Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Note 1: This Bible study is being created specifically for a friend of mine. It is not meant as an exhaustive study of the book of Acts. Please do your own research, using the commentary links as a starting point, for a better understanding of the book of Acts and other books of the Bible. Thank you for your dedication to studying the word of God!

Note 2: All Bible verse citations are from NKJV (New King James Version) unless otherwise stated.

Note 3: # This symbol will be used for any information from Dr.  Nunnally’s “A Commentary on the Book of Acts” (Source info below). This Bible study is heavily based on Dr. Nunnally’s work. I have not yet discovered if he has published his book, but I will post a link for his work if I find out that he has published it. Feel free to comment on this blog if you discover his published book (if it’s published) before I do!

- All notes that have this or no symbol in front of them are my interpretations of scripture.

*NIV Zondervan study Bible

+ other source (cited within hyperlink or in “Sources” at bottom of page)

Verse 1: Evidently these disciples whom Paul found had been disciples of John, but had not met Jesus. It could also be that these disciples were baptized by John, but then were not able to continue following either John or Jesus, perhaps because they were from Corinth and had returned to their homes there rather than follow John or Jesus everywhere they went. In either case, Corinth is a long boat ride from Israel, so it seems likely that these disciples simply did not visit John or Jesus after they were baptized.  

Verse 5 I could not find an in-depth explanation of why Paul rebaptized these men. It is possible that these men asked to be rebaptized in the name of Jesus, but it could be that Paul simply decided that was the next course of action to take.

Verse 16: It may seem unfair that these Jews were attacked by the evil spirits, since it seems right that they should have used the name of Jesus. However, it is never appropriate to try to expel demons using a name that you do not understand. If these Jews had understood and believed in Jesus themselves, I think the demons would have been expelled, though it’s impossible to know for sure. As it was, it seems these Jews were only using the name because they knew it was powerful, not because they necessarily believed that Jesus was the Son of God or honored him in any other way.

Verse 19: It may be obvious to you, but this use of the word “magic” refers to dark magic, witchcraft.

Source

W.E. Nunnally. A Commentary on the Book of Acts, 2008, Evangel University, 2008, Springfield, Missouri, 2017.