Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

I wonder if Paul was upset when he realized that the Agrippa and Festus would have let him free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar. But I think that he probably already knew his fate and had accepted it before all this shock down. Plus, like we talked about yesterday, if Paul hadn’t have appealed to Caesar, we don’t know exactly what would have happened, because Festus wanted to send him back to Jerusalem to be tried, which almost certainly would have resulted in his death, so we don’t necessarily know that Paul would have been freed if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar. Chapter 27 is very long and has a lot of details and names and events that I don’t really understand, but it starts with a decision to take many prisoners, including Paul and his entourage, which I believe includes Luke because he starts using the “we” again, to Italy. A Roman centurion named Julius is given charge of the prisoners, and when they make it  from Caesarea to ...

Paul’s style of speaking is very hard for me to understand, so I’m just going to have to go by summary. For the most part, Paul’s defense to Agrippa doesn’t contain any new information, so we can probably just go over what’s new. Agrippa permits Paul to speak for himself, and Paul begins by acknowledging Agrippa’s knowledge of Judaism. He then goes into his life as a Pharisee, and his initial response to Christianity, which was to arrest the believers and put them in prison and to give his “voice against them” when they were condemned to die. Paul states that he even traveled out of his city, Jerusalem to persecute the believers of this new sect. He tells of the Savior appearing to him while on the road to Damascus, and Christ’s intention “to make thee a minister and a witness.” The IM points out that Paul’s speech to Agrippa was a little bit different than accounts he had given previously, similar to a criticism ...

Agrippa and Bernice are in Caesarea visiting Festus in his new position of governor, and while they are there, Festus realizes that Agrippa could help him with Paul. Paul had requested trial by Caesar himself and Festus had agreed. However, just like Lysias had written a letter to Felix explaining what had happened, Festus needs to write a letter to Caesar explaining why Paul needed to come to Rome to be tried. The problem here is that the Jews who were accusing him had no proof that Paul had committed any crimes, so really, Festus should have let Paul go, but because he didn’t want Paul to go back into the community and cause problems again, he was hanging on to him. As a Roman citizen, Paul had appealed to his right to be tried by Caesar instead of his people in Jerusalem, but Festus couldn’t just send him to Rome saying, “the people in my province don’t like this guy and I couldn’t resolve the matter peacefully, so here you go, you deal with it.”...

Felix’s time as the proconsul for Judaea has come to an end and Porcius Festus comes to take over the position. This is when Felix returns to Rome and is tried and convicted of crimes of cruelty against the Jewish people he was supposed to govern. Festus came into the province at Caesarea and “after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.” Luke says “ascended” because Caesarea is a coastal city and Jerusalem in much higher in elevation further inland. Let’s remember that it’s been two years since the initial confrontation between Paul and the Jewish leadership, but apparently they were still mad about it because when Festus got to Jerusalem, “the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul.” I don’t even know what happened yesterday, so keeping a grudge for two years seeming absolutely insane to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I can hold on to hurt feelings just like the rest of them, but ...

Felix keeps Paul prisoner, but at least he’s making it comfortable by letting Paul have visitors and stay in the judgment hall. Felix is waiting for Lysias, the chief captain to come and testify about the events in the temple that led to Paul’s arrest. Lysias is the one who had his soldiers pull Paul out of the crowd when the Pharisees and Sadducees started trying to kill him, and the one who transferred Paul to Felix when the Jewish leadership conspired to kill him. Felix is waiting for Lysias because Paul’s accusers didn’t bother to show up to testify against him, but the Jewish leadership did send out a professional speaker to try and persuade Felix to convict Paul of being a nuisance. While waiting for Lysias, “Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.” While his wife is knew of Jewish doctrine, Felix was a gentile, and honestly, not a very good person. From the researc...

For five days, Paul is shut up in Governor Felix’s judgment hall waiting for his accusers to show up so that they can start his trial. Finally, Ananias, the chief priest shows up with “the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus.” This man Tertullus is described in more detail in his Wikipedia page as “a lawyer who was employed by the Jews to state their case again Paul in the presence of Felix.” The article suggests that he is a Hellenistic Jew or a gentile, so he obviously wasn’t one of the men that sat on the Sanhedrin, which is kind of weird because if they wanted to prove the point that Paul was causing all sorts of problems for them, they themselves would have testified and dragged all the other prominent members on the community with them. Hellenistic Jews were so named because they mingled Greek philosophy with Judaism, and we all know how the Jewish leadership felt about that type of bastardization of their religion, as is demonst...

There is a big ole conspiracy going against Paul, in which 40 of the Jewish leadership has vowed not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Unfortunately for them, Paul’s sister’s son overheard the whole conversation and knows exactly what they are planning. It occurs to me that there might not have been a word like “nephew” to describe the familial relationship between people and the children of their siblings, which explains why the longer explanation was given. But there is one aspect about the nephew that we can glean from understanding exactly how he is related to Paul. Roman citizenship came to Paul through his father, which means that Paul’s sister would have been a Roman citizen too. However, because citizenship came to the children through only their father, we can’t assume that this nephew is a Roman citizen like Paul was because it wouldn’t have been given to him based on his mother’s status. This makes what this nephew i...

Again saved by the Roman soldiers, Paul is taken back in to the Antonia Fortress, and that night “the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “In his persecuted and straitened, state, Paul needed comfort and assurance from on high. How shall such be given him? The Lord could have sent an angel; he could have spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit to the spirit within Paul; or he could have opened the heavens and let him see again the wonders of eternity. But this time- thanks to his valiant service, his willingness to suffer even unto death in the Cause of Christ- this time Paul was blessed with the personal ministrations of the Lord of heaven himself. Jesus stood at his side. Without question much was said and much transpired, of which there has been preserved to us only the promise that the Lord’s special apos...

As a Roman citizen, Paul is granted by the chief captain of the Roman guard a relatively protected audience with the Jewish leadership that is accusing him. His initial statement to those gathered around to hear him is similar to what other prophets have said to their people, such as King Benjamin. Paul states, “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” He’s saying that even though they disagree with him, he’s done the best that he could with what he’s been given and he has no regrets or reason to be afraid of God’s judgment. This might stand in contrast to how his accusers would feel facing God and knowing that they fought against Him for power and money. The high priest is Ananias, who is not the same Ananias who is mentioned in previous accounts in the New Testament, must have been a popular name back then. Apparently Paul’s self-assurance that he was clean before God was so offensive to Ananias that he “commande...

I was thinking about Paul going to the temple for the purification rituals and why it would have been a big deal for the people to see him there. I remembered that Paul, as Saul, would have been a prominent Pharisee before his conversion and so in addition to the Christian converts that were uncomfortable around him, he also would have kindled the ire of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem at the time because many of them probably knew and worked with him personally. So the Jewish leadership had it out for Paul, but there were also possibly two reasons why the Christian converts weren’t interested in Paul either. First was because of Paul’s persecution of the Christians before his conversion. Even though it had been many years since he had been that guy, it’s possible that some of his victims were still in the city, although they were probably pretty old at this point. Second, we already discussed why some of the Jewish Christian converts were wary of Paul, because they ...

Paul leaves an emotional group in Ephesus and starts his journey back to Jerusalem. He travels with his entourage to many different cities “and saluted the brethren.” He kind of set the stage for what he was expecting in Jerusalem when he told the group in Ephesus that he went “not knowing the things that shall befall me there,” and the closer he gets to Jerusalem, those feelings are just intensifying. One incident happens when he is in Caesarea in the house of Philip, and “there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus” who prophesied that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem “and shall deliver him unto the hands of the gentiles.” The IM points out that this man was directed by the Holy Ghost to make that statement to Paul and it made me wonder, why would Paul be told what was going to happen to him? One thought that I had was that Paul had given so much to the work, maybe the Lord wanted him to consent to dying for it as well....

John 7 begins just before the Feast of Tabernacles – 1 of the 3 main Jewish festivals           - Most joyous, basically a harvest festival           - Jesus’ family goes with out him, but he goes up secretly Jesus teaches in the temple, what do these statements teach about Christ’s purpose: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” 7:37-39 – Eternal life through the atonement and comfort, gives life purpose “The light of the world” 8:12 – eternal perspective, cast out darkness, stronger than evil “Before Abraham was, I am” 8:58 – Jesus as Jehovah, eternal nature of the plan of salvation “The Son of God” – 9:8-10 – Our divine nature, divinity of man’s spirit “The door” 10:7-9 – there is an open but orderly way to salvation “The good shephe...