[00:00:00] Hello listeners, welcome to my podcast. We will continue from yesterday, Acts, a Commentary by E. M. Blaiklock. Continues from page 93, 6. Peter Uses the Keys 9, 32 to 2, 25. A. Lydda 9, 32 to 35.
[00:00:27] Near Lydda, according to early Christian tradition, St. George slew the dragon. The connection between this tale and the Greek myth of Perseus, who also slew a scaly monster on this coast, and thereby saved Andromeda, is a problem for the students of legend lore. Both dragon and monster probably preserve a folk memory of the Philistine fish-god Dagon, worshipped of old in nearby Ashdod.
[00:00:58] If the derivation be correct, writes St. George Adam Smith, it is a curious process by which the monster, symbolic of heathenism conquered by Christianity, has been evolved out of the first great rival of the God of Israel. And could there be a fitter scene for such a legend than the town where Hebrew touched Philistine, Jew struggled with Greek, and Christendom contested with Islam?
[00:01:25] The ancient Philistine territory on the maritime plain was, in New Testament times, a stronghold of Jewry. Peter was about his proper business as an apostle to the Jews, when he paid the congregation of Lydda the visit here recorded. He was also perturbing the species of Episcopal function, which is exercised in the case of Samaria.
[00:01:49] It was a visit to confirm the converts of Philip, and to inspect the work done in the area. In both the case of Samaria and of Lydda, Luke mentions the visit casually, and as a preliminary to the important narrative of Joppa. Note, too, that the case of Aeneas and that of Tabitha are mentioned, each in its place, to provide contemporary authentication of Peter's ministry.
[00:02:17] It was important to demonstrate that Peter was in the full stream of his usefulness, and the agent of miracles curiously like those performed by his master, Matthew 9, 23-26, Mark 5, 38-43, John 5, 6-9, when the call came to him to baptize a Gentile.
[00:02:50] The story of Tabitha is simply and vividly told, and is full of circumstantial detail. The following should be noted. First, the burial customs. Outside Jerusalem, a body might be kept unburied for three days and three nights. In Jerusalem, as illustrated by the case of Ananias and Sapphira, no corpse lay overnight. Second, the natural feminine touch in verse 39.
[00:03:21] The verb is middle, suggesting that the widows were wearing the garments they showed to Peter. Third, the circumstantial details of the woman's gradual recovery in verses 40 and 41. Strict Jewry held the trade of a tanner, 43, as unclean, because of the constant handling of dead animals it necessarily involved.
[00:03:45] The fact that Peter is found at the close of this chapter lodging with Simon the tanner indicates that a measure of Jewish prejudice was already banished from his thinking. We have noticed the subtlety with which Luke suggested Paul's mental preparation for the catastrophic experience of chapter 9. With similar significance, the closing verse of the chapter prepares the way for the narrative of chapter 10.
[00:04:12] Indeed, reflection upon his position and then may have provided the raw material of Peter's dream. Fifth, Peter's Vision, I-23. Cornelius was one of the multitude of Gentiles who had been attracted to Judaism. Such allegiance crops up in many odd corners of surviving literature. A member of the Flavian family, for example, was accused of going astray after the customs of the Jews.
[00:04:41] And Juvenal writes with scorn of one who accepts Jewish food taboos and circumcision. And, taught the Roman ritual to deride, clings to the Jewish and observes with awe all Moses bade in his mysterious law. And therefore to the circumcised alone will point the road or make the fountain known.
[00:05:05] For all the contempt of Roman satirists and historians, an earnest minority of dissatisfied pagans had found in the Septuagint and the synagogue a satisfaction for the soul denied them in the state cults and mystery religions. We meet them repeatedly in the New Testament, and again and again find them ripe for the message of the gospel,
[00:05:46] The kindly tanner had made his guest comfortable on the roof, and had spread a leather awning hung by its four corners over his couch. Dinner tarried, and Peter, weary from his wayfaring, fell asleep at prayer. The situation is touchingly human. The last impress on the tired man's drowsy mind was the drooping awning and the sky at its four sides.
[00:06:12] Out of such homely stuff was fashioned the imagery of the dream which was to have historic consequences. The story is convincingly told with an economy of language in Luke's best style. Peter's protest is strongly characteristic, and the divine reply curiously similar in tone to more than one rebuke provoked by the impulsive disciple in the days of his master.
[00:06:38] 1. The threefold repetition might also remind Peter of an interview on a familiar beach. The vision was built of the simplicities of life, but was divinely authenticated. If any doubt remained, it was dispelled by the visitors at Simon's Gate and the command to accompany them. Thanks for listening to my podcast about the Acts of the Apostles.
[00:07:03] Tomorrow we will continue in Acts 10, following how the Apostle meets Cornelius in Caesarea. I'm looking to Acts 10, verses 2 to 48. See you then.