NOTES

[1] William A. Sunday, “Billy Sunday’s Bible,” The Christian Advocate, vol. 91 (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1916), 890.

[2] F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, rev. ed., The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 13.

[3] William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1966), xvii.

[4] Though neither the Gospel nor the book of Acts explicitly identifies Luke as the author, he is identified as such in a second-century description of the New Testament canon. See Bruce M. Metzger, “The Muratorian Fragment,” in The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 305.

[5] Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012).

[6] Luke included himself in three sections of Acts, in which he used the first-person “we” instead of the third-person “they.”

[7] Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 316.

[8] William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), s.v. μαρτυρία.

[9] Carmine Gallo, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010), 1.

[10] See Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 33.

[11] There is some dispute about whether the rabbinical sources describing “proselyte baptism” reflect a later post-Christian development or a practice that was current at the time of Christ and the founding of the church. For a discussion, see ibid., 76–82.

[12] Harry A. Ironside, Acts, Ironside Expository Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2007), 18.

[13] Cf. Josephus, Wars of the Jews 1.621; 2.171; Antiquities 18.59; 19.349; Life 138; Euripides, Rhesus, line 797; Hesiod, Shield of Heracles, line 365; Homer, Iliad 2.418; 4.544; 5.58; Philo, On the Creation 157; On Husbandry 113; On Dreams 2.269.

[14] This story is found in 1 Maccabees 2, a chapter from a deuterocanonical book recording intertestamental Jewish history.

[15] Robert L. Wise, Your Churning Place (Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1977), 66.

[16] Kittel and Friedrich, eds., Dictionary: Abridged, 75.

[17] Richard N. Longenecker, “The Acts of the Apostles,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas, vol. 9, John —Acts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 272.

[18] Some would add Acts 19:2-7, but in this case, the men had not heard the complete gospel; they had merely submitted to the baptism of John the Baptizer —a baptism of repentance in expectation of the coming Messiah.

[19] W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996), 2:636.

[20] Henry Jacobsen, The Acts: Then and Now (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1973), 20.

[21] E. M. Blaiklock, The Acts of the Apostles: An Historical Commentary, reprint ed., Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 5 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 58.

[22] Lazarus doesn’t qualify; he was resurrected in his corruptible body, so he eventually died again. Jesus was raised to a new kind of life that cannot suffer disease, injury, deprivation, or death.

[23] Kittel and Friedrich, eds., Dictionary: Abridged, 641–642.

[24] Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 369–371.

[25] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Acts 2:38.

[26] Arndt, Danker, and Bauer, eds., Lexicon, 552.

[27] Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 1:66.

[28] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985), 1057. Emphasis mine.

[29] Meir Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple: The Discovery of Ancient Jerusalem, trans. I. Friedman (Jerusalem: Keter, 1982), 77; cited in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6:365.

[30] Flavius Josephus, Wars of the Jews, in The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, trans. William Whiston (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 5:201.

[31] Temple officials only allowed people to beg if they had no other means of obtaining money. Vocational rehabilitation didn’t really exist in ancient times.

[32] Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Right,” ed. Joseph O’Malley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 131.

[33] Josephus, Wars of the Jews 2.162–166.

[34] Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1:128.

[35] Johannes Weiss, Earliest Christianity: A History of the Period A.D. 30–150 (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1970), 1:42–43.

[36] In Greek, “son of paraklēsis” [3874].

[37] Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Jesus: The Greatest Life of All (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 80–81.

[38] Elton Trueblood, The Incendiary Fellowship (New York: Harper & Row, 1967).

[39] F. F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1953).

[40] For other summary statements, see Acts 2:42, 47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:1; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20; and 28:31.

[41] Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 3 [Daf 23a].

[42] L. L. Grabbe, “Synagogues in Pre-70 Palestine: A Re-Assessment,” in Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, ed. Dan Urman and Paul V. M. Flesher, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 22.

[43] James D. G. Dunn, Christianity in the Making, vol. 2, Beginning from Jerusalem (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 247.

[44] Z. Safrai, “The Communal Functions of the Synagogue in the Land of Israel in the Rabbinic Period,” in Ancient Synagogues, ed. Urman and Flesher, vol. 1, 200.

[45] Michael William Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 151.

[46] Laurna L. Berg, “The Illegalities of Jesus’ Religious and Civil Trials,” Bibliotheca Sacra, 161, no. 643 (July–September, 2004), 330–342; citing the Mishnah Sanhedrin 3:3-4.

[47] Darrell L. Bock, “Jesus v. Sanhedrin: Why Jesus ‘Lost’ His Trial,” Christianity Today 42, no. 4 (April 6, 1998): 49.

[48] See Acts 7:2, 11, 12, 15, 19, 32, 38, 39, 44, 45 (two times).

[49] See Exod. 32:9; 33:3, 5; Lev. 26:41; Deut. 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 9:25-26; and Ezek. 44:7-9.

[50] Stephen had been using “our fathers” (Acts 7:11-12, 15, 19, 38-39, 44-45) but switched to “your fathers” to denounce his opponents (7:51-52).

[51] Berg, “Illegalities,” 330–342.

[52] Tertullian, The Apology, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 3:55.

[53] Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

[54] J. Goetzmann, “Conversion, Penitence, Repentance, Proselyte,” in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Colin Brown (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 1.357.

[55] Josephus, Antiquities 13.254–256.

[56] Ibid.

[57] Fritz Graf, Magic in the Ancient World, trans. Franklin Philip, Revealing Antiquity 10 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 1.

[58] Ibid., 2.

[59] At no other time does the New Testament imply that the Holy Spirit comes through the agency of man.

[60] Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23.2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, 1:348.

[61] Ibid., 1.27.1–2, 1:352.

[62] Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1:591.

[63] By the sixth century AD, some manuscripts had added, “And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God’” (Acts 8:37, NASB).

[64] The earliest New Testament manuscript evidence for the reading is in the sixth century AD; however, it’s clear that the early church knew a tradition of this confession. Irenaeus (AD 130–202) wrote, “The believing eunuch . . . said, ‘I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God’” (Against Heresies 3.12.8).

[65] The term “snatched away” (harpazō [726]) can describe making off with loot (Matt. 12:29; 13:19), taking prey (John 10:12, 28, 29), taking a prisoner (John 6:15; Acts 23:10), being “caught up” in a visionary state (2 Cor. 12:2), or being caught up into heaven (1 Thes. 4:17; Rev. 12:5).

[66] D. James Kennedy, Evangelism Explosion, 4th ed. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 1996), 56.

[67] Everard Meynell, The Life of Francis Thompson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 58.

[68] Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1934), 43–44.

[69] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, eds., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, electronic ed. of the 2nd ed. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 1:360.

[70] John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck, and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983), 377–378.

[71] Obviously, this is not Judas Iscariot, who had committed suicide by this time. Judas (the Greek rendering of Judah), was an extremely popular name in the first century because it was the name of the patriarch for whom the tribe of Judah was named. Genesis 29:35 connects his name to the idea of praise (cf. Gen. 49:8).

[72] Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), Gal. 1:18.

[73] A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1986), 137.

[74] Alan Redpath, in an unpublished sermon delivered in Chafer Chapel at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1959.

[75] I. Howard Marshall, The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Commentary, reprint ed., Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 5 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 179.

[76] A third might be 2 Kings 4:18-37, which tells of a woman who laid her dead son on Elisha’s bed in the upper room of the family home, the prophet’s guest quarters. She had complete trust that the boy would be returned to life because God had promised her a son. So she sent for Elisha. Through prayer, Elisha raised the boy to life.

[77] John Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 174.

[78] Walter A. Elwell and Philip W. Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 243–244.

[79] See Darrell L. Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 385–387.

[80] See discussion in Alexander Kyrychenko, The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2014), 38–39.

[81] Alexander Whyte, Bible Characters, vol. 5, Stephen to Timothy (Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1901), 36–37.

[82] See Paul’s perspective on clean and unclean foods in Romans 14:14; 1 Corinthians 10:19; Ephesians 2:11-22; and 1 Timothy 4:3-4.

[83] I. Howard Marshall, Acts, 186.

[84] Robertson, Word Pictures, Acts 10:17.

[85] Many pagan temples hired men of science and paid them large sums to engineer illusions.

[86] The preposition is pros [4314] with an accusative object, which is a marker of opposition.

[87] Jack Finegan, The Archaeology of the New Testament: The Mediterranean World of the Early Christian Apostles (New York: Routledge, 1981), 52.

[88] Richard Wallace and Wynne Williams, The Three Worlds of Paul of Tarsus (New York: Routledge, 1998), 181–182.

[89] C. J. Hemer, “Tarsus,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. Bromiley, 4:736.

[90] See Finegan, Archaeology of the New Testament, 51–52.

[91] Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988), 2038.

[92] See Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1898), 2:638–639.

[93] He actually died in October of AD 54 as a victim of assassination: “Now Claudius Caesar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days; and a report went about that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina” (Josephus, Antiquities 20.148).

[94] Cassius Dio, Roman History 11.11; Suetonius, Divus Claudius 18.2; and Tacitus, Annals 12.43.

[95] Josephus, Antiquities 20.51–53.

[96] Herod Agrippa I (9 BC–AD 44) gained power over Galilee in AD 39 and over Judah and Samaria in AD 40, ruling until his death in AD 44. Claudius served as Roman emperor from AD 41–54. They had to deal with a series of famines during his reign, which explains Luke’s “about that time” to refer to events that related to both Herod’s and Claudius’s reigns.

[97] Ibid., 105–109.

[98] See Harold W. Hoehner, “Herodian Dynasty,” in Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, eds., The Oxford Companion to the Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 283.

[99] For a detailed account of the life and legacy of Herod Antipas and the Herodian dynasty, see the magisterial work of Harold W. Hoehner, Herod Antipas, Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 17 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).

[100] In truth, Agrippa I was Jewish by the slimmest margin. His paternal grandmother was Jewish; his other three grandparents were Idumean, descendants of Esau.

[101] Hoehner, “Herodian Dynasty,” 283.

[102] Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:1; see also Berg, “Illegalities,” 330–342.

[103] Very often, wealthy families adopted orphans, giving them a place to live in exchange for helping maintain the home. Technically “servants,” they were really unofficial members of the household.

[104] Tremper Longman III, ed. The Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013), 69.

[105] Bock, Acts, 428–429.

[106] This particular portion of the Talmud was not completed until AD 500 at the earliest. It nevertheless reflects a fairly stable body of traditional teaching.

[107] Josephus, Antiquities 19.8.1 (338).

[108] Ibid., 19.8.2 (343).

[109] Josephus, Antiquities 19.8.2 (343–346).

[110] Robyn Tracy, “Syria,” in Graeco-Roman Setting, ed. David W. J. Gill and Conrad Gempf, The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 246.

[111] Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sotah, Folio 41a, trans. Rev. A. Cohen, ed. Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein.

[112] Ibid.

[113] Ibid., 19.8.2 (346)

[114] Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 2:93.

[115] See Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4, 19; 19:8, 9; 20:7, 9; 24:12, 25.

[116] F. B. Meyer, Christ in Isaiah (London: Morgan & Scott, 1917), 9.

[117] Magnus Zetterholm, The Formation of Christianity in Antioch: A Social-Scientific Approach to the Separation between Judaism and Christianity, Routledge Early Church Monographs (New York: Routledge, 2003), 41.

[118] Ibid., 42.

[119] Glanville Downey, A History of Antioch in Syria: From Seleucus to the Arab Conquest (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961), 61.

[120] Ibid., 19, 105.

[121] Adam Kolman Marshak, The Many Faces of Herod the Great (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 145–146.

[122] Trevor Bryce, The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia (New York: Routledge, 2009), 524.

[123] Vassos Karageorghis, Cyprus: From the Stone Age to the Romans, Ancient Peoples and Places 101 (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1982), 172.

[124] William Smith, A Concise Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, ed. F. Warre Cornish (London: John Murray, 1898), 517.

[125] Arndt, Danker, and Bauer, eds., Lexicon, 902.

[126] Philip de Souza, Piracy in the Graeco-Roman World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 97.

[127] Mal Couch, ed., A Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1999), 307.

[128] David Livingstone, quoted in The Contagion of Character, Newell Dwight Hillis (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1911), 229.

[129] G. Walter Hansen, “Galatia,” in Graeco-Roman Setting, ed. Gill and Gempf, 384.

[130] John B. Polhill, Paul and His Letters (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1999), 88.

[131] Stephen Mitchell and Marc Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch: The Site and Its Monuments (London: Duckworth, 1998), 3, 15.

[132] Alfred Hoerth and John McRay, Bible Archaeology: An Exploration of the History and Culture of Early Civilizations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 243.

[133] See Charles R. Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick (New York: Random House, 1983), 93.

[134] Clyde E. Fant and Mitchell G. Reddish, A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 228–229.

[135] William J. Larkin Jr., Acts, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, ed. Grant R. Osborne, vol. 5 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 208.

[136] Paul A. Hartog, “Lystra,” in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, ed. David Noel Freedman (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 834.

[137] Elwell and Beitzel, Encyclopedia, 1370.

[138] Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.970–1122.

[139] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Acts 14:11.

[140] See Gen. 37:29, 34; Num. 14:6; Josh. 7:6; Judg. 11:35; 2 Sam. 1:2, 11. Second Temple Judaism did this to signal rejection of blasphemy (Matt. 26:65; Mark 14:63-64; Mishnah Sanhedrin 7.5; 1 Macc. 2:14; 3:47).

[141] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 364.

[142] For discussion on the Jewish practice of proselyte baptism, see Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church, 76–82.

[143] See Yohanan Aharoni, The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, rev. and enlarged ed., trans. A. F. Rainey (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1979), 45–54.

[144] Michael Lewis, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003).

[145] Albert Pietersma and Benjamin Wright, eds., A New English Translation of the Septuagint, trans. George E. Howard (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), Amos 9:11-12.

[146] Timothy J. Keller, foreword to Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010), xv–xvi.

[147] Early manuscripts lack the words “But it seemed good to Silas to remain there” (15:34); perhaps later copyists inserted them to explain the presence of Silas in Antioch later (15:40).

[148] Silas was also known as Silvanus (2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1).

[149] Robertson, Word Pictures, Acts 15:39.

[150] Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, St. Paul’s Ephesus: Texts and Archaeology (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), 36–37; David French, “Acts and the Roman Roads of Asia Minor,” in Graeco-Roman Setting, ed. Gill and Gempf, 52.

[151] Konstantinos P. Moustakas, “Kavalla,” in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, ed. Nigel Wilson (New York: Routledge, 2006), 403–404.

[152] James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 281–282.

[153] Robert B. Hughes and J. Carl Laney, Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1990), 599.

[154] This is quite likely in light of the expulsion of Jews from Rome that occurred around this time (c. AD 49) under Claudius (cf. Acts 18:2).

[155] See Mark J. Olson, “Lydia,” in Watson E. Mills et al., eds., Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1990), 531–532.

[156] Leonard Victor Rutgers, “Roman Policy toward the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century C.E.,” in Judaism and Christianity in First-Century Rome, ed. Karl P. Donfried and Peter Richardson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 94, 107–108.

[157] Ibid., 105–107.

[158] Winston Churchill, in his speech to Harrow School, 29 October 1941.

[159] John Powell, Fully Human, Fully Alive: A New Life through a New Vision (Thomas More Association, 1989), 11–12.

[160] Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:490.

[161] Yannis Lolos, “Via Egnatia after Egnatius: Imperial Policy and Inter-regional Contacts,” in Greek and Roman Networks in the Mediterranean, ed. Irad Malkin, Christy Constantakopoulou, and Katerina Panagopoulou (New York: Routledge, 2009), 267–269.

[162] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Circles,” in Essays: First Series (1841).

[163] See Leon Morris, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 2.

[164] William E. Dunstan, Ancient Rome (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), 159.

[165] Cicero, In Pisonem 89.

[166] David H. Conwell, Connecting a City to the Sea: The History of the Athenian Long Walls (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 13.

[167] Barclay, Acts, 152.

[168] Richard Wallace, “Epicurus 341–270 BC,” in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, ed. Wilson, 263.

[169] This also alludes to a poem titled “Hymn to Zeus,” which was written by Cleanthes, a disciple of Zeno, the father of Stoicism. Paul demonstrated that the Stoics of Athens had drifted from their founder by claiming it was unreasonable to believe that a god would interact with creation.

[170] Aratus, Phaenomena 5.

[171] William Barclay, A Beginner’s Guide to the New Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 30.

[172] William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (Boston: Little, Brown, 1854), 1:678.

[173] See a detailed description of Corinth in the first century in “The Scholarly Quest for Paul’s Church at Corinth: A Critical Survey,” in Christianity at Corinth: The Quest for the Pauline Church, ed. Edward Adams and David G. Horrell (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), 2–8.

[174] Bromiley, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1:773.

[175] See Bruce, The Book of the Acts, 352.

[176] Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on John (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014), 32–34.

[177] Stanley D. Toussaint, “Acts,” in Bible Knowledge Commentary, ed. Walvoord, Zuck, and Dallas, 409.

[178] 1,127,332,800,000 gallons.

[179] For a detailed description of Hoover Dam, see Joseph E. Stevens, Hoover Dam: An American Adventure (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988).

[180] Craig S. Keener, Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 3:597.

[181] Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids, eds., Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, The IVP Bible Dictionary Series 7 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), s.v. “Ephesus.”

[182] Plutarch, Plutarch’s Morals, trans. William W. Goodwin (Boston: Little, Brown, 1878), 5:414.

[183] Daniel W. Graham, “Heraclitus,” in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, ed. Wilson, 346–347.

[184] Martin and Davids, Dictionary, s.v. “Ephesus.”

[185] Robertson, Word Pictures, Acts 19:11.

[186] G. Campbell Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles, reprint ed. (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1965), 350.

[187] Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 198.

[188] Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary, Acts 19:32.

[189] Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences (New York: Ishi Press, 2010), 142–143.

[190] Ibid., 145.

[191] Fant and Reddish, A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey, 259–260.

[192] The preposition dia [1223] with the genitive form of pneuma [4151].

[193] Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Saying It Well: Touching Others with Your Words (New York: Faith Words, 2012), 75.

[194] J. Grant Howard Jr., Knowing God’s Will and Doing It! (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976), 66.

[195] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” in Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Nashville: American Renaissance, 2010), 36.

[196] Elbert Hubbard, Love, Life and Work: Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One’s Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others (self-published, 1906), 54.

[197] Josephus, Antiquities 19.6.1 (293–294).

[198] Lee I. Levine, Jerusalem: Portrait of a City in the Second Temple Period (538 B.C.E.–70 C.E.) (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2002), 194–196.

[199] Josephus, Wars of the Jews 2.13.5 (263).

[200] Rudyard Kipling, “If —,” in Rewards and Fairies (New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1911), 181–182.

[201] Constable, Expository Notes, Acts 23:4-5.

[202] Josephus, Antiquities 20.180.

[203] Ibid., 20.165.

[204] Philo of Alexandria, On the Creation 105, in The Works of Philo: Complete and Unabridged, trans. Charles Duke Yonge (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 16.

[205] Emil Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. and ed. Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Matthew Black (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 1:459–460.

[206] Rainer Riesner, Paul’s Early Period: Chronology, Mission Strategy, Theology, trans. Doug Stott (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 104–105; Gerhard A. Krodel, Acts, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986), 434–435.

[207] Josephus, Antiquities 20.162–164, 179.

[208] Tacitus, Histories 5.9.

[209] Josephus, Antiquities 20.182.

[210] Josephus, Wars of the Jews 2.224.

[211] Daniel R. Schwartz, Studies in the Jewish Background of Christianity, WUNT 60 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992), 226–227.

[212] Wise, Your Churning Place, 9–10.

[213] Adapted from “Origin of Procrastination,” New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations, ed. Elon Foster (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1870), 1:527.

[214] The infinitive echō [2192], “to have,” acts adverbially to modify “to watch or guard.” I take it to be an adverb of result (Wallace, Grammar, 592).

[215] Tacitus, Histories 5.9.

[216] Ironside, Acts, Ironside Expository Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 323.

[217] Josephus, Antiquities 20.142–143.

[218] Constable, Expository Notes, Acts 24:27.

[219] Josephus, Antiquities 20.185–188.

[220] Ibid., 20.179.

[221] Ibid., 20.205–207.

[222] V. Raymond Edman, The Disciplines of Life (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1982), 82.

[223] Constable, Expository Notes, Acts 24:27.

[224] Josephus, Antiquities 20.145–147. Josephus became close friends with Agrippa II, who provided inside information for Antiquities and Wars of the Jews, praised him for his accuracy, and commissioned copies for himself.

[225] Constable, Expository Notes, Acts 24:27.

[226] Pliny the Younger, “Letter 97,” in The Selected Letters of Pliny: Pliny the Younger, trans. William Melmoth, rev. F. C. T. Bosanquet (Lawrence, KS: Digireads Publishing, 2010), 136.

[227] Louw and Nida, eds., Lexicon, 738.

[228] The Greek word chiliarchos [5506] means “commander of a thousand.”

[229] Lionel Casson, Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 164.

[230] Ibid., 166.

[231] Herodotus, Histories 2.5.2, in Herodotus. With an English Translation by A. D. Godley, ed. A. D. Godley (Medford, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920).

[232] Hippocrates, Precepts 1, in Hippocrates Collected Works I, ed. W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923), 313.

[233] Larkin, Acts, 381.

[234] Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 2.47, ed. John Bostock (Medford, MA: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1855), 1075.

[235] Colin J. Hemer, “First Person Narrative in Acts 27–28,” Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985): 79–109.

[236] Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962), 73–74.

[237] Winston S. Churchill, “A Speech at the Lord Mayor’s Day Luncheon at the Mansion House, London, 10 November 1942,” in The End of the Beginning (London: Cassell, 1943), 265–266.

[238] Ibid.

[239] Cicero, In Verrem 4.52, in The Orations of M. Tullius Cicero, trans. C. D. Yonge (London: George Bell & Sons, 1903).

[240] H. F. Helmolt, The World’s History: A Survey of Man’s Record, vol. 4, The Mediterranean Nations (London: William Heinemann, 1902), 331.

[241] Horace, Satires 1.5, in The Works of Horace, trans. C. Smart (Medford, MA: Harper & Brothers, 1863).

[242] Ibid.

[243] C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Divus Claudius 25, in Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: An English Translation, Augmented with the Biographies of Contemporary Statesmen, Orators, Poets, and Other Associates, ed. Alexander Thomson (Medford, MA: Gebbie, 1889). Some scholars consider “Chrestus” to be a misinformed reference to “Christos.”

[244] Brian Rapske, Paul in Roman Custody, The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting 3 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 161.

[245] F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 30.

[246] Luke 1:33; 4:43; 6:20; 7:28; 8:1, 10; 9:2, 11, 27, 60, 62; 10:9, 11; 11:2, 20; 12:31-32; 13:18, 20, 28-29; 14:15; 16:16; 17:20-21; 18:16-17, 24-25, 29-30; 19:11; 21:31; 22:16, 18, 29; 23:42, 51; Acts 1:3-6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31.

[247] Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014).