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Transcript of Classes on The Acts of the Apostles by John W. Welch, Sept 2010 to Dec 2010

Acts 1–3

The Book of Acts is a wonderful, historical book. Paul mentioned where he went; places like Neapolis, Antipatris, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, all these places. They are still in Greece and Turkey by the same names, and some people, like the Browns and others, have been to these places. I do not want to just show home movies to you because I know how boring that can be, but many of these pictures really do help you to understand what Paul is talking about and the specifics of some of the circumstances.

(Student) Has Neapolis been around a long time. Doesn’t Neapolis mean New Town?

It does. It was new when it was founded. Naples also means Neapolis. It comes from the same root. It is the Italian version of the Greek name. Good for you. Neapolis looks a lot like it did 2,000 years ago.

Do you have any questions about the schedule or the date changes? One change is that on November 11, I was planning to be still out of town. I have to go to England, but I am coming back on the November 10 after all, so if you would like we can meet that night, otherwise we would miss all of November. I am planning to have class that night if anybody wants to come and listen. Maybe I will tell you about the temple studies conference in London that I will just have returned from.

The Book of The Acts of the Apostles.

I sent you some questions. Let us just dive right in. I wanted you first to read the description in the Bible Dictionary of the Book of Acts, and just try to come up with some ways of viewing this book. Open your Bibles to page 603. Most of the books in the Bible have a nice introduction to them in the Bible Dictionary. This will be important for you, because as Paul goes to Thessalonica , for example, you may want to look at 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the Bible Dictionary. We will look at Corinth when Paul goes there. In Acts chapter 18, we have a whole chapter about Corinth; but if you want a quick summary about what there is in 1 and 2

Corinthians, these are helpful pages to turn to.

Question 1. In general, what are the main points to watch for in this book? What value do you hope to get by learning more about the experiences of the early Saints during the first thirty years of primitive Church?

What did you learn as you read the little overview here on the Book of Acts? Who wrote this book? Luke, and that is almost without any controversy or doubt, Luke wrote his Gospel and Acts as two parts of one story. Why was it written in two books? If you roll out a long scroll and you try to write more than 24 chapters on one scroll, it gets a little hard. The scroll gets too big. Today, it might have been printed just as a single book. It is almost seamless as you connect the end of Luke with the beginning of Acts.

Of course he starts over again because he knows this is going on to a second scroll. Both the Book of Acts and the gospel of Luke are addressed to this man Theophilus, and in Greek, Theophilus means a friend of God or a lover of God. People wonder whether there is a little double entendre here, that he is addressing this to anyone who is a friend or a lover of God, but he also may have had some particular person in mind. He calls the addressee, “most excellent

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Theophilus” and that is a title of nobility or of an official of some kind. It is interesting to wonder whether these books were written for some kind of a Roman aristocrat who said to Luke, “I want to know what really happened. Tell me the whole story and with historical accuracy and thoroughness.” He may have even paid to have it written.

Historicity

The Book of Acts is a wonderful, accurate, historical book. The technical terminology is very precise. Everything works out in terms of dates and places. We will encounter much legal terminology as we go through. Luke did his homework; we think he was a doctor and many doctors are not so fond of lawyers, but you know they did not have medical malpractice suits in those days. Luke really pulled together a text that is historically interesting in that regard. We can compare, and we will do this. Some of the stories that Luke tells also are events reported in Josephus. Josephus had never read Luke and Luke writes before Josephus, so it is interesting to be able to compare historically and to validate what Luke has given us.

When I was at Oxford years ago, I attended a seminar for a whole term on reading the Book of Acts as a historical text, and this was a new approach to Luke forty some years ago. The more people have dug into this text, the more credible and reliable it proves to be.

As when was it written, we do not know for sure, but where does the Book of Acts end? He takes the story up to Paul getting to Rome, and we figure that he must have arrived there about 66 A.D., a little bit before the Jewish War breaks out. You would think The Book of Acts would have told us what happened after Paul finally got to Rome. Did he ever get to appear before Caesar? We know from other books that Paul probably traveled after being in Rome. The tradition is that he went to Spain. He also went up to Gaul, and he really went to the uttermost ends of the Roman Empire. The Book of Acts, however, seems to stop either when Luke ran out of paper, or at the point at which he had finished writing the book. That may mean it was written about 67 – 68 A.D. This, again, is quite early, and many of the things that I have mentioned about the historicity of the book of Luke point to an earlier date than some people have thought. If Acts was written that early, the Gospel of Luke may also have been written a little earlier than people usually say. I like the arguments that push the writing of the New Testament Book on the earlier side rather than on the later. We will encounter some other reasons for seeing it that way.

The Book of Acts can be Divided into Three Segments the Reflect the Savior’s Commission to the Apostles

At the end of the Bible Dictionary entry on Acts, it says that the Book of Acts can be really divided into three segments. What are those three segments?

Chapters 1 to 5 are about things going on in Jerusalem.Chapters 6 to 9 are about things occurring in Judea and Samaria, and Chapters 10 to 28 are about going to the uttermost parts of the earth. Why is it significant that the book appears to follow those three stages?

(Student) The gospel was first taken to the Jews then to Israelites who have converted to Judaism, then to Gentiles who have converted to Judaism, then to other Gentile nations.

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Yes! Jesus had even said, “I am not sent except to the lost tribes of Israel,” so it starts out with the Jews and then moves beyond. In chapter 1 verse 8 of Acts, Jesus gives the eleven remaining Apostles their commission. What is that commission?

(Student) To stay in Jerusalem, not leave Jerusalem.

He first commands them, “Stay there for a little while; you are going to start here. Let us not rush off and do things too quickly.” What is the ultimate mandate given by Jesus to the Apostles, that they will first do what? “That you will be witnesses of me,” and these three stages are right there in what Jesus commands them. “You will be witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” That is coming right out of the words of Jesus. When they were called on their mission, they were not called to go to the San Diego Spanish Speaking Mission to work in one little place. They were called to be witnesses throughout the entire world. That is, of course, the responsibility of the Twelve still today. The Quorum of the Twelve are witnesses of Christ throughout the world, and they have general jurisdiction and responsibility everywhere.

(Student) President Monson, when he was called to be the Prophet, chose to stand in front of a picture in which the Savior stands with his Apostles as he leaves the earth. President Monson had a reason for standing there to be introduced as the Prophet. The same commission is given to today’s Apostles as was given to the ancient Apostles.

Exactly! Some people have said that the book of Acts was written to fulfill prophecy. It demonstrates that the Twelve carried out the responsibility that was given to them by the Savior, and thus we have the pattern. We do not yet here have, as this note indicates, a history of all of the Apostles but we have some important stories about people who were not even Apostles. Stephen is stoned; he is not an apostle. Philip baptizes the eunuch; he is not an apostle. What are they doing in a book called the Acts of the Apostles? That is a puzzle. There is Stephen’s story in there because one of the soon-to-be Apostles was holding the coats while people stoned Stephen, and that may help to set the stage for Paul’s missionary work to convert people, showing how his conversion had been so impressive and dramatic. That story clarifies Paul’s testimony, but Philip. Why do we hear about Philip? We will talk about that as we get through this. However, Stephen and Philip are among the seven Greek people who are called by the Apostles to take care of the widows and the orphans and the people of Greek background. How do we know they are Greek? Stephanos is a Greek word and it means crown, and Philip ––Philipos, is a phil, a lover of horses. The hypodrome is where the horses run. These are Greek people. We will look at this, but I think what we are learning here is that the Apostles learned very quickly how to delegate responsibilities. Showing how they are building the church in that way becomes an important part of their story.

(Student) There is a Philip among the Apostles. Are you speaking of a different one?

It is a different one,

(Student) The Apostle is a different Philip because in John chapter 1 it talks about Philip being called by Jesus, and in Acts 1:13, he is still there with the other Apostles.

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Yes, one of the “seven men of honest report” chosen by the Apostles was also called Philip. In Acts 6:3–6, we read,

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

Philip is a common name. For example, the father of Alexander the Great was Philip. There could be many people so named, just like there are many people named Judas.

It may also show that the gospel is beginning to go to Hellenistic Jews, as we have the seven Greek members who were probably among the people at the Feast of Pentecost. They were very early converts to the church. Then we have Cornelius. What kind of a name is Cornelius, ending in us. This is a Latin name, so we have a Roman, and that is where Peter will have his vision about the clean foods and will change the food law. This shows again the expansion of Christianity as it is going into different lands and cultures.

Additional, Non-Canonical Books of Acts

We have other books of Acts besides the Acts of the Apostles. There is the Acts of Peter; we talked about that in the winter when we were doing 1 Peter. There is another book called the Acts of John, and there are some crazy stories in some of these. One I like is about John coming back to Ephesus. He was tired, so they had to stay in a wayside inn where he and the disciples traveling with him laid out their coats and got as comfortable as they could for the night. When they woke up, they discovered that fleas had infested their clothes and their blankets. It is miserable, so John rebuked the fleas, which left the clothing and went into a pot in a corner of the room, where they stay until John and company leave. If you can touch serpents and not be bitten, I suppose you can take care of fleas as well. However, that book did not get canonized, and maybe just as well.

There are also the Acts of Thomas that tell how Thomas went to India and the Acts of Andrew. Many of these are, of course, not as early or as well attested as the Acts of the Apostles, perhaps because they focused on only one, rather than the work of several Apostles. They were not as generic and were not as widely used, but nevertheless interesting to think about.

Four things to look for in the Book of Acts:

Look at the second page on your handout. The first quotation is from Elder McConkie. Elder McConkie says that when we study the Book of Acts, we should look for four things.

1. The Book of Acts tells how the spiritual gifts multiply. We will see spiritual gifts throughout the Book of Acts, wonderful miracles, and gifts of all kinds, especially healings, the gift of tongues in Acts chapter 2, revelations, prophecy and so on.

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2. We learn a lot about church organization and the administration of the early church, missionary journeys and the way the church was put together.

3. Elder McConkie asks us to be especially alert to notice the persecutions and the problems that these early apostles had; stoning, trials, and impositions heaped upon them. It is rare that they received a welcoming reception. Why is that important? We know where this is going to lead. Shortly after the Book of Acts ends, all of the apostles will be gone, and so there are preludes in this book to an impending apostasy and we will notice that. Paul prophesies that when he leaves, the members of the church there in Ephesus and Miletus will be like sheep with ravenous wolves among them.

4. Elder McConkie talks about the doctrines of salvation and how many of them are spoken with great clarity; the Second Coming, the plan of salvation, the atonement, the prophesied restoration of the gospel in the Latter Days, revelation, the gathering of Israel, resurrection and so on; many important things. I hope to alert you to things that you can be watching for as we read.

The Book of Acts and the Restoration

The Book of Acts is not a particularly long book. Some of you told me you were going to try to read the whole book before tonight, and I hope you will read it through a couple of times as we go along. You will notice the way it all fits together, I think, in a marvelous way.

Let us pause for just a minute and get your reactions. Why do you think that we as Latter-day Saints have a particular interest in the Book of Acts? We have already alluded to some things.

(Student) We allow for the succession of the apostles.

What do you mean by that?

(Student) The presumption in much of the world is that there were only twelve Apostles and that was it. No provision for made for Judas’ fall. He was out of the picture. Now all of a sudden what happens?

That is right. We also have Paul being included, and we are not sure exactly why or at what point he was added. We have apostolic authority with Peter at the head. We also have in Acts 15 the Jerusalem Council where we see clearly that the Church is well organized, well structured, and Latter-day Saints can appreciate how that is working.

(Student) It talks about the last days, about prophecy.

In tonight’s reading, Peter quoted from the Old Testament. What prophet does he quote from? Joel. In Joseph Smith History 1:41, one of the visitations of Moroni, the Angel Moroni explained and quoted many scriptures to Joseph Smith. The first one was exactly the same scripture [Joel 2:28] that commenced this dispensation, so you have Joel standing at the head of the dispensation, the launching of the gospel at the time of Jesus, and picking right up with that, the restitution of all things begins with exactly the same scripture. Latter-day Saints certainly relate to that. Other things?

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(Student) I really like the variety of revelation, the way it comes through the President of the Church, and the way the Church decides things. Sometimes it is about clothes and food–– the fires that land on people–– sometimes it is the direct manifestation of Jesus, and at other times it is hard deliberations between the Apostles. I think all of those ways are the same ways that the Lord works with his Apostles these days. Anyone who is in leadership positions in the Church has seen that.

Very good. We can watch for that. Other things?

(Student) There was a unifying of authority. Apollos was baptizing in the name of John while serving over a group of people, so Paul came and corrected the matter.

Knowing the importance of baptism, of adult baptism, yes, and the proper authority.

(Student) I have always thought of Acts as a missionary journal, and I feel like here are people who have a wonderful relationship with God, and everything is not going their way, and their families struggle and they fall away, and they have those hurts and those pains that we do in this life here today.

You think as we read this we can relate, we can identify at a personal level as well. I believe that is right, and as I read this book, I feel like I can understand what Paul is doing in Thessalonica, say, when he sets up a little branch. Then he has to leave and he writes letters back to them. As I read commentaries by other people who have not had missionary experience, it is clear that they do not understand what it is like to have a little branch with only five members. You wonder if they are going to survive. You worry about what you can tell them. We can relate to this very personally in many ways.

(Student) They had great faith and learned how to use faith. It gives me great insight on how they used his power, the importance of the Holy Ghost, and how to listen to the Holy Ghost. In addition, when they had discord and the Apostles separated, one went with one companion, and one went with the other, it demonstrates the human part of forming the Church.

The problems they are facing. Yes. Good. I like the point about the Holy Ghost and its importance. What did Joseph Smith consider distinguished us from all other Christians?

(Student) The whole church has the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We have the gift of the Holy Ghost and that distinguishes us. What is the very first thing that is mentioned Acts chapter 1:2? “Until the day in which he was taken up,” that was 40 days after the resurrection, “after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the Apostles that he had chosen.” Jesus begins by modeling how the Holy Ghost will give commandments. What do you think it means, that Jesus has given these commandments through the Holy Ghost?

(Student) When they were selecting Matthias as the apostle to take the place of Judas?

Is that a commandment though?

(Student) No, it is not a commandment, but it is revelation through the Holy Ghost as to which of those qualified men was the one that the Savior was calling to that position? We can all receive that kind of revelation in our leadership callings in the Church.

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But I am thinking of the way in which, when the prophet gives us commandments, he gives those through the Holy Ghost, but then we can feel through the power of the Holy Ghost that they are right. I think as Jesus gave commandments to the Apostles, he instructed them, and they knew that these things were what they should be doing.

(Student) There are many patterns set forth here, and I have always liked the pattern that they were converted, they repented, and were baptized, and then it says, “They continued to be steadfast in all the words of the Apostles and prophets.”

That is wonderful. As you read these scriptures, you can pull them out and put them on your mirror. They are really great! Very clear articulations of fundamental, basic principles of the gospel. That is what you would expect in a missionary book where they are teaching the first principles, and we will see that from day one, in Peter’s speech in Acts, chapter 2.

(Student) One of my favorite stories in the New Testament is in Acts, when Peter got out of prison and he went to the door, and Rhoda was so excited. She told everybody, but no one believed her, and Peter kept knocking at the door. I think it is hilarious. You can learn many things from that.

Good, we will read that one next week. We will hear more about Rhoda and the knocking. There are some funny events. Paul talking for so long! This is something that your teacher needs to consider. Remember what happened when the poor guy fell out of the window. He might have died, but they blessed him and he revived. Anyway, I will try not to talk that long if any of you want to fall out of your window.

That is just a preview of lots of wonderful things. I hope you will dive in, read Acts every day and spot things that are meaningful to you.

Question 2. How long did Jesus spend with the Apostles after his resurrection? What did he teach or command them in Acts 1? What did they do during that initial period of time and right after his Ascension? What was “the promise of the Father”? (1:4)

How long did Jesus spend? We have already mentioned this. Forty days. Why does the Book of Acts just pass over this so blithely? It tells us that he spends 40 days with them, and those 40 days have to be the most crucial days of teaching. Can you imagine being taught by the Resurrected Lord for 40 days? What is he saying? Don’t you want to know? Why does Luke not tell us?

(Student) We are not supposed to have it, I guess. Maybe it was very high level, spiritual, temple-related material.

I think you are on the right track and we will come back to that in a minute.

(Student) Every member of the Church has a Church Handbook of Instructions, and we can read it. Peter and the others, in his situation, are being trained, and then they go and do.

Peter answers the question, when they say to him, “So what shall we do?” He says, “Repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,” and he starts going right down the Fourth Article of Faith. We do not know where he learned that, but we can suspect that when Jesus called them to go to preach and baptize to all the ends of the world, he probably gave them Preach My Gospel

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in their version. We can read back into what they were doing and say they were probably instructed to follow these teachings.

(Student) The more I study the preachings of Christ, and in this verse, it says, “And by the many infallible proofs,” so if you have a keen awareness of listening acutely to the Holy Ghost, you will be taught these infallible proofs…”

Some words are interesting. On the bottom of the handout, I have given you some vocabulary notes. By the way, verse 3 talks about how after Jesus’ passion he gave many infallible proofs. The word passion here, Joseph Smith changed in the JST to sufferings. That happens to be a much more accurate translation of the Greek than the word passion, which is a Latin word, passio, indicating more passivity than even Jesus had while suffering these things.

Another word that is a little bit––well, what do you make of it?––Infallible proofs. Sometimes we say you cannot prove the gospel, at least not in a scientific sort of way, but what the Apostles received were things that they could not deny. The Greek word here, tekmēriois, for infallible proofs is a word that is used in logic, in law, and in medicine to describe a symptom or evidence that is dispositive. If you have this certain symptom, you know what that particular disease is. Thus, these indications are technically significant. I do not know if that will enrich what you are thinking about the kinds of things that Jesus gave them, but I think it was more than just signs and miracles, those kinds of infallible proofs. I think the nature of all of his teachings and all of the things that they did and maybe blessings and ordinances that he gave them were dispositive, testimony-building events.

(Student) I like to watch the afternoon round–table scripture discussions, and they have been talking about this. They gave examples of those proofs, the wounds on his hands, feet and side.

Those would have certainly been among those. When Jesus appeared in the upper room and they thrust their hand in his side, that is during this 40-day period. They are witnesses of what? Of the resurrection. That is the main thing of which they are going out and testifying. They are told by Jesus that their testimonies will be attested by signs and miracles that will let people know they in fact are telling the truth, but the core message all goes back to the resurrection, of which they are physically witnesses.

(Student) Suddenly he is there 24/7.

Not necessarily. In 3 Nephi he comes, he is there, then they go home for the night, but then he comes back and he is with them for many days.

(Student) Don’t you think it would be different for somebody-–I live next door to Lucy, if she were to die and be resurrected, she would still be Lucy whom I knew? I wonder if it is different for somebody who actually knew the Lord on the earth than for me who has never seen Him.

Good point. Yes, they were not starting from zero, and so his instructions can go beyond the things that they have already experienced.

The Forty-day Mission of Christ.

In your handout tonight, if you flip to the second page, the one that begins, endings of Matthew and Mark, and on the back of that page, there is an excerpt from Hugh Nibley’s article called The

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Forty-day Mission of Christ, I think you can see some interesting things that help us to begin to get an idea of what it was that Jesus taught during these 40 days. Let us just review those quickly.

In Matthew, during the 40-day period, toward the end of that, we have Jesus saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” What does it tell you about something that was going on during the 40 days? It is the conferral of power to the Twelve so that they will always do everything in the name of Jesus. That will be a very important theme that we will see coming up throughout the Book of Acts because people will try to do miracles in someone else’s name, but Jesus has told them that he has all legitimate power.

(Student) Christ in those 40 days laid out the entire plan of Salvation for the ends of the earth.

We will come to that. The first rule of interpretation of scripture is always, “Keep reading.” Matthew continues with, of course, the call, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Commandments are being given, and they are to follow them.

The Gospel of Mark ends in an interesting way. You will hear people say that it originally ended with simply the words, “They were afraid.” If you go to Mark 16 verse 8, and there it read, “And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre for they trembled and were amazed, neither they said they anything to any man for they were afraid.”

Maybe afraid of the Jews, I am not sure, but many of the earliest manuscripts of Mark end right there. You may remember our discussion of the death and the trial of Jesus, and how everybody was really scared and a lot of frightful, fearsome things were going on. Pilate was afraid, the Chief Priests were afraid, and this sense of fear is characteristic of the Gospel of Mark, which is the gospel to show how Jesus was powerful. Perhaps they feared that if he could do the things he was doing, such as resurrection and raising the dead, what else could happen next? They do not know the end of the story yet, so there is a fear factor. However, it may also be the case… because one of the things that we read in the 40-day literature is that Jesus told the Apostles repeatedly that secrecy was important. They were not to share with lots of people inappropriately the things that he was teaching .

Maybe these early manuscripts just stop right here because they did not feel that they could go any further, but some of them do. The later ones, especially, begin filling it out a little bit more, and you have your basic ending of Mark, “Go to all the world, preach to every creature, signs will follow you” and so on. Then the third block quote on this page from the Freer gospels is 5th Century, one of the earliest versions of the four gospels. It happens to be owned by the Smithsonian in Washington, so it is sometimes called Codex Washingtonius. Look at this. The disciples answer. This is an ending of Mark you have never heard before saying, “And they answered, saying that this age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who by means of unclean spirits does not allow the true power of God to be obtained. Therefore, reveal your righteousness now. They were speaking to Christ, and he replied to them that the limit of the years of the authority of Satan are fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.”

So during the 40 days according to this, there were more prophecies about hard times to come.

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I have listed for you the main themes that we find in what is called The Forty Day Literature.

Other Forty–Day Literature texts

Recently, I have been involved in a project to collect all of the Forty–Day Literature texts, and there are about 30 of them. Nibley wrote about them, and the Nibley quote on the back of this you can read later. It happened to have been published in a non-Mormon scholarly journal. When you read what he has to say there you wonder how it got through peer review, at least by some people who might not agree with the whole idea of the apostasy, but the idea that there was a really grim projection of what was going to happen to the early apostles is a very strong theme.

(Student) What does Cosmoplanes mean?

The Cosmoplanes is the fever of the world. That is a name that is given to either Satan or his main henchman on earth, and there are texts, several of them, that refer to…there will be some force, some being who is going to have sway. There will be an apostasy.

The numbers after each of these are the number of different texts that refer to each one of these themes, or develop the theme. Thus three of them talk about the conferral of apostolic authority. Four talk about these infallible proofs that they are given. Twenty of them talk about missionary service, which is consistent with the endings of Matthew and Mark. Thirteen of them will talk about the suffering and the death of the Apostles, that they are all going to suffer and they are all going to die, except, of course for John, but this will lead to an apostasy. There will be a usurper of authority, the sheep will turn to wolves. Six texts talk about that. This will happen because of alterations in the ritual, three texts refer to that. The Second Coming is still a long way away. Only one text refers to that but in Acts, chapter 2 and chapter 3, Peter will talk about how long Christ will be held in heaven. The Apostles in Acts chapter 1 say, “Jesus, show your power now,” and he says, “No, the times and the seasons are not for you to know. But I am not going to do it right now, times are not ready.” We have that as well.

Sixteen texts emphasize the importance of secrecy in what Jesus is teaching them. Two address washing and anointings. Seven talk about giving the Apostles sacred vestments, then the nature of God is explained, the pre-existence is discussed, the role of Adam and Eve, the creation of man, they are then given this promised endowment of power that is mentioned at the end of Luke, chapter 24. That is why they are commanded to stay in Jerusalem, stay here until you are indued it says, but that is our word endowed with power.

If you read Acts chapter 1, it talks about the Apostles receiving the Holy Ghost and then in verse 8, it says, “and then you will receive power after you have received the Holy Ghost.” So the receipt of the endowment of power has to be something different from the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost as I read that verse. That is what we see here in the 40-day literature as well.

(Student) But it is conditional on receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Yes. That is right. You have to have the Holy Ghost first. These are steps, progressive, which is, I think, an important way in which we understand the ordinances and the perfection of the saints in the 1st Century.

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Jesus did …which are not written in this book.” I think those are very, very sacred things. Some speculate that perhaps they were endowed in that particular situation.

I think that is right, and when it says, “They cannot be written,” it does not mean that it is physically impossible,

(Student) It means that they are so sacred.

That is right. They were told not to. I think that is right. To complete the list of other themes, it relates to what Brother Livingstone is saying, four of these texts talk about being endowed with power, five have a prayer circle with the Apostles and their wives. Brother Nibley has written a whole article called The Early Christian Prayer Circle, where all these texts are spelled out. You can go on the Maxwell Institute website, pull down the Nibley listings and there they all are. We have one dealing with marriage; several talking about Jesus going down into the underworld commencing the preaching for the dead––again, another very sacred temple theme. Six of them talk about the final ascent to heaven and exaltation. Do they sound like sacred things to you? Gives you an idea of maybe what Jesus is talking about in the 40 days. Many of these things also relate to what we have in 3 Nephi, but 3 Nephi is not counted among the early Christian texts that I have listed for you here.

(Student) Are you saying the texts themselves are on the web?

In the Nibley article on the prayer circle, the texts are all written, they are all quoted in detail, but the full Forty-Day texts have never been put on the web. Some of them have never been translated into English. We are working on that, and I would like to see that they are all out there on the web before too long. So if any of you want to help with a website on this, let me know.

Question 3. Which of those teachings and organizational precedents are still valuable for us in the Church of Jesus Christ today?

Let us talk about some of the things that they did. We have already mentioned the replacement of Judas What do we see them doing right off the bat here, organizationally? Let us start with chapter 1, verse 12. They returned to Jerusalem after the ascension and apparently, it says they do not go more than a Sabbath day journey, so we cannot be sure but it looks like this might have happened on a Sabbath day, as they are observing the Sabbath. What else do they do? They meet and they are there with Peter, James, John, and the Apostles. Who else is there? Yes, it says the women. If you go back to the first page, the word gynē, (we get the word gynecology from this) can mean either woman or wife. It is perfectly ambiguous in Greek; they have only one word for woman or wife, so you have to tell from the context. This is translated as they are meeting there with all the Apostles and the women. Who are the women? Their girl-friends? Probably not. At least in Peter’s case we know he is married, so at least in his case it is probably his wife, and in the Forty-Day literature all of the Apostles are said to be married. This is a meeting of the leadership, husbands and wives meeting together in a meeting where they continue in prayer and supplication…

(Student) It says at the end of 15 that there were about a 120 people there.

Yes. So they have got a nice congregation beginning to form.

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They were named and that may be because they were exceptions and are single women who were there, but we do not know more than that.

What about the replacement of Judas? Did you notice anything about what is going on there or have any questions about that as you read what is happening?

(Student) I recall a discussion on this particular subject with a man who had gone to the library at Washington, D.C. He came across some literature that said something similar to this. The man who fell headlong and his innards gushed out actually had been disemboweled in order to fulfill the blood atonement, wherein he might find forgiveness in the hereafter.

That is following Matthew’s account. There are two different accounts of the death of Judas. Judas is a very complicated person and has been treated in lots of different ways by various people. We will not go there. In any event, they quote a passage from the Psalms, and why do they do this? They need to justify taking away Judas’ office and giving it to someone else, right? So they go to the Psalms…

(Student) Why do they have to justify it?

I do not know, but they do. In verse 20, “Let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein, and let his Bishopric,” the Greek word there just means his office, “let another take.” So they are at least quoting this as authority so that no one can say that what they are doing is without some kind of scriptural precedent. They have two people who are candidates, and what do they do?

(Student) Choose which one.

Yes with lots. Is it like drawing straws? I do not think it was ballots, but they voted with little stones in those days. They would have like a black stone and a white stone and they could very well have put a few stones in a hat, shaken it and one of them they cast out. The one that falls out is the one. It is like heads or tails, or something like that. This is a common procedure. If you go to, for example, Leviticus, chapter 16, you have the two goats on the Day of Atonement and they decide which of the goats will be the scapegoat and which one will be the sacrificial goat and how did they decide that? They cast lots, and they draw for one. They draw out of a hat or something, and that is their way of saying, this is what the Lord has wanted.

However, that is not the end of it, because when you get down to verse 26, they give forth their lots, the lot fell upon Matthias, and then he is numbered with the eleven Apostles. The Greek word here for numbering, I think, has to do with sustaining. There is then a sustaining vote where the eleven all agree that this is the one who should take this office. I think it is similar to the way things are done today where the President of the Church will select who will be the next apostle, but then he has to be sustained and he will be accepted, so we have both of these things going on. That may be just another organizational precedent. We do not know all the details of exactly why this happened or how it happened, but I hope that may help you to at least see your way through that text.

(Student) Reading this time, I get a much stronger feeling that even back in Psalms, and while the Savior was on the earth, and in the course of his ministry, he set things up in the sense of a mechanism for it to continue. Through the Holy Ghost, of course, he can help them do that. It is

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helpful when you are living in the time of restoration, to know that something was lost and what it was.

Yes, and we are seeing through a glass darkly here, and Luke was not a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, so how much he knew of exactly how this had happened… although he gives the historical details very clearly when he knows what they are, I am not sure he would have had much of an explanation.

(Student) Enough is given, though, that it makes sense to know that certain things were set up a certain way.

Yes, I like that point very much and in fact, the next page in your handout ––Precedent Setting Legal Cases and Affairs in the Book of Acts––as we go through this reading of the Book of Acts we will encounter 40 different episodes that Luke tells us about. It is hard to find a single theme that helps to explain why everything has been included in this book, but my thesis on this little chart is that every one of the events that we learn about sets some important precedent that the church was intended to follow. Like Rita says, the implication of the Book of Acts is that things should continue the way Jesus has set them up, and therefore, each one of these events should be read as setting a precedent; it is kind of a handbook of instructions that the church is expected to follow, and replacing Judas is number two on that list.

Question 4. Did the gift of the Holy Ghost operate for the first time on the Day of Pentecost? Can you find earlier occasions when the powers of the Holy Ghost were present or manifested? Then how are we to explain John 7:39?

Quickly, on the last points that we wanted to cover. Did the gift of the Holy Ghost operate for the first time at the day of Pentecost? How do we explain John 7:39? Did any of you puzzle over that? What does John 7:39 say?

[39. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.]

(Student) I looked up 1 Nephi 10:19 in which Nephi says that the Holy Ghost operated before and will continually. I cannot remember what he says …. the Holy Ghost did not come while the Savior was there…cannot remember exactly… but anyway, the Holy Ghost did not need to be there while the Savior was there.

Right. It is coming upon all of the disciples as a new thing, because Jesus has promised another comforter I will give you, and that comes after he is glorified, but that does not mean that this is the first time in the history of the world that the Holy Ghost makes his appearance.

The Joseph Smith Translation, in fact, changes the John 7:39 a little bit. It seems to me that what he is saying there is that Jesus was talking to people in Jerusalem who are not believing him. He talks about the Holy Ghost, and then John includes a little aside that says, “Oh, by the way, these people are not going to get the Holy Ghost until after the glorification, after the resurrection,” but I do not think it should be read as a generic statement that the Holy Ghost had never been there at all.

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Question 5. What were the main points taught by Peter on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40) and to the men of Israel (Acts 3:12-26)? What words does he quote from the Old Testament?

Your last chart is on the back of the last page. You know, it is interesting that in the Book of Acts, we have seven speeches by Peter, and as we go through, we will stop and look at his teachings, and see that there are certain themes that he emphasizes. To the crowd at Pentecost, the main message is that God has raised up Christ, so he is carrying out his role as a witness of the resurrection to the Jews at the temple in Jerusalem. In Acts 3, which you read for tonight, he wants them to prepare to receive Jesus when he comes back. There will be restitution, a restoration of all things, and Jesus must stay in heaven until that time, and in the meantime, what shall we do? We must prepare, we must repent, we must be baptized and keep the commandments. The other themes are things we will look at as we come across them.

We are out of time for tonight. We can talk a little bit more about Acts 2 and 3 next time… yes, maybe we will …let us close rather than reading carefully through the argument that Peter raises and the Old Testament scriptures that he uses. It is a very interesting text, and particularly when you compare… let me tell you a little more about this next time… when you compare the Old Testament text that Peter uses here with the Old Testament text that we studied in 1 Peter where you can see the same prophet at work in both of these passages. We will get that in more detail but let me go to question number 6 and let us take a couple of minutes here to just see if you have anything you would like to add here in closing.

Question 6. What do you learn in Acts 2-–3 that increases your understanding and strengthens your testimony of the first principles and ordinances and practices of the gospel?

Was this a testimony builder for you to read these two chapters? Anything you might want to share?

(Student) I love the fact that he was so clear about what he said, “Silver and gold have I none, but I will give you what I have to give you.” And I think we live in a world that so values silver and gold that it confuses you at times, and I love the pure values of the Savior and the power that we have, and the plan of the earth, so I love this.

That is wonderful. On Peter not having gold and silver, wait a minute––he had ships. He was at least a fairly upper-middle class person. Why does not he have any gold or silver?

(Student) They have all things in common.

That is right. He and all of these Apostles have consecrated their property. They have given it all to the church so he does not have anything personally, but he will give what he can, which is the blessings of the spirit. That makes it even more… when he says “gold and silver I have none,” that is a pretty powerful testimony-building statement.

(Student) That was this man’s pattern. It was “I am crippled and this is who I am, I depend on the generosity of those around me as an act of sacred service to take care of my needs.” This man [Peter], clearly a spiritual leader says, “The one thing you wanted, I cannot give you, but I have something you never even thought to ask.”

Very good. Anything else that you thought? Sister Martin, how did you answer that question?

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(Student) I just thought the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most glorious message. I studied on that for quite a while.

Very, very good. Every 3 or 4 times in these two speeches, Peter emphasizes that point and it is a little bit ironic, maybe even painful for his audience, because how does he begin all of these testimonies about Jesus having been resurrected? He reminds them, and that word wot in chapter 3 verse 17 when, “And now brethren, I wot that through ignorance you did it.” What does the word wot mean? Know. I know that you did it through ignorance, but “I know you did it.” He is not letting them off the hook, but he is saying that it came out all right and we are to testify that this was done according to the foreknowledge and the plan of God. This was back in chapter 2 verse 23.

What a testimony builder it is that all of these things happened in a way that no one had expected. People did not think that this was the way the Messiah would behave. But after it happens and after Jesus instructs them and explains all the scriptures, lays it out to them reading Isaiah and other passages, they now understand. Look at this in verse, chapter 2 verse 23, “Being delivered by the determinate council.” What does that mean? The determinate council is the word here. Council can be spelled either sel or cil, referring back to a pre-mortal council which determined how things would happen in the Plan of Salvation, and according to the determinate council and the foreknowledge of God, this was not a mistake. This was not something that just went awry. This was something that was supposed to happen this way and Peter bears powerful testimony of the resurrection and the Plan of Salvation from the very beginning.

(Student) I am impressed by the fact that they know what is going to happen. They know that they are going to die. They know, and yet they move forward so confidently.

That is a great point.

(Student) It is as if they have a greater vision of what their life is, that is temporary to them, and they are ready to wear out their lives in the service to God. I feel like where we are in the history of the world, if we can catch that same vision, because we know some bad things are coming, that we can do the same thing. We can carry on knowing what is going to come.

Remind us of that next week when Peter will stand there before the whole Sanhedrin and will defy them when the Sanhedrin says, “You cannot do anything in the name of Jesus.” Now they have killed Jesus, and Peter has no idea… he knows that they are going to die and suffer, but what is he saying? Bring it on. He does not know whether he is going to make it through the next year, but he is not holding back, is he? So we will see more of that later.

(Student) Verse 22 of chapter 3 is very important, how Peter is identifying the prophecy that Moses made as being like Christ. The Jews did not know who that prophet was, in fact they asked, probably when they asked John the Baptist, “Are you the Messiah or are you Elijah?” This is whom they were referring to, and Nephi identifies this prophet as Christ. Moroni quotes scripture as well.

I will give you all one guess why Stephen was put to death. He stood there before the Sanhedrin and said, “Jesus was that prophet.” So watch in chapter 7. It was crucial and it was used from the very beginning, and again, maybe we can assume with confidence that among the things Jesus

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taught during the 40 days, he taught them, “I was that prophet.” No question, and he probably went through in great detail showing how it was that he was the promised prophet. One final point.

(Student) I think it is great that Peter not only talks about the pre-mortal life, but he is now talking about our time too when in chapter 3 verse 21 he talks about the time of restitution of all things - the restoration of the gospel - we are living that time.

In your handout, I have given you a page with some quotes. The second quote from President Kimball is about going forth into all the world, how that applies to our time, and the final quote from Elder McConkie about the times of refreshing and restoration, and how that applies to our time. So your point exactly! You will want to hold on to those quotes, and I thank Rita for finding those quotes for us tonight.

Brothers and sisters, thank you for your comments and I feel like we are off to a good start understanding the Book of Acts, and we will carry on next week; we will read up through chapter 7 and we will finish this. Next week we will get through the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr after Christ. Let us conclude with a prayer, and I hope you will have a wonderful week and catch the spirit of the enthusiasm and the testimony, which I think we all can appreciate and share, that these Apostles, these early Christians, had as they laid down everything to carry out the calling and bear the testimony that they were called to spread throughout the world. I testify of these things myself and gladly do this and look forward to the coming weeks together, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Transcribed by Carol H. JonesEdited by Rita L. Spencer

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