Guest Teacher: David Pikett. This week we continued our verse-by-verse study in Acts. We discussed how the church should respond to changes and growth. We also looked more closely at the words used to describe Stephen including pairs of terms such as “faith/grace & power” and “wonders & miracles/signs.” “Faith” comes from the Greek word…
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This week we cross-examined the “traditional” interpretation of this passage while we dug into the details of the text. For example, were the 12 apostles really neglecting the Hellenistic widows in the daily distribution of food? Does that make any sense at all? And were the Hellenists actually chosen to be the first deacons? What…
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This week we started a new section of Acts where Luke turns our attention away what was going on in the Temple courts to the inevitable challenges of exponential growth and diversity. We evaluated internal evidence that Luke was possibly using a new source(s) for this section including the introduction of previously unused terms which…
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This week our guest teacher, Craig Bondy, guided the class in a more accurate understanding of the high priesthood in the Old Testament versus that of first century Judea. Building on this, we looked up a number of passages in the Gospels and Acts which refer to the High Priest as either Annas or Caiaphas….
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This week we compared and contrasted the arrest narratives from Acts 4 and Acts 5. Though some scholars have contended the arrest in Acts 5 is a doublet of Acts 4, when examined closely for similarities and differences, it’s clear that the arrests have completely different catalysts, circumstances surrounding the arrest, and final outcomes (see…
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This week, we finished up the study of Ananias and Sapphira by comparing and contrasting their experience in Acts 5 to the story of Achan in Joshua 7. It seems as though each of these events took place at the beginning of the founding of a faith community. If the stories are indeed parallel, then,…
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