Jewish Background

[00:00:00] I want just to explain one or two things. First of all, these Bible studies that we have recommenced two weeks ago are in the main teaching. They are not preaching. Therefore you must not expect them to be more dramatic or sensational or thrilling in that way. [00:00:26] Teaching is teaching, and therefore I want just to, as I said last week, I want to say it again tonight, that we are dealing with many, many matters, and we've got to deal with them methodically and systematically. Now that's very, very important. One of the ministries of the body of Christ is teaching, and we must be taught in these things. [00:00:54] The second thing is, of course, we are dealing in this intertestament period with the background principally of the New Testament. Now, we could, in fact, skid over it very quickly. [00:01:10] We could just have dealt with it all probably last week and simply dived into the New Testament. Which means that when we came to the New Testament, we would have to stop all the time and explain things rather more fully than we would want to. Now. That's the alternatives. Either we went straight on into the New Testament and started taking Matthew and then came up against all kinds of things, such as pharisees and sadducees and synagogues and scribes and all other kinds of things which are part and parcel of the background of the New Testament, or we deal with them now. [00:01:52] So I have felt right that we should deal with them principally now, although we shall have to refer to them later again in even fuller detail. But I want therefore, to use these evenings. Last week we spoke about the gentile background that has contributed to the coming of the Lord Jesus. And this week we shall commence on the jewish background and shall deal with some of the parties and groups that we know very well in the New Testament. Now this subject, actually the inter Testament period is in fact a period packed with activity. Far from being the 400 silent years, it is packed with divine activity. And when we come to the new Testament, all kinds of things have happened and taken place which are quite different to the Old Testament in many ways. And those ARe the things we are seeking to deal with now. [00:02:57] We shall deal, as I say, with the Jewish background this week and next week, and then I think we shall devote a whole evening to this gentleman, Antiochus Epiphanes, that is intrigued some by his rather intricate name. [00:03:14] We will deal with him in an evening on its Own BECAuSE of his importance in many ways. And probably then we shall talk a little about those people who are prepared of the spirit for the actual coming of the Lord. Now, what you put into these times will in fact govern what you get out of them. That is always so with teaching. You cannot take anything away. Cut and dried, what you put into it, you will get out of it. In Other words, the more you follow up these things you hear, the more you read the scriptures, search these things out, inquire into them, the more likely you are to get permanent help and instruction. Now, there's no doubt about it that there is a tremendous need amongst us, as everywhere, for there to be solid instruction, not only in what appears, but what is behind the word of God. And it is because there is a lack of that solid instruction that many people get such unbalanced and cockeyed ideas. [00:04:22] So this is one of the reasons why we want to go, as we have done in times past, more fully into it. Now, I want to read this evening in acts and chapter two. Acts, chapter two, and verse. [00:04:42] Well, I think we'll read from verse one, and then we'll get the whole context. [00:04:50] Acts, chapter two, verse one. [00:04:53] And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them, tongues parting asunder, like as a fire. And it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? And how hear we, every man, in our own language, wherein we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea, in Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in Phrygia, Pamphylia, in Egypt, in the parts of Libya, about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues, the mighty works of God. And they were all amazed and were perplexed, saying one to another, what meaneth this? But others, mocking, said, they are filled with new worlds. Now, this evening we start on the jewish background of the New Testament. We have already dealt with something of the gentile background last week when we spoke about the persian empire and the greek empire, and then the Roman Empire empire. Tonight we deal with the other side of the coin in the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the jewish background. And of course, as we expect, we have very much more to say because it has a far more direct contribution to the New Testament. Now, in order to understand the jewish background of the New Testament, we need to remember that jewish life in the four centuries before Christ flowed into two distinct mainstreams, quite distinct, although those two streams shared basically all the fundamental doctrines and beliefs of the faith, yet in other ways they differed very, very greatly indeed. There was more than a little antipathy and antagonism between the two streams of jewish life. [00:08:08] One stream, the go ahead stream, open minded, liberal in its outlook, we call the dispersion or the Hellenists. [00:08:23] The other stream, which was conservative, very cautious, puritanical all the time, as it were, holding back, we call the Hebrews. [00:08:42] Here you have the two great streams of jewish life in the form of centuries before Christ, particularly growing in force and power in the century immediately preceding his coming, and of course, whilst he was here on earth, on the one side, what we call the dispersion, or the Hellenists, on the other side, what we call the Hebrews. Now, first of all, we'll deal with the dispersion or the Hellenists. We find them mentioned in the New Testament. We find this term in the New Testament in John, chapter seven and verse 35. [00:09:34] John, chapter seven, verse 35. The Jews therefore said among themselves, whither will this man go that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersion among the Greeks? And teach the Greeks? [00:09:52] You've got it. See the dispersion. If you turn over the pages to James, the letter of James, chapter one and verse one, we read this James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion. [00:10:15] Greeting. Then if you turn over to one peter, chapter one, verse one, we read this Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the elect, who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. [00:10:40] Then if you turn back to acts chapter six and verse one, we have the other term, dispersion. We have the other term, hellenist. Now, in these days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews. Now this is very interesting because the Hellenists were Christians and so were the Hebrews. So it shows how deep the antipathy was that in the early church baptized with the spirit of God, gloriously one moving forward in tremendous power. They're no sooner, it's no sooner than a few days have gone, than we've got the first sign of trouble. And the strange thing about it is its division, Hellenist and Hebrew. It is the grecian Jews murmuring against the Hebrews. They said that the hebrew Christians, the Christians with a hebrew background, were looking after their widows very much better than the widows who had a hellenist background. It is a very interesting thing that when they seek the Lord, they choose out six deacons. And the six deacons are all Hellenists, which is very sweet of the Hebrews. In other words, they chose six Hellenists for man. They said, all right, then, to settle this argument, we choose six men with a hellenist background, full of the Holy Ghost and full of faith, and let them look after our widows and your widows. But doesn't it show you how deep this kind of background and temperament goes, that even in the early church, when the Holy Spirit has just come upon them and glorious things are happening, they're in trouble. They're all divided. And it could have wrecked the infant church at the very outset. Now, there you've got it. Hellenist and Hebrew. Now we're going to talk about the dispersion and the Hellenists for a while straight away. Now, I read to you that passage from acts, chapter two, because nearly all of those were Hellenists, you see, they were all Jews of the dispersion Jews and devout men. You read the whole great list of them, which we shall talk about in a moment. [00:13:12] That's why I read it. [00:13:14] Now, this term, the dispersion or the Hellenists was used of the Jews who were dispersed throughout the gentile world outside of Palestine. From the Euphrates area right away from this Euphrates area here and east, all the way to in the west, to Spain and Gaul, and even to Germany. There were even communities of Jews with synagogues in Germany in that time. And in the south, they were in Arabia and Ethiopia and Egypt. That's how great an area this dispersion covered. In other words, it took in the whole, really, of this area, a quite large area. In one way, that's what the Bible calls the, the dispersion. And even more interesting, we have information of Jews and a jewish synagogue in Kaifeng, in Henan, in China, on the eastern coast, not actually on the coast, but on the eastern side of China. [00:14:39] We have an inscription that was unearthed some century or two ago, which dates from 1488 and speaks of the first synagogue and Kaifeng being built in 1166. Now, isn't that amazing? I suppose you've all wondered what a chinese jew looks like, but they were chinese Jews. And they have found another inscription which speaks of the jewish faith being taken into China in the Han dynasty, which is the third century after Christmas. Now, of course, we don't know how far the dispersion actually went in the days of our Lord Jesus, but certainly it covered a very large area and we have quite a lot of evidence for its wide extent. When did this dispersion begin? How did it happen? How did all these Jews come to live all over this vast area? Especially the jew, who was so proud of the promised land and so proud of the fact that it was given to them by God, and who knew very well that Jerusalem was the place where God dwelt and where the temple was to be built and where sacrifice was to be offered and where the feasts were to be kept. How is it that they were spread over this vast area? What tremendous catastrophe took place to somehow eject these. These people with their exclusivism all over the known world? Well, as far as we know, the dispersion began probably as early as Solomon's reign, when some commercial outposts were established in various gentile centers. From the very beginning, from the days of Abraham, the jew has had a tremendous sense of commerce, a commercial instinct, if you like, a business acumen. And we believe that the actual dispersion probably began when commercial outposts were established in various gentile centers as early as Solomon's reign. [00:17:06] But its real development, its greater development, undoubtedly took place when Israel, the northern kingdom, collapsed and was deported. The upper classes of Israel were deported en masse into Assyria in 721 BC. And then later, when Jerusalem was destroyed and Judah collapsed in 586 BC, when Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar razed Jerusalem and again deported the upper classes and the professional classes into exile. These two great deportations were the cause of the greater development of this dispersion. At the same time, when Nebuchadnezzar took JeRuSalem and deported the peoples, it happened, as you know, in three successive stages. A number of others who were left, including Jeremiah, if you know your. Your prophet, Jeremiah, fled into Egypt. And there they started jewish communities in EGypt as early as the 6th century before Christ. [00:18:27] Now, that's how weary then the dispersion began. [00:18:32] In the 8th century, there was a movement into what we now know as Iran and again in the 6th century and a movement into Egypt before then there were some scattered outposts, if you like, small communities of Jews in different parts, probably in the eastern Mediterranean. [00:18:56] Thus the real rise of the dispersion was a result of the judgment of God. [00:19:02] For God had said in the book of deuteronomy. And chapter 28, if you like to read it, and verse 25, this is what it said. [00:19:17] Chapter 28, verse 25 the lord will cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies. Thou shalt go out one way against them, and shalt flee seven ways before them, and thou shalt be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. Verse 36 the Lord will bring thee and thy king, whom thou shalt set over thee unto a nation that thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers. And there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. Verse 64 and 65. [00:19:52] And the Lord will scatter thee among all peoples from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth. And there thou shalt serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, even wooden stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot, but the Lord will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul, and so on. [00:20:20] In other words, we have to say that the real development of the dispersion right throughout the known world was the result of the judgment of God upon his people for their sins. In falling away from him and worshiping idols, God decided to cure his people of idolatry by sending them to the center of idolatry and making them sick through a kind of spiritual homeopathy of the whole thing. [00:20:50] Thats how he cured them. And he cured the jewish people from that day to this, of idolatry, they never touched another idol, at least of wood and stone. From that day to this, the jewish communities throughout Babylon, Asia Minor, and Egypt became so well established and prospered so quickly that they very, very, in a very short time, they dominated not only the business life of Babylon and Mesia Minor and Egypt, but they actually dominated the professional life. Now we are discovering more and more and more evidence for the simple fact that when the Jews were deported to these places, they rapidly took control of them in one way or another. This is a most remarkable facet of jewish character. [00:21:51] These communities cured of idolatry, worshipping the living God, the one true living God, were utterly distinctive in their gentile background. Can you just imagine it when suddenly a bunch of people who seemed to be just the same kind of human beings as we were, planted in the midst of idolatry and immorality, all kinds of looseness. These people with a strange sense of an invisible living God whom they talked about and talked to, whom they worshipped, who had no symbol at all, whose book they read and studied, and the effect of which in their lives was that their moral standard was one far beyond their gentile labors. Can you imagine the impact that these people had, both in their character and their worship and their industry, upon the nations to which they were deported? [00:22:58] When the Persians came to power and permitted the return of deported peoples to their own lands, the majority of Jews remained. There were only a very small minority that actually returned to the promised land. Now, the majority who remained in Babylon and elsewhere were the ones who became the basis of what the New Testament calls the dispersion. Is that clear to everyone? The ones who went back were the ones who were called the Hebrews. In the end, the ones who stayed in the exile were the ones who were called the dispersion. Now, that's why, on the whole, the Hebrew felt far superior to the Hellenist. [00:23:47] After all, he had got that background of the pilgrim fathers, the people who returned with nothing to the land and spilt the temple, reconstructed the city, repopulated the land. They felt, somehow or other, that they belonged to a spiritually spartan spirit, as compared with these Hellenists, who had settled in their lovely homes and had business at their fingertips and were having such a wonderful time in a gentile background. [00:24:21] Now, this dispersion, or this that we call the dispersion, the Jews of the dispersion, they adopted, for the most part, the customs and the background of the surrounding Gentiles, whether egyptian or babylonian. [00:24:36] And indeed, they imbibed some of their spirit. [00:24:42] Yet, in spite of all that, they remained aloof whilst they adopted so much of the surroundings, they remained. [00:24:52] It was with Alexander and the rise of the greek empire that we spoke about last week and the universal adoption of Greek as the common language and of greek culture and thought that these jewish communities became hellenized. [00:25:14] And when that came about, they all started to speak greek. And greek culture and greek thought was accepted. And their boys were given a greek education and actually went so far as to go into greek athletics, which all good Jews thought upon with absolute horror, for no good jew would even expose a bit of his skin to the sun, let alone run around in one of those sort of half naked greek type athletes. No good jew would think of it. When that started to happen, they were given the name Hellenists, the Hebrews in the homeland, the Jews who had gone back to the promised land, they called them with horror the Hellenists. [00:26:09] Really. [00:26:10] We're Hebrews. Abraham was a Hebrew. Moses was a Hebrew. These people, children of God, but they're Hellenists. [00:26:22] And you can almost imagine and feel the outraged spirit and atmosphere of those people. Gradually, Jews settled farther and farther afield, continually added to by fresh emigration from the homeland. We mustn't just think that the dispersion was only the Jews who didn't return continually. More Jews left the homeland in quite large batches and went out to these jewish communities throughout the roman empire and beyond. The Roman Empire in the first century after Christ, Philo numbers the Jews in Egypt as 1 million. Now, of course, they did tend to exaggerate in those days, but nevertheless, you know, there are not so many millions of Jews today. There were 1 million Jews. Generally accepted that the figure was probably around that number in Egypt in the first century after Christ. And then Strabo, the geographer, says of Cyrene, listen to this quotation. This people has made its way into every city, and it is not easy to find a place in the habitable world which has not received this nation and in which its power is not felt. You can feel him complaining, can't you? As early as 139 BC, there was an expulsion order made against Jews in Rome. They had become so numerous in Rome in the second century before Christ that an expulsion order was made against them. Alexandria became the natural center for the Hellenists. [00:28:15] They, of course, looked to Jerusalem, as I shall explain in a moment, as the home of God. But Alexandria was the sort of place that all Hellenists look to as well. You know, the city. Alexandria's the place. [00:28:33] And Alexandria was a good example of what the Jews did. Out of its five city quarters, two quarters were completely jewish. [00:28:45] They had in their hands the whole navigation in and out of the harbour and the whole harbor area. [00:28:53] And on top of that, the whole export trade of grain was in jewish hands from beginning to end. Now, Egypt was called the granary of the world, and to be in control of the export of the grain from the greatest grain growing area the old, ancient world knew was tremendous. And, you know, I read a little while ago a fascinating little book. It's not at all spiritual. A fascinating little book called the House of Rothschild Orochild. And, of course, if you know anything about this great jewish family and the way they controlled most of the countries of Europe in the last century, you will understand what I'm going to say, it was said of Rothschild, the London Rothschild, the English Rothschild, Baron Rothschild, that when he used to be at the stock exchange, he used to get information before any editor or any cabinet minister in this country, hours before anyone else's couriers used to come streamlined couriers into him and give it. And so he was able to either dump stocks or shares or buy them quickly and make a fortune. But it is very interesting that long before Rothschild, it was the jewish bankers of Alexandria were criticized that before any senator in Rome knew what was happening, the jewish bankers in Alexandria had stolen the lease. [00:30:27] They knew exactly what was happening before, and so they were able to make money all the time. It is incredible. [00:30:37] The synagogue at Alexandria was so magnificent that it was famed throughout jury as one of the most wonderful examples of the synagogue. We could say very, very much more about Alexandria. [00:30:56] Sometime during the second century before Christ, they, that is, the Jews at Alexandria thought up the scheme of producing a greek version of the Old Testament scriptures, something which was absolutely horrifying to the Hebrews. They could not believe that people could be so vulgar and so degraded and depraved as to take their Hebrew language and put it into that pagan language of Greek. But that's what the alexandrian Jews did. And of course, there are many legends about how they did it. It said that they took 72 scholars, shut them up in the Isle of Pharos, where the famous light house was, for 72 days, each in a cell, 72 cells. They were each given a copy of the law. And in one month, I think it was or one week, they had completely translated it. And lo and behold, after it was all done, the 72 versions were exactly the same, which proved that it was inspired. That's a legend, typical jewish rabbinical type of tradition, that is only a legend. But nevertheless, it was the AlexaNdrian Jews that were behind this momentous step of taking the scriptures and translating them into Greek. [00:32:26] I suppose there was no one single great contribution, greater contribution than the translation of the Old Testament into Greek by the Hellenists. Now, there was much other literature produced from Alexandria. Alexandria was a great center of learning. And there some of the Jews produced in greek poems and essays and religious literature as good as that produced in Greece itself. [00:33:00] We have the man I've already mentioned, Philo, who was a jewish philosopher, and he went so far as to horrify the Hebrews by saying that in greek philosophy, he found the meaning of the jewish scriptures that upset them no end in the homeland. And then there was another gentleman who wrote a little book under the name of Solomon. And he called it the wisdom of Solomon. And it is, I suppose, the best example of what we have in what we now call the apocrypha. I read just a little bit of it. It is jewish wisdom with greek ideas. [00:33:42] The righteous shall live forever, and in the Lord is their reward, and the care of them is with the most high. Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom and a diadem of beauty from the hand of the Lord. For with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arms shall he shield them. He shall take his jealousy as complete armour and make the creation his weapon for the repulse of his enemies. He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate and array himself with judgment unfeigned as with a helmet. He shall take holiness as an invincible shield and shall sharpen stern wrath as a sword. And with him shall the world go forth to fight against the madmen. And then again, another little o God. This is Solomon's prayer. It's called O God of the fathers and Lord of mercy, who madest all things by thy word and by thy wisdom didst form man, that he should have dominion over all creatures made by thee, and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and execute judgment in uprightness of soul. Give to me the wisdom that sitteth by thee upon thy throne and reject me not from among thy servants. [00:34:59] Of course, there's much else in the way of apocryphal literature that came out from the Hellenists. They produced a tremendous amount of literature, but this is probably the high tide mark of it all. [00:35:17] These communities, their life centered in the synagogue, had a considerable influence upon the ancient world. [00:35:28] The Hellenists were not as narrow or as conservative or cautious or as puritanical as the Hebrews. They appeared to take the best in greek education, in greek culture, and greek thought and ideas, whilst remaining altogether different. [00:35:53] They had an ethical, moral code, a family life, an understanding of God by far superior to anything amongst the Gentiles surrounding them. [00:36:08] Yet at the same time, they seemed to be able to take the best in hellenism in the greek world and imbibe it and use it and adjust themselves to it. [00:36:21] But even so, we have to say something, I think more just to guard ourselves. Whilst the Hellenists imbibed so much of the greek spirit and introduced many innovations which shocked their compatriots in the homeland, they remained absolutely loyal to the scriptures, to the law, to the Sabbath, to Jerusalem, to the temple sacrifices and worship, to the great festivals. You know, it was a remarkable thing that throughout the whole of the gentile world, throughout the Roman Empire, at sunset on Friday, in these communities, every Sunday, single thing stopped as the sun went down. [00:37:13] And from that moment right round to sunrise, a sunset. I'm sorry. On the following day, not a single stroke of work was done in the jewish communities. They were found in the synagogue. They were found worshipping the Lord, reading the scriptures, or enjoying their family life. And this had a tremendous effect upon the Gentile. Well, they knew nothing like it. They didn't even have a day of rest. [00:37:41] So to them, it was extraordinary to watch these people downing everything. Just literally. They were absolutely methodical. As the rays of the sun went out, so they downed everything. Now, my father works in an orthodox jewish firm, and even now, as winter comes on, one thing he likes about winter is that they stop work almost in the middle of the day. [00:38:04] It's still amongst orthodox Jews, absolute fact that the moment the sun goes down, all work stops right throughout the whole firm. It doesn't matter who it is, the whole thing stops. All locked down. They all go off, all shut out. This, of course, today is unusual, but in the old, ancient world, it was absolutely remarkable. So here you had a community of people who worshiped an invisible God that couldn't be seen. There was no wood, no stone idol, no symbol. They went into this plain little place, which had a little raised platform. We shall talk about that another evening. And on it, a little reading, lecture. And there they took the law, and they read it together. And they worshiped God and spoke to him as if he was in their midst. It all seemed remarkable to the gentile world around. Quite, quite remarkable. [00:38:59] All good Hellenists sent the yearly half shekel to the temple. Didn't matter if they lived in Spain or Gaul, they still sent half shekel every year for the upper of the temple and the priesthood. And they furthermore sought to make the pilgrimages to the temple at the great festivals. In fact, many wanted to die and be buried in Jerusalem. And when they felt the end was coming near, often they used to make the long journey just in order to die in Jerusalem and be buried there. Thus there was, from the earliest days, a large hellenist colony, which didn't make it any the happier for the Hebrews in Jerusalem. This explains later in the early church, why there were so many. You've got the synagogue of the libertines and others, which were actual synagogues catering for hellenist Jews living in Jerusalem. You've got others too. [00:39:55] It was the more restrictive practices and limitations that the Hellenists threw overboard. [00:40:05] They put aside those things altogether and they tended to see, and this is important, and to emphasize the inward and essential meaning of the faith rather than the outward formal ceremony. [00:40:21] Now, that's very important. [00:40:24] It was just that combination of greek thought and culture and a living, real faith that appealed to thousands of gentiles in that day. Many gentiles had never touched anything like they saw in the jew. [00:40:46] And when they saw that they could take in the best of the greek world, of the gentile world, and yet at the same time have a living faith, an inward thing, this appealed to them very, very greatly. Moreover, the Hellenists had a far greater missionary spirit than the Hebrews. Now, the Hebrews, unfortunately, tended to called the gentiles dogs, which of course, isn't the best thing in missionary endeavor, whereas the Hellenists had a much greater missionary spirit. They felt somehow, living as they did amongst the Gentiles, that they were there for a purpose and that they were there, as it were, to show the Gentiles the living God, the character and the nature of the living God. And so it was that the Hellenists tended in many ways to reach out to their gentile neighbors. [00:41:52] We can't take it too far. I mean, they didn't actually have evangelistic meetings or anything like that, but it was just the fact that they were open, more open and liberal minded, more ready to receive Gentiles into their midst. Whereas the Hebrews in the homeland, well, quite honestly, any kind of missionary spirit was almost non existent amongst them. For them, it was the promised land and the covenant people and the people who were born of Abraham that were everything. [00:42:26] Now we can begin to sum up a little here on the matter of this great stream of jewish life before the coming of our Lord Jesus. And we can say this in any synagogue from east of the Euphrates here right through to Gaul, or spell any community of Jews that were there with a synagogue, and they only needed ten people. Even today you only need a quorum of ten Jews to form a synagogue. [00:43:05] If there was a synagogue in any one of those places, Gentiles could go there on the sabbath. And what do you think they could hear in their own language? A language they could understand, the scriptures being read. Now, so sweet were the Hellenists in this matter that they even provided not only the greek translation of the scriptures, but an interpreter sitting by so that if necessary, if someone couldn't understand greek, it was translated into the particular language or dialect that folk could understand. And they not only provided that for them, for the reading of the scripture, but for the interpretation and exposition of the scripture that often followed. Now, that meant that in all these synagogues from east of the Euphrates, right the way almost to the Atlantic, any Gentile could hear the word of God read in his own language and explained in his own language. And he could sit in the midst of. Of people worshipping the invisible, true and living God. It was absolutely remarkable. He could hear about the coming Messiah. He'd never heard of such a thing, this coming world. Messiah and Deliverer. And the Hellenists had a much broader view than their hebrew compatriots. The Hebrews only thought of him as the deliverer of Israel, the hope of Israel. But the Hellenist said he was the deliverer of the whole world. He was come to the whole world. He was going to rule the nations. He was going to be the messiah, deliverer of all the nations, set up his kingdom over all. Now, it was an amazing thing when the Gentile went in out of curiosity or through being attracted by the life of the jew, that he went into this synagogue anywhere from the Euphrates, as I say, as far west as Gaul or Spain, and could hear in his own language these things. It was just simply tremendous. They could see in those people a kind of life and knowledge nowhere else found in the habitable world. [00:45:19] You could look throughout the whole of the ancient world, and you couldn't find any knowledge like the knowledge that was found in the synagogue. And you couldn't find any life as you could find amongst Jews. So it came to be that all over the roman empire and beyond, attached to almost every synagogue, were a large number of gentile converts. [00:45:47] Now, the Hebrews despised the proselytes, but the Hellenists were very happy about them. And to every synagogue throughout this vast. In this vast area, were attached greater, smaller or greater numbers of gentile proselytes, or converts. These gentile converts we know all about in the New Testament. Now we come to the New Testament. Do you remember the centurion who came? And they said of him, hes been so good to us, hes built us a synagogue. Its one of the gentile converts. We read of another one, we read all the way through of devout men, God fearers, those who feared God, one who worshipped God. These kind of words are used. I'll explain them in a moment. They describe these people who had been converted to the faith. [00:46:39] It's a wonderful thing. And of course, we shall say a little bit more in just one moment. About the way later, in the first great endeavors of the early church, they went everywhere it was. These were the people who responded so greatly to the message of the gospel. [00:46:53] Now, how was it that they entered? [00:46:57] There were two kinds of convert. It sounds awful to put it like this, but there were two kinds of convert. There were those who had been admitted into the faith fully, and they had been admitted by circumcision, baptism, and the offering of a sack of an animal sacrifice in the temple. When those three things had been completed, that person was fully admitted into the faith of the forefathers. [00:47:27] Then there was the second type of convert, and he was a person who believed in God and believed in the faith, but was not prepared to be circumcised or baptized. [00:47:40] Because of that, he was thought of as a second class convert. [00:47:47] There was these two thoughts. Now, a person who was fully admitted into the faith was called a jew. [00:47:55] Normally. And in the New Testament, although they may have been gentiles to start with, they're never referred to as gentiles. But the second class is always called those who feared God. So whenever you read that she was one who feared God, or there was one who feared God, or one who worshipped God, or another term. What is the other term? Now, just wait. There's another term. [00:48:23] No. Devout, devout, devout men. Now, we read that in the passage this evening where we read that they were gathered on the day of Pentecost. [00:48:36] Now, there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men. By the way, Jews weren't the devout men. There were Jews and devout men. Do you understand? There were the two classes. There were the Jews. [00:48:48] Jews by birth and Jews fully admitted, who were gentiles originally. And devout men, the ones who hadn't been fully admitted, but were there to take part in the great feast of Pentecost. Does that make it clear to you? Because all this is tremendous background material. When you start to read your gospels and start to read the acts, you suddenly begin to wake up. Oh, so and so wasn't a jew san. So was the one who feared God. Oh, I see. Didn't go the whole way. [00:49:18] Wonderful. She was converted. Didn't go the whole way. But she was converted when she heard the gospel. Went the whole way. You see what I mean? She's tremendously interesting. Once you start to realize you've got these two classes very clear. [00:49:36] They attended the synagogue. They took part in the worship, not actually contributed, but they took part in it, in the corporate worship, and believed they were called the God fearers is the word. Or as our version puts it, those that feared one who feared God. [00:49:53] Later on in later jury, they were called proselytes of righteousness, or proselytes of the gate. That's how medieval jury called them. Proselytes of righteousness were those were fully admitted by circumcision and baptism. [00:50:15] Proselytes at the gate were those who came to the synagogue, took part in the corporate worship and believed in the faith. But when never circumcised and baptized. Now there's been tremendous amount of discussion about this matter, and as yet we haven't got a lot of information as to exactly how these converts were admitted. At one time there was very much dispute about the matter of baptism. But now it is becoming clearer and clearer that baptism was a common method, circumcision and baptism. They had to go through the waters of baptism, not christian baptism, but a kind of ceremonial washing in order to be admitted into the faith. [00:51:00] There's more than a little evidence for that now, though it's not mentioned in the Old Testament, there is a tremendous amount of evidence we have. What does seem quite clear is that by New Testament times, there were many gentiles who became full Jews, and many who accepted the faith, but did not go the whole way. [00:51:23] Now, the influence of the Hellenists, the dispersionists, we call it, on the New Testament, cannot be exaggerated. [00:51:34] It was tremendous. [00:51:38] Here is evidence of God in history. Can you believe that God could be so invisibly present in history as to turn judgment into the fulfillment of his purpose? And by this means eject his people all over the known world, foster their communities, and then somehow use those communities as a great preparation for the coming Gospel. So that finally, all over the world, in every strategic place, there was a synagogue. And to those synagogues, the first christian missionaries went to preach to jew and the second class converts. [00:52:27] That's where they started. That's why Paul said, I go everywhere I go, I go first to the synagogue and there I preach the gospel. And after a while we see where we stand in this matter. Now, can we sum up the contribution of the Hellenists? Yes, we can. We can say first, it was its first great contribution was a universal view of things, taking in Gentile as well as jew, unknown to the Hebrew. [00:52:58] In other words, the great contribution of Hellenism to the new Testament was a great propriety, preparation of a new kind of spirit that was prepared to look upon the Gentile as one who could be saved and could be brought in finally with the jew into the covenant of God. The second thing was second great contribution was an understanding of the inner and essential meaning of the faith. This, I'm afraid, as we shall find out, the Pharisee lost and many of the others lost in the homeland. But not the Hellenist. Not all, because many Hellenists lost it. But in the main, many Hellenists, they saw the inner and essential meaning of the faith. And that's why Stephen, when he was converted, could get to the root of Theban before any of the apostles. In his great message that led to his martyrdom, he saw more clearly than any of the apostles or any of the others at his time. His hellenistic background stood him in good stead. [00:54:06] The scriptures in Greek were the third great contribution to the coming of Christ. It was the necessary first step to the New Testament in Greek. Before we could have the New Testament in Greek, we had to have the Old Testament in Greek. No Hebrew would have countenance such a dreadful thing. The fourth great contribution was that in nearly every sizable gentile community in the Roman Empire and beyond, there was a jewish synagogue with a large number of gentile converts. It was a center for scripture teaching and worship and preparation for the coming Messiah and much else. [00:54:55] It was to these centers that the first christian missionaries came and preached the gospel. Now, you can imagine if you'd been a gentile convert to jury, that you wouldn't have been wholly satisfied. You would have felt as a gentile. Somehow or other. There was more. There was more. Surely there's more than this. Surely there's more than this. And when those first christian missionaries came, my word, it must have fallen on your ears in an altogether new way and sunk into your heart. Here's what I'm looking for. This is what I need. [00:55:30] Fifthly, most of the great forward missionaries of the early church were Hellenists. Now, this is a remarkable fact. Most of the great forward looking missionaries of the early church were Hellenists. Let me just mention a few of them. Stephen, the first martyr, Barnabas. [00:55:51] Did you know he was a hellenist? Barnabas? [00:55:55] Philip the Evangelist, a Polish from Alexandria, Timothy, Titus, Jason, Sylvanus. And that remarkable couple, Aquila and Priscilla, who, wherever they went, produced a church in their home. [00:56:25] They were all Hellenists. [00:56:28] Now, that says something, doesn't it? There was one who was also a half a hellenist, although he could never, ever let the word come on his lips. And that was saul of Tarsus. For Tarsus was one of the great hellenistic cities of the ancient world. But he said, I am a Hebrew, of the Hebrews. But in himself, Paul combined Hellenism and Hebraism together as a most wonderful preparation for this man who wants to be the link between Jew and Gentile in an especial way with this great ministry of his, that the mystery of God is that Jew and Gentile are no longer anything but Christ is everything in all of them in one body. It's rather remarkable. Lastly, the last great contribution of the dispersion was that it was amongst the Hellenists and the God fearers that the gospel made such headway and spearheaded the attack into the purely gentile world. You see, first it was amongst those Hellenists and those gentile converts to the jewish faith that the gospel first came and made such headway. Then they were much more ready to see that the gentile, the pure, raw gentile, could be brought in. [00:57:56] And so you've got this amazing link, step by step, from Hebrew to hellenist, hellenist to the gentile convert, from the Gentile convert to the raw gentile. And so you've got the spear heading of the tack all over the roman empire and beyond into the purely gentile world. [00:58:17] Now, if you don't believe that God is in history, then I wasted all my breath this evening and last week because, in fact, the simple fact of the matter is that behind all this is the mysterious, invisible presence of the sovereign God. Now, we won't be able to get very far this evening. We have ten more minutes or so, but I'm going to start upon the Hebrews and then we'll break off. Just when it comes to time. This is the nice thing about this kind of study. We can just break off. [00:58:53] We don't have to finish it. We can go on next week. Now, the Hebrews. Who were the Hebrews? By New Testament times, the Hebrews had become a name for all the palestinian Jews who spoke Aramaic and not Greek and were, of disappointment, decided nationalistic sympathies. It came not only to cover palestinian born Jews, but all who adhered strictly and in a puritanical way to the faith. [00:59:32] Now, if you want to look at a few scriptures, acts, chapter six, verse one, that's the one we've read. Now, in these days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the hellenistic against the Hebrews. Then if you turn to two Corinthians, two Corinthians, chapter eleven and verse 22, are they Hebrews? [01:00:01] So am I. [01:00:03] Now, of course, he was talking about the apostles, you see, because everyone was always saying, you see, of course you know, John and Peter and the up and the others, they are Hebrew. [01:00:18] I mean, Paul, he was brought up in Tarsus. [01:00:23] I mean, he trouble. See these people who ran round after Paul saying, you should be circumcised. You've got to keep the food. Laws of Leviticus and everything. They all said, what you want to listen to this man for? He's got a hellenistic background. This man's bringing in all these hellenistic ideas amongst us, of course, Christianity's right, of course, the Lord Jesus is the Messiah. But this man's doing a terrible lot of damage amongst you all. You must understand this. It's his hellenistic background. He's got this kind of temperament. So Paul says, are they Hebrews? So am I. And then Philippians, chapter three and verse five. Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of the Hebrews. [01:01:12] That's Paul. Now, you never find anyone saying, I'm a Hellenist of the Hellenists. It's a strange thing that one of the things about the Hellenists was that they were very broad and liberal and generous, you see, and they just didn't talk like that. But the Hebrews, you've just got this kind of atmosphere. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I've often felt a good analogy of these two. Main streams of jewish life in these four centuries is Britain and America. [01:01:43] In many ways it is. You see, in the homeland, we're much more. We're much more cautious, much more conservative, much more clinging to the past, much more, much, much greater sense of, as it were, the purity of our foundations. But our forebears, the american forebears, who were all british to begin with, some Dutch, in fact. They don't think like that, you see, in spite of the fact that they've drawn from their european background, their british and dutch background. Yet, you see, they have a greatly open, liberal, go ahead kind of spirit. And you've got the same thing in the Hebrews and Hellenists. The Hellenists were like Americans. Everything. Go ahead now. What's it worth? I mean, how can we get on with this thing? Surely we can do it. Oh, they're so stuffy back there in the homeland, you know, they can't see the wood for the trees. [01:02:42] But. And of course, the Hebrews felt all those Hellenes. No, you just don't know where they are. [01:02:49] Look around. They're gone, you know, kind of thing. I like the old homeland where we do things. [01:03:00] Anyway, this is something of the atmosphere between the two. There's a difference, a very real difference of atmosphere. Now, the Hebrews had resisted the influence of greek thought and culture and remained jewish Jews. [01:03:18] That's the best way to describe the Hebrews. They were Jewish Jewish instead of Greek Jewish. [01:03:26] Hellenism was regarded by them as a second grade Judaism. In fact, they looked upon it as a semi heretical form of the faith and always felt distinctly unclean. If a Hellenist came into tea, that's the kind of atmosphere a good Palestine would fumigate the house after heaven had been in for a meal. I mean, he just felt there was a kind of ceremonial defilement that the man brought in with him. You just can't help it. It was a spirit. And if you're brought up that way, it's very hard to get over it. They looked upon the Hellenists innovations, the hellenist looseness, the hellenist adaptation to greek culture and customs with absolute horror. To them it was anathema. Absolutely. You can hear some of the older Hebrews sort of fulminating about the thing. Absolutely disgraceful. What would Abraham have thought about it, turn in his grave, if he knew what they were doing out there in Alexandria and Corinth and the rest of it? To them it was the sign of grave apostasy that these people of God could forget. Aramaic. Of course, they'd forgotten that Aramaic wasn't Hebrew. But still, for them it was a terrible thing that they could actually. Here we've got. They used to say, people coming to the homeland who can't even speak the language. [01:05:06] Are they Jews? [01:05:09] I remember when I was in the States a little while ago, a chinese family said to me, you wait till our sons come home. We can hardly believe they're Chinese. And I couldn't. Six footers, they came in burning chewing gum and great jagdy shirts and so on. They were Chinese, but they couldn't speak Chinese. And in fact they'd lost most of their chinese sort of behavior and attitude bearing, you understand now, this is the kind of thing the Hebrew felt about the Hellenists. They saw these compounding and they felt, these are Greeks, aren't they? [01:05:42] Not Jews. They're not the covenant people, are they? See, they felt it was a great sign of grave apostasy. They felt that the true stream of divine life and light was with them. They were the true successors to the. To the fathers and to the prophets. For them were the promises. With them was the covenant made. These other people were. Well, well, if they want to think the covenants made with them. Let them. But really, really, one day they're going to find the judgment of God upon it all. They felt they were the true guardians of the oracles of God. [01:06:20] And so on amongst the people of God in the homeland. There gradually developed over the four centuries before Christ. Three main parties. And these three main parties, two of them we find everywhere in the New Testament. The third is not apparent, but it is everywhere in the New Testament. And these parties were the parties of the Hebrews, the Pharisees, the sadducees and the Essenes. The three great parties. [01:06:58] They are inseparably linked with the New Testament. Now, I think this evening we shall only be able. Just to finish with the Pharisees. Who were the Pharisees? Now, there's an awful lot of nonsense talked about the Pharisees. As soon as you mention the word Pharisee. Everyone thinks of someone who is absolutely abominable. [01:07:20] A horror, a positive, sanctimonious horror. And how people look. If you were to see the Pharisee. I'm not being unkind today, you might see yourself very, very easily. I might see myself. [01:07:37] They were much more like us than most of us realized. There were decent, good, godly people, many of them. But their ideas, in the end, led them into such harsh legality and in such a spirit. It was the doctrine. It was their theology that put them into a prison. [01:07:55] The Pharisees. They were a party on the extreme right wing. Which grew up after the return from Babylon. [01:08:04] They felt the need in the lives of tremendous inroads of hellenism in Palestine, in the promised land, to protect the pure faith. They felt that unless a body of people were to rise up in the spirit of God, then the oracles of God would be lost. [01:08:27] They will be hopelessly compromised and corrupted. And that's how they looked upon the Septuagint version in many ways, to begin with. [01:08:37] So this party grew up. Originally, they were called the Hasidim. And the Hasidim, the word means simply the pious. That was the nickname the ordinary people gave them. In other words, they looked upon them as godly people. They were called the pious. Not a nasty name, but a true name. The pious. The People who really were godly and Upright People in the land. [01:09:08] The Hasidim. This movement that was called The Hasidim broke into two wings very quickly. [01:09:16] A small nationalistic political party called the ZeAlots. Now, if you remember, there was one who was called one of the apostles, called Simon the Zealot. He was one before he was converted. He was one of this party. They were a political party, intensely nationalistic. I'll explain them in just one moment. The other, you find it, by the way, if you want the reference to Luke chapter six, verse 15. Where you find Simon Zelotes, is the authorized version. If you look in the new Simon the zealot. He is referred to elsewhere in acts chapter two. I think it is, if I might, maybe acts chapter one. But he's again referred to as Simon the zealot, the much larger popular party. The other wing that the Hasidim broke up into was what we call the Pharisees. Now, Pharisee, the word is a nickname, we believe. Probably it was a nickname. And it meant separating. Or puritan. Puritan, Separatists. The people who parted from the others. Because they felt there was impurity and corruption and compromise. And you've got it in Philippians three, five. Where Paul says, I was touching the law, a pharisee. And you've got it again in acts 26. I don't know which verse. When Paul says, before King Agrippa, I was of the straightest sect of our religion, a Pharisee. [01:10:53] That's how he was. The narrowest sect of our religion, a pharisee. Both the Pharisees and the zealots looked upon acknowledgement of CAesar as king as sin. Now, that involved them in a lot of trouble. The Pharisees got out of it by submitting to the Roman Yoke. Saying that the roman occupation was the judgment of God. The imposition of CAEsAR as king was the judgment of God upon the children of God. For their sins. [01:11:28] The Zealots felt that they were called of God by force to remove the Roman Yoke. [01:11:38] They refused to pay the roman taxes. And that's why they were continually in trouble. [01:11:44] And they were the cause of many uprisings and rebellions. Now, probably gamaliel first thought that the early church leaders were zealots. Because he speaks of two others who were zealots. And says all. Some rose up and got finished in a sticky way. And then another lot rose up and they finished in a sticky way. To leave these people. If it's of God, we shall be fighting it against it found fighting against God. But if it's not of God, it'll fizzle out. It'll come to a sticky end. He probably thought that they were zealots. The destruction of Jerusalem was directly the result of the zealots. They so won the minds of the people by the year 70 ad. [01:12:31] That they caused trouble with the Roman authorities. There was terrific collision. And as you, I think all know, it ended in the complete destruction of Germany, Jerusalem, and the deportation of the Jewish people from that day to 1948. [01:12:48] Well, that's the zealots. They are there in the scripTures. The Pharisees were a more spiritual movement. They were puritans in many ways. They held firmly to the authority of God's word. But alongside the authority of God's word and the law, the witnesses law, they put the oral tradition, and this was the trouble. They put the tradition of the elders, the rabbis, going back over centuries. And it was the interpretation of the written law by these rabbis that caused all the trouble. Because one rabbi had said something, another rabbi said something else, another rabbi said something else. Consequently, there were all kinds of complications. And the pharisees were past masters at getting the. Themselves into a complex mess. And then trying to get themselves out of a complex mess. So that only the scribes could understand. [01:13:45] Lawyers could understand exactly all the ins and outs of all the different laws that explain the law of God. Have you got it? And that's why the Lord Jesus spoke of the Pharisees getting themselves so hopelessly mixed up. Tithing, anise and cummin, which you can hardly see, and leaving the weightier matters of law undone. And he says to them, it's a very interesting thing you should have done, that you should have tithed those things, but you shouldn't have left undone the other things. [01:14:18] Now, that's why, in the end, PHarisaism got bogged down in a terrible morass of complex law. It wasn't the law of God. It was the explanation and interpretation of the law of God. And the fact that they believed the oral tradition was as authoritative as the written tradition. Therefore, they had to find out on any particular law. What had any particular man in centuries gone by, any of the elders, what had he said about this? And then put them all together and try to sort of sort out exactly what it meant. No easy job. [01:15:00] They believed in the minute and strictest obedience to the letter of the law, once interpreted by the rabbis, once it had been finally established what it really meant. They bleed in the minutest obedience to it. They bleed in predestination. Oh, very definitely. If you had an illness that was predestinated, if you came into life lame, that was predestinated. It was often because of sin in your parents or sin in your forebears, or something else, they believed in predestination. Everything was foreordained. It went so far that in the days of our Lord. They were almost fatalistic. What will be, will be was almost the attitude. [01:15:49] They believed in angels, they believed in demons. [01:15:54] They believed in a future life, future reward and future judgment. They believed in the resurrection of the body. Now, I say all these things, you all believe those things. But, you see, the sadducees didn't. That was the great conflict between the two parties that didn't believe in angels or demons or a future life or future reward and judgment. All those, they didn't believe in any of them. I leave that to next week. [01:16:19] They were very, very strict about defilement. I mentioned about even the hellenist coming in home and about the food laws. [01:16:29] And you get this all through the New Testament. [01:16:34] A Pharisee could invite a non Pharisee for tea, for a meal. [01:16:41] But a Pharisee could not accept an invitation to a meal in a non Pharisees home. You understand? [01:16:51] And if someone who was a sinner, and in some Pharisees eyes, all non Pharisees were sinners. If someone who was a sinner was invited home for a meal, you gave them clothes to dress in, because their clothes were unclean and might defile the furniture and the house. So that's one of the difficulties, you see, when the Lord was in that home of Simon the Pharisee, you remember, and that woman of the streets came in and crept along the side of the table and knelt at his feet, started to touch his feet and so on, and wipe his feet with her hair. And Simon drew back and said, how is it, if you are a man of God, that you let a woman like that who is a sinner touch you? [01:17:53] Now, whether that woman had been clothed with one of his garments by one of the servants, I don't know how she got into it house. Or whether he fumigated it afterwards in a ceremonial way, I don't know. But certainly that was the Pharisees outlook and attitude. [01:18:13] Anyone could become a Pharisee. [01:18:16] But although it was so popular with the people, a few joined because of the high standard required. [01:18:26] Pharisees gained control of the synagogues, more or less. [01:18:31] They never gained control of the temple or the Sanhedrin. [01:18:36] Modern Judaism traces its whole, its source to the Pharisees, to the PhariseE party. [01:18:46] The Sadducees died out with the destruction of Jerusalem. So did the Essenes. But the Pharisees continued. [01:18:53] We can get a wholly false idea of the Pharisees. Our idea is that they are people who were, as I say, a kind of sanctimonious horror that you just wouldn't like the moment you saw them. But in actual fact, PhariseE was a very nice person. In the beginnings of the pharaoh of Phariseeism. It was a tremendous movement. And we owe a tremendous amount to it. For it is to the pharisaical party that we owe the protection of the scriptures now passing down. And the protection and jewish life. Of a pure stream of divine life and revelation. [01:19:34] It was in its latter day that it became so legalistic, so clinical, so harshly technical. So that in the day of our Lord, the Pharisee was still the most decent, the most respectable, the most God fearing of the whole population. [01:19:52] But they were loaded down with religious observance. And had complete faith in their own energy and power. In keeping all those observances. And by doing so, winning their salvation. And when you really start to think of it. Why, it says they love to stand in the public places with long prayers. They used to make their garments long. They loved the chief places in the synagogue. All that had become for them religion. [01:20:24] Instead of something inward and holy of God. Nevertheless, we owe a lot to them. [01:20:33] You know, the best of the pharisees, I condemn. [01:20:38] Nicodemus was a pharisee. Joseph of ArimatheA was a pharisee. Gamaliel was a pharisee. Saul of Tarsus was a pharisee. There are others, too. These were those who were of the Pharisee party. And they were the finest. And there were many like that in those days. Godly, decent, upright people. Who loved God, loved his word. And were looking for the coming of the messiah. Well, now, we'll stop there this evening. Next week. We'll talk about the sadducees and the Essenes. And I want to talk about the Synagogue. Because I think it will interest you tremendously. If you just knew a little bit about the way the synagogue came into being. [01:21:34] And its furniture. And the way the furniture was set out. And the kind of service they used to have in the Synagogue and so on and ALl that kind of thing. And we talk about scribes and many of the OTher things as well later on, the samaritans. [01:21:50] I wonder whether you ever asked yourself. Why was it the Jews had no dealings with the. [01:21:56] That kind of thing? All those things are this background material. ALl of which is tremendous bearing upon the Way we understand the new tesTament. Then we'll come to the more thrilling, in some ways, the more exciting and thrilling thing. When we talk about this gentleman, Antiochus Epiphanes. And we talk about just how he was the SymbOl of the Antichrist, what he did, how he came to power, his policies were what was the abomination of desolation and these things. And perhaps we should be able to understand a little better our new Testament on these matters. Let's pray, shall we? [01:22:37] Dear Lord Jesus. Oh, we do pray that from all this background, which could be so theoretical, thou wouldst, Lord, draw out lust lessons to every one of us. [01:22:50] O dear Lord Jesus, we pray that through an understanding of these things that lie behind thy word, we shall, Lord, come to see more and more clearly those principles which still govern divine life. [01:23:07] Lord, we give ourselves then afresh to thee. We pray that thou wouldst help us all, and we ask it above all in thy name. Amen.