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Originally Posted by blhowes  I was just curious what text(s) you heard preached from today? |
Today's passage was Acts 17:1-15.
This was interesting, I thought! Undoubtedly all you pastoral-types will know this, but I didn't:
6 When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the
city authorities... (italics mine)
According to Dr. Cecil, the word translated as "city authorities" or "city officials" (depending upon which translation one is reading) was for a long time a wholly unknown word, and the translators had to guess at the meaning, as it wasn't found anywhere else but in the book of Acts.
This was used as a mallet by those who would cast doubt on the veracity of the Scriptures, as they insisted it meant Luke had just made up a word.
Until archaeological excavations uncovered sixteen uses of the word, including one carved on the city gate of Thessalonica. Turns out it was a word unique to that city, used to signify its city's magistrates.
So, far from disproving the Bible's veracity, it proves nigh unto conclusively that Luke and company
were in Thessalonica, as that's the only way he'd ever come across that particular word.
As Dr. Cecil said as well, I love stuff like that. ;^)
He also suggested that in verse 9, where Jason and some other brethren put up a pledge or made a bond to those same magistrates, is found the answer to 1 Thessalonians 2:18, when Paul wrote to those he'd met on that trip: "For we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, more than once--and yet Satan hindered us." His theory is that Jason paid a bond to pledge that Paul would leave and not return to Thessalonica, and Paul naturally honored that pledge.
Of course the sermon was mostly theological commentary, but since y'all are likely familiar with the sort of thing he preached on, I thought I'd mention a couple of points a few of y'all might not have heard.