Acts 17:5-12 - Corps Notes - November 9, 1976
Acts 17:5-12 November 9, 1976 We’re in chapter 17 of Acts. It’s remarkable how we never get out of our most happy playground-- spiritually. Acts 17:5 “which believed not” - not in the critical Greek text “but the Jews” - certainly it’s axiomatic they believed not, or else they wouldn’t have done what they did. There again, you know every time you read the word “Jew” in the Bible, in our translations of today, you’ve got to remember that that word never appeared in any translation until the year 17-- something or other. There were no Jews. They were called Judeans in the text. Like in the Greek text and it isn’t “Jesus, King of the Jews.” The Greek text is “king of the Judeans.” There’s a lot of difference between Jews and Judeans. The Jews are the counterfeit. They paid a high price to get it in the Bible, so that all the Protestants who read it would support them in Israel, which is a bunch of crap. Even men like Shakespeare never had the word “Jew.” It doesn’t appear even in English at Shakespeare’s time. It’s a real late introduction. But of course every translation today carries it. Because they have moved on all of our hearts to tell us that the Jews are the chosen people of God. If they’re chosen, God did a hell of a trip choosing them, that’s for sure. Of course, if He chose any Protestants, He did that too, maybe. But, the point is, the word literally is Judean. But they were Judean by religion. The religion of Judea in the Bible is called Pharisee-ism. So, well anyway, these birds were moved with envy, whatever they were. Do any of you have marginal notes in there? A margin gives it in one as “indignation.” Any of you have that? O.K. “Filled with jealousy” is Bullinger. The revised version, 1881 or 1902, has in the margin, I believe, “indignation”. “Moved with envy” is in the King James. “Indignation” is in the margin of some of them. Bullinger says “jealousy” which is a synonymous word for “Envy” And this usage intrigued me because the word for “envy” in t
From this work
I think of fields that are ready to be planted with corn or beans or something else. Or a garden, that’s ready to be planted. The ground has been plowed, or done properly, and tilled nice to where it’s just beautiful and ready to put the seed in. That is what I see in my mind when I see the words “readiness of mind” in the Word. These people were open; they were willing to listen. They were willing to put new thoughts into their minds and evaluate it, at Berea. This is what they did: they received it with readiness of mind, but they didn’t immediately swallow it and say, “Oh, that’s great. That’s fantastic.” They went to the one source, and the source was what?: “searched the scriptures daily” - Now there’s a tremendous key. I just told you they didn’t read it from Philippians, or Thessalonians. Why? It had not yet been written. Therefore, what scriptures would they have studied? Old Tes