Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

While warning his audience in Ephesus of the upcoming apostasy, Paul continues speaking to them in a way that is reminiscent of the ancient Book of Mormon prophets such as King Benjamin’s great farewell sermon to his people. Paul reminds the people “that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” Similarly, Nephi, referring to his love for his people, wrote “for I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them” (2 Nephi 33:3). The concept of emotion to the point of tears out of love for their people is an excellent illustrator of the amount of emotional investment that they had in their work. If we think about people who use their positions of authority to extort or abuse others, they typically show no signs of emotion at the distress they cause. Such a contrast makes the difference in intention obvious. Even modern day prophets say similar things as Paul, who says, ...

Back in Ephesus after traveling around the area preaching for some time, Paul gathers the “elders” together to speak to them before leaving again. He tells the people that he tried to make his ministry there about “serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.” I’m not exactly sure what that last part means but he’s talking about the emotional investment that he made in the people of Ephesus. He promises them that he “kept nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Spirit is telling him to go to Jerusalem “not knowing the things that shall befall me there.” This is cross referenced with 1 Nephi 4:6 when Nephi is going again the third time to get the pla...

The conversion to Christianity in the city of Ephesus has been substantial in the three years that Paul has ministered there to the point that leaders of other religions are starting to notice that their money has been affected. After the “uproar” caused by the “worshippers of Diana (Artemis)” raised against Paul, he decides that it’s time for him to move on to another place. I’m confident that it wasn’t Paul saying, “oh no, I’m in danger, I better get out of here,” but the decision to move on was a decision reached after he was prompted by the Spirit that it was time. The beginning of chapter 20 is a little bit confusing for me because it seems to me that Paul travels all over the place, but the speech that he gives at the end, he’s back in Ephesus, so I wasn’t sure how all that worked out chronologically. After reading it more carefully however, it appears that Paul leaves Ephesus and goes into Macedonia, then G...

The account of Paul’s three years in Ephesus is covered in only about one chapter which is kind of hard for us to reconcile because it’s such a long time and not much is said about it. I guess Paul’s life anciently was a lot like our lives are today, just day to day stuff punctuated by periodic exciting events. With much of the “magic” community renouncing their ways and burning their books, many people were converted to the gospel. The great success experienced by Paul and the missionaries in Ephesus did eventually start to be noticed by those who didn’t believe. There is a lot of talk about Diana and the goddess Artemis and movement of people, and honestly, for me it’s very difficult to understand. The IM gives a great explanation, saying, “Paul’s success in bringing people to Christ’s Church negatively affected the economy of Ephesus, which relied upon income from visitors to the Temple of Artemis. Artemis was the Greek na...

The beating of the seven sons of Sceva by the possessed man was a big deal in the city, “and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus.” I don’t know if this just means the Greeks who were the quasi Jewish converts, or all the Greeks that lived there in the city.  Let’s remember that Ephesus was a populous city with a very large transient population of merchants and traders from all over the world. These people would have brought their own cultures and religions to the city, and because the true gospel wasn’t practiced by hardly anyone any more, Judaism and then Christianity, the whole rest of the world was ruled by paganism and polytheism and all different types of beliefs. With such a melting pot of spiritual leanings, it makes sense that there was a large undercurrent of sorcery and magic and the dark arts. The superstitious practices would have felt familiar and common to most of the people who journeyed to the city on bu...

Part of Paul’s “special miracles” was the casting out of evil spirits. There is an account of “the vagabond Jews, exorcists” who started casting out evil spirits in “the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” One of the chief priests named Sceva, had seven sons who performed exorcisms and I assume that priest craft was their main source of income. On one of these sons’ attempted exorcisms, “the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” This is another example of even Satan and his followers recognizing priesthood authority and who really holds it. After implying to these men that he doesn’t have to respect their authority, the evil spirit “leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” I really didn’t understand what this was talking about because when the evil spirit spoke to Jesus, recognizing him during his mortal life, Jesus told him t...

In Ephesus, Paul is working as both a tentmaker and a preacher of the gospel. One thing that I was reminded of during today’s reading is that he was more than just a teacher, he was also a chosen apostles of Jesus Christ. I imagined that he was just another missionary like we have today, but he was more than that, he was given power, authority, and a special witness of Jesus Christ. With that power and authority “God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.” This was interesting to me because it seems like this would create some type of object worship, which we are commanded not to partake in, but then what is this about sending something that has “powers” to heal? The IM explained by quoting Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Healings come by the power of faith; there is no healing virtue or ...

In what seems to be the beginning of his third mission, Paul finds himself in Ephesus and encounters “certain disciples.” Probably getting a feel for exactly what had been done and what the status was with the members there in the church. He asks these disciples “have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” and they answered, “we have not so much as heard whether there by any Holy Ghost.” The believers tell Paul that they were baptized “unto John’s baptism.” This seems a little confusing because as far as I know John never went to Ephesus or baptized there. So this leads me to believe that some men who were believers of John’s message and perhaps even baptized by him came out this way preaching what they had learned about the gospel and baptizing those who believed. Paul points out that John’s baptized “to repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that ...

Initially I thought that after this meeting with the Roman deputy, Paul had left Corinth, but that’s apparently not the case because even after this violent event, Paul “tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren.”  We know that he was there for at least 18 months, perhaps even longer depending on when the even with the Roman deputy was. When it came time to go, Paul took Aquila and Priscilla with him, I don’t know if they were the only ones or if Timothy and Luke went with him too. From Corinth they “sailed thence into Syria” but there is an interesting phrase in verse 18 saying that Paul “having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.” I had absolutely no idea what this meant so I googled why Paul would make a vow, and there were a few suggestions but ultimately not enough to make any definitive conclusion. Some suggested that it was a Nazarite vow which he was most likely concluding, which is a ...

Paul is in Corinth working as a tentmaker with Aquila and Priscilla and preaching the gospel to those Jews and believers in the synagogue on the Sabbath, until his companions show up and then he bears a powerful witness to his audience that Jesus is the Christ. Those who believe follow Paul, but most do not and Paul shakes off his coat to them, releasing his accountability for their rejection of the gospel. From there Paul and his companions leave “and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.” Justus must have become acquainted with Paul on one of Paul’s Sabbath teachings along with Crispus, “the chief ruler of the synagogue” who “believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” There were many people in Corinth who were ready to accept the gospel, and by going to the synagogue first, Paul was able to find t...

While Paul was working as a tentmaker in Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” The “Greeks” probably meant gentile adherents to Judaism without actual conversion, and because the audience at the synagogue would have been familiar with the scriptures, Paul probably used the scriptures to “prove” to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. This wasn’t a one time event, but he did it every week. Routine is important, and I guess that’s a lesson for me because I’ve been slacking on this blog and my personal scripture study for the first time in many years and I’ve really felt it. I’ve had a lot of major life changes recently and they’ve been great additions and I’m grateful, but I’ve spent more time than I needed to “adjusting.” So I’m going to try to take Paul’s example and be consistent in my scripture stud...