Line of Jewish high priests. Woodcut from the Nuremberg Chronicle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Once the deacons were appointed, the apostles were free to concentrate their efforts on delivering the word is God. Verse 7 says that the number of disciples multiplied greatly and that among those were even priests that were converted. This was significant for a couple of reasons. First, having priests converted into the church demonstrated the validity of the gospel in a big way. These men of God knew His word, and by becoming Christians they were telling the world that they believed the Messiah had come and that salvation was freely available to all.

The other side of that coin is that the priests who did not convert (particularly the Sadducees and Pharisees who were already hostile to Jesus and now to His apostles) were already jealous of the attention and reverence that was given to the apostles. Add to this the “loss” of priests to Christianity, and the hostility would work them up to a frenzy in belief that something had to be done to stop these followers of Jesus.

(This year’s reading plan for Luke, Acts, and 1 and 2 Chronicles averages just 15 verses per day – 5 days per week!)
Schedule for this week
Read or listen to audio of today’s selection from Acts here
Read or listen to audio of today’s selection from 2 Chronicles here

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Please check out my Books and my Facebook Author’s Page. You will find the links at this site’s menu item “The Author’s Books“.