In my last post, I wrote about my initial observations of Matthew's, Mark's, and Luke's transfiguration accounts. The assignments for this week included researching Moses and Elijah as well as the meaning of the word transfiguration. I started with an examination of the Greek word behind the English transfiguration. I…
My last post concluded our study of Ananias and Sapphira. At the end, I asked you to read Matthew’s account of the transfiguration five or six times, but also to read Mark’s and Luke’s accounts at least once. In addition, I suggested that you read at least a few verses…
In my previous blog post, after exploring some dead ends in our study of New Testament real estate law, we finally ended with an examination of biblical land laws, and how those laws applied to Levites. In this post, we’ll conclude our study of Ananias and Sapphira. To do so,…
In my last post I went through the process I used to outline Acts 17, which marks the transition from observation to interpretation in the inductive method of Bible study. This post wraps up our study of the chapter, completing both the interpretation and application stages. In essence, the purpose…
In my last post, I asked that you outline Acts 17 in preparation for this week’s post. In this task, you are moving from the observation stage of the inductive method to the interpretation stage. That’s because you’re now beginning to think about what you have read and how it…
In my last post I wrote about the Via Egnatia, a major Roman highway Paul used in the account in Acts 17. This post will consider the last item I listed among my initial observations. That item is a cultural / historical institution, the synagogue. It’s always important in Bible…
In my last post I wrapped up the word studies for the chapter. We looked at the wicked men recruited from the market place to riot against Paul and his companions. We also looked at babbler, the term of derision the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers used to describe Paul. In…
I devoted my last blog post entirely to understanding the term God-fearing Greeks. This week we’ll take a brief look at some of the other words in the chapter. Among those are babbler and lewd fellows (King James Version only). As I’ve mentioned before, one important task in inductive study…
My last post concluded our study of the people of Acts 17. In that post, we looked at Dionysius and Damaris as well as considering the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Today, we’ll examine an important expression, "God-fearing Greeks." This term leads us to an important concept: proselytes in the Greek…
In Acts 17, we see Paul in three cities: Thessalonica (verses 1-9), Berea (verses 10-14), and Athens (verses 15-34). We’ve already discussed the major figures in the chapter, including Silas and Timothy as well as Paul. We also covered some minor "players." We still need to consider two more minor…
During the last two weeks I wrote about Silas and Timothy, and before that I devoted three posts to Paul. That covers all the major figures who appear in Acts 17. Today we’ll spend our time looking at two individuals who play lesser roles in the chapter – Jason and…
In my last post I wrote about Silas, and before that I devoted three posts to Paul. There’s one more major figure who appears in Acts 17, and that individual is Timothy. Today we’ll take a look at him, “reading between the lines” a bit to gain some insight into…
Today we’ll finally resume our study of Acts 17. As always, the best way to understand a passage of Scripture is to study its context. For my last three posts pertaining to this study, I wrote about the person and character of the apostle Paul. Now we’ll briefly examine one…
In my last blog post, I wrote about Paul’s former life as Saul, the strict Pharisee who saw the fledgling Christian movement as a threat to the way of life he held so dear. As a consequence of that perceived threat, Saul had sought to destroy anyone who taught what…
To understand what happened when Paul visited Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17), we must understand more about the man himself. Paul was a seemingly tireless pioneer of the faith taking the gospel message to the Gentile world. Before we can understand Paul's contributions, we must understand his former life. We…