Aug 2, 2014

The Gospel: A Demand and a Gift?

"The whole Gospel is 'demand' insofar as it expresses God's sovereign will concerning us. His sole demand is, however, in reality only this: that we must accept His gift."

Arnold T. Ohrn, The Gospel and the Sermon on the Mount (New Your: Fleming H. Revell, 1948), 23.

Aug 1, 2014

Characters in Acts

Many readers of Acts know that the character of Paul dominates the book. But Sean Adams has put some mathematical quantification to that observation. It is also interesting to see how other characters in Acts fare as can be seen in Adams' table below.

Character
Verses
Words/episode
Total of words
Percentage
Jesus
1.1–9
166
166
0.9%
Disciples (general)
1.10–14
118



1.23–2.13
255



6.1–7
138



15.5–34
480
991
5.4%
‘Believers’
2.41–7
117



4.24–35
251
368
2.0%
Apostles and Peter
5.12–42
566
566
3.1%
Peter with disciples
1.15–22
160



2.14–40
525



5.1–11
206
891
4.8%
Peter with John
3.1–4.23
908



8.14–25
199
1,107
6.0%
Peter alone
9.32–11.18
1,373



12.3–19
372
1,745
9.5%

[15.7–11=98]



Barnabas
4.36–7
31



11.19–26
153
184
1.0%
Stephen
6.8–8.3
1,326
1,326
7.2%
Philip
8.4–13,26–40
433
433
2.3%
Ananias
9.10–17
169
169
0.9%
Saul/Paul alone
9.1–9
144



9.18–35
251



17.16–18.23
779



19.1–20.3
809



20.18–38
373



21.26–26.32
3,154



27.17–31
306
5,816
32.1%
Paul and Barnabas
11.27–30?
64



12.24–15.4
1,533



[15.12=23]




15.35–41
112
1,709
9.3%
Paul and Silas/’we’
16.1–17.15
1,023



20.4–17
251



21.1–17
309



27.1–28–28.16
1,046
2,629
14.2%
Paul and James
21.18–25
153
153
0.8%
James (disciple)
12.1–2?
24
24
0.1%
James (brother)
15.13–21
130
130
.07%
Herod
12.20–3
74
74
0.4%
Apollos, Priscilla, and Aquila
18.24–8
103
103
0.6%

Sean Adams, The Genre of Acts and Collected Bibliography, SNTSMS 156 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 130-31.

Jul 31, 2014

Proverbs on Work and Laziness-Part 3

This is the final part of a three-part series on proverbs related to work and laziness.


Proverbs on Work and Laziness
Verse(s)
Text (NASB)
Type
Parallelism
12:11
He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,
But he who pursues vain things lacks sense.
Didactic
Antithetic
12:24
The hand of the diligent will rule,
But the slack hand will be put to forced labor.
Didactic
Antithetic
12:27
A slothful man does not roast his prey,
But the precious possession of a man is diligence.
Didactic
Antithetic
13:11
Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles,
But the one who gathers by labor increases it.
Didactic
Antithetic
28:19
He who tills his land will have plenty of food,
But he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.
Didactic
Antithetic
15:19
The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns,
But the path of the upright is a highway.
Didactic
Antithetic
20:13
Do not love sleep, lest you become poor;
Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.
Admonition
Antithetic
21:25-26
25 The desire of the sluggard puts him to death,
For his hands refuse to work;
26 All day long he is craving,
While the righteous gives and does not hold back.
Didactic
Antithetic
10:4-5
4Poor is he who works with a negligent hand,
But the hand of the diligent makes rich.
5He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely,
But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.
Didactic
Antithetic
13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
But the soul of the diligent is made fat.
Didactic
Antithetic
14:23
In all labor there is profit,
But mere talk leads only to poverty.
Didactic
Antithetic