A c t s.(*):
Written in Greece 64 A.D.
It contains properly no account of any of the apostles except Peter
and Paul. John is noticed only three times and
all that is recorded of James, the son of Zebedee, is his execution by
Herod. It is properly therefore not the history of the 'Acts of the Apostles'
a title which was given to the book at a later date, but of 'Acts of Apostles'
or more correctly, of 'Some Acts of Certain Apostles'.
As regards its authorship,
it was certainly the work of Luke,
the."beloved
physician"; compare Luke
1:1-4; Acts 1:1.
The time of the writing of
this history may be gathered from the fact that the narrative
extends down to the close of the second year of Paul's first imprisonment
at Rome. It could not therefore have been written earlier than 61 or 62
A.D., nor later than about the end of 63 A.D. Paul was probably put to
death during his second imprisonment about 64 A.D. or as some think, 66.
***
R o m a n s.(*):.This
epistle was probably written at Corinth in 58 A.D.
by Tertius:.Romans
16:22. Tertius was Paul's amanuensis.
The place where the book
was written was probably Rome, to which Luke
accompanied
Paul.
The object of the apostle
in writing to this church
at Rome was to explain the gospel
to them. The precise time at which it was written is not mentioned in this
epistle.(a
letter).to
the Romans but it was obviously written when the apostle was about to 'go
unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints', i.e.,
at the close of his second visit to
Greece, during the winter preceding
his last visit to that city.(Romans
15:25; compare Acts 19:21; 20:2,3,16;
1Corinthians
16:1-4), early in A.D. 58.
Rome was the most celebrated
city in the world at the time of Christ. It is said to have been founded
B.C.E.
753. When the New
Testament was written, Rome was enriched and adorned with the spoils
of the world and contained a population estimated at 1,200,000 of which
half were slaves and including representatives of nearly every nation then
known. It was distinguished for its wealth and luxury and profligacy.
The Roman Empire of which Rome was the capital had then reached its greatest
prosperity.
On the day
of Pentecost there were in Jerusalem 'strangers from Rome' who doubtless
carried with them back to Rome tidings of that great day and were instrumental
in founding the church there.
Paul was brought to this
city of Rome as a prisoner, where he remained for two years.(Acts
28:30,31).'in
his own hired house'. While here, Paul wrote his epistles to the Philippians,
to the Ephesians,
to the Colossians,
to Philemon and probably
also to the Hebrews.
He had during these years for companions Luke
and Aristarchus.(Acts
27:2), Timothy.(Philippians
1:1; Colossians 1:1),
Tychicus, Epaphroditus and John Mark:.Colossians
4:10..(see
Paul)
Beneath Rome are extensive
galleries, called 'catacombs', which were used from
about the time of the apostles.(one
of the inscriptions found in them bears the date A.D. 71).for
some three hundred years as places of refuge in the time of persecution
and also of worship and burial. About four thousand inscriptions have been
found in the catacombs. These give an interesting insight into the history
of the church at Rome down to the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine.
***
C o r i n t h i a n s:
1st
Corinthians was written from Ephesus.(1Corinthians
16:8).in
the Spring of probably 57 A.D.,
by Paul.
Corinth was a Grecian city,
on the isthmus
which joins the Peloponnesus.(a
peninsula
forming the southern part of Greece south of the Gulf of Corinth).to
the mainland of Greece. It is about 48 miles west of Athens. The ancient
city was destroyed by the Romans.(B.C.
146).and
that mentioned in the New
Testament was quite a new city, having been rebuilt about a century
afterwards and peopled by a colony of freedmen from Rome. It became under
the Romans the seat of government for Southern Greece or Achaia:.Acts
18:12-16. It was noted for its wealth and for the luxurious and immoral
and vicious habits of the people.
It had a large mixed population
of Romans, Greeks and Jews. When Paul first visited the city.(51
or 52 A.D.), Gallio, the brother of
Seneca, was proconsul.(a
provincial governor of consular rank {an official appointed by a government
to reside in a foreign country and represent his or her government's commercial
interests and assist its citizens there} in the Roman Republic and Roman
Empire).
Here Paul resided for eighteen
months:.Acts
18:1-18. Here he first became acquainted with Aquila and Priscilla
and soon after his departure Apollos came to it from Ephesus.
After an interval he visited
it a second time and remained for three months:.Acts
20:3. During this second visit his Epistle.(letter).to
the Romans was written.(probably
A.D. 55). Although there were many
Jewish converts at Corinth, yet the Gentile element prevailed in the church
there.
Some have argued from 2Corinthians
12:14 and 13:1, that
Paul visited Corinth a third time.(i.e.,
that on some unrecorded occasion he visited the city between what are usually
called the first and second visits).
But the passages referred to only indicate Paul's intention to visit Corinth;
compare 1Corinthians 16:5,
where the Greek present tense denotes
an intention, an intention which was in some way frustrated. We can hardly
suppose that such a visit could have been made by the apostle without more
distinct reference to it.
2 C o r i n t h i a n
s: We know that Paul visited Corinth after
he wrote 2Corinthians.(Acts
20:2,3).from
Macedonia 57 A.D.
and that on that occasion he tarried there for three months.