Part 3

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The Acts of the Hebrews – Part 3

Before Chrysostom in the fourth century wrote his famous homilies few seem to cite or know about  Acts. Acts was relatively little known or used in the second and into the third century. 

3:1 Now Kepha and Yochanan went up together into the Beit HaMikdash at the hour of tefillah, being the ninth hour./Maariv 2 And a certain man lame from his eema’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the Beit HaMikdash which is called “the higher nature” 

The daily duties of the priest included the Tamid/Continuous offering: 2 sheep put upon the altar continually as an Olah. 

The am offering, at the third hour/Minchah.

The pm offering, at the ninth hour/Maariv.

 Along with the Tamid offering they offered a Minchah and a Libation of wine. 

The altar represents man’s heart, so the requirement to have the fire burning continually on the altar demonstrates that our hearts should be kept continually aflame, through prayer and petition.

That’s why Daniel based his three daily prayer times around the altar service. The third hour/9am – the Minchah, the sixth hour/12 noon (libation offering) and the ninth hour/3pm –  the Maariv. Num.28.

טוב ṭôb TET – VAV – BET 

BDG: Brown-Driver-Briggs –  to the higher nature. 

This was the Nicanor Gate on the eastern side, made of Corinthian bronze and with beautiful columns. It had beautiful steps and a royal portico over it and would have been the perfect place for a beggar!

to ask assistance from those that entered into the Beit HaMikdash; 3 Who seeing Kepha and Yochanan about to go into the Beit HaMikdash asked for assistance. 4 And Kepha, staring at him with Yochanan, said, Look at us. 5 And he listened to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Kepha said, Silver and gold I have none; but what I have I give you: In the Name of gauvh ha Moshiach of Natzeret rise up and walk.

When you feel you or your faith is discredited take hope! Remember Yahusha and his movement had been totally discredited in the eyes of the politicians and market merchants! BUT now look! 

 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaped up and stood, and he walked, and entered the Beit HaMikdash with them, walking, and leaping, and giving tehilla to tvkt.

Now the verb used in v.8 is a very rare GK VERB: exallomai which is deliberately used to show prophecy is being fulfilled; it’s translated in the LXX from the Hebrew דּלג dâlag from the text of Isa 35:6: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall speak plainly; for water has burst forth in the desert, and a channel of water in a thirsty land.

The Isaiah passage refers to the blessing of the eschatological age. 

V. 1…still going to temple! Our faith in Yahusha does not invalidate the practice of Torah, it validates Torah and connects the faith to the promise of Gen. 12 elaborated on here in v. 25. 

What happens when we misinterpret our mission and mandate by יהוה and get sidetracked or pushed into a puddle of illusion and confusion?

We’re not alone and Ch. 3 will show us the way out!

For the first few years the newly formed Kahal remains in Jerusalem as the leaders misinterpret the mandate to take the gospel to the world.

It took the persecution of 8:1-3 to force them out and impel them to fulfill their mission destiny. 

9 And all the people saw him walking and giving tehilla to tvkt: 10 And they knew that it was the one who sat for assistance at the Yahpha Gate of the Beit HaMikdash: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him. 11 And as the lame man who was healed held Kepha and Yochanan, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Shlomo’s, greatly wondering. 12 And when Kepha saw it, he answered the people, You men of Yisrael, 1 why do you marvel at this? Or, why do you look so intently at us, as though by our own power or set-apartness we have made this man to walk?

They had been attending the morning and evening prayers for the 10 days (it was their 10 days of Awe) as they waited for the coming of the RHK and they are still keeping torah as they go to the temple on one of the first afternoons at 3 in the afternoon (9th hour). 

The burnt offerings for the day were sacrificed in a morning (9am) and evening (3pm) service, so this was the evening sacrifice – examples of sacred torah observance! 

In v. 13 we see that hostility to the gospel supplies Acts throughout with a dramatic plot, which here moves towards a climax in the death of Tzephanyah/Stephen and then in the second half of the book rises to a climax in the trial of Paul. 

So what better book for us to study today when hostility abounds, dramatic plots and twists are all around us!

13 The tvkt of Avraham, and of Yitzchak, and of Yaakov, the tvkt of our ahvot, has esteemed His Son gauvh; whom you delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Kadosh-One and the Tzadik-One of Yisrael, and desired that a murderer be released to you; 15 And killed the Sar of Chayim, whom vuvh has raised from the dead; of which we are witnesses. 

14 But you denied the Kadosh-One and the Tzadik-One of Yisrael, and desired that a murderer be released to you.

These are titles and not just descriptions that are vital not to be overlooked. 

Who is “the Holy One?”

Isa. 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people full of sins, an evil seed, lawless children: ye have forsaken the Lord H3068 יהוה , and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

Isa. 5:19 let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Context is 5:16 the Lord H3068 יהוה

Isa. 10:20 And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel shall no more join themselves with, and the saved of Jacob shall no more trust in, them that injured them; but they shall trust in the Holy God of Israel, in truth. The holy GOD H3068 יהוה.

and “the Righteous One?” equitable (in character or act); צַדִּיק

tsaddı̂yq – one who walks a straight path.

Ps. 129:4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. The Lord H3068 יהוה

Acts 7:52  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers;

Acts 22:14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.

God of our fathers – |Gk Theos used in the LXX as a translation of יהוה the same יהוה who does what?????? SPEAKS, so we should hear the voice of his mouth – the same voice is calling us to the BOC sprinkled with a BETTER BLOOD!

יהוה has proved these astounding claims by raising Yahusha form the dead, and the chosen are witnesses who can attest to that fact. 

16 And His Name through emunah in His Name has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yes, the emunah, which is by Him, has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of all of you. 

Faith cannot exist without a past and present reality! 

Again we have the “already and not yet” tension present here! 

17 And now, Yisraelite brothers, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers.18 But those things, which tvkt before had shown by the mouth of all His neviim, that the Moshiach should suffer, He has now fulfilled. 19 Make teshuvah therefore, and be converted in lev, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Master vuvh;