This is the charge laid against those in Judæa. It may sound incredible but something

of the same antagonism must be perceived in Peter's attitude to Cornelius, for he himself

uses the same word "forbid" in Acts 10: 47 and in Acts 11: 17 "withstand". True, Peter

altered his attitude, but the attitude must have been there for him to alter. This word

"forbid" awaits us in the last verse of the Acts. With Israel dismissed and no longer a

factor, Paul's preaching to the Gentiles was at last "unforbidden" (Acts 28: 31).

2: A Gentile is saved who bears the same name as the Apostle.

Recently a coin was dug up in Cyprus bearing the inscription "In the Pro-consulship

of Paullus". The inscriptions spell Paullus with a double "l". The Acts spell it with

one "l".  There was a freedom in the spelling of names in early days (Shakespeare is

spelled about seven or more ways) and the Holy Ghost has adopted the present spelling

evidently to make the link with the Apostle complete. It was, and still is, the custom for a

Jew to have a Hebrew and a Gentile name. In our own Whitechapel it would be easy to

find someone known familiarly in the street as "Bill" or "Tom", who within the family

circle would be "Isaac" or "Moses". The custom has indeed provided a joke in an

illustrated Yiddish paper. Moreover, the names adopted by the Jew are contemporaneous

with his times.  In Persian and Babylonian times we have "Nehemiah" and

"Belteshazzar": under Greek influence we have such a name as "Philip". In Roman

times we have "Justus", "Niger" and "Priscilla". In the Middle Ages we find the Jews

bearing the name "Basil" or "Leo". (For a fuller treatment of the subject see Zunz'

Namen der Juden). Jerome refers to the Roman custom of adopting the name of a

country that had been conquered, as did Scipio, who, having conquered Africa, took the

name Africanus. Certainly there is intentional emphasis upon the Gentile convert's name

here. There is every likelihood, that, as Paul was a freeman, his family took the name of

some Roman family immediately associated with this freedom.  So, from this time

onward, the Apostle is known as Paul; never again is he called by the old Hebrew name,

which, with his old self and past, was dead and buried. There can be no doubt that the

introduction of Saul's Gentile name at this particular juncture is intentional. Paul is here

definitely linked with (1) The salvation of a Gentile; (2) The blinding of a Jew, a clear

foreshadowing of the close of the Acts.

3: The foreshadowing of a lo-ammi period.

In Acts 13: 16-41 Paul bases his teaching upon selected incidents in Israel's history,

and in this he was but adopting the same method that was employed by Stephen.  In

Acts 7:, Stephen's resumé of Israel's history impinges upon two most characteristic

In his application of these historic facts Stephen accused his people saying "ye do

always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7: 51).