Starting at verse 15:
*Paul tells the recipients of the letter that he gives thanks for them continually because of the faith he heard they have. If this is a chain letter, how does he know what churches will be reading it and what their faith level is? Why does he say he "heard" about their faith, when he is supposed to have lived in Ephesus?
*Let's look at the scriptures that mention Paul in Ephesus (in Turkey). First, Acts 18: There Paul is said to have arrived in Ephesus with Pricilla and Aquila. He went to a Jewish synagogue to reason (argue?) with the Jews. He was asked to stay but left, saying he would be back, if it was God's will. He sailed back to Caesarea, which is in Israel, then travelled from there to Antioch, Galatia and Phrygia, and made his way back to Ephesus. It appeared to be in God's (Paul's ) will after all.
*While Paul was gone, a Jew named Apollos, from Alexandria (in Egypt), who knew only the baptism of John, arrived in Ephesus. He was very knowledgable in the scriptures and began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Pricilla and Aquila were still in Ephesus and took Apollos to their home to "teach him the way of God more adequately." I find it interesting that Apollos seems to have had no idea about Jesus, the crucifixion, or the resurrection, just John the baptist and his practice of baptism. This would be at least two decades (NT timeline) after the death of Jesus. Why hadn't Apollos heard "the good news" before?
*Apollos went to Corinth, which is in Greece. Meanwhile, Paul took the road through Turkey and arrived back in Ephesus. There he found some disciples. These disciples had not been there his first visit? Disciples of whom? These disciples had never heard of recieving the holy spirit and the had been baptised with John's baptism for repentence, not the baptism into the lord Jesus. Okay, what is the difference between one dunking in water and another? -Belief in Jesus and the magic words recited when it is performed. Plus, it helps if Paul puts his hands on you so you can get the elusive Holy Spirit along with the ability to speak in tongues. Twelve men recieved the spirit this way. Ooh. Do you suppose that the number twelve is significant here? There were twelve tribes of Israel after all.
*According to Acts, Paul spent three months in Ephesus speaking in the synogogue, arguing about the kingdom of god. Some of them (Jews) refused to believe him. Good for them. So, Paul left with his disciples and had daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. "This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord." However, not one of them wrote a single word about Paul or the new teachings. There are no contemporaneous writings about this revolution in religious thought, from that time or region That seems a little odd to me.
*It is even more odd that there are no extrabiblical records, when Acts says that extraordinary miracles were performed through Paul. (Acts19:11-12). Some Jews tried to exorcise evil spirits by invoking the name of Jesus. The evil spirits knew the difference between them and Paul and beat the Jews up. Naturally, this caused some consternation among the inhabitants of Ephesus, not to mention terror. Believers came out of the woodwork and confessed their past associations with sorcery. Then there was a public scroll burning of extremely valuable magic texts. Too bad Paul didn't just simply tell them their magic books had no power to do anything, evil or good. But he couldn't do that, could he? He had set himself up as having powers greater than theirs.
To be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment