Greek text of Acts nor in early Greek manuscripts. It originated in Jerome's Latin Vulgate version of the Bible. Bruce M. Metzger (Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition [TCGNT], NY: United Bible Societies, 1994, pp. 317-318) comments:
The spurious passage came into the Textus Receptus when Erasmus translated it from the Latin Vulgate into Greek and inserted it in his first edition of the Greek New Testament (Basel, 1516).
Almost 100 years later, the errant passage was included in the KJV, because Erasmus' Greek New Testament (the so-called Textus Receptus) was the basis for the Greek text from which the KJV's New Testament was translated.
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Gal 2:1-14 directly relates to the passages in Act 15:1-41.
The historical record: It is useful to note that Paul's letter to the Galatians was written in about 53-54 A.D. and that the Book of Acts was written approximately 30 or 40 years later, somewhere between 85 and 95 A.D.; thus, Paul's own account is considered to be more reliable.
The two references to "Luke" in the New Testament are in Col 4:14 and 2Ti 4:11. Colossians is often believed to have been written sometime before 80 A.D. by an actual disciple of Paul, and 2 Timothy is usually believed to have been written around 115 A.D. by a later Christian.
In contrast to Peter's statement as portrayed in Acts 15:1-35, compare Peter's actions that Paul publicly rebukes in Antioch,as recorded in Gal 2:11-14. To further explore this, see "Part 2. An illustration of repeated need for correction of an early church leader" at http://www.bibletexts.com/qa/qa078.htm.
Also compare Act 11:1-30 with Paul's first hand account in Gal 2:1-14,. Gal 2:13 provides the real explanation of the fallout between Paul and Barnabas that is mentioned in Act 15:37-39. The sharp contention between Paul and Barnabas appears to have arisen from Barnabas' following Peter's lead in distancing himself from the Gentiles, when Peter feared that some of James' (brother of Jesus) disciples would inform James that Peter was mingling with Gentiles, in conflict with Jewish law.
It is useful to note that Paul's letter to the Galatians was written in about 53-54 A.D. and that the Book of Acts was written approximately 30 or 40 years later, somewhere between 85 and 95 A.D.; thus, Paul's own account is considered to be more reliable.
The two references to "Luke" in the New Testament are in Col 4:14 and 2Ti 4:11. Colossians is often believed to have been written sometime before 80 A.D. by an actual disciple of Paul, and 2 Timothy is usually believed to have been w
Act 15:18 - {Note: In the original text of this verse in Acts, there were only three Greek words, "gnosta ap aionos" [known from ages]. Bruce Metzger (Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition, NY: United Bible Societies, 1994, page 379) comments:
Since the quotation from Am 9.12 ends with tauta [these things], the concluding words [in verse 18] are James's comment. The reading gnosta ap aionos, however, is so elliptical an expression that copyists made various attempts to recast the phrase, rounding it out as an independent sentence.}
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When Paul visited a new city, it was his practice, as we have seen, to attend the local Jewish synagogue on the first sabbath after his arrival and seek an opportunity there for making the Christian message known "to the Jew first". At Philippi, however, there does not appear to have been a synagogue. That can only mean that there were very few Jews in the place; had there been ten Jewish men, they would have sufficed to constitute a synagogue. No number of women could compensate for the absence of even one man necessary to complete the quorum of ten. There was, however, an unofficial meeting-place outside the city where a number of women -- Jewesses and God-fearing Gentiles -- came together to go through the appointed Jewish service of prayer for the sabbath day, even if they could not constitute a regular synagogue congregation. Paul and his companions found this place, by the bank of the river Gangites, and sat down with the women and told them the story of Jesus. One of these women, a God-fearer, came from Thyatira in the province of Asia. Her name Lydia, "the Lydian woman," reminds us that Thyatira lay in what had once been the ancient kingdom of Lydia....
According to Acts the church of Philippi began with the conversion of the business woman Lydia from Thyatira who offered her house to the Christian mission (Act 16:15). Lydia might have been a freed-woman, since she came from the East and sold purple goods which were luxury items. She was not necessarily, therefore, a wealthy, high-born woman. Three women were thus initiators and leading figures in the church at Philippi, with whom Paul had entered into a "consensual partnership" (societas).
The other two women in Philippi to whom Fiorenza refers are Euodia and Syntyche. Earlier (pages 169-170) she had written:
Paul also affirms that women worked with him on an equal basis. Phil 4:2-3 explicitly states that Euodia and Syntyche have "contended" side by side with him. As in an athletic race these women have competed alongside Paul, Clement, and the rest of Paul's co missionaries inthe cause of the gospel. Paul considers the authority of both women in the community at Philippi so great that he fears that their dissension could do serious damage to the Christian mission. The Philippians had entered with Paul into an equal partnership, a partnership endangered by the disagreement of these two outstanding women missionaries... When, therefore, Paul admonishes the two women "to be of the same mind" he reminds them of their original shared partnership and commitment to the same gospel.
To further explore the very active leadership roles of women in Paul's churches (contrary to popular ignorance on the topic), browse http://www.bibletexts.com/women.htm.
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Copyright
1996-2004 Robert Nguyen Cramer
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