An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 209: Christianity: Not Just For Jews (Acts 6-10)

Acts 6-10
Christianity: Not Just For Jews.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Acts 6

“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.”

The chapter starts with a “murmuring amongst the Grecians against the Hebrews” who complain that “their widows were neglected in the daily ministration”. I’m not sure what this means – the Greeks are complaining that their widows aren’t getting … what? Ministering by the disciples? But at this point, would they expect to be? So far, Christianity is a Jewish cult.

Anyway, the disciples decide that they “leave the word of God, and serve tables” and so choose seven from amongst the other followers to be, what I can only assume, are the first bishops (although the no specific title is given to these men in this chapter). The chapter speaks of “seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business”, but I’m no clear on what “this business” applies to. Evidently the case of the disgruntled Greek widows, but in what sense, I’m puzzled.

The rest of the chapter briefly tells of one of these men, Stephen, who does many miracles and annoys the elders of the synagogue of “the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia”, who accuse Stephen of blasphemy, for saying that “Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us”. This last is interesting, because Jesus made effort to emphasise that he was not overturning Mosaic Law, although he also sort of was.

Acts 7

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:”

Stephen gives a history lesson to the Synagogue of Libertines (which sounds like a good name for a band, or a gay nightclub), re-telling the story of Abraham down to Moses, as recounted in the back end of Genesis and the front end of Exodus. He likens his listeners to characters in the story such as the worshippers of the Golden Calf, calling them stiffnecked and uncircumcised in their hearts. I think bringing up other characters like Joseph’s brothers who sell him into slavery is also meant to contrast the righteous with the unbeliever.

The elders don’t respond well. They drive Stephen outside and stone him to death. His clothing is laid at the feet of a certain man called Saul. Here I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon where some characters are seeing pictures in the clouds, and Linus sees a ridiculously complex image of the stoning of St. Stephen (http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1960/8/14).

Also of interest to me here, which I went and looked up, is the mention of “the star of your god Remphan” which is thought to be Saturn, from Old Babylonian. That speaks to an intriguing knowledge of astronomy by the Mesopotamians.

Acts 8

“But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:”

This is one of those mixed-bag chapters. The beginning describes how Saul goes on to arrest and persecute the followers of Jesus, but then switches to the deeds of the Apostle Philip. The main part of the narrative is Philip’s dealings with the sorcerer Simon, a man who holds the people in thrall with witchcraft, but who is baptised when he sees the miracles of healing that Philip performs. A difference here is made between being baptised, an outward demonstration of conversion, and “receiving the Holy Spirit”, which is evidently some kind of spiritual effect of truly believing. Simon tries to buy special powers and is upbraided by Philip.

Later, Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch, sat in a chariot reading Isaiah (as you do). Philip expounds on a point of prophecy in Isaiah that he makes pertain to Jesus, thereby converting the eunuch. And that’s about it.

Acts 9

“And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

I think I’ve said before that sometimes the chapter break-down of the bible baffles me; possibly chapters end sometimes when the scribes got to the end of a scroll or page, because this chapter features what ought to warrant a chapter all to itself – Saul’s vision on the road to Damascus and subsequent conversion. The story’s a well-known biblical one. Saul, persecutor of Christians, is struck blind by a vision of Jesus on his way to Damascus. He is taken in by one Ananias, who also gets a message from Jesus to find Saul and heal him. The “scales fall” from Saul’s eyes and he is baptized, and charged with teaching to the Gentiles.

I like that the other disciples are justifiably wary when Saul seeks them out to join them, but on the word of Barnabas they relent. That ought to have been end of chapter, I think, because it encapsulates a dramatic arc, but appended to the end are a couple of miracles from Peter; he cures a man Aeneas of the palsy, and raises a seamstress, Tabitha aka Dorcas, from the dead. The chapter ends, rather feebly, by saying that Peter then spent some time in the house of Simon the Tanner.

Acts 10

“There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band”

See, this is a more self-contained chapter. A centurion, Cornelius, is a godly man who prays a lot (to the Jewish God? This is a strange detail, since later it is stated that he’s a Gentile, so my first guess that Cornelius is a Jewish auxiliary can’t be true). Cornelius has a vision from God that tells him to seek Peter in the house of Simon the Tanner in Joppa. Meanwhile, Peter also gets a vision telling him to expect visitors. He is also visited by angels that present him with a picnic blanket full of animals, and they tell him it’s okay to eat even the unclean meat. Peter later interprets this to mean that he should teach the gospel to non-Jews as well.

Cornelius and Peter meet, Peter tells the story of Jesus and Cornelius and some of his friends/family/followers also convert, much to the surprise of Peter’s companions. This is probably supposed to be a big surprise that the gospels can be given to non-Jews, although some of the prior chapters feature centurion followers of Jesus as well, so it’s not a really big surprise. Also; hey, wasn’t this supposed to be Saul’s whole raison d’aitre?