Chapter 21
Chapter 21
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)
Verses 26: It may
seem that Paul is worrying too much about his reputation here, but in fact
there are some very good reasons for him to complete this vow. Firstly, it was
important to show the people that Paul accepted Jewish tradition, because some
of the Jews were thinking that he had been pressuring Jews to forsake their
traditions (verse 21). Paul wanted both Jews and Gentiles to keep their
cultural traditions, rather than pressure them to conform to other traditions,
as long as the traditions were in keeping with the main beliefs of
Christianity. Also, the Christian elders were helping Paul protect himself from
being arrested by the Jewish leaders (verse 22). They did not want him to be
arrested or put in prison. Unfortunately, this plan backfires (see the rest of
the chapter).
Verse 38: #1: The commander thought that Paul was a
Jewish insurrectionist who had lived in Egypt, since he could speak Greek and
evidently there were many Greeks in Egypt during this time. This
insurrectionist (whose name does not show up in my commentary) had “claimed to
be a prophet” and “led thousands of followers to the Mount of Olives just outside
Jerusalem on the edge of the wilderness. There he claimed he would cause the
walls of Jerusalem to crumble which would allow his followers to conquer the city.
Felix (the Roman leader of Judea- a region in southeastern Israel, according to
Wikipedia,
also see map
of Judea) quickly dispatched soldiers who killed and captured hundreds of
the Egyptian prophet’s followers, but he himself escaped and went into hiding…
[This leader] identified himself as religiously and politically motivated
intent upon overthrowing Roman rule in Israel.”
Sources
W.E. Nunnally. A Commentary on the Book of Acts, 2008, Evangel
University, 2008, Springfield, Missouri, 2017.
#1: pg. 466, last paragraph and pg. 467, 2nd
paragraph
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