Acts 18:21 A Practical Example of How To Study The Bible

Almost sixty years ago I entered college, one supported by the church I was a part of and was told that I needed to be reading and studying the Bible at least one-half hour a day.  However, I can’t remember ever being instructed in how to study.  And, I believe that many Christians are in the same place, knowing they need to read and study God’s Word, but just not sure how to go about it.

We live in an unprecedented time when it comes to being able to study the Bible.  Remembering back sixty years ago,  I had one Bible, a King James Version.  I had no other aids whatsoever.  I did acquire a Bible dictionary and a Cruden’s Concordance within a few months.  I never had a Strong’s concordance, until I “married” one.  My new wife brought along the one she had obtained.  If I wished to check anything further I would need to go to the library, and even though it was the library of a college that stressed and taught the Bible, it was pretty inadequate.  Today most of us have more helps on our phones and tablets than the library had.  And, we all have the internet and almost any kind of aid we might wish is at our fingertips.  But, do we know how to use these or how to go about doing a study?

Recently at our weekly get-together a verse was referred to and a brief statement made.  The verse was Acts 18:21.  The King James Version renders this, “But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return unto you, if God will.  And he sailed from Ephesus.”  This is speaking of the apostle Paul and is quoting his words to the church at Ephesus.  The comment was that Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem to celebrate the upcoming feast.  Up until recent months I would have made the same comment.  As a matter of fact, this verse was a “proof text” that was quoted showing that Paul kept the feast days and that we should also.

But over the last 3-4 years I had been brought to understand so much–the New Covenant, Paul’s words regarding not being under The Law, the Law being death, and life was through Christ.  I came to see, as he explained in Col. 2:16-17, the sacrifices, the holy days, new moons, sabbaths were all shadows but that NOW we have the body, the one who had been casting the shadow, Jesus.  All of these things were not needed, we needn’t remain in the shadows but are now in the Light, Jesus.

A year or so ago, as I was reading through the book of Acts and came to this verse I did something that we all should be doing, and which I never did much of in the past.  And, that was to keep my mind in gear and ask questions.  Many of us read the Bible regularly.  For many years I read each year from a Bible reading plan that took me completely through the Bible in a year’s time.  I am not putting that down, but one can become so focused on “ticking” off the boxes, in seeing that we read the designated chapters each day that we never really pay attention to what we are reading and seldom ask any questions.

So as I read this verse, I asked, just what is this?  Paul teaches throughout the book of Acts and the many letters he wrote to the churches about not being under the law.  Is he really saying he needed to get to Jerusalem so he can celebrate this feast?  It is obvious that he isn’t following the Torah command to go up to Jerusalem three times a year.  Many years go by in which he never makes the journey to Jerusalem.  So, number 1, I asked the question, “What is this?”  Number 2, where to now?

For me, I check other translations to see how other translators may have rendered the passage.  I have e-Sword on my computer and am able to compare the verse I’m studying in all the translations I have downloaded into the program.  Currently there are 16 different versions.  As I compared I discovered something very interesting.  Only 6 versions contained this phrase, “I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem.”  And, one of those has those words in italics.  So, what have we here?

What is step 3?  Again, this is my approach.  I look at Bible commentaries.  Keep in mind that these are just that, comments, made by men.  But, they can be very helpful when it comes to historical background, information regarding the various manuscripts used in the translations, and so on.  As I began this step I found that many, not all but many, of the commentators indicated that there might be a situation here.  They stated that many of the manuscripts used did not contain this phrase at all.  Notice just a couple of the comments.  From Adam Clarke, “The whole of this clause, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, is wanting in ABE, six others; with the Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate.”  John Gill says, “the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions omit this clause.”  Robertson’s Word Pictures says, “The Textus Receptus has here a sentence not in the best MSS.”

I mentioned earlier about checking various translations, which I did on e-Sword.   But, just out of curiosity I went onto the internet and pulled up a couple of listings of parallel versions.  I ended up finding approximately 70 versions, some I was totally unfamiliar with.  Of those slightly over one half did not have this clause.

Now, is this clause truly in the original or not?  Based on what evidence we have it appears that it doesn’t line up with all of the rest of Paul’s teaching.  However, let us continue our study.

We have all heard the comment that to understand a passage we need to look at the context.  So, in this little study this would be step 4.  Let us back up to verse 1 of the chapter.  We see that Paul came to Corinth.  You can read through all of this but we find in verse 11 he spent a year and six months here.  Then, we are told in verse 18, that after this he tarried, or stayed there, a good while and then left, sailing into Syria.  Verse 19 says he came to Ephesus.  Verse 20 says that the people of Ephesus desired him to stay longer but he didn’t agree to this.  For now let us read verse 21 without the clause in question, “But bade them farewell, saying, but I will return again unto you, if God will.  And he sailed from Ephesus.”  Continuing with verse 22 we are told he “landed at Caesarea” and after “saluting” the church he went down to Antioch.  Then, verse 23 says he left there after some time and went over the country of Galatia and Phrygia.

Verses 24 through 28 tells us about Apollos and how Aquilla and Pricilla gave him additional teaching. Afterwards he went to Achaia and exhorted the disciples there.

Now, returning to the account of Paul, notice chapter 19 and verse 1, “And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus:...”  Now notice verse 8,  "And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months,..."  Then in verses 9 and 10 we find that he was "disputing daily in the school of Tyrannus" and "continued by the space of two years;..." This appears to be what he had promised them in verse 21 of chapter 18. We see no indications of  any effort being made to get to Jerusalem.

But, what if this clause  is in the original?  How would we understand it?  Is there anything else we can look at?

Step 5 for me would be to look at some word definitions.  In the phrase we are questioning a key word to check would be the word “keep.”  When we read this word in our English Bible we interpret
it to mean “celebrate.”  Could it have any other meaning from the original Greek?

Once again we can go to our Bible programs or to the internet and check both Strong’s Concordance and Thayer’s Greek Definitions. The Greek word that is translated as “keep” in Acts 18:21 is Strong’s number G4160, poieo.  Strong’s says that this word occurs 576 times in the King James Version. The King James Concordance says 596 times.  Both Strong’s and Thayer’s gives a long list of definitions.  The King James Concordance lists the various ways this Greek word is translated. In those 596 occurrences the word is translated 76 different ways.  So, maybe “keep” isn’t just what Paul would have indicated?  Out of the 596 occurrences poieo is translated “keep” only 2, that’s TWO, times.  It is translated “keepeth” and “kept” one time each.

Both Strong’s and Thayer’s gives the primary definition as “to make.”  One word that they both gave as a meaning was “spend,” or “with designation of time: to pass, spend.”  Is this possibly what Paul was saying, “I must by all means SPEND this feast that cometh in Jerusalem?’  As some of the commentaries suggest that “he wished to attend for the purpose of seeing many of his friends, and having the most favorable opportunity to preach the Gospel to thousands who would attend at Jerusalem on that occasion.”

As we can see from this little example of how to study a passage or subject there may not be a clear cut answer.  That is where we rely upon the Holy Spirit to lead us into truth.

October, 2019