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By Root 1306 0

tend to lump the early Christians together as one big, happy family, working in unison to spread the faith, much of Acts and the rest of the New Testament deal with the tension and rivalries between two factions. The Jewish followers of Jesus initially preferred to remain Jews and retain their laws and traditions. They believed that anyone who wanted to follow Jesus must convert to Judaism first. Opposing them were those, like the zealous Paul, who wanted to take the “good news” to the non-Jewish world, sharply breaking with Jewish Law. The dispute between these factions, the first of many controversies and divisions in early Christianity, led to a council of the apostles in Jerusalem in the year 49 CE, described in Acts. With Peter agreeing that the message should be taken to the Gentile world, this council accepted that Gentiles who wished to follow Jesus did not have to comply with strict Jewish requirements, such as most dietary laws and circumcision. James, mentioned in Acts as the brother of Jesus, now taking a leading position, also accepts the arrangement.

In other words, there’s some real Good News, Christians! You can have that burger and shake. And you can rest easy about that awkward little surgical procedure.

Luke and Acts were traditionally thought to have been written by a companion who traveled with Paul. The more popular current view is that the author was not an actual companion of Paul but a later Christian who had access to a “diary” kept by someone who did travel with Paul. Since Paul’s presumed execution, sometime in the late sixties, is not mentioned, scholars reasoned that Acts was written before Paul’s death. But the book must have been written later than Luke, which is almost certainly later than Mark, believed to have been written around 65 CE. The result is to date Luke’s two volumes to sometime between 80 and 100 CE.

BIBLICAL VOICES

When suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at the sound they all assembled, and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking in his own language. They were amazed and astonished. “Surely,” they said, “all these men speaking are Galileans? How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; residents of Rome—Jews and proselytes alike—Cretants and Arabs, we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.” Everyone was amazed and perplexed; they asked one another what it all meant. Some, however, laughed it off, “They have been drinking too much new wine,” they said. (Acts 2:2-12 NJB)

How do you tell the world the “good news” if you don’t speak their language?

It was just an average day around the house for the disciples and a few other followers. They were sitting there when, all of a sudden, “tongues of fire” touched each of the followers. They began to speak in other languages. Some people who saw them thought they were drunk. This was the arrival of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised. It was a sort of reverse Tower of Babel scene, because the disciples could now go and spread the word everywhere. To Christians, this was “the birthday of the church” on Pentecost. But many Christians may be surprised to discover that Pentecost is another Christian celebration affixed to a Jewish holiday, once again showing the deep affinity between the two faiths. Pentecost, from the Greek word denoting “fiftieth,” is used to describe the Hebrew “Feast of Weeks” (Shavuot), which takes place fifty days after Passover begins. Originally an agricultural festival marking the