Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 18 – Twin Gods?
Recall how the previous chapter showed you that three passages in the New Testament (John 1, John 20, and Hebrews 1) apply the term “God” to both God and Christ.
Thus the apostles saw Christ as under the authority of God, but still divine in some sense. For this reason, we see the following reaction to Paul’s preaching in the Gentile city of Athens, Greece.
Acts 17:18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”–because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Note that these pagan philosophers did not take Paul to be preaching about one God. They were used to hearing about multiple gods – even to the point of being familiar with this kind of pairing. For example, consider something that happened earlier on Paul’s second missionary journey in the city of Lystra in Asia Minor.
Acts 14:8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.
Acts 14:9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well,
Acts 14:10 said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk.
Acts 14:11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.”
Acts 14:12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
In the 1st century, Zeus was considered supreme among the Greek gods and Hermes was his spokesman. This pattern of a supreme god with a spokesman god, of course, matches what the previous chapter showed John 1 presenting: God as supreme and “the Word” as His spokesman.
Focusing on the ranking more than the specific roles, we see a similar pattern of pairing in the Old Testament. First, when Isaac’s wife Rebecca bore twins:
Genesis 25:24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
Genesis 25:25 Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau.
Genesis 25:26 Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.
What I want you to notice is the ancient desire for order…even in the case of twins! The twin that came first from the womb was considered to have the higher ranking.
Later in Genesis, we see the exact same concern for order in another instance of twins. This one involved the offspring of Judah.
Genesis 38:27 It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb.
Genesis 38:28 Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”
Genesis 38:29 But it came about as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez.
Genesis 38:30 Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah.
Don’t get lost in the details of this story. In both cases – Isaac’s offspring and Judah’s – our interest is not which twin came out first. Rather, we simply want to notice from both cases how important birth order was to the ancients. They did not want uncertainty about ranking. They prized order over disorder.
One final note on the issue of twins. Consider this otherwise obscure verse:
Acts 28:11 At the end of three months we set sail on an Alexandrian ship which had wintered at the island, and which had the Twin Brothers for its figurehead.
I don’t want to make much of this verse, but it is curious that Luke would mention such a detail. All I’m saying is that it’s not impossible that the New Testament church’s intense focus on the Psalm 110:1 picture of two almost identical figures could cause a person to notice something like this. If it doesn’t strike you the same way, just forget I said it.
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