Toto

There is only one such translation listed here but the Greek looks ambiguous. Why is one version preferred?

Steven Carr

Why would Jesus need guidance by the Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit seemed to goof when choosing Judas....

spamandham

I would also be interested in knowing why exelexato refers to the apostles rather than the Holy Spirit. In the brief Greek lessons I've received from other members here, such references are generally to the closest noun, i.e. ...having commanded the apostles through the Holy Spirit whom he chose....

DCHindley

It doesn't always work that way. Sometimes you have to go by the case and gender of words to determine what verb a noun relates to. I am not expert enough nor have the patience to attempt that at the moment.

FWIW, interpreting the sentence the way you suggest makes Jesus seem more like a magus than a divine/divinely-inspired person. That is, he is making use of a familiar spirit to help him instruct his disciples (or perhaps, his disciples used a spirit chosen by Jesus to communicate with him in heaven, i.e., channeled Jesus ... hmmm, the original 12-chan?).

DCH

storytime

Or.. might they have been pre-determined as spoken of in Matthew 13:11 ?? Not every Jew was on the list to be recruited if predistination applies. IOW's, Jesus could not choose what had already been chosen for the kingdom. His was an ordered/ordained society of Jews for Jesus.

storytime

"the words, they are spirit, and they are life".

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God." Both Moses and Jesus are seen as god-men who spoke the word which word/words was the Holy Spirit[breath of life].

ApostateAbe

Steven Carr, what do you think of my explanation?

Solo

The spirit was the medium by which the early groups communicated with the risen Lord. It's by the Holy Spirit that one apprehends Jesus as the Lord (1 Cr 12:3) , Jesus is the promise of the Spirit (Gal 3:14), or simply the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cr 3:18).

By contrast, I am not familiar with with an example of Jesus relying on the faculty of the spirit to make decisions. But maybe Andrew has one.

Jiri

ph2ter

I don't think that the passage from Acts argues against Docetism. Eating and drinking were not a problem for Docetists at all, before or after the resurrection. According to Docetists, Jesus only appeared to eat and to drink rather than realy eating and drinking. Marcion used the story of the three angels, who ate, walked, and conversed with Abraham and yet had no real human body, as an illustration of the life of Christ (Adv. Marc., III, ix). But after resurrection Jesus acquired a body which is in the orthodoxy also very vague concept similar to the docetic Jesus before resurrection: 1 Cor.15.:So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

In the mentioned sentence bread and wine are 'the images' (εἰκόνας) of Christ's flesh and blood before his resurrection. So, the author argues that bread and wine could not be the images of a fictional, docetic body, but the images of a real, human body of Jesus before resurrection.

Rather, I think that Acts in that sentence unintentionally reflect a situation before Jesus was historicized, when only known Jesus was a Jesus who appears in the Eucharist.

neilgodfrey

Possibly because Acts 10:41 draws on a narrative that was circulating before the canonical gospels were fixed and widely accepted.

Justin Martyr, mid second century, writes that Christ's reign began from the time of the cross (Trypho 73, First Apology 41 -- both discuss how Christ began his reign "from a tree/wood"). He also links the prophecy that Jesus would "eat and drink again" with his disciples to a time that is implied immediately following his death and resurrection, and prior to his second coming in Trypho 51:

So eating and drinking again with his disciples was accomplished again "in his kingdom", which began from the crucifixion, according to this second century bishop from Syria and Rome.

In the First Apology 67 Justin writes that Jesus, on the first day of his resurrection, taught his "apostles and disciples" the various Sunday worship practices, including the details of the eucharist:

What things? First Apology 65-67 lists them:

• weekly church meetings,
• the eucharist,
• Sunday prayers,
• readings,
• handouts for poor.

Justin Martyr appears to have believed that the eucharist was instituted by Jesus after his resurrection in order to remind mortal folks that he himself had also once been flesh and blood (Trypho, para 70).

The view that the eucharist originated before the death of Jesus, not after, appears to have been a feature of Paul's camp. Justin appears not to know about this "apostle of the heretics".

The matter had still not been settled well enough by the time Acts was written (probably around the time of Justin Martyr) so that give-away lines like that in Acts 10:41 could slip in without notice.

Neil