PART FIFTH.
LATER APOSTOLIC HISTORY.
§ I. LATER HISTORY OF PAUL'S LABORS.
1. RELEASE FROM
FIRST
ROMAN
IMPRISONMENT.
Evidence:
(1) Implied in his confident expectation of it.
(2) Implied in journeys and incidents mentioned in Epistles to Timothy
and Titus, for which there is no place in Acts. See following notes.
2. HE
REVISITS
EPHESUS AND
MACEDONIA AND
WRITES
I. TIMOTHY,
I. Tim. i. 3.
3. OTHER
HISTORICAL
ITEMS IN
I. TIMOTHY.
(1) Teachers of strange doctrines now in Ephesus,
i. 3-7.
(2) How these teachers were to be dealt with,
i. 3; 18-20.
- Why [75]
the elders not sufficient for this?
- What prophecies concerning Timothy?
18.
- Connection of faith and a good conscience?
19.
- In what way delivered to Satan?
20, cf. I. Cor. v. 2-5.
(3) Timothy's gift by the laying on of hands,
iv. 14.
- What prophecy? Cf.
i. 18.
- What gift, when bestowed? and by what eldership?
(4) A change in regard to compensation of the elders,
v. 17, 18,
cf. Acts xx. 33-35.
- What the distinctions here made between elders?
17.
(5) Timothy's health not good,
v. 23.
- Why not restore his health miraculously?
4. HE
PREACHES IN
CRETE,
LEAVES
TITUS
THERE, AND
ON
HIS
WAY TO
NICOPOLIS
WRITES THE
EPISTLE
TO
TITUS,
Ti. i. 5; iii. 12.
- Did these labors precede or follow the visits to Ephesus and Macedonia?
- What the most probable route from Crete to Nicopolis? See map.
- What the condition of the churches in Crete?
i. 5; 10-14.
- Who to take the place of Titus, and why?
iii. 12.
- What of Zenas and Apollos?
iii. 13.
5. SECOND
ROMAN
IMPRISONMENT,
II. Tim. i. 8, 16, 17.
- What mark of difference between this and the first [76]
imprisonment?
i. 8, 12, 16, 17; ii. 8, 9.
- Where was Timothy? and in what condition had Paul left him?
i. 4, 18.
- What journeys had Paul made since leaving Timothy?
iv. 13, 20.
6. INCIDENTS OF
PRISON
LIFE.
(1) Deserted by brethren in Asia, but befriended by Onesiphorus,
i. 15-18.
- How could those "in Asia" turn away from him?
15.
(2) His thoughts on the approach of death,
iv. 6-8.
- In what sense was he "already" being offered?
6, cf. 16.
- Why the figures of "a fight" and "a course"?
7.
(3) Movements of his companions,
iv. 9-12, 16.
- Meaning of the reproach cast upon Demas?
10.
- Is it meant also for Crescens and Titus?
- What ministering could Mark now do?
11.
- Why send Tychicus to Ephesus?
12.
(4) His experience at his "first defense,"
16-18.
- What message proclaimed? and to whom?
17.
Cf. Farrar's Life of Paul.
- What lion?
17.
(5) His personal wants,
13, 21.
- Why want the cloak before winter?
- What use for the books and parchments?
(6) Salutations and remarks about friends,
iv. 19-22.
[77]
- Where Priscilla and Aquila now?
19.
- When had he left Erastus in Corinth?
20, cf. Titus iii. 12.
- When Trophimus left at Miletus?
20.
- Why leave him sick instead of healing him?
- Who the brethren mentioned in
21?
- Where was the main body of the Roman Church? See account of Nero's
persecution. Tacitus, Annals, xv. 44.
(7) His death. Beheaded by Nero in 13th or 14th year of his reign;
i. e., in 67 or 68, A. D.
- When the epistles to Timothy and Titus written?
- Within how many years were all his epistles written?
- How long was his ministry?
§ II. LATER HISTORY OF PETER.
1. WRITES AN
EPISTLE FROM
BABYLON TO THE
CHURCHES IN
ASIA
MINOR.
I. Pet. i. 1, 2; v. 13.
- Why in Babylon?
- Why write to churches planted by Paul?
- What indication in this as to date of the epistle?
2. HISTORICAL
ITEMS IN THE
EPISTLE.
(1) The churches addressed were suffering persecution, [78]
12-19.
(2) The epistle sent by Silvanus, or Silas,
v. 12.
(3) Mark with Peter, and his son in the gospel,
v. 13.
3. WRITES A
SECOND
EPISTLE TO THE
SAME
CHURCHES,
II. Pet. iii. 1,
cf. I. Pet. i. 1.
- General purpose of both epistles?
4. HISTORICAL
ITEMS IN
THIS
EPISTLE.
(1) Peter's expectation concerning himself,
i. 13-15.
(2) Peter's knowledge and appreciation of Paul's Epistles,
iii. 15, 16.
- To which of them does he refer?
- What implied in the expression, "the other Scriptures"?
- What indication here as to the date of this epistle?
- Of Peter's death nothing is known except a doubtful tradition that
he was crucified in Rome the year of Paul's death, and crucified with
his head down at his own request. [79]
§ III. LATER HISTORY OF JAMES AND JUDAS.
1. DEATH OF
JAMES.
JOS.,
ANT. 20, 9. 1.
- This was A. D. 62. (See another tradition, Eus., Ec. Hist. ii.
23.)
2. EPISTLE OF
JAMES.
(1) By which James written?
i. 1.
- Most commonly ascribed to James, the Lord's brother.
(2) The communities addressed,
i. 1.
(3) Its date.
- Before his death in 62; after Jewish churches had long existed,
iv. 1, 2; v. 7-11.
Probably 60-62.
3. JUDAS AND
HIS
EPISTLE.
§ IV. LATER HISTORY OF JOHN.
1. His Writings.
(1) Revelation written in his name,
1, 2, 4.
(2) Date given by Irenæus as A. D. 96. Cf. "Text
and Canon."
- How long after the death of Jesus?
- How long after the Destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70?
- What John's probable age?
(2) I., II., III. John, ascribed to him by all believers.
(3) John's Gospel also ascribed to him, and never disputed till recent
times. (See Text and Canon, pp. 115-117.)
2. Historical Items in the Epistles.
(1) Many antichrists had appeared,
I. Jno. ii. 18, 19, 22.
- Meaning of the word?
- Was a special one yet to come?
(2) Many false prophets had appeared,
iv. 1-3.
- What the point in regard to Jesus coming in the flesh?
2, 3.
(3) An Elect Lady and her children warned against entertaining
these deceivers,
II. Jno. 1, 7, 10, 11.
- Meaning of "lady"?
- Why the warning?
- With what materials did John write?
12.
(4) A rebellious elder rebuked,
III. Jno. 9, 10.
- What brethren was he refusing to receive? See
5-8.
[81]
3. Historical Items in Revelation.
(1) How the Revelation made? and to whom written?
i. 1, 2, 4.
(2) John's banishment to Patmos,
i. 9.
- Where this island, and what its character?
- When did John come into Asia?
(3) The Lord Jesus appears to John,
i. 10-20.
- Meaning of "in the Spirit," and what "the Lord's day"?
10.
- What fulfilled in this coming of the Lord? See
Jno. xxi. 18, 19.
- Were these seven all the churches in Asia?
11. cf. Col. iv. 13.
- Meaning of "one like the Son of man"?
13.
- Why churches symbolized by golden candlesticks?
20.
- Who the "angels" of the churches?
20,
cf. Luke vii. 24, 27; ix. 52
in the original.
- Why symbolized by stars in his right hand?
(4) Experience and condition of the church at Ephesus,
ii. 2, 3; 4, 5; 6.
- What prediction fulfilled in these false apostles?
2, cf. Acts xx. 29.
- What meant by leaving first love?
4.
- What the remedy?
5.
- What the "works of the Nicolaitanes"?
6.
- What kind of discipline had this church maintained?
- How long since Timothy was there?
II. Tim. iv. 9.
- Present condition of Ephesus?
(5) Condition and prospects of the church [82]
at Smyrna.
ii. 9, 10.
- Who established this church?
- Who its chief enemies?
9.
- Present condition of Smyrna?
(6) Past and present of the church at Pergamum,
ii. 13, 14, 15.
(7) Fault of the church at Thyatira,
ii. 20-23.
(8) Fault of the church at Sardis,
iii. 1.
(9) Condition and prospects at Philadelphia,
9, 10.
(10) Fault of the church at Laodicea,
15-17.
- How so deceived about their condition?
- State the relative positions of all these cities.
- Which are in ruins? and what the condition of the others?
L. of B. 575-594. [83]
[CNSH4 75-83]
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