Acts (Cosby Chapter 16)

This chapter delves into many various interesting theories and facts about Acts, such as the actual author being Luke, and how many Jews at the time of the first century did not know the Hebrew language. In fact, many of them spoke Greek, which was the main language of the Mediterranean. Furthermore, I really appreciate learning about how through the story of Acts we can see how it became more and more socially acceptable for Gentiles to become Christian, but not without opposition. The stories of Saul turning to Paul, and Peter seeing visions of God who made animals clean, is rather inspiring. This reassures my belief that all kinds of people can enter the kingdom of God. Something that stuck out to me the most was that it took over 20 years for the leaders of the church to accept the idea that Gentiles could be acceptable in the church without becoming proselyte Jews. I find it rather intriguing how Jews finally accepted them after very heated debates, even though they seemed steadfast in their ideas that to see the Lord’s favor one MUST follow all the commands of Moses. Personally, I believe that the book of Acts has significant relevance for us today as it outlines how Gentiles became accepted in the church, and how Christianity evolved after the death of Jesus Christ. Lastly, I think I would like to discuss more in class about how Paul is represented in Acts vs. how he represents himself and his own beliefs in his letters in the New Testament. I’m curious as to which pieces of scripture contains misrepresentations of his character, since they contrast in some ways, according to Cosby.