Wednesday Bible Study: Pure fiction

Luke is just making shit up now and we can prove it by comparing his novel to the historical record. If you want to believe in miracles you can believe in Peter's miraculous escape from prison. But you can't believe the account of the death of Herod, because we know what really happened.

 

Just as a reminder, this king Herod is not the guy called Herod the Great who was supposedly king when Jesus was born, according to Matthew, but a successor, called Herod Antipas. Antipas is the same guy who had John the Baptist executed, according to the gospels, and who ruled while Jesus was crucified. He died in 39 BC, so the timing is about right, because according to Luke Jesus was born six years later than Matthew had it, after Herod the Great was already dead, so this would be about 3 years after the crucifixion. We can't tell exactly how much time has elapsed, as Luke doesn't mark the months or years for us, but the date is plausible. However . . . 

 

Herod Antipas did not die while he was sitting on his throne, wearing his royal robes, and giving an address to the people. In 39 CE Emperor Caligula, following a dispute between Herod and his nephew, named Agrippa, took Agrippa's side. He stripped Herod of his throne and his property, and exiled him to somewhere in what is today France, probably Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges on the Spanish border. That's where he died, possibly because Caligula had him killed, though that is disputed. So no, the story Luke tells here is completely made up. We know that it isn't true. So there is actually no reason to believe any of this.

12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

⁸ Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. ⁹ Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

¹² When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. ¹³ Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

¹⁸ In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. ¹⁹ After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.

Herod’s Death

Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. ²⁰ He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.

²¹ On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. ²² They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” ²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴ But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

²⁵ When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from^[a] Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.

Footnotes

1. Acts 12:25 Some manuscripts to

1. 
   

 

 

The Hard Problem

Here is a review by Kit Wilson -- actually more than a review, a summary -- of Michael Pollan's new book A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.  I definitely recommend that you read it. I'm not going to try to summarize the summary.

 

But I will take the occasion to out myself. As much as I'm a committed skeptic, rationalist, and scientist, I have never been satisfied with claims that the phenomenon of consciousness -- our experience, our awareness of self and the world, our feelings and desires -- can be reduced to the observable and measurable processes of neurology. We do not understand where the universe comes from, why it is what it is, or most of how it works. We know a lot more than we did 100 or 200 years ago, but that has just proved to us how much more we don't know.

 

I have difficulty finding the words to explain what I believe -- that is if I actually believe anything about this. What I do believe is that it's a mystery that the methods, logic, rules of evidence that we regard as the scientific enterprise cannot solve. There is another level of reality, a property of the universe that can only be investigated and understood, if at all, by other means. 

 

No, we don't get to fill in the blank with God or any other sort of mystical belief. What I am saying is that we don't know, but there has to be more to it than physicists or cosmologists can discover with the methods currently available to them. Maybe I have some ideas but I'll leave it at that for now.

Sunday Sermonette: Is there an echo in here?

The lack of an editor is really showing here. When Peter returns to Jerusalem, the Jews for Jesus complain about him evangelizing among the gentiles, so Peter just repeats the whole story, with some elisions,  from the previous chapter. The author (ostensibly named Luke), obviously could have just said "Peter told them about this vision and the story of Cornelius, and they were satisfied." Actually the trick I would have used if I were writing this novel is to do it the other way around. 

 

"The Jews for Jesus heard that Peter was evangelizing among the gentiles, so when he returned to Judea they complained about. So Peter told them . . . ," and the entire story comes in once, placed in Peter's mouth. But this writer is a very poor literary technician.

 

Antioch, FYI, was the capital of the Seleucid empire, until the Romans conquered it in 63 BC. So at the time this ostensibly happened, it was the capital of Roman Syria. (It is located in what is today Turkey, just over the border from Syria.) So it was one of the most important cities in the Roman empire. The culture was Hellenistic, the language was Koine Greek, and in case you didn't know it, that's the language all of this was written in. The Jews at that time spoke Aramaic, so this is not a Jewish document at all. The Christian church was founded in the roman city of Antioch, by Greek speaking pagans. Just so we're clear.

 

11 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. ² So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him ³ and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴ Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: ⁵ “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. ⁶ I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. ⁷ Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

⁸ “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹ “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ ¹⁰ This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

¹¹ “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. ¹² The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. ¹³ He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. ¹⁴ He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵ “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with^[a] water, but you will be baptized with^[b] the Holy Spirit.’ ¹⁷ So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸ When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹ Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. ²⁰ Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹ The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²² News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴ He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

²⁵ Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶ and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

²⁷ During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. ²⁸ One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) ²⁹ The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. ³⁰ This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Footnotes

1. Acts 11:16 Or in
2. Acts 11:16 Or in

 

Back to the 19th Century

As you likely know, Louis Pasteur developed the eponymous method of sterilizing milk in the 19th Century  -- he patented it in 1865 to be exact. It was a long time, however, before pasteurization came into common use. 

Two of the leading causes of death in 1900, gastrointestinal infections and tuberculosis, were major killers of children, and a major underlying cause of these deaths was cow’s milk. The U.S. population originally was predominantly rural, but by 1900 most people in the northeast lived in cities, and by 1910 the same was true in the west and Midwest. Cow’s milk had to come into cities like New York from farms tens of miles away, at a time when there was no refrigeration. The milk was often contaminated with pathogens that killed the children who drank it. 

Even 25 years after Pasteur's patent, milk was not normally pasteurized. Then a German immigrant in New York City, a wealthy merchant named Nathan Strauss, learned about pasteurization. In 1892 he used his own money to establish a pasteurization plant in Manhattan’s East Village, and in 1893 he established “milk depots” in low income neighborhoods to sell pasteurized milk below cost. He also established a second plant to provide pasteurized milk to an orphanage on Randall’s Island, where the mortality rate was something like 15% a year. The death rate immediately dropped substantially.

Strauss’s efforts attracted the attention of scientists and physicians, and incited a campaign to outlaw the sale of unpasteurized milk. This came to the attention of president Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1907 appointed a commission to study the matter. The report came back the following year with the conclusion that pasteurization would save many lives.

As you will perhaps not be surprised, given the public reaction to public health mandates more recently, the campaign to mandate pasteurization provoked a furious backlash, including from most milk producers. Why they thought it was good business to kill their customers I cannot say. Many in the general public also opposed the ban on raw milk, claiming that pasteurization negatively affected nutrition and taste. (It doesn’t.) Nevertheless Chicago did ban the sale of raw milk in 1909. New York got around to it after a typhoid epidemic in 1913. Nearly all major cities followed suit in the next few years, and the infant and child mortality rate plummeted.

That, along with safe drinking water (another story, with a similar outline), and vaccination, are the most important reasons for the enormous increase in life expectancy in the 20th Century. Children used to die routinely, and now they don't. Or at least, they haven't been up until now, but Robert Kennedy Jr. is trying to change that. Not only does he oppose vaccination, he has advocated for unpasteurized milk. Too bad for all those people in Idaho who have gotten sick from it. As the linked story tells us, "Symptoms of infections from bacteria that can be in raw milk include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and dehydration. Complications can be severe, especially in people at higher risk such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems." 

 

Every senator who voted to confirm that homicidal maniac is an accessory. 

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Wednesday Bible Study: Making a short story long

Acts 10 is an elaborate story with a lot of irrelevant detail likely entirely fictional, obviously, but it was written to make a single point: that Christianity is a universal religion, not just a sect of Judaism, and it will now be preached to non-Jews and throughout the known world. This has been a gradual development, beginning with outreach to the Samaritans, then the Ethiopian eunuch, and now it's stated decisively and explicitly. That's about all I have to say about this.

 

10 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. ² He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. ³ One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”

⁴ Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. ⁵ Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. ⁶ He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

⁷ When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. ⁸ He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

Peter’s Vision

⁹ About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. ¹⁰ He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. ¹¹ He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. ¹² It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. ¹³ Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

¹⁴ “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

¹⁷ While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate. ¹⁸ They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

¹⁹ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three^[a] men are looking for you. ²⁰ So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”

²¹ Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”

²² The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” ²³ Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

Peter at Cornelius’s House

The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the believers from Joppa went along. ²⁴ The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. ²⁵ As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. ²⁶ But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

²⁷ While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. ²⁸ He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. ²⁹ So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”

³⁰ Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me ³¹ and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. ³² Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ ³³ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.”

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ³⁶ You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ³⁷ You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

³⁹ “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues^[b] and praising God.

Then Peter said, ⁴⁷ “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” ⁴⁸ So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Footnotes

1. Acts 10:19 One early manuscript two; other manuscripts do not have the number.
2. Acts 10:46 Or other languages

 

The Death of Science

From Academy Health (the academic society for health services researchers) comes a very depressing post. We already know that the Dump administration has rescinded research grants to study health care and health risks for gay people, women, racial and ethnic minorities, and other subhumans. But now they're making it official that they will only fund science that conforms to their ideology:

 

The Office of Management and Budget published a sweeping proposed rule on May 29, 2026, that would fundamentally reshape how the federal government funds research, public health programs, and other evidence-based work. . . . The rule . . . places political appointees between scientists and the work they do on behalf of the public. It rewrites the terms under which federally funded research can operate, in ways that would undermine the independence, integrity, and practical functioning of the health services research enterprise. 

The most alarming provision establishes a new pre-issuance review process that requires senior political appointees, not scientific reviewers, to sign off on grants before they are awarded. The rule is explicit that these reviews must ensure proposals are consistent with "Federal agency priorities" and "the President's policy priorities." Peer review, which has governed the allocation of federal research funding for decades, is reduced to an advisory function. The rule states plainly that it "does not replace agency discretion." 

 

As you may know, Stalin required science to conform to Communist ideology. One result was that scientists were required to share the lunatic beliefs of Trofim Lysenko, who used his authority to discredit, fire and even imprison scientists who dissented. Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics and the theory of evolution by mutation and natural selection, and instead claimed that acquired characteristics could be inherited. E.g., giraffes developed long necks by reaching for high branches, their offspring inherited the stretched necks, and stretched them even further, generation after generation. 

 

A consequence was that Soviet agronomists could not develop better strains of crops and livestock, because they could not use selective breeding, so Soviet agricultural yields were impaired until after Stalin's death. The lunatic RFK Jr. is already committing the mass murder of American children by  persuading their parents not to have them vaccinated, and as I say much biomedical and health services research has already been halted, but at least what research is being done in universities continues to be governed by peer review and sound scientific standards. That will no longer be the case. 

Sunday Sermonette: Starting to get real

Acts 9 tells the story, well-known to Christians, of the conversion of Saul. It doesn't happen in this chapter, but he ends up changing his name to Paul and he goes on to become the founder of the Christian church. Yes, that was Paul, not Jesus. Christian theology is based largely on the writings of Paul. 

While Paul unquestionably existed, there's no way of knowing whether there is any truth to the conversion story -- i.e., that a man named Saul was a major persecutor of the early Christians, he had a vision, became a believer in the divinity of Jesus, or any of the details including the period of blindness and the rest of it. Saul is an interesting choice of name, by the way. Saul was the first king of Israel but he lost God's favor because he failed to complete a genocide as ordered. (Yep.) So God made David the founder of the Israeli dynasty. Later, God became annoyed with David because David raped a woman and had her husband murdered -- actually the rape was okay, as king David was entitled, but having the guy murdered wasn't so cool. But it wasn't nearly as bad as failing to carry out a genocide.

 Anyway, it's possible that Paul made up the whole backstory. But we'll never know.

 

There's another preposterous resurrection story at the end of this chapter, which is irrelevant. 

 

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

¹⁰ In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

¹¹ The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. ¹² In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. ¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

¹⁷ Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. ²⁰ At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. ²¹ All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” ²² Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

²³ After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, ²⁴ but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. ²⁵ But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

²⁶ When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. ²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹ He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews,^[a] but they tried to kill him. ³⁰ When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹ Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Aeneas and Dorcas

³² As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. ³³ There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. ³⁴ “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. ³⁵ All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

³⁶ In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. ³⁷ About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. ³⁸ Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

³⁹ Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

⁴⁰ Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. ⁴² This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. ⁴³ Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Footnotes

1. Acts 9:29 That is, Jews who had adopted the Greek language and culture

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Once again, why hasn't God struck Rick Warren and Joel Osteen dead?

There are a few interesting points to be made about Acts 8. It introduces Saul, who is a major persecutor of Christians. If you went to Christian Sunday school, you already know what will happen to him, but I'll put a pin in that for now. 

 

I believe I mentioned last time that this chapter has the apostles taking evangelism beyond the Jewish community in Judea. Samaria was historically a part of the kingdom of Israel, but by this time it's people had become heterodox. Their doctrine and practice had drifted apart from the orthodoxy of the high priests in Jerusalem, and they did not recognize their authority or worship at the Temple. (That's why Jesus cast them as foreigners in the parable of the Good Samaritan.) The story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch at the end of the chapter takes evangelism even further afield, obviously. According to the Torah, eunuchs could not worship with the congregation, so this really emphasizes the idea that Christianity is a universal religion, and no longer a Jewish sect.

 

The third major point is the story of Simon, which once again emphasizes that Christian preaching should not be a money-making enterprise. The word "simony" means selling of religious services, sacraments or holy offices. It's officially a grave sin, but of course it is entirely commonplace. Martin Luther rebelled against the sale of indulgences, but Rick Warren and Joel Osteen flying around in their private jets have yet to inspire any rebellion.

 

The fourth point is the teleportation of Philip from Gaza to Azotus, some 40 miles away. This astonishing incident is mentioned in passing, as something to take for granted. Whatev.

 

8 And Saul approved of their killing him.

The Church Persecuted and Scattered

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. ² Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. ³ But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria

⁴ Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. ⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. ⁶ When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷ For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was great joy in that city.

Simon the Sorcerer

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴ Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵ After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Philip and the Ethiopian

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian^[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰ Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³² This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”^[b]

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

³⁶ As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” ^{[37] [c] 38} And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Footnotes

1. Acts 8:27 That is, from the southern Nile region
2. Acts 8:33 Isaiah 53:7,8 (see Septuagint)
3. Acts 8:37 Some manuscripts include here Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

 

On a rainy Memorial Day . . .

The poem Memorial Rain, by Archibald MacLeish. He wrote this about his brother Kenneth who died in WWI. Most readers will not know that Archibald also served in combat in that war, as it happens alongside my grandfather Francis H. McCloskey, who went on to become an English professor and ultimately dean of the undergraduate college at NYU. Because of their friendship, I was introduced to MacLeish's poetry at a very young age, and I first read this long before I could understand it. I hope it will speak to you. 

I was kicked out of my high school marching band for wearing a black armband in the Memorial Day parade. Maybe that will help explain. 

 

Ambassador Puser the ambassador
Reminds himself in French, felicitous tongue,
What these (young men no longer) lie here for
In rows that once, and somewhere else, were young . . .

All night in Brussels the wind had tugged at my door:
I had heard the wind at my door and the trees strung
Taut, and to me who had never been before
In that country it was a strange wind, blowing
Steadily, stiffening the walls, the floor,
The roof of my room. I had not slept for knowing
He too, dead, was a stranger in that land
And felt beneath the earth in the wind’s flowing
A tightening of roots and would not understand,
Remembering lake winds in Illinois,
That strange wind. I had felt his bones in the sand
Listening.

. . . Reflects that these enjoy
Their country’s gratitude, that deep repose,
That peace no pain can break, no hurt destroy,
That rest, that sleep . . .

At Ghent the wind rose.
There was a smell of rain and a heavy drag
Of wind in the hedges but not as the wind blows
Over fresh water when the waves lag
Foaming and the willows huddle and it will rain:
I felt him waiting.

. . . Indicates the flag
Which (may he say) enisles in Flanders plain
This little field these happy, happy dead
Have made America . . .

In the ripe grain
The wind coiled glistening, darted, fled,
Dragging its heavy body: at Waereghem
The wind coiled in the grass above his head:
Waiting—listening . . .

. . . Dedicates to them
This earth their bones have hallowed, this last gift
A grateful country . . .

Under the dry grass stem
The words are blurred, are thickened, the words sift
Confused by the rasp of the wind, by the thin grating
Of ants under the grass, the minute shift
And tumble of dusty sand separating
From dusty sand. The roots of the grass strain,
Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits—he is waiting—
And suddenly, and all at once, the rain!