[Sorry, no audio available for this lesson due to technical difficulties. -MRW]
- First persecution of the church
- Happened soon after Pentecost
- Result of Stephen’s stoning
- Saul eager participant
- Church was scattered
- Went everywhere preaching Christ
- Acts 8:1-8
- Conversion of Saul
- Completes the circuit on the Diaspora
- Paul appointed apostle to the Gentiles
- Jews are everywhere
- Paul not first to teach the Gentiles
- Followed by Christians in some places
- Paul comes with apostolic authority
- Acts 11:19-26
- Acts 13:13-52 – Paul preaches to the Gentiles
- The religious sects of the Jews
- A Jew is not a Jew is not a Jew is not …
- Just being a Jew was not the complete picture
- Different divisions of beliefs and practices
- The two major divisions were at odds
- Unity was only attained via outside pressure
- A Jew is not a Jew is not a Jew is not …
- The Pharisees
- “Separated ones”
- Possibly derogatory term
- Called themselves “great”
- Embraced the name “Pharisees” after a time
- “Separated ones”
- Began in the early Hasmonean Dynasty
- John Hyrcanus was a Pharisee
- Lead to the civil war under Alexander Jannaeus
- Pharisees made gains under Alexandra Salome
- What did the Pharisees believe?
- High degree of dedication to law and prophets
- Held oral traditions as equally important
- Matthew 15:1-20 – Jesus rebukes their tradition
- Matthew 23:25-26
- I Peter 2:4-5 – Our purity is internal, not external.
- Interpretations by noted rabbis
- Given and relayed by word of mouth
- Committed to writing around 70 AD and after