Greg Lanier on Taking the Gospel into the Empire (Season 2, Episode 9)

August 28, 2024 by: Nancy Guthrie

This article is part of the Conversations on the Bible with Nancy Guthrie series.

The Kingdom of God

Join Nancy Guthrie as she talks with professor and author Greg Lanier about the theme of the kingdom of God in the book of Acts and about the Greco-Roman and Jewish world behind the New Testament that influenced the writing of Acts.

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Nancy Guthrie

Saved, by bestselling author Nancy Guthrie, gives individuals and small groups a friendly, theologically reliable, and robust guide to understanding the book of Acts.

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Topics Addressed in This Interview:

00:47 - Understanding the Context of the Book of Acts

Nancy Guthrie
Welcome to season two of Conversations on the Bible with Nancy Guthrie. I’m Nancy Guthrie, author of Saved: Experiencing the Promise of the Book of Acts. In the book of Acts, we see the enthroned Lord Jesus at work by his Spirit through the apostles. They are taking the message that salvation is available to all who will call upon the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And it is accomplishing its intended purpose—people are being saved. On this podcast, I’m having conversations with people who can help us to see more clearly the ways in which we see God working out his salvation purposes in the world, particularly in the pages of the book of Acts. My guest today is Dr. Gregory Lanier, associate professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. Greg teaches courses related to New Testament exegesis and interpretation, Greek, and preaching. He is also an associate pastor (part time) at River Oaks Church, and he is ordained in the PCA. Greg, thank you so much for being willing to lend us your expertise as we’re trying to gain a better understanding of the book of Acts.

Greg Lanier
Thanks for having me. It’s good to be with you.

Nancy Guthrie
Greg is the author of numerous books, and a couple of them have import to our discussion. He has a book called Old Made New: A Guide to the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. And we’re certainly seeing, as we work our way through the book of Acts, that Luke, and then the speakers in Acts (Peter and Paul), are so dependent on the Old Testament in what they write.

Greg Lanier
And actually, there is probably more relevance to the book of Acts. I do have a book coming out later this year that deals with the Greco-Roman and Jewish world behind the New Testament and how it directly influences the writing of the New Testament.

Nancy Guthrie
Well, then I’m talking to the right person on the topic we’re talking about today, because I didn’t even know that when I asked you to do this. But I knew you would offer expertise in this, but clearly if you’re working on that book you’ve really had your head in this topic that we’re here to talk about today. What I really wanted to get a sense from you was as I worked my way through the book of Acts, we’re witnessing Paul and his ministry companions going ever deeper into that Greco-Roman world. They’ve left Jerusalem, they’ve left the area of Samaritans, and they’ve even left the era of God-fearing Gentiles. They’ve moved into the area of pagan Gentiles, and they’re just working their way deeper and deeper into the Greco-Roman world. One thing we see about the book of Acts is this strong theme in the book of Acts of the kingdom of God. And as you read through the book of Acts, you just become very aware that they’re taking the message of that kingdom deep into the heart of an already established kingdom, a world power of that day, and that is the Roman Empire. And so we’re hoping you can really help us to understand some of the implications of that. Now, many of us have well-trained instincts to come to the Bible, and we read it and we (try to, at least) make a leap very quickly to, What does this mean for me? How can I apply this to my life? And that’s not a terrible instinct because we do want to apply the Bible to our lives. But will you talk to us first about the first step that perhaps we should take when reading the Bible to try to understand the meaning of a particular text to its first audience?

Greg Lanier
And that’s particularly important for the book of Acts. It’s true for every book, but you could even argue it’s probably most acute for Acts in a certain way. But I think with that step you’re talking about, and I was trying to think of an analogy. Imagine if Scripture were written right now. Let’s say Jesus came in this time frame and you have the apostolic movement starting now. You’re going to have Paul interacting with current geopolitical events. Maybe he’s visiting D. C., maybe he’s visiting New York—this sort of modern equivalence of his own day—and he’s interacting with the philosophies of this day, maybe a sports culture, or maybe Taylor Swift. He’s interacting with these big figures because that’s what he did in his own day. And then imagine it’s written now, using that kind of cultural background, and then fast forward 2,000 years. Imagine trying to read that and just immediately apply it to your life without knowing something about what’s been happening in the US or Europe or Africa or whatever in the present day. You don’t know who these names are, and you don’t understand what the political situation is and the economic situation and entertainment and all the big things that shape life that Paul or Peter or even Jesus were interacting with. That would be really weird. You wouldn’t make any sense of that, or at least you can make some sense of it, but you wouldn’t be able to fully understand what exactly he was talking about if you don’t know something about this time period. And so that’s what we face when we’re reading the New Testament. It’s even more amplified when you’re reading the Old Testament. You have to know something about what’s happening when these real people are walking the hills of Palestine or Athens or Rome or what have you and interacting with all these different things. And so to be able to draw analogies from the first century to today, which is the right thing to do, that is the right instinct to say, "Hey, we struggle with the same kinds of fallen conditions and the same kinds of issues that they did." That’s a right instinct. But you have to actually know what you’re talking about in their day for you to be able to make that leap over that gap, if you will. And the book of Acts is super important. In fact, you would have to add Luke’s Gospel, because even from the very beginning he’s mentioning Augustus and then he mentions Tiberius. You’ve got Claudius, you’ve got all these religious or political figures. He’s mentioning stoicism, epicureanism. And if you don’t know at least something about those things, then you’re not going to be able to really responsibly handle the book of acts in particular, and even Luke’s Gospel. Because Luke is just a person who is very steeped in that world. In fact, the reason why I think it matters is he is trying to, in this particular situation, and I think it’s true across Scripture, but he is trying to apply the gospel on the stage of world history to show that the people of God and the kingdom of God is advancing in real events. And there’s a context and it matters and it shapes things. Paul appeals to his citizenship, and that matters because that shapes how his life goes. So I think Luke expects us to be able to understand, at least at some level, what Paul’s going through and what the early church is going through for us to bridge that gap and to do it well. You can probably get away with less discipline when you’re just doing the Psalms. Those things have this evergreen nature that we don’t often know the context. And so it’s fine to go read Psalm 1 and apply it. You can do that without knowing a lot about what’s happening in the Bronze Age. But you can’t do it as well with the book of Acts. I think we have to develop that instinct. Sometimes that stuff feels boring and nerdy, and it’s like a Wikipedia article, but actually, if you spend the time doing it, it really brings the situation alive. And then you’re actually able to say, "Wait a second! I really am like that. Athens is like today, and here’s how we can make these kinds of connections."

Nancy Guthrie
You could get there, but take the right route to get there.

Greg Lanier
Exactly. We are also in a church that is unfolding on a world stage, just like Paul and Peter and James and those guys were. And so redemptive history develops against the background and is shaped by world history. That’s true then and it’s true now. And so it helps us to see that we’re in the same kind of boat. It might look different and there might be different issues, but the way they respond using Scripture, using these insights from the Old Testament or what have you, we should be doing the same thing. So there’s actually a lot in that that we can learn in terms of how they are interacting with their world and then how Scripture documents that and what we can do with it.

09:16 - Cultural Barriers to Evangelizing the Gentiles

Nancy Guthrie
They are to be his witnesses first in Jerusalem, to Judea Samaria, and then to the end of the earth. And as we read through the book, it almost seems as if, especially as we work our way through those early chapters, like they don’t really get the implications of what that is going to mean for them, at least not at first. And we find them actually very resistant to taking the gospel first to God-fearing Gentiles and then later to pagan Gentiles. So can you help us understand what kinds of things would have made that not just difficult but perhaps for some of those early Christians even unthinkable that they’re going to take the gospel to these pagan Gentiles?

Greg Lanier
It’s an interesting question. I do think within the early Christian movement there were differing opinions as to what their game plan is. And of course, Acts 1:8, which is what you’re referring to, really is just a rehash of what Jesus says in Luke 24:44–47. He basically says the same thing. It’s kind of re-narrated. And so they have their pretty clear marching orders—go from Jerusalem and go out to the ends of the earth. And in certain respects, that’s exactly the structure of Acts. That’s what they do. They do Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then when Paul gets to Rome, they’re sort of symbolically at the epicenter of the ends of the earth. Because once you get to Rome, you have access to anything, really. And I think you’re right that they didn’t fully grasp what that would mean. It’s not necessarily clear to me that they all were resistant to it. And the reason why I would mention that is yes, for the first months or perhaps the first year or so, they’re camping out mostly in Jerusalem. That’s where they had their source of power, if you will. I don’t mean that in a negative way, but that’s kind of where the church was growing first. They had the Pentecost event in chapter 2, and they got thousands of believers, and that’s the hotbed of this new movement. Of course, it wasn’t smooth sailing. It’s not like they necessarily want to just stay there because it’s easy. They’re getting thrown in prison all the time. But after Stephen’s martyrdom, it’s quite striking. Immediately, they just start going. It’s quite fascinating. In chapter 8, after his death the church starts spreading. They first go to Samaria, really without hesitation, and they go and evangelize the Samaritans. Peter then at first he has that like daytime experience. He’s hungry, he has that dream of, "Rise, kill, and eat." And he’s not so much resistant at that point to dine with the guests that Cornelius sends to him; he’s resistant about the food. And he actually is more than happy to host them. It’s quite interesting. He’s just like, "God, why am I allowed to eat bacon and shrimp now? I don’t get it." And then he realizes, "Oh, God has declared people clean, not food." And really, after that moment I don’t detect from the apostles much hesitation to go to Gentiles or what have you. But you do see a lot of pushback from others. Immediately, Peter is just beat up verbally, and eventually physically, by folks that would have been his friends—Jewish background, Pharisee leaning, but Christians who say, "Wait a second. You can’t go do that." And he’s like, "Yeah, but I did." And they’re like, "No, no, no, no. We don’t do that kind of thing." And that sort of escalates and ultimately culminates in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. But even after that, everywhere Paul goes, he and Barnabas are more than happy to go, and everyone’s more than happy to see them go. But it’s the kind of traditionalists, particularly those who are the circumcision party or the Pharisee party, who were still Jesus believers—so they’re insiders—they’re the ones who are like, "No, no, no, no. This is not what we’re doing here." And that creates friction throughout. So you do see folks within the ranks of Christianity want to press the brake pedal because they’re not ready to let Gentiles come in on the same terms. But I’m surprised, actually, when you see Philip just goes straight to Samaria. Or Peter, really without hesitation, preach Jesus to Cornelius and his family and get them wet. Paul going from persecuting Jewish background Christians to, "All right. Send me out." He had an eagerness because I really feel like by then they had gotten the memo from Jesus. And actually, a lot of it goes back to how they were able to read the Old Testament and see this promise of bringing in Gentiles isn’t something new. In fact, it goes back to Amos, according to James in Acts 15. It goes back to Abraham in Genesis 15. You could even argue it goes all the way back to Adam. And so it’s almost like once those insights really percolate for a while, they’re like, "All right. We’re on. Game on." Now, they have to figure out what this means in terms of they used to eat food sacrificed to idols. So they were like, "What do we do with that?" But in terms of the basic principles, they’re good to go.

Nancy Guthrie
Maybe the difference, though, is that yes, we are all for bringing Gentiles in, but when we do get to Acts 15, we realize the crux of the issue comes to the fore, does it not? The issue is how do they come through that door? Do they actually come into Judaism first? Is that the requirement for them to come to Christ, to come to Judaism first?

Greg Lanier
Yeah, and really there’s two intertwined issues in that whole scene. When Paul and Barnabas are in Antioch and these people come down from Jerusalem, they say in order to be saved—and I do take the view that they actually mean that. It’s not simply like, "In order to go from JV to varsity." I actually think they mean, "To actually be saved, you must keep these external customs from the Mosaic law." I think they actually mean that. And so really what’s intertwined in that whole scene is two things. One that you’re mentioning, which is do you have to kind of look Jewish and sound Jewish to be part of this new thing (i.e. Do you have to undergo circumcision, eat the right foods, and so forth)? That is one issue. But the other issue is a much deeper issue, which is how are we actually saved to begin with? And the misconception that really drives the resistance among this internal group is that no, wait a second, we’re saved through Torah. And the fascinating thing about Acts 15 is that whenever Peter talks about Cornelius, whenever Paul and Barnabas share what’s been happening, when James the brother of Jesus steps up and sort of mic drops it with Amos 9 and says, "No, no, no. Here’s the issue." And then he sort of resolves everything. They realize that the same gospel solution solves both halves of the issue. One, it helps us realize there are no barriers to entry that are external. Those kinds of things—food laws, sabbath laws, that kind of stuff—those things have sort of reached their expiration date, and so we shouldn’t apply them to Gentiles. And in fact, we shouldn’t really apply them to Jews anymore either. And then they also realize, at the climax in Acts 15:11, is when Peter says, "We are saved the same way as they are, namely by faith." In other words, Jews are saved the same way that Gentiles are. And his big aha moment is like, "And that’s always been true." It’s not like Jews are saved by some sort of ritual, and then Gentiles can be saved by faith. No, we’re all saved the same way. That’s their big aha moment that sort of levels the playing field. So it’s quite intertwined, but it’s helpful to see the two different aspects of the issue. One is cultural—sort of like coming in the door, what jersey do you wear? And one is how actually are we saved? And the misconception is—and Paul, of course, has to deal with this even after that in Romans and Galatians in particular and a little bit of Philippians—no, no, we’re not saved by external works of the law. We can’t do them. We’re saved by justification by faith. So they’re kind of dealing with that even in Acts 15.

16:58 - A Clash of Kingdoms

Nancy Guthrie
As we move on from Acts 15 and the story continues, Paul and Barnabas travel deeper into the Roman world. They’re moving closer to Rome. We read about them arriving in Philippi and Thessalonica, Athens and Corinth, and you get the sense that they are taking the gospel of King Jesus into the territory claimed by another kingdom—the kingdom of Caesar. And as we read it, we’re preparing for a clash of kingdoms, which certainly does come. They face political as well as religious challenges to their gospel ministry. So will you talk to us a little bit about that clash of kingdoms as they move in closer to Rome?

Greg Lanier
Yeah, that’s exactly right. And in a certain sense, you could even argue that because even Judea was under the realm of the emperor, they’re not really protected from it, even in Jerusalem. But it does escalate for sure as they go from Jerusalem to Athens, and ultimately making their way to Rome. You do start to see this tremendous clash of worldviews, which I find to be so helpful because say what you want about the modern day of the church, but that feels very familiar. Regardless of what country you’re in, increasingly we find the claims of Jesus conflicting with the claims of our surrounding culture and political systems. Again, regardless of where you live. That’s where knowing something about the Greco-Roman world is so important, because in Acts 14, they’re in Lystra, and they run into a priest of Zeus. The people of Lystra think that Paul and Barnabas are Zeus and Hermes. And you’re like, "Okay, I kind of remember that from fifth grade." But it was a very real thing. They were confused for the gods, and there’s this whole background of what the local cult worship of Zeus there was like. In that city they actually have archeological records of that, that they actually did favor those particular deities and so forth, and there was a priest with a shrine there. Paul’s actually there, and he’s needling them a bit because he knows their worldview. And he has to simultaneously say, "Hey, I’m not actually a deity by the way." But he’s actually interacting with them in a way that shows that he’s pretty sophisticated. He knows their pagan religion. And then you get to Acts 16, and it’s a really bizarre scene where they bump into this little girl, and translations differ on this, but fundamentally what she has is a spirit of this ancient woman named Pythia or a Python spirit. And Pythia was really the original Oracle at Delphi. You’ve probably heard of the Oracle at Delphi. And so she was one who could give you the oracles of the gods, and she’s apparently somehow taken over this girl. And you’re like, "Wow! This is dark." It’s not just your average demon possession. This is a pagan deity possessing, or like the ventriloquist spirit, as some call it. And so they interact with her when he gets to Athens. You’re at the center of the old world. We read about Athens from grade school, and we know Aristotle and Plato and all of that. And Paul’s there; he’s kind of left alone there. Timothy runs up ahead. And he’s just kind of chilling, walking around. He sees statues to unknown gods, which we actually have remnants of things like that. And then he’s basically getting arrested by the politicians and taken to the Areopagus, but it’s because he has this theological debate with the Stoics and Epicureans. And again, Luke is just throwing all this out there, kind of assuming that we know. And so I’m secretly like, "Let me Wikipedia what the Stoics believed."

Nancy Guthrie
You don’t really use Wikipedia though, do you?

Greg Lanier
Of course not. No, I use very, very expensive books. But it matters because when you start to see his speech, and a lot of folks don’t know it. It’s weird because he doesn’t quote the Bible, although in every single line he is drawing at some level from the Old Testament. He is, in a very fascinating and skillful way, buttering up the Stoics in particular, and then just trashing their worldview. And he’s kind of doing the same thing with the Epicureans. All these backhanded compliments like, "Hey, we agree on this, but you guys say one thing and you actually don’t do it." So he’s just completely annihilating them, but it’s because he can get inside their worldview. And it just keeps playing out. Artemis of the Ephesians. There’s a riot that breaks out. The Roman court system—even in Acts 28, you have reference to Castor and Pollux, these very famous Roman deities. And so really, everywhere Paul goes he does start off in the synagogue. He always does that, even in Athens. But he cannot avoid running into all of these people who sincerely believe, or at least pay homage to at some level, not only Caesar as this kind of deified person but Zeus and Hermes and Artemis of the Ephesians and so on. It’s a very, very interesting expose of how Christianity clashes with every philosophical and religious system, because you are trying to bring the whole world under the sway of this true King and this true religion. And so that’s going to ruffle feathers. In Acts 17, everybody’s mad, and they say that these two guys, Paul and Barnabas, have turned the world upside down. Because it truly is a clash of not just religion that you can just keep in your private life, but it’s everything. Back then there was no separation of church and state, so any religious claim was a political claim, unlike today, to a certain degree. And so they ruffle feathers over and over again.

Nancy Guthrie
So are there any particular things about what it meant for them to be a citizen of Rome that we should know about that will help us in understanding what we’re reading?

Greg Lanier
The fact that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he was born in Tarsus, which in its day was kind of like a Chapel Hill or a Gainesville or an Austin, Texas. Not a big city, not a provincial capital, but very educated, very up and coming kind of university town, so to speak. And so that’s where he cut his teeth. And that’s why he knows the Roman world so well. Even though he was educated in Jerusalem, he knows his Greek philosophy. He can quote them and so on. And so as a citizen, it shows you that he probably had some level of education in the classical world, not just in the Torah. He really was God’s perfect choice. If you think about the person who’s going to bridge the divide between the Greek world and the Jewish world, he’s the best possible person. He was custom designed by God to do that, which I think is remarkable in terms of how God uses our background to reach certain people and so forth. But that’s a different pastoral issue. And so for citizens, that would entail certain privileges in legal situations. That’s why he says, "Wait a second. You’re not allowed to flog me. I’m a citizen." So they have to escalate his court case. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re entirely protected by the law. Citizens could be in prison, as Paul was. But it just shows that he’s rubbing shoulders with people who have access to the seats of power, and he’s able to sort of make use of that. We don’t have clear indication that others in the apostolic orbit were citizens. It would have been relatively rare for middle to lower class Jews to have citizenship. So I can’t say much more than that, but it is an important overlay that Paul takes that very seriously. And it does drive the plot for a lot of Acts. He says, "Look, as great as this is, it’s wonderful, it kind of got me out of a jam here and there. . . . You can’t do that. I’m a citizen." And so he moves on to the next person. He kind of uses it to his advantage. But he’ll say in Philippians that our citizenship, fundamentally, is in heaven, that Caesar is under the sovereignty of Jesus. And that’s really the interesting claim. There’s been a lot of work, and I’m sure you’ve delved into it in your own work on Acts, there’s been a lot of debate about whether Acts is anti-empire or not. And it doesn’t seem that it is. It seems like Luke is sort of neutral. He’s like, ’This is just the world that we live in." But we do have all these inscriptions where Claudius Caesar or Nero and whoever say, "I am the Lord of the entire universe," or "I am the savior." They’ll proclaim a gospel of, "Hey, we have a new Caesar!" But isn’t it going to be just as bad as the first one? And so when Paul goes to these centers of power as someone with citizenship who is supposed to offer fealty to Caesar, and he claims that this guy, Jesus, is actually Lord and Savior and that this is our good news, that is a political claim. That is a direct challenge to the lord and savior of Rome, who would be Caesar. Caesar was thought to be this demigod incarnate. So you really can’t get away from the fact that any claims to that effect, that Jesus is the one that has power over heaven and earth and he is the Lord, that is a massively political claim. For us, it’s just like a Christian thing we say, and it’s true. But once you know something about the background, you realize, "Wait a second. He’s essentially, in a very covert way, saying that Caesar isn’t." Whenever you say that Jesus is the one Lord and one God and one Savior, that implies that Claudius or Nero or whomever are not. And so that’s a lot of the background as to why people feel like he should turn the world upside down by claiming this guy Jesus is that. So he’s not trying to say, "Hey, we should go take down Rome," but he is saying, "Rome is subordinated to a different King. Let me tell you about who that guy is." And that’s going to get you in trouble. That’s not going to make people happy.

26:43 - Resources for Understanding the Greco-Roman World

Nancy Guthrie
You mentioned at the beginning of our conversation this book you have coming out. Will you tell us a little bit more about it and the ways it might help us? And then also, are there some other resources that will help us get this kind of background and understanding of the first century Greco-Roman world?

Greg Lanier
Sure. We joked about Wikipedia, and I know there are mixed opinions on that, but for basic facts, any source like that can be helpful. If you’re reading the book of Acts and you’re like, "Wait a second. Where are we? I don’t have a clue where this city is." Go look it up. It actually helps to know, "Oh, this is a port city that looks like this. And here’s what happened." And it doesn’t take a long time, but it’s sort of rounding out your just basic knowledge of that time period. Because I think for me, the problem is arguably worse on the Old Testament side of the coin, where most of us just don’t really—and for obvious reasons, like we don’t spend a lot of time on it—we don’t know much about the Babylonian era. It’s very distant to us. But the same thing is true for the New Testament, although we do have movies that help. But to be in the world of these people, to walk the footsteps of Paul and Barnabas and Peter and so on, you can actually do a lot just by sort of looking up some places, looking up the answer to, Who are these people? Who is Felix? What’s going on with his wife? Who are these people? So you can actually do a lot. You have to choose your sources wisely, but you don’t have to go and spend thousands of dollars to buy tons of books—other than my own and yours. Those would be the best ones to buy. You can actually find some basic things. And again, unless you’re a history buff, it’s not always fun, but it will pay dividends if you invest it, because it sort of takes a black and white story and makes it more colorful, if you will. There are a few books that, when it comes to the book of Acts, that are helpful and that are more scholarly. There’s a series called The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting. This is five volumes. They’re a little dated now, but I think the basics are still very good.

Nancy Guthrie
That’s written by who?

Greg Lanier
Well, there’s a handful of different editors. It’s essays talking about different topics. This one happened to be Richard Bauckham, but there’s others. And they talk about what’s happening in Palestine in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, which is the timeframe of Acts. What do the synagogues look like? What’s happening with those? And then there’s one on the Roman context. Who are these gods? What are the politics? What is it like? What’s the Areopagus, which Paul gets dragged out to (or among, if it’s a people)? And so it’s going to go through those kinds of topics. What’s the currency like? Because that matters. What’s the taxation like? And so all these different things that help you out. And then you’ve probably seen these; there’s these big IVP dictionaries. Have you seen these before? There are five or six of these, and probably the most helpful one on this topic is the Dictionary of New Testament Background. Essentially, that’s a fancy term for the same kind of thing—What is Philippi? What do we need to know about Philippi? What is Corinth? What do we know about Corinth? What are these background things? And there are some other books that cover these background features. You’ll have like three pages on Athens. Go read that, if you have access to it, because that’s going to really help you understand when Paul shows up in Athens, what’s at stake. Where’s he walking? What’s the Agora? What’s happening there? What are these statues? What do these different people believe? So it would be no different than saying, "I want to understand World War II. I want to read a book about World War II, so let me go and research. Who’s fighting whom? Because I forgot from sixth grade." And just to spend some time to get up to speed. In terms of your question about my own book, it’s a bit more technical, but in essence what it’s specifically arguing or probing isn’t simply the background. Because there’s sort of the background noise that we all live with in terms of economics, politics, and social stuff. And those are the kind of books that I was just pointing to. Mine in particular is, okay, that’s all fine. There’s been plenty of things that are talking about that. In this particular book, it’s called Noncanonical Influences on the New Testament, and it’s essentially the counterpart—a much bigger counterpart—to my Old Made New book that you mentioned, which is canonical influences on the New Testament. This is the other side of the coin. When Paul quotes Aratus in Acts 17, what’s going on with that? Where’s that from? And so it sort of delves into those kinds of issues. When he’s interacting with the Python girl, what’s that about? How does that shape that particular scene? So it’s a bit more narrowly defined as like these things actually shape the words of Scripture, not just the kind of air they breathe. And so it covers both the Jewish, noncanonical side of the coin (Apocrypha and the pseudepigrapha and that kind of thing) but also the Greco-Roman side of the coin, because both are really important.

Nancy Guthrie
When does that release and from whom?

Greg Lanier
I think late October. It’s with B&H.

31:32 - Living in an Acts 28 World

Nancy Guthrie
Let’s close this way, Greg. When the book of Acts comes to a close, Paul is under house arrest, but he’s still actively teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God there in Rome. What do we know about those two years and what that situation would have been like? What do we know about how his life eventually came to an end? Did he get his day before Caesar?

Greg Lanier
A lot of the answers to those questions are we don’t know, sadly. And the reason for that is, of course, Acts ends. And so we do have some church traditions about what happened to him afterwards. It just ends, and Paul’s preaching the kingdom of God. He quotes Isaiah 6, and that’s the end. But if you do look at the pastoral epistles in particular, it appears that, so far as we can tell, Paul does most likely get out of prison. We don’t know exactly what happened because it’s not narrated, but 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus mention churches that he visited. For example, "Paul left you in Crete," or he’s set up shop in Ephesus with Timothy. It appears that he did have these later trips to these places. There’s no reference to a church plant in Crete in Acts, but apparently it’s happened and Titus is now going to lead that effort. And so most would argue that Paul did have a fourth missionary journey, and maybe he even made his way to Spain. We just don’t know. He wants to go to Spain. In the book of Romans he’s like, "Hey, I would love to be helped by you to get to Spain." So that would be really the frontier for him. That’s the end of the known world. We don’t know if he got there, but it’s possible. We just don’t know. But I think the data of the pastoral epistles imply, at least, that he probably did get out of prison. He had a couple more years left where he was doing some things. It’s just that Luke, who has written Acts in 62 or something like that, chooses to end there, and we don’t have a narrative other than the sort of implications of those three epistles that he did more work. But that’s as far as we can say for sure. And even then there’s a lot of asterisks. But I think the thing that’s more interesting to me is that when he gets to Rome, you would think by now that Paul’s kind of done with the Jews, with his countrymen. And he’s not. He’s pleading with them day in and day out. He still has a heart for his Jewish countrymen, which bleeds through in the book of Romans when he says, "I would rather be an anathema than see my countrymen, my own flesh and blood not come to Jesus." And even though his opponents have continued to hound him for years now, he hasn’t given up on them. Even though he knows he’s the apostle to the Gentiles, he never gives up on his Jewish countrymen. And some believe and some don’t. And to those who don’t believe he says, "Isaiah 6 is still true." Just like God told Isaiah to go and preach to these people, but they’re not going to listen, and then Jesus applies that to himself in the parable of the sower. He says to go and preach, but they’re not going to listen to you. The same thing happens to Paul. The Gentiles are going to listen, and it’s kind of mic drop moment at that point. But you really see that the theme of Acts, which is this merging of peoples into one body, continuing to the very end, even at the heart of the empire. And so it’s a beautiful way to end. It kind of reminds us that we’re still in that mode. Even with historical events unfolding in the Middle East now, we’re still there. We’re still in that mode of reaching God’s original people for Christ—Gentiles coming in as one beautiful composite body of Christ. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in Rome or Southern Alabama. We’re still in Acts 28, in a lot of respects.

Nancy Guthrie
Greg, thank you so much for helping us today understand a bit more about this world that Acts describes to us and was written into.

Greg Lanier
Thanks for asking the question. I think it’s really important that you’re asking that question because I think you’re right. It’s so easy to just say, "Here’s some words on the page. Let me pray and move on." I think there’s so much more to Acts that will hit you if you just take the time and make the investment to understand that world. It is distant from us, but we can cross that bridge, and I think it will pay off. You just kind of have to trust the process, keep the endgame in sight, and push through it. If you’re not a history buff, it can be hard, but it’s worth it if you keep pressing on.

Nancy Guthrie
Thanks so much.

Greg Lanier
Thank you.

Nancy Guthrie

Nancy Guthrie teaches the Bible at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally, including her Biblical Theology Workshop for Women. She is the author of numerous books and the host of the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast with the Gospel Coalition. She and her husband founded Respite Retreats for couples who have faced the death of a child, and they are cohosts of the GriefShare video series. 

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