AN ATHEISTIC BIBLE STUDY OF ACTS 7 AND 8
CHAPTER SEVEN
Stephen, facing trial for promoting belief in the allegedly risen Jesus, offers a spirited defence amounting to a summary of the Old Testament, emphasising how prophets from Moses onwards faced disbelief and persecution in their ministries. Stephen’s audience are angered by his statements, and gnash their teeth throughout.
As he finishes, Stephen is led outside of Jerusalem’s city walls for his execution by stoning – the first of Jesus’ followers to die for his beliefs. Many more would follow.
During the stoning, a young man called Saul is assigned to guard the coats and personal belongings of the stoners. His name is Saul. Later, he will become better known as Paul, St. Paul. Stephen dies forgiving his executioners.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Saul goes on to help arrest many of the followers of Jesus, causing many to flee into exile and take their beliefs beyond the borders of Judea. Philip, the Apostle, leaves for Samaria, with some success in his miracles and preaching. There, he encounters a male witch, called Simon, the leader of a competing sect, though Simon allows Philip to baptise him into the new belief in Jesus.
The Jesus cult was growing. John and Peter set off to Samaria to help Philip with his mission. They meet the witch, Simon, who offers them money for their miracle methods. He wants to be able to heal the sick and cast out demons as they do. The Apostles cast him out for his avaricious greed and monetary ambition. They threaten him with divine retribution if he doesn’t end his wicked ways.
Simon begs them to pray for his salivation for him. It’s a neat defence strategy. He is trying to put the welfare of his soul in their hands. In effect, if he continues to sin, only their failure to persuade God to be lenient and forgive him will dam him to Hellfire. The Apostles don’t seem to offer any counter-challenge to this. They may well have had no choice but to walk into his moral trap.
Jesus visits Philip in spirit form, a ghost of a man supposedly not dead, and tells Philip to take the Word of his resurrection to Gaza. Philip obliges and sets off right away, meeting a eunuch in the desert on route. He proves to be none less than the treasurer to the Queen Of Ethiopia, Candace. Jesus tells Philip to bond with the Eunuch, who is struggling to study the book of Isaiah. It is the book’s description of a sacrificial lamb that confuses and troubles him. Isaiah seems to be referring as much to a human as to a lamb. Philip naturally interprets the piece as a prophesy of the fate of Jesus, and the sacrifice as the crucifixion. Philip baptises the Eunuch, which is an odd event as the Ethiopian servant may not be of Jewish origin, and therefore the first Gentile to be converted to the new religion. This is before it becomes officially acceptable to convert Gentiles. The study of scripture however implies that the treasurer may be Jewish in origin too, but we gain few insights into this. We see nothing more of him, or the effect, if any that his conversion has on the people of Ethiopia.
Philip goes on his way, converting many people in many cities. The new religion is now spreading widely.
Arthur Chappell. .
