Acts chapter 16

vs 1

And so now we get to meet Timothy, who has the interesting claim to fame of being born to a Jewish mother but a Greek father.

vs 2

Well spoken of by others is pretty much the CV of ancient times. Just like now :P

vs 3

This is the same Paul who travelled to Jerusalem to help convince the council there that Gentiles didn't need to be circumcised. So why circumcise Timothy? I guess because their ministry was to both Jews and gentiles. How would anyone know? Apparently it could be checked?

vs 4

Notice that on this trip, their ministry is not really to non-Christians. It's mostly to Christians, to give them the news from Jerusalem, and to encourage and strengthen the churches.

vs 5

Notice that this particular statement is concerned particularly with numbers! So whoever says you shouldn't keep count, all I can say is that Luke, or someone, obviously was, because it grew daily.

vs 6

How did the Holy Spirit keep them from it? Set up road blocks? Avalanches? Just tell them no? Give them a feeling they shouldn't go there? Doesn't say. But this trip, they stayed around Asia Minor. But it does look like they're considering now visiting new places.

vs 7

Spirit of Jesus now! So Jesus wrestled with them at the border? Who knows. The point being that there are vast parts of the area that these guys couldn't enter.

So why the change of phraseology? We might think he did it just to be different, but that wasn't really how they did things back then. Not as much as today. Repetition gives effect. So it has been suggested that the way God informed them of his decision was different between the two events.

vs 8

They didn't hang around to see if God changed his mind. They got busy somewhere else.

vs 9

Thankfully for them, God made it pretty clear where he wanted them to go. Not at all where they had imagined.

vs 10

Now we get to the first of the very interesting 'we' passages. The assumption being, of course, that if Luke is saying 'we', then he is also now with the rest of Paul's little entourage.

And is it just me, or does Paul seem to be coming more into focus now?