ACTS A Contextual Commentary DELANO VINCENT PALMER Extra MILE Innovators Kingston, Jamaica W.I. Copyright © 2020 by Delano Palmer ISBN-13: 978- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or in- troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior contractual or written permis- sion of the copyright owner of this work. Published by Extra MILE Innovators 54 Montgomery Avenue Kingston 10. Jamaica W.I. www.extramileja.com Cover Design: Pro-designer, Olivia AUTHOR CONTACT For consultation and speaking engagements email [email protected] for more information. NOTES Scripture quotations identified as JNT are from the Jamaica New Testament, copyright 2012 by the Bible Society of the West Indies. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION; cop- yright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by the International Bible Society, and Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights re- served worldwide. Scripture quotations identified NRSV are from the New Re- vised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations identified NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations identified AV/KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. All quotations marked DV (Darby Version) are taken from John Nelson Darby, Holy Bible: A New Translation. London: Morrish, 1929. All quotations marked NET are taken from the NETBible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.bible.org All rights reserved. Scripture quotations identified REB are from The Revised English Bible published jointly by the Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, 1989. All rights reserved. To Dotty my beloved, and especially DOMINO, who loves us all with an everlasting hesed ABBREVIATIONS ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary AJET African Journal of Evangelical Theology BAG Bauer, W., et al., eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Revised by F. W. Danker. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1957 BDAG Bauer, W., et al., eds. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Revised by F. W. Danker. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000 BDF Blass, F., A. Debrunner, and R. Funk. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University Press, 1961 BT Bible Translator CGST Caribbean Graduate school of Theology CJET Caribbean Journal of Evangelical Theology CJRS Caribbean Journal of Religious Studies CUP Cambridge University Press DBI Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation DV Darby Version EB Encyclopedia Britannica EBC The Expositor’s Bible Commentary EGT The Expositor’s Greek Testament ET The Expository Times GAGNT A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek NT GELS Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint HE Historia Ecclesiastica Ibid ibidem In the same place ICC International Critical Commentary IVP Intervarsity Press JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JBR Jamaica Baptist Reporter JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JTS Journal of Theological Studies JTS Jamaica Theological Seminary LN J. P. Louw, and Eugene A. Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1988. LXX Septuagint MMJH Moulton and George Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930 NIDONTE New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis NTS New Testament Studies NovT Novum Testamentum UBS United Bible Societies UBS4 Aland, Barbara, and Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce Metzger, K Elliger, W. Rudolph, eds. Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti Editio Hebraica et Graeca. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellshaft, 1994 UMI University Microfilms Incorporated (ProQuest) UPA University Press of America VE Vox Evangelica YUP Yale University Press PREFACE The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah emerged from a religiously pluralistic society over nineteen centuries ago. Today the same gospel—the good news of God’s salvific endeavor for human flourishing—finds itself once again in a pluralistic world that is much more complex than the Roman Empire in which it was first proclaimed. It was under threat then. It is still under threat today. The Book of Acts (as well as it companion volume which bears the narrator’s name) represents a First- Century physician’s response to questions concerning the efficacy of this Gospel to adequately address the human condition. There were rumours of serious and dangerous endeavors to overturn the work of the Spirit of God in the lives of those who had embraced the new movement that later became the Way. HOW viable was this movement? And if the rumours about its struggles are true, how can it help the hapless? Luke’s second volume gives clear and confident answers to these and other queries. So we are grateful to the Almighty for having preserved for us the Book of Acts which charts the progress of Christianity in the First Century. Three other books have inspired the writing of this commentary: The Spreading Flame by F.F Bruce (who started from where Acts closed off and landed us in Twentieth Century Britain), and Dr Lloyd Cooke’s The Story of Jamaican Missions, with the revealing subtitle How the Gospel Went from Jamaica to the World. If Dr Cooke traces the fire of God’s purifying grace to the present century, the following essay returns to the First. The other book bears the ambitious title, The Book of Acts: A Concise Caribbean Commentary. The least said about it the better. Today, fifty percent of my countrymen claim to have a personal relationship with God through His Son Christ Jesus. What is regrettable is that very few (it appears) churches in the Caribbean have caught the Lukan vision of planting new churches that are self governing, self supporting, self theologizing, and self propagating, cross culturally. There are no easy answers to this dilemma. A big part of the problem, it seems to me, is that too many Christians are waiting for a divine call instead of responding to the Great Commission. After all, a missionary (or apostle) is a child of God who gives a positive response to the divine mandate for world evangelization (Luke 24; Acts 1). With billions around the world who have not heard the Lukan gospel, we should once again petition the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into the vineyard ripe and ready to harvest (Acts). TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1.......................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 2.......................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 3.......................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 4.......................................................................... 81 CHAPTER 5.......................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 6.......................................................................... 89 CHAPTER 7.......................................................................... 92 CHAPTER 8.......................................................................... 95 CHAPTER 9........................................................................ 105 CHAPTER 10 ...................................................................... 111 CHAPTER 11 ...................................................................... 117 CHAPTER 12 ...................................................................... 121 CHAPTER 13 ...................................................................... 125 CHAPTER 14 ...................................................................... 129 CHAPTER 15 ...................................................................... 132 CHAPTER 16 ...................................................................... 145 CHAPTER 17 ...................................................................... 149 CHAPTER 18 ...................................................................... 153 CHAPTER 19 ...................................................................... 159 CHAPTER 20 ...................................................................... 163 CHAPTER 21 ...................................................................... 171 CHAPTER 22 ...................................................................... 177 CHAPTER 23 ...................................................................... 181 CHAPTER 24 ...................................................................... 185 CHAPTER 25 ...................................................................... 189 CHAPTER 26 ...................................................................... 193 CHAPTER 27 ...................................................................... 199 CHAPTER 28