Intro B

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The Acts of the Hebrews – Intro B

Acts is a guidebook in our cultural return back into the whole house of Israel – the one new man.

Most are chained to those two senses day after day.

 Gen. 2:19 And out of the ground יהוה elohim formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

Ground, air, to see, to call forth into existence. 

Out of the dust (sand, minerals, glass) brought forth through the airwaves to mankind, and whatever mankind perceives he calls forth into his life. 

Our cultural house of technology is built upon the sand of fiber optics and fear and we cannot stand as a house of faith if that is what we see and call upon in our daily walk. 

Meaning what יהוה did for mankind’s good, S.at.an is doing for mankind demise. To bring forth images formed out of minerals onto a glass screen through the airwaves so man will call forth fear and see only images and live in the shadows – a garden overgrown with thickets and thorns of fear!

Isa 14:29  for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent – a burning curse! 

Acts guides us to another root: Isa 11:10 a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign a doleman of the people; to it shall the nations seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 

Author: Luke, the author of the 3rd Gospel. 

Evidence of Lukes authorship not only lies in antiquity with: Irenaeus 130-200CE, Clement of Alexandria 153-217CE, the anonymous Muratorian Cannon 170CE and Eusebius 325 CE but also in the well known “we” passages of the latter half of the book (16:10, 20:5, 21:1, 27:1, 28:16.) as Luke accompanied Paul from Troas in Asia Minor to Philippi.

The MS text is new, it come to us from 900CE whereas the LXX comes to us from 240 BCE over a 1000 years older, it was in circulation in Yahusha and Luka’s time, translated and undisputed by 70+ rabbis from the synagogue Hebrew of the day!

The New Testament was written for a Hebrew-oriented audience. 

Acts from a Hebraic perspective does not mean you have to make the claim that it was written in Hebrew but that it came from a Hebrew cultural perspective grounded in the LXX which is rooted in Hebrew. 

The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek to convey Hebrew ideas to a Hebrew people in the language of the day making it possible to convey Hebrew ideas in Greek, deemed a necessity two hundred years before Yahusha! 

Date: 

Three dates are suggested: before 70CE, between 80-85 and 105-130. 

The latter dates are based in part on the theory the that author of Acts wasn’t Luka, and obtained his information from the revolutionaries Theudas and Judas. 

1. I believe it was written before 70Ce because Ch. 28 ends with Paul under house arrest. While awaiting to appear before Caesar he is free to preach to all who come to him, so this had to happen before 64Ce when the great fire swept through Rome and Emperor Nero blamed it on followers of the Nazarene.  
2. Acts doesn’t mention Pauls death, which appeared to be imminent in 2 Tim 4 and that happened in about 68Ce.  
3. Near the end of Acts (and that’s NOT Ch. 28) but near the end anyway Luke portrays the Roman government as somewhat benevolent toward believers in Yahusha and that definitely changed after 64Ce. 
4. The vocabulary includes “disciple”; “the people of Israel”; “the Son of Man” as well as language about geographical political details that lead me to believe it was written before 70Ce. 

My beliefs it being written before Pauls death puts the Acts somewhere around 62CE. The absence of references to the results of Paul’s Roman imprisonment (released or executed) or of the fall of Jerusalem in 70CE are unlikely if it were written later. Acts actually paints a pretty positive picture of Roman justice which would have been impossible a decade later with the Nero persecutions, destruction of the Temple and systematic door to door Roman persecution. 

2 Tim 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of יהוה, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Gal 3:8 And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Professor C.A.L Totten of Yale University once said, “I can never be too thankful to the Almighty that in my youth he used the late Professor Wilson to show me the difference between the two houses. The very understanding of this difference is the KEY by which almost the entire Bible becomes intelligible, and I cannot state too strongly that the man who has not yet seen that Israel of the Scripture is totally distinct from the Jewish people, is yet in the very infancy, the mere alphabet of Biblical study, and that to this day the meaning of seven-eighths of the Bible is shut to his understanding.” 

Meaning: All Jews (the house of Judah) are Israelites, but NOT all Israelites (the house of Ephraim/Joseph) are Jews. The ten northern tribes (the house of Ephraim/Joseph) that were scattered and assimilated into the nations are non Jewish Israelites.

The Church; Truth or Tradition?

The church was born in Genesis 28:3: And El Shaddai bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and you shall become a church of nations.  (congregation, KAHAL, ecclesia). 

What body was the church birthed from? The the vati-canus – habitation of dogs or from Israel’s body?

Rome is established on seven ‘hills’, and each was originally named by the Etruscans.  There were settlements on six of these hills, but the seventh hill was a boggy swampy place, where the soil was loose.  The Etruscans buried their dead there for centuries.  Because the graves were shallow, dogs would often go there to dig up and feed on the dead bodies!

The Etruscans named this hill VATICANUS, meaning habitation of dogs.  Later, a Roman ruler named Caligula drained this site, and held enormously popular ‘carnivals’ (Latin for flesh raising). Caligula was a devotee of Bacchus, and held orgies and drunkered parties on a regular basis.

The obelisk of Caligula stands today in the center of the chariot wheel design in front of St. Peter’s Cathedral.  

The Vatican stands on the same hill where the Etruscans buried their dead, so it’s an enormous graveyard.  The tunnels beneath the Vatican have entire walls made of human bones and from here they took the spoils and hid them in their archives and fed the nations the scraps – the habitation of dogs. 

So was it born at the vati-canus or from Jacob/Israels body?

Gen 35:9 And יהוה appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan aram, and blessed him. And יהוה said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And יהוה  said unto him, I am El Shaddai: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins!

2000 years of crumbs – the vicar of Christ was laughing at peasantry whilst they pontif-icated at them in Latin; dishing out a wafer crumb…

Let’s make sure we are not using eisgesus and putting some Torah ideas into the text! 

The Conclusion in the NT about this new creature we call the NT church is that it’s not NT at all but a NEW TORAH to all Israel in restoration to Elohim. 

Galatians 6:16: a new creature And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of Elohim.

Acts is a record of how to live in the fold of faith, its written to nourish the lost sheep of the house of Israel who have been starved in the nations only being fed scraps from the vati-canus table –  the bread of his word was cast to the Vatican and then disseminated to the nations from thereon…causing spiritual starvation and doctrinal dogma…!

Mat 15:23 Yahusha answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. 28 Then Yahusha answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.