Hidden In Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts by Lydia McGrew

Author:Lydia McGrew
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: mcgrew, apologetics, Lydia mcgrew, plain view, Evidences, hidden in plain view, deward
Publisher: DeWard Publishing Company, Ltd.
Published: 2017-07-02T22:00:00+00:00

Table 5: Coincidences Between Acts and the Universally Acknowledged Pauline Epistles

Map 1: A Portion of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey

Map 2: Two Routes to Corinth

Map 3: A Portion of Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

VI

Coincidences Between Acts and

the Other Pauline Epistles

Introduction

In this chapter, I will discuss coincidences between Acts, on the one hand, and Ephesians, Colossians, and I and II Timothy, on the other. The last chapter had thirteen coincidences, while this one has only seven, but there are a number of reasons why this is unsurprising. First, it is highly plausible that I and II Timothy (and Titus, for that matter) were written later than the period of time covered by Acts. The extreme difficulty in finding any place within the time period covered by Acts that fits the details mentioned in the Pastoral Epistles is well-known and has even been used as one argument that they were not written by the Apostle Paul at all. That is the wrong conclusion to draw, since the narrative of Acts ends during a time when Paul was imprisoned in Rome, not at the end of his life. Paul, an unstoppable force when it came to letter-writing, would certainly have continued writing letters as long as he could possibly do so, and it is not at all improbable that we have letters by him from a period after the end of Acts.

Paul appears to have written Colossians during the Roman imprisonment that begins at the end of Acts. He expressly says that those to whom he writes have never met him personally (Col 2.1), which means that his letter to them, unlike those to the Corinthians, Philippians, and Thessalonians, will not contain allusions to a previous time with them or to their firsthand knowledge of his sufferings and work.

Concerning Ephesians, the situation is rather curious. I find Paley’s reasoning convincing that the words “at Ephesus” do not represent the main destination of the letter (and may not even have been in the original manuscript) and that this epistle is the letter sent to Laodicea mentioned in Colossians 4.16.1 The conclusion arises in part from the absence of personal notes in the letter, which is rather unusual for Paul, but that is not all the internal evidence. Paley notes that Paul speaks of having heard of his recipients’ faith (Eph 1.15), which is nearly identical to what he says to the Colossians in Colossians 1.3. Since Paul says expressly that he has never met the Colossians, that similarity is an argument that the recipients of the letter “to the Ephesians” were also not personally known to him. Paul also says that he is “assuming” that the recipients had “heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to [him] for [them],” which is an odd locution if he had ministered to them personally. He also says (Eph 3.3–4) that they can learn more about his teaching of the mystery of Christ when they read a different letter that he has written. This does not sound

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