The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2Stokes, George Thomas
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 2
Stokes, George Thomas
Bible. Acts -- Commentaries; Bible. Acts -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
From Cyprus the apostles passed over to the continent, and opened
their missionary work at Antioch of Pisidia, where the first recorded
address of St. Paul was delivered. This sermon, delivered in the
Pisidian synagogue, is deserving of our special notice because it is
the only missionary address delivered by St. Paul to the Jews of the
Dispersion which has been handed down to us, unless we include the few
words delivered to the Roman Jews reported in the twenty-eighth
chapter from the seventeenth to the twenty-eighth verses. Let us
briefly analyse it, premising that it should be carefully compared
with the addresses of St. Peter to the Jews upon the Day of Pentecost
and with the speech delivered by St. Stephen before the Sanhedrin,
when all three will be found to run upon the same lines. The apostles
having reached Antioch waited until the Sabbath came round, and then
sought the local meeting-place of the Jews. The apostles felt indeed
that they were entrusted with a great mission important for the human
race, but yet they knew right well that feverish impetuosity or
restless activity was not the true way to advance the cause they had
in hand. They did not believe in wild irregular actions which only
stir up opposition. They were calm and dignified in their methods,
because they were consciously guided by the Divine Spirit of Him
concerning whom it was said in the days of His flesh, "He did not
strive nor cry, neither did any man hear His voice in the streets." On
the Sabbath day they entered the synagogue, and took their place on a
bench set apart for the reception of those who were regarded as
teachers. At the conclusion of the public worship and the reading of
the lessons out of the law and the prophets, such as still are read in
the synagogue worship, the Rulers of the Synagogue sent to them the
minister or apostle of the synagogue intimating their permission to
address the assembled congregation, whereupon St. Paul arose and
delivered an address, of which the following is an analysis. St. Paul
opened his sermon by a reference to the lessons which had just been
read in the service, which--as all the writers of the Apostle's life,
Lewin, Conybeare and Howson, and Archdeacon Farrar, agree--were taken
from the first chapter of Deuteronomy and the first of Isaiah. He
points out, as St. Stephen had done, the providential dealings of God
with their forefathers from the time of the original choice of Abraham
down to David. The Jews had been divinely guided throughout their
history down to David's days, and that Divine guidance had not then
ceased, but continued down to the present, as the Apostle then
proceeds to show. In David's seed there had been left a hope for
Israel which every true Jew still cherished. He then announces that
the long-cherished hope had now at last been fulfilled. This fact
depended not on his testimony alone. The Messiah whom they had long
expected had been preceded by a prophet whose reputation had spread
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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