The book of Acts emphasizes that Paul was a man with a mindset toward the ministry of the message. My chart, Paul the Prisoner, explains this emphasis under two major headings:
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 55:6-9 records the wonderful blessedness to which God graciously invites every sinner to come:
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Comparing these verses with Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” points to the following truths:
—Unrighteous people must forsake their thoughts either that there is no God (cf. Ps. 14:1), or that He is unable to be found, or that He is hopelessly far away (cf. Acts 17:27-28).
—Unrighteous people must stop thinking of God merely, solely, or primarily as the One who punishes people for their sins.
—Unrighteous people must turn from false thinking that everyone will receive mercy and be pardoned in the end regardless of whether they seek after God and return to Him or not.
—Unrighteous people must forsake thinking that they will be able to find God whenever they see fit to do so—they must seek Him while He may be found and call on Him while He is near.
—The wicked must forsake their ways of not seeking after God and calling on Him
Let us all by faith seek now after the God who is and who rewards those who diligently seek Him by having mercy on and abundantly pardoning those who call on Him!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
With the 2012 election a little more than a year away, we will likely hear many politicians in the upcoming days utter somewhere in their speeches, “God bless America!” Only God will know how many of these utterances will reflect a true desire for divine blessing on the U.S. versus mere propaganda to try to win votes from religious and patriotic voters.
Of those who will declare their desire for God to bless America, perhaps very few, if any, will have foremost in their minds what would constitute true divine blessing of America: “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:26). May God truly bless America by turning away every one of us from our iniquities!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
While there are those who would make the evangelist a church-planter or equate him with the modern missionary, there is no real Biblical basis for such claims. The evangelist is a man of God who has been called of God to that particular ministry (Ephesians 4:11). A careful look at the life and ministry of Philip, the evangelist, reminds one of the ministries of the modern day evangelist. While his mode of travel may have undergone much change, his ministry remains much the same as described in Acts 8; mass evangelism, personal evangelism and an itinerant ministry in the churches.
—Ken Lynch, The Evangelist: His Life and Ministry to the Church and World, 24
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I believe that there is a great need today for more appreciation for the unique value of the book of Acts. The following list presents some of the key information that we as believers would have lacked had God had not given us this marvelous book.
—No knowledge of the dual way that Jesus infallibly proved that He was alive after His passion (1:3)
—No record of the birth of the Church (2:1-42)
—No knowledge of what God demands that all the house of Israel must know (2:36)
—No definitive knowledge that Psalm 2:1-2 was fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ (4:25-28)
—No statement in Scripture that explicitly links the title Savior for Jesus with the forgiveness of sins (5:31)
—No knowledge of Stephen’s vision of Jesus in heaven (7:55-56)
—No inspired record of the final words of any Christian martyr (7:56; 59-60)
—No record of an apostle’s raising someone from the dead (9:40)
—No specific knowledge of one aspect of the mission that Jesus gave to His apostles (10:42)
—No knowledge of the exceeding importance of the Cornelius’ account for understanding vital truths about Gentile salvation (15:1-18)
—No inspired statement about God’s first visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (15:14)
—No direct statement about what God has proved to all men by raising Jesus from the dead (17:31)
—No knowledge of Jesus’ saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (20:35)
—No knowledge about the only man in Scripture called an evangelist (21:8)
—No knowledge of the immense emphasis that Paul everywhere placed on his proclamation of repentance (26:19-20)
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The third edition of the Greek New Testament by the United Bible Societies includes two helpful appendices that treat how the New Testament authors used the Old Testament: Index of Quotations; Index of Allusions and Verbal Parallels.
My reading through the Septuagint has brought to light a number of additional passages that should be added to the latter index. The following discussion of one example illustrates the value of finding these additional allusions and verbal parallels.
Isaiah 26:14-15 speaks about dead people who will not live:
BGT Isaiah 26:14 οἱ δὲ νεκροὶ ζωὴν οὐ μὴ ἴδωσιν οὐδὲ ἰατροὶ οὐ μὴ ἀναστήσωσιν διὰ τοῦτο ἐπήγαγες καὶ ἀπώλεσας καὶ ἦρας πᾶν ἄρσεν αὐτῶν 15 πρόσθες αὐτοῖς κακά κύριε πρόσθες κακὰ πᾶσιν τοῖς ἐνδόξοις τῆς γῆς
LXE Isaiah 26:14 But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians by any means raise them up: therefore thou hast brought wrath upon them, and slain them, and hast taken away every male of them. Bring more evils upon them, O Lord; 15 bring more evils on the glorious ones of the earth.
KJV Isaiah 26:14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
NAU Isaiah 26:14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them. 15 You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.
John 3:36 has closely parallel teaching from Jesus:
SCR John 3:36 ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον• ὁ δὲ ἀπειθῶν τῷ υἱῷ, οὐκ ὄψεται ζωήν, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν.
KJV John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
BGT John 3:36 ὁ πιστεύων εἰς τὸν υἱὸν ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον• ὁ δὲ ἀπειθῶν τῷ υἱῷ οὐκ ὄψεται ζωήν, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μένει ἐπ᾽ αὐτόν.
NAU John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
The specific parallel of interest here concerns a denial of life for some people:
οἱ δὲ νεκροὶ ζωὴν οὐ μὴ ἴδωσιν (“But the dead shall not see life,” LXE)
ὁ δὲ ἀπειθῶν τῷ υἱῷ οὐκ ὄψεται ζωήν (“and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life,” KJV)
Although the subjects (οἱ νεκροὶ vs. ὁ ἀπειθῶν) differ in these verses, both use the same verb (ἴδωσιν and ὄψεται, which are both from ὁράω) and object (ζωὴν) to deny that certain people will see life. The context in the Greek of both verses speaks of God’s judgment on people, and putting the teaching of the two together suggests that Jesus may have had in view that those who die not believing in the Son will not see life in the resurrection of the just (cf. John 5:28-29).
If this analysis and interpretation of this parallel between these two passages are correct, adding an entry for Isaiah 26:15 matched with John 3:36 to the Index of Allusions and Verbal Parallels would seem warranted.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The book of Daniel records two times that a kingdom-wide verbal testimony was borne to the true God (4:1-3; 6:25-27). First, because God miraculously delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace (3:1-27), Nebuchadnezzar extolled Him:
“Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God” (3:28).
He also issued a remarkable decree:
“Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort” (3:29).
He then promoted these faithful Jews (3:30).
Daniel then records for us a striking kingdom-wide proclamation from the king:
“Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation” (4:1-3).
Second, Daniel later records in his book how God miraculously delivered him from the lions’ den (6:1-24). He then relates another kingdom-wide testimony that was borne to the true God:
“Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (6:25-27).
These records by Daniel show that the entire kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar and Darius received royal verbal testimony to the true God, the God who miraculously delivered His people!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Through a dramatic turn of events in the kingdom of Ahasuerus, Haman, who sought to have all the Jews exterminated, was instead put to death himself (Est. 3:1-7:10). Moreover, the king exalted Mordecai, whom Haman had plotted to kill (8:2-15).
How did this incredible reversal come about? Although the book of Esther never mentions God, Scriptural teaching elsewhere makes clear that God the Judge exalted Mordecai and abased Haman:
“I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted” (Ps. 75:4-10).
Through His marvelous intervention, the Judge brought kingdom-wide blessedness to the Jews:
“Then were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. . . . Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus . . . And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day” (8:9; 11-12a; 15-17c).
What’s more, He brought blessings upon many Gentiles as well at this time: “And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them” (8:17d). This fascinating statement merits close attention because it points to some glorious truths that could easily be overlooked.
First, the inspired writer of Esther highlights this conversion of many Gentiles by placing it at the end of this passage. Second, it points to the working of the Judge to bless both Jews and Gentiles, and not just Jews.
Third, this conversion record argues for the genuine devoutness of at least some Jews in the land because it is untenable to hold that God intervened in this breathtaking way so that many Gentiles converted to join an unfaithful or even apostate group of Jews. Had that been the case, this conversion record itself would be an anticlimactic ending to an otherwise glorious account of the working of God the Judge to exalt His people and abase their enemies.
Such pessimism about the Jews in Ahasuerus’ kingdom is unwarranted because no explicit data in the book conveys that the Jews at this time were without exception living unfaithfully to God. Furthermore, the mere lack of an explicit record of the mention of God’s name by the leading Jews in the book of Esther is not sufficient evidence to support such an assessment.
This interpretation is confirmed by the teaching of Psalm 75 and other Scripture (e.g., 1 Sam. 2:1-10) that the Judge acts to exalt the righteous, which implies that His intervention in the kingdom of Ahasuerus was to exalt at least some Jews who were righteous and trusted in Him. Regardless of whether Esther and Mordecai had been righteous prior to this point or not, God’s exaltation of Mordecai and the Jews points to the presence of at least some devout Jews in the kingdom at that time.
Let us praise God the Judge through whose working the wicked were abased, the righteous were exalted, and “many of the people of the land became Jews” (8:17d)!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
God is not explicitly mentioned in the book of Esther. The book, however, in a striking way reveals that testimony to the true God existed in every province of the Persian kingdom of Ahasuerus.
The book begins by mentioning that Ahasuerus reigned “from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred, and seven and twenty provinces” (1:1). Beginning with this first occurrence, the word province occurs 29 more times in the book.
Of the 30 occurrences of the word (both in the singular and the plural), explicit statements that pertain to all the provinces in the kingdom in one manner or another occur in six of the ten chapters of the book (cf. 1:1; 2:3; 3:8; 4:3; 8:5; 9:2). This data suggest an emphasis in Esther on matters that were of kingdom-wide importance.
Interestingly, the statement that reveals that there was a kingdom-wide testimony to the true God does not come from the king, Esther, or Mordecai. Instead, it comes strikingly in the middle of the slanderous statement made by Haman to the king:
“And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them” (3:8).
Haman testified that a particular group of people (the Jews) were “scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces” of the kingdom. We have no reason to doubt the validity of his statement, and the fact that he later authorized letters to be sent to all the provinces to have the Jews in each province be exterminated confirms it (3:12-15).[1]
After stating that these people were present in all the provinces, Haman declared that they were distinct from all the other people of the kingdom because their laws differed from those of everyone else. Saying this, he testified that the Jews were living distinctly from all the others in the kingdom by following their distinctive laws.
The distinctive laws of the Jews, of course, bore abundant testimony to the true God (cf. Exod. 20:1-17). Haman’s testimony, therefore, reveals that there was a kingdom-wide testimony to the true God in the days of Ahasuerus!
[1] Many later references confirm this understanding that there were such Jews in every province of the kingdom (4:3; 8:5, 13, 17; 9:2; 12-16; 20; 28).
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
What does Haman have to do with head coverings and 1 Corinthians 11:1-16? An examination of the LXX of Esther 6 brings out a correlation between these seemingly otherwise unrelated entities that has important bearing on the interpretation of this highly disputed NT passage.
Esther 6 records the dramatic reversal that resulted in Haman’s humiliation. Hearing the king speak of one whom he desired to honor, he thought that surely the king intended to honor him (6:6). To his great chagrin, he learned that the king ordained that Haman himself was to honor Mordecai, whom he greatly despised (6:10).
After he had fulfilled the king’s directives to honor Mordecai publicly (6:11), “Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered” (6:12). Plainly, this text is not declaring that he went to his home having hair on his head. Nor is it asserting either that he had long hair on his head as he went home or that he somehow miraculously grew his hair long.
Rather, this verse records that because he had been humiliated, he headed home, draping an external covering over his head.
Furthermore, the LXX rendering of the verse reads as follows:
BGT Esther 6:12 ¶ ἐπέστρεψεν δὲ ὁ Μαρδοχαῖος εἰς τὴν αὐλήν Αμαν δὲ ὑπέστρεψεν εἰς τὰ ἴδια λυπούμενος κατὰ κεφαλῆς
LXE Esther 6:12 And Mardochaeus returned to the palace: but Aman went home mourning, and having his head covered.
KJV Esther 6:12 And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered.
NAU Esther 6:12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning, with his head covered.
The exact phrase κατὰ κεφαλῆς found here occurs in only one other passage in the Bible in Greek:
BGT 1 Corinthians 11:4 πᾶς ἀνὴρ προσευχόμενος ἢ προφητεύων κατὰ κεφαλῆς ἔχων καταισχύνει τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ.
SCR 1 Corinthians 11:4 πᾶς ἀνὴρ προσευχόμενος ἢ προφητεύων, κατὰ κεφαλῆς ἔχων καταισχύνει τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ.
KJV 1 Corinthians 11:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
NAU 1 Corinthians 11:4 Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head.
Moreover, Hatch and Redpath (κατακαλύπτειν, 733) report that another hand of the Septuagint for Esther 6:12 reads, κατακεκαλυμμένος κεφαλήν. This variant reading has the perfect passive participle of the key verb used in 1 Corinthians 11:6 and 7 for both a man’s and a woman’s covering his or her head (κατακαλύπτω):
BGT 1 Corinthians 11:6 εἰ γὰρ οὐ κατακαλύπτεται γυνή, καὶ κειράσθω• εἰ δὲ αἰσχρὸν γυναικὶ τὸ κείρασθαι ἢ ξυρᾶσθαι, κατακαλυπτέσθω.
SCR 1 Corinthians 11:6 εἰ γὰρ οὐ κατακαλύπτεται γυνή, καὶ κειράσθω• εἰ δὲ αἰσχρὸν γυναικὶ τὸ κείρασθαι ἢ ξυρᾶσθαι, κατακαλυπτέσθω.
KJV 1 Corinthians 11:6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
NAU 1 Corinthians 11:6 For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.
BGT 1 Corinthians 11:7 Ἀνὴρ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ὀφείλει κατακαλύπτεσθαι τὴν κεφαλὴν εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα θεοῦ ὑπάρχων• ἡ γυνὴ δὲ δόξα ἀνδρός ἐστιν.
SCR 1 Corinthians 11:7 ἀνὴρ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ὀφείλει κατακαλύπτεσθαι τὴν κεφαλήν, εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων• γυνὴ δὲ δόξα ἀνδρός ἐστιν.
KJV 1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
NAU 1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
This evidence from the LXX therefore supports holding that the covering in view in 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 is an external head covering for both a man and a woman.
See also A Widespread, False Assertion about Corinthian Prostitutes and Paul’s Teaching about Head Coverings
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
