66
EPISTLE.-
`Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye
strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not
believe in Judæa; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints'
(Rom. 15:30,31).
ACTS.-
`And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly ... they ... said unto him ... they are
informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses ...
This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people ... they took Paul, and drew him
out of the temple' (Acts 21:17-30).
EPISTLE.-
`Greet Priscilla and Aquila' (Rom. 16:3).
`Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you' (Rom.
16:21).
`Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you' (Rom. 16:23).
ACTS.-
`After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; and found a certain Jew named
Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla' (Acts 18:1,2).
`He sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus' (Acts 19:22).
`Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as ... Lucius of
Cyrene' (Acts 13:1).
`The Jews ... set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason' (Acts 17:5).
It is evident that the apostle had no intention of keeping the epistle to the Romans distinct from his other acts,
but, sought rather to interest them in the movement that was everywhere around them, and of which they and he
formed an integral part. The epistle to the Romans therefore must be studied together with the Acts. Any attempt to
divorce them should be looked upon with suspicion, especially when an attempt is made to teach one aspect of hope
from the Acts, and another from the epistles of the very same period.
Corinthians and the Acts
EPISTLE.-
`Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the
church of God which is at Corinth' (1 Cor. 1:1,2).
ACTS.-
`After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth ... Then all the Greeks took
Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat' (Acts 18:1,17).
EPISTLE.-
`Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos' (1 Cor. 1:12).
`Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed ... I have planted, Apollos
watered; but God gave the increase' (1 Cor. 3:5,6).
ACTS.-
`A certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came
to Ephesus ... And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia (Corinth was the capital. See also 1 Cor.
16:15), the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped
them much which had believed through grace' (Acts 18:24,27).
EPISTLE.-
` I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius' (1 Cor. 1:14).
ACTS.-
`And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the
Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized' (Acts 18:8).
The reader will find many other allusions to the Acts, but the above are enough for our present purpose. The
epistles of Paul are surely a part of his acts. Why rule them out? If, then, as we have shown, 1 Corinthians reveals