Jesus – Christian Mancini

ACTS 23. PAUL’S FAREWELL TO JERUSALEM

Christian Mancini2021-04-23T20:18:10+00:00

From the very beginning of his journey to Jerusalem, Paul knew that he would find great difficulty (20:22-25; 21:4-13). He also found there, however, a great intimacy with Jesus and just as he prayed in a place that, according to many Christians, a follower of Jesus should no longer attend: the Temple. Right there he was raptured in a trance, as we have already mentioned, and Jesus told him to hurry away from Jerusalem, because they would not receive his testimony (22:17-21). But Paul’s love for his people of Israel was extreme (Rom 9:3) and we saw that he did not want to [...]

ACTS 23. PAUL’S FAREWELL TO JERUSALEMChristian Mancini2021-04-23T20:18:10+00:00

ACTS 20. PAUL HEADED FOR JERUSALEM. IS IT NECESSARY TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH OR THE SUNDAY?

Christian Mancini2021-04-03T07:32:36+00:00

Acts 20. PAUL HEADED FOR JERUSALEM. DISCOURSE TO THE ELDERS OF EPHESUS Since waters at Ephesus were stirring, and since he had stayed there long enough, Paul went on his way to Macedonia and to actual Greece. He then wanted to sail to reach Antioch directly by sea, but the hostile Jews were waiting for him at the port and so he was forced to stretch the route, going by land to Macedonia (v. 3), with an unforeseen delay that he had to make up for later, in order to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Italian parents want to spend Christmas [...]

ACTS 20. PAUL HEADED FOR JERUSALEM. IS IT NECESSARY TO OBSERVE THE SABBATH OR THE SUNDAY?Christian Mancini2021-04-03T07:32:36+00:00

ACTS 19. PAUL AT EPHESUS

Christian Mancini2021-03-27T08:27:56+00:00

At that time, Asia was a coastal region of present-day western Turkey, with Ephesus as its capital. At the beginning of the second missionary journey, the Holy Spirit had forbidden to go to Asia at that time (16:6), while at the end of the same journey the apostle had happened to land there in passing and had found a good reception by the Jews, but he did not stay long, intending to return with more tranquillity (18:19-21), a purpose which he then accomplished with his third journey. At the beginning of the chapter (vv. 1-7), Paul describes his meeting with twelve disciples [...]

ACTS 19. PAUL AT EPHESUSChristian Mancini2021-03-27T08:27:56+00:00

ACTS 18. PAUL AT CORINTH. THEN, BEGIN OF THE THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY

Christian Mancini2021-03-22T15:36:26+00:00

[18:1-22]. Paul at Corinth. By now we have outlined Luke’s "filigree drawing", so we will focus on some new details. At Corinth the usual pattern repeats itself, with the variation that the head of the synagogue Crispus gets converted (v. 8), but is not followed by the majority of the Jews who indeed, after a year and a half (v. 11) tried in vain to have Paul arrested, and went to beat the new ruler of the synagogue Sosthenes (v. 17); evidently he too had become a believer and had kept the charge in the synagogue. The Lord told Paul in a [...]

ACTS 18. PAUL AT CORINTH. THEN, BEGIN OF THE THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEYChristian Mancini2021-03-22T15:36:26+00:00

CLASH WITH THE PHARISEES OF JERUSALEM ON TRADITION (15:1-20)

Christian Mancini2021-03-13T09:16:55+00:00

4. CLASH WITH THE PHARISEES OF JERUSALEM ON TRADITION (15:1-20) A. For Boyarin it was the Pharisees who went beyond Moses, not Jesus. My conviction about the continuity between the Old and New Testament goes back several years and has always been based on the ‘text itself’ of the Bible. I must admit, however, that reading a book by the Jew Daniel Boyarin has strengthened and enriched a conclusion I had already reached (‘The Jewish Gospels’, Castelvecchi, 2012). In the ‘Foreword’ by Jack Miles, Boyarin is defined as “one of the two or three greatest rabbinic scholars in the world” [...]

CLASH WITH THE PHARISEES OF JERUSALEM ON TRADITION (15:1-20)Christian Mancini2021-03-13T09:16:55+00:00

ACTS 17. PAUL IN BEREA E ATHENS

Christian Mancini2021-03-13T09:17:07+00:00

[17:1-15]. Paul at Thessalonica and Berea. Thessalonica was more than a thousand kilometres away from Iconium and in the middle there was the sea, and yet the same pattern is repeated: preaching in the synagogue, adherence of a significant minority of Jews, adherence also of numerous Greeks, violent reaction of unbelieving Jews, who promote an alliance with the unbelieving Greeks. In Thessalonica and Berea, the Gospel reached even the highest social classes (vv. 4 and 12), showing that the whole of society was in a way ready to receive the message. Verse 6 contains an accusation to which every Christian aspires, [...]

ACTS 17. PAUL IN BEREA E ATHENSChristian Mancini2021-03-13T09:17:07+00:00

IS JESUS WITH US EVERY DAY OR IS HE IN HEAVEN?

Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:02:57+00:00

CAP.33. JESUS RISES AND REMAINS AMONG THE DISCIPLES (28:1-20) 2.THE FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO THE ELEVEN APOSTLES (28:18-20) A. The overall meaning of the message. The event of the crucifixion made it necessary for Jesus to repeat the previous programme, as we find in the last two verses (28:18-20), of which we now take an overview, going over them again later in more detail, starting from his being king (“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”), then re-launching the project of spreading the seed of the Gospel (cf. 13:23-38), through the reproduction of the disciples on [...]

IS JESUS WITH US EVERY DAY OR IS HE IN HEAVEN?Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:02:57+00:00

ACTS 16. PAUL’S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY

Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:21+00:00

[16:1-5]. Application of the decisions of the "Apostolic Council". If the "Apostolic Council" of Jerusalem forbade circumcision, why did Paul circumcise Timothy? This embarrassing episode we tend to overlook and even more we overlook the fact that it is Paul himself to perform the operation in a Hebrew manner (v. 3). The fact is that circumcision was not at all forbidden, but only made not-mandatory for the Gentiles in order to belong to the Church, while the Jews were well pleased to continue to practice it for the purpose of belonging to the people of Israel. Galatians is often quoted as [...]

ACTS 16. PAUL’S SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEYChristian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:21+00:00

“ELI, ELI, LEMA SABACHTHANI?”. WITH THESE WORDS JESUS TURNS EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN (27:46-49)

Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:29+00:00

The Roman soldiers heard and kept in mind the great cry of Jesus, but it is likely that they did not understand anything of his sentence in Hebrew. Those who had a superficial knowledge of the Scriptures misunderstood “Eli” as Elijah, of whom it was said that he had to return (Mat 17:10; cf. Malachi 4:5). The most practising Jews, however, knew the Psalms by heart, also due to their habit of singing them, so in Jesus’ sentence they immediately recognized the beginning of Psalm 22, prompting them to recall it all to memory. We will try to understand something of [...]

“ELI, ELI, LEMA SABACHTHANI?”. WITH THESE WORDS JESUS TURNS EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN (27:46-49)Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:29+00:00

DOES MATTHEW MISREPRESENT THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT?

Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:39+00:00

Chap. 3.4. DOES MATTHEW MISREPRESENT THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT? (1:22-23) First of all, it is necessary to clarify what we mean by prophecy, because sometimes scholars know things that then they neglect to clearly expose to a wider audience. A true prophecy, in the sense that is commonly given to this word, is when an unlikely event is announced in advance, publicly and clearly, the occurrence of which can then later be checked. For example, the statement ‘in the future it will rain’ is not a prophecy, because it is expressed imprecisely and it is a probable event. It [...]

DOES MATTHEW MISREPRESENT THE PROPHECIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT?Christian Mancini2021-02-27T09:03:39+00:00