Pastors Jim and Marie Watt
(From: ACTS #36 - 21:15-26)
XIX. 21:15-24:27 PAUL'S CONSTRAINT: TO WARN AND SAVE THE LOST
A. 21:15-16 PROVIDENTIAL PROVISION AT JERUSALEM
a. 21:15 And after these :days we made ready our baggage andwent up to Jerusalem.
MeTA de tas heMEras TAUtas e-pi-skeu-aSAme-noi [643] a-neBAIno-men eis Ie-roSOlu-ma.
b. 21:16 ACCOMPANIED WITH DISCIPLES FROM CAESAREA AND CYPRUS
suNELthon de kai ton ma-theTON aPO Kai-saRIas sun huMIN,
And some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us,
Agon-tes par' ho xe-nisTHOmen [3579], MNAsoNI ti-ni KuPRIo, arCHAIo [744] ma-theTE.
bringing us to one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.
B. 21:17-26 BY ALL MEANS SAVE SOME
a. 21:17 And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
Ge-noMEnon de heMON eis Ie-roSOlu-ma, asMEnos [780] a-peDExan-to [1209] heMAS hoi a-delPHOI.
b. 21:18 And the dayfollowing :Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
tede e-piOUse eiSEei ho PAUlos sun heMIN pros IAko-bon; PANtes te pa-reGEnon-to hoi presBUte-roi.
c. 21:19 PAUL REPORTS HOW THE LORD USED HIM AMONG THE NATIONS
kai a-spaSAme-nos [782] auTOUS, e-xeGEIto [1834] kath' hen HEka-ston hon ePOIe-sen ho TheOS
And when he had greeted them, he rehearsed oneby one the thingswhich :God
en tois ETHne-sin diA tes di-a-koNIas [1248] auTOU.
had wrought among the nations through his :ministry.
d. 21:20-21 GOD GLORIFIED VERSUS CONCERN OF LAW-KEEPERS
hoi de, aKOUsan-tes, eDOxa-zon [1392] ton TheON; EI-PAN te auTO, The-oREIS, a-delPHE,
And they, when they heard it, glorified :God; and they said to him, You behold, brother,
POsai mu-riAdes eiSIN en tois IouDAIois ton
how many myriads are among the Jews of them
pe-pi-steuKOton; kai PANtes ze-loTAI [2207] tou NOmou huPARchou-sin:
that have believed; and all are zealots for the law:
ka-teCHEthe-san [2727] de peRI sou, HOti a-po-staSIan [646] diDAskeis aPO Mo-uSEos tous kaTA ta ETHne
21and they have been informed concerning you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the nations
PANtas IouDAIous, LEgon me pe-riTEMnein auTOUS ta TEKna, meDE tois Ethe-sin [1485] pe-ri-paTEIN.
to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise the children, neither to walk after the customs.
e. 21:22 What is it therefore? they will certainly hear that you are come.
ti OUN es-tin? PANtos aKOUson-tai HOti eLElu-thas.
f. 21:23-24 COUNSEL OF JAMES AND ELDERS FOR PAUL
TOUto oun POIe-son ho soi LEgo-men:
Do therefore this that we say to you:
eiSIN heMIN ANdres TESsa-res euCHEN [2171] Echon-tes aph' he-auTON;
We have four men that have a vow from themselves;
TOUtous pa-ra-laBON, hagNISthe-ti [48] sun auTOIS,
24these take, andpurify yourself with them,
kai daPAne-son [1159] ep' auTOIS, HIna xuREson-tai [3587] ten ke-phaLEN:
and be at charges for them, that they may shave theirheads:
kai GNOson-tai PANtes HOti hon kaTEchen-tai [2727] peRI sou ouDEN es-tin;
and all shall know that thereis nothing in what they have been informed concerning you;
alLA stoiCHEIS [4748] kai auTOS phuLASson [5442] ton NOmon.
but that yourself also are firm keeping the law.
g. 21:25 JAMES REVIEWS THE ACTS 15 DECISION
peRI de ton pe-pi-steuKOton ethNON, heMEIS a-peSTEIla-men, KRInan-tes [2919] phuLASses-thai auTOUS
But about the nations that have believed, WE sent, giving judgment that they keep themselves
TO te ei-doLOthu-ton [1494], kai HAIma [129], kai pnikTON [4156], kai porNEIan [4202].
from both what is sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication.
h. 21:26 PAUL ACCEDES TO THEIR COUNSEL
TOte ho PAUlos pa-ra-laBON tous ANdras te e-choMEne heMEra
Then :Paul took the men the next day purifying himself
sun auTOIS hag-nisTHEIS [48], eiSEei eis to hi-eRON,
with them, and went into the temple,
di-agGELlon [1229] ten ekPLEro-sin [1604] ton he-meRON tou hag-nisMOU [49],
declaring the fulfillment of the days of :purification,
HEos hou pro-seNECHthe [4374] huPER heNOS heKAstou auTON he pros-phoRA [4376].
until the offering was offered for each of them.
NOTE: 21:19 - See the faithfulness of Paul in glorifying God for what He had done through him on behalf of the nations. And the result? 21:20 - James and the elders allglorified God!
21:23-24 - However - they were well aware of the possible turmoil once the Jewish zealots for law learned of Paul's presence in Jerusalem. James and the elders therefore had counsel for Paul. He should follow a typical Jewish purification ceremony for the Temple, and outlined to Paul how they thought this could spare any uprisings or problems.
21:26 - Paul accepted this counsel of James and the elders of Jerusalem, and immediately complied the following day. This can be seen as Paul's Observance of Protocol - Warfare by Honor! He was a guest in Jerusalem, as the one who was appointed by Jesus as Apostle to Gentiles. Judaizers were still upset over the decision that came down in Acts 15; and James, Apostolic pastor of Jerusalem, with other apostles wished to favor them. So Paul went along with this, which was proper, even though wrong. Can we see this adjustment through protocol?
NOW- it is important to note the two paragraphs in this section of 12 verses, and the preceding section of Acts 21:1-14, which concludes the preceding section XVIII of Acts 19:31 to 21:14, composed of fourparagraphs.
To understand the crafting of God in this, consider the crafting of some historical novelists, and the time they spent to thoroughly understand accurately the historical, political and even scientific backgrounds that existed in that day for the novel they wished to write. Though these are novels: yet many of the characters used, and actual historical figures, and the political and economic situation of those times are thoroughly understood and made use of. It might take a number of years for the author to research such a many-faceted background. James Michener in his novel “Texas”, has done this work. In his book, perhaps but 60-70% is a lifting of these facts into his production. The rest is true liberty of the author in contriving a story to gain interest of the readers. In this way he provides a painless way for readers to gain a good historical understanding of the history of those times. He weaves into his story the part that Mexican Hispanics played, African-Americans and the First Nations People, the Aboriginal Indians of over 500 tribes, plus immigrants from many countries in Europe.
When I was a boy between 10 and 14, I read 52 historical novels by G. A. Henty. “With Clive in India”, and “Ken in the Jungle” were but two. But I painlessly learned a great deal of world history, along with general history I learned in school. Later I read “Exodus” by Leon Uris. He carefully researched the history of his Jewish people from eight different nations, the antisemitism that drove them back to their original land, and the terrible persecution of the Holocause that wiped out over 6 million European Jews through Hitler's Nazism. He traced the breaking of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by Great Britain - with Arab oil as the underlying pressure that caused this reneging of promise. “QB VII” by Uris gives further insights into those terrible times.
General Eisenhower uncovered the horror of Hitler's gas chambers in scores of annihilation camps - mostly for Jews, but also for non-committed Germans, Gypsies, the feeble-minded, Gays and other types that didnot reach the standard of Hitler for his ideal Nordic race. Eisenhower demanded that Germans enter these camps, and help bury the dead - that the quick coming of the Russians, prevented the Nazis from finishing the hiding of their nefarious work. He asked that full documentation by photographs be made, for he said - “I know that in the future there will arise Bas..... like Arafat and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who will willfully and ignorantly deny all the proven facts.” Hitler said - “Tell a lie often enough, and the public and national leaders will eventually believe it! Arafat was one of the greatest liars of all time. Palestinians neverhad that land historically. God gave that land to Israel as His land to them 3400 years ago, and though Islamists have sought to disprove the historical and archaeological evidence of the Jewish Temple, plus much other evidence - it stillis as God says. And the Mein Kampf by Hitler is still one of the favorite books in this area.
Fredrick Forsyth in his Historical Novel “The Odessa File”, weaves true historical fact into Hitler and Nazism, and the revived Nazi spirit that still exists today.
Herman Wouk in his “Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” makes all true historical facts eminently true in the face of the lies and subterfuge of nations of today.
Am I recommending the reading of historical novels? Not necessarily. What I see is that these historical novelists mentioned above, plus many more, carefully crafted their novels, with the majority findings lying behind the novel part, all reliable, and providing a learning process to learn history painlessly.
My main purpose in recounting the above is to say this: What these novelists have done by research and crafting, is but an earthly attempt at seeking to help people learn history. Men like Ivan Panin refused to read any such novels, and had he done so, the Bible Numeric results he produced in 50 years and 100,000 hours' would never have been produced. But he was but God's toolin the hand of God to uncover what has been in the Bible for three and four thousand years - but like mineral ore lying beneath the surface of the earth - only recently discovered. Also - like the oil of Texas.
When Panin discovered this hidden spiritual ore in the Bible, and onlyin the Bible, he started in 1890 to uncover this rich treasure. When he published the Numeric Greek New Testament in the early 1900's, he was not then aware that not only did Bible Numerics provide a scientific method of ascertaining the original Bible text from among the 7 major NT manuscripts and 1000's of fragments - but- too late to incorporate this finding into this text published by the Oxford Press of England; he did write up in its introduction some 20-30 pages, that Bible Numerics establishes accurate contexts for each sentence of the Bible. He of course could not finish the Old Testament, because he did all his work for the NT prior to computers, by doing over 43,000 pages of neat columns of hand-written figures - beyond belief. I have worked his English translation punctuation backwards into his Greek NT, so that both run parallel in Numeric tested “sentence, subdivisions, paragraphs, sections (or chapter equivalents) and books. I have summarized each sentence in each book, gathered the summaries into subdivisions; the subdivisions into paragraphs and the paragraphs into sections, and then into books. I am not sure if Panin himself realized what such summaries of his work would mean to laymen and some scholars in this realm. It has transformed my life.
I have spent over 40,000 hours in bringing this together to produce an Interlinear Greek NT based on Bible Numerics as prepared by Ivan Panin. My summaries are notinspired. The Greek text is, and the English translation has been strongly affected by the Lexicon Panin first prepared before he ever commenced producing the Bible Numeric Greek NT. It also helped in choosing the best English vocabulary to translate this Greek text.
All of this is spelled out in his introduction to the Greek Numeric NT. So - what historical novelists have done in carefully crafting their novels based on preliminary research in history and many other sciences - Godhas crafted His Bible on Numbersis such a way, that His heavenly background to His Bible so far supersedes all carefully man-made historical novels. that there is no comparison.
Look at Mark 16:9-20 for instance. Textual Critics have either eliminated this portion from Mark, or else put notes concerning it so disparaging, that the average reader would want little to do with it. But- Bible Numerics shows that if anyportion of the Bible should be left out as being suspect - the last 12 verses of Mark would be the lastto go. More Numerics are found here than any other part of the Bible. And, it is notjust a paragraph - it is a complete Sectionor Chapter equivalent, giving it an importance beyond belief. The world and Satan hatethis portion of Scripture. It is extremely disruptive to Satan's kingdom when practiced. In the early church, within less than 100 years the whole Roman Empire was saturated with the Gospel because of the practice of this portion of Scripture. Godconfirmed the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles and all others With Signs Following! It was this that made such an impact on the early church. Read the book of Acts again in this light, and see how evangelism of those early days was neverabsent from the promise of Mark 16:9-20.
One last thought. Ivan Panin was not the first discoverer of Bible Numerics, but the one who made use of it by producing his two Bible Numeric texts - the Greek and the English New Testaments. He died with the hope of an Interlinear Greek NT unfulfilled. It is thisthat is close to completion this year, with a printer interested in putting this into book form. I believe what Panin desired but did not see take place in his day, was of divine appointment. Because of the great apostasy in the world today, especially in North America, I believe the timing of this Interlinear Greek NT, is God's design to offset the falling away, and give into the hands of believing disciples a tool to ground them individually as never before in the true faith of God - and then in evangelism - to equip them beyond belief for the effectiveness that existed in the early church. The endis at hand. Jesusis at the door. It is but minutes from the midnight call.
And that last thought? When Panin prepared his scientific Lexicon from 1890 to 1900, he found that the number of references to the name of Moses showed “no numerics” in the best of lexicons of his day. He searched the scriptures, and found a reference to Moses inadvertently omitted by this great lexicon. But “Numerics” showed up this omission and enabled a truly correct and scientific lexicon to take its place.
For those of you who are interested but not convinced - please go to our Website<www.2rbetter.org> - click on “Interlinear” - and at the bottom of the Introduction, you will find a “URL” - directing you to an article from Toronto “How to use Bible Numerics in Evangelism”. Out of some 5 links in this article, click on the one by “Dr. Keith L. Brooks”. There you will find a pamphlet he wrote corroborating the authenticity of Bible Numerics - also one by Karl Sabiers - “Astounding New Discoveries in the Bible.” Both of Ivan Panin's Greek and English New Testaments are available there also. As stated above, the Introduction to his Bible Numeric Greek NT is worth its weight in gold. By all means do some “Web-Surfing”! J.A.W.
TODAYa friend sent me the following article, concerning our nation's entry into a new type of health care etc. I believe our president would be interested to know that no otherbook in the world has the Bible Numeric Phenomenon except the 66 books of our Bible, both in Hebrew and English. The Koran does nothave this confirmatory help, nor any other religious holy book. Only our Bible is God's Plumbline to evaluate all national, political and religious decisions! Following is the challenging article we received through a friend:
SUBJECT: Maxine sums up new health care bill ... 2010
Let me get this straight. We're going to be gifted with a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passedby a Congress that hasn't readit, but exemptsthemselves from it; to be signed by a president who also hasn't read it and who smokes, with fundingadministered by a treasure chief who didn't pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financedby a country that's broke.
What could possiblygo wrong?