[00:00:00] Hello listeners, welcome to my podcast. We will continue from yesterday. Acts Commentary by E. M Blaiklock, MA10 Into Europe, Acts 15 verse 36 to Acts 17 verse 14a Antioch again, 15, 36-39 Paul remained in the central city of Gentile Christianity until the differences with Jerusalem
[00:00:29] were resolved in the compromise arrangements recorded in chapter 15. He then felt moved to traverse again the old Asian preaching ground and confirm the converts. His assumption of leadership is to be noted, verse 36. Luke now conscientiously records a sad contention, verse 39, between
[00:00:52] the two partners. The word used is a strong one, paroxysmos, and the KJV rendering is correct in adding the adjective, sharp. Paul and Barnabas departed asunder, and in the Greek an uncommonly strong expression is again employed. In the New Testament the verb occurs again only at Revelation
[00:01:16] 6 verse 14, where the heavens departed in apocalyptic disaster. Paul was a vehement character, inclined to strong reactions, Acts 23 verse 3, and particularly sensitive to what he considered disloyalty or laggard response to his leadership, Philippians 2, 20, 21. Love, he writes in 1 Corinthians 8, 5,
[00:01:44] perhaps a little self-reproachfully, is not easily provoked, and he actually uses the verb cognate with the noun parousmos. A few years later, it is pleasant to note, Mark is the subject of a friendly word, Colossians 4.10, 2 Timothy 4.11. In a sense the perilous division turned out for good. Cyprus, Barnabas' native isle, was visited
[00:02:13] again, and the competent Silas enlisted in the work. B. Syria and Cilicia, 1540-41. Setting out from Antioch, Paul and Silas traversed the gorge of the Amanus and the Syrian gates, and entered Cilicia. The region had been slow in submitting to the Greek influence which was so potent in Asia Minor
[00:02:38] and the Middle East. Phoenician influence had been strong, and had left a tradition of seamanship. The coastal areas, in fact, were the haunt of the great pirate fleets which, a century before, had terrorized the Mediterranean. Such lawlessness was long since tamed under the strong administration of Rome, but the area remained a backwater, heavily infected, as its coinage shows, by Oriental paganism,
[00:03:08] and not the type of territory where Paul exercised his most characteristic ministry. It was, of course, his home province, and a man of Tarsus could hardly pass by the remoter countryside of his own homeland. Luke, who is not yet writing as a member of the party, could hardly be more brief in describing a mission of perhaps some weeks or months . It would appear that Paul, who no doubt supplied the details,
[00:03:37] looked upon the campaign as a routine task, not a major movement in the evangelization of Anatolia, and without notable or significant incidents. Thanks for listening. We will continue tomorrow.