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| ACTS |
| Explanatory Footnotes - page 2 |
| treatment of Jesus with earlier Jewish rejection of God's messengers such as Joseph, Moses, and the prophets. He also called into question Jewish temple worship, claiming that "the Most High does not live in houses made by men (verse 48)." He ended the speech by calling them traitors and murderers. 8:5 Crossing Racial Barriers Philip's visit to Samaria was quite remarkable in its day. Jewish people had little to do with the Samaritans, whom they considered heretics. Later, Philip met with an Ethiopian official on a mission that crossed racial barriers. The modern Christian church in Ethiopia claims an uninterrupted descent from the conversion described in chapter 8. 9:2 Naming the New Religion In the early days of the church, its believers were given a variety of labels. Here, they are called members of "the Way"; elsewhere, "the brothers" (9:30), "all the believers" (2:44), and "the Nazarene sect" (24:5). Luke reports (11:26) that in the city of Antioch they were first called 'Christians,' a name that stuck. Roman writers often used the word Christian in a derisive sense, reflecting the hostility that greeted the first believers. 10:9 A Shift from Peter to Paul The first part of Acts, especially chapters 9-12, concentrates on the life of Peter. He represented the conservative Jewish contingent, and Acts reports that God gave him direct revelation to understand his plan of outreach to the Gentiles. But a man named Saul had been converted, and beginning with chapter 13, Acts follows his story almost exclusively. 11:28 During the Reign of... The historian Luke is the only New Testament author who dates his books by referring to Roman emperors. He refers to Claudius three times in Acts; the events in Luke's Gospel occur during the reigns of Tiberius and Augustus. |