Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Word of Cornelius’s baptism got back to Christ’s disciples in Jerusalem, who were all Jews at this point. The Hebrew Christians are referred to here as “they that were of the circumcision,” because they had been circumcised. This brings up an interesting point, circumcision was required for Jews, even those who converted to the religion, and because it’s such an important part of the Jewish religion and culture, they were probably wondering what was going to be done about that. Peter rehearsed to the other believers what had happened to him, the vision from God, the visitors from Cornelius, and his experience teaching gentiles the gospel. When Peter recounted that the gentiles had received the Holy Ghost, just like the rest of the believers, he adds, “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?” The Jewish believers accepted the new principle an...

Listening to Cornelius tell his story and seeing that he was devoted to God as well, Peter is putting the pieces of his vision together. He observes, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter or persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” The IM comments, “The scriptures teach that ‘God is no respecter of persons,’ meaning that every person from Adam to the last person on earth will receive an opportunity to accept the gospel. The principles of salvation are the same for all of God’s children.” This means that the requirements for salvation are the same for everyone, faith, repentance, baptism, and confirmation. Black, white, bond, free, male and female, they are all the same, this is why genealogy is so important. But one caveat here is just because the requirements are the same doesn’t mean that everyone has the same opportunities at the same time. I’m extremely fortun...

One question that I kept thinking about yesterday was why didn’t the Lord just send Peter a vision saying, “take the gospel to the gentiles” instead of sending this relatively cryptic message of “eat these unclean animals.” The more I think about it, the more I can see two possible reasons why the metaphor was more profitable than a direct message. First, Peter is primarily a Jew, he was raised a Jew, he lived in a Jewish society, and had only been acquainted with Christianity for a couple of years. Jesus spent his mortal life worshipping as a Jew, but teaching that the Jewish way of salvation was going to be built upon to create Christianity. So really, it’s just been since Jesus’ resurrection that the concept of a separate religious movement had been emphasized. At this point, the gospel had only gone to those who were already Jews, so the practice of circumcision and kosher food was already known and engrained into the members. But if the g...

After raising Tabitha from the dead in Joppa, Peter stays there for a while in the house of Simon the tanner. In the nearby city “there was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.” I had a lot of questions about this guy, namely, if he was a Roman soldier, then which God was he devoted to? In the article “Who was Cornelius in the Bible?” on  gotquestions.org , we learn just how that works, “despite being a Roman, Cornelius was a worshipper of God, a Jewish proselyte known and respected by the Jewish community. Cornelius was a devout man who regularly prayed and gave to charity.” As a higher ranking Roman soldier, Cornelius probably had some stability in his station which meant that he probably spent a lot of time in the Jewish community, he would have learned about the God o...

I think I jumped the gun a little bit with Paul going back to Jerusalem, I wrote that one before I realized that he had gone to Arabia for 3 years first. When we come back to Paul in a few chapters, I’m going to pick the account back up in Acts 9:23-32 and start from there. I’m assuming that the rest of the account of Peter in the next few chapters occurs while Paul is out of the country. I’ve been so focused on Paul and what he’s been doing that I don’t even know where Peter and the other apostles are. Let’s backtrack for a second here, after Stephen was martyred, Saul had pursued the rest of the Christians so the point where they all fled out of Jerusalem for safety. We also know that Paul returns to Jerusalem to meet with the other apostles three years later, so clearly they make it back to the city eventually. I don’t remember where Peter went right after everyone fled Jerusalem, but he ends up in “Lydda.” While there he healed...

The fact that Paul went to Arabia for three years was not made apparent in Acts, but instead was discussed by Paul himself in Galatians. We don’t know exactly what he did there, but there have been some interesting insights about the culture and times that might give us some speculations into his experience. The first question I have about Paul’s three year journey into Arabia has to do with his family, or lack thereof. It appears that Paul lived in Jerusalem before going into Damascus, but then he just didn’t return to his life. If he had a wife and family, that would have been incredibly difficult them, he disappears and probably their livelihood as well. This begs the question if he was married or not, and it’s kind of like the question of “was Jesus married?” And there are answers to both yes and no, like Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin and all the men had to be married in order to hold a place on the council, but then again, he basically just ...

There is an important part to learn here before we can move on. The IM says, “We learn in Galatians that after Saul’s conversion he left Damascus and journeyed to Arabia. It is not recorded why Saul went there, but he may have gone for study and reflection (perhaps between the events recorded in Acts 9:22 and 23). Or he may have fled there for safety (see Acts 9:23-25). He sojourned in Arabia for as long as three years. While there, Saul likely deepened his understanding of how Jesus Christ fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. After his time in Arabia, he returned to Damascus for a short period of time before journeying to Jerusalem to see Peter and other Church leaders.” The IM then includes a chart chronicling Paul’s life: A.D 1-3 – Born in Tarsus of the tribe of Benjamis- a Pharisee and a Roman citizen by birth A.D. 19-29 – Taught by Gamaliel in Jerusalem A.D. 33 – Witnessed the martyrdom of Stephen and persecuted Christians in the J...

Saul’s humble question of the Savior demonstrated his pliable heart and his sensitivity to God’s will, and Jesus answered, “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” The Savior doesn’t overwhelm Saul with too much information at this point, he gives him time to process his new world and prepare for it. Let’s remember that Saul is not alone on this trip, he has a group of other men with him, presumably other devout Jews. The group could have leaned in two different opinions, first they could have been other pious Jewish leaders who were accompanying Saul to Damascus to return the Christians to the correct way. It’s also possible that those who were with Saul were his own students and those who shared his devotion to God, but were also misdirected. While Saul and Jesus were speaking, what the other men experienced is clarified by the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. During the appearance, “they who we...

Saul sees Jesus through the light that is shining from him, and asks, “Who are thou, Lord?” When I read this, I thought “if Saul didn’t know Jesus was the Son of God, why would he address him as ‘Lord’ here?” From a forum where someone asked the same question, we learn, “In Greek, the world most often translated as ‘lord’ is (kyios). However, by the time of the first century, the vocative from (kyrie) was also commonly used to address someone with respect, without necessarily implying that they were a ‘lord’ or ‘master’ in the sense of a ruler. In modern English, it would be the equivalent of addressing someone as ‘sir.’” Jesus answers, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” I think it’s important here to note that Jesus is specifically tying himself to the movement of Christianity that is spreading. Even if it was Christ himself who appeared to Saul, if he had simply a...

Now that we know Saul’s background, we have to ask: 3. Q - Why did Jesus choose Saul to become an apostle instead of any of the other Jewish leaders who opposed and persecuted Christianity?  A – He was foreordained to be an apostle. He was worthy of the call, though misguided. He was uniquely qualified to powerfully preach the gospel to both Jew and gentile, across all social strata. He was zealous and valiant in his beliefs. He was humble. Expansion: Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile your perception of a person with who they really are. Both Almas are good examples of this, because we only really get to know them when they are righteous, but realizing that they spent many, many years running amok on the wild side can sometimes be hard to put together. Saul is similar in this way because we are all familiar with the Apostles Paul and all the great things that he did for the work, but then we remember that he did terrible things to people before he learned the e...

We have already had two introductions to Saul, first was that the men who bludgeoned Stephen to death with big frickin rocks, “laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.” Was Saul 15 years old when this happened? No, the IM comments, “the Greek word used identifies a man who is younger than forty years of age.” So Saul at this time is very much a grown man. Our second meeting of Saul comes in the days following the martyrdom when “he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” We now see Saul again as he comes to the chief priests in Jerusalem “and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way (Christianity), whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.” Saul has ramped up his efforts to get the Christian “dissenters” back in line after Stephen’s death by repre...