`We trusted (elpizo) that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel' (Luke 24:21).

`For the hope (elpis) of Israel I am bound with this chain' (Acts 28:20).

THE BASIS of this teaching and hope was the Old Testament Scriptures.

`All that the prophets have spoken' (Luke 24:25).

`And beginning at Moses and all the prophets' (Luke 24:27).

`In the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms' (Luke 24:44).

`Both ... the law of Moses and ... the Prophets' (Acts 28:23).

THE METHOD was that of exposition.

`He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures' (Luke 24:27).

`He opened to us the Scriptures' (Luke 24:32).

`He expounded and testified' (Acts 28:23).

THE OBJECT was persuasion with the view to belief and understanding.

`O fools, and slow of heart to believe' (Luke 24:25).

`Did not our heart burn within us' (Luke 24:32).

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`Then opened He their understanding' (Luke 24:45).

`Persuading them concerning Jesus' (Acts 28:23).

`Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand' (Acts 28:26).

To these close parallels there are added others, more incidental, yet nevertheless having some weight, such as the

`lodging' and the `hired house' of the apostle (Acts 28:23 and 30), and the invitation to abide with the disciples, as it

was toward evening (Luke 24:29). Again, the word `slow' in the phrase `slow of heart to believe' (Luke 24:25) is

bradus, while the word `dull' in the phrase `dull of hearing' (Acts 28: 27) is bareos, both words being derived from

baros, `a weight'. The eyes of the two who walked to Emmaus `were opened' (Luke 24:31), but of the eyes of the

Jews in Rome it is written, `their eyes have they closed' (Acts 28:27). The rebuke `O fools' follows the words, `they

saw not' (Luke 24:24), and this same word `to see' and `to perceive' occurs in Acts 28:26 and 27. The fact that

there occurs in both passages, `the evening', `the third day' or `after three days', might also be noted. Also that

while the name `Moses' has three or four different spellings in the New Testament, in Luke 24 and Acts 28 the

spelling is the same. These, however, are but incidental, the five items first noted being sufficient for our purpose.

We have established two important points.

(1) In the preceding pages, from the apostle's own testimony, the close relationship which his witness, even

among the Gentiles, had with the hope of Israel.

(2) A link between the testimony of the Lord Himself `in the land' with that of the apostle `in Rome'.

What we have not discovered is any statement or allusion to a distinct, high, and heavenly calling for the

believing Gentile, independently of Israel, the promises made unto the fathers, or the covenants. We are on the very

verge of this revelation, but until the crisis is actually reached and Israel set aside `the mystery' was `hid in God'.

Let us now return to Acts 28 and give the record of this interesting and critical day our closest attention.

The Chief of the Jews appointed a day and the apostle occupied the time `from morning till evening'

`expounding and testifying the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses

and out of the Prophets', and we can well believe that that all-day exposition would have made the heart of any

believer to `burn within' him, even as in the case of the disciples when they listened to the Lord on the way to

Emmaus. It may not be given to us to expound the Scriptures as did the apostle, but we can and do point out that

which the Lord has shown us, and pray that it may find a lodging in the heart of many a true `Berean'.

Paul `expounded' and `testified'. What do these two words mean and what do they teach us?