Episode 266 – The Facts in Acts Part 1

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment-seat, saying, This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked villany, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you: but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves; I am not minded to be a judge of these matters. And he drove them from the judgment-seat.

The Book of Acts, Chapter 18, verses 12 through 16, American Standard Version

But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will determine your matter. And he gave order to the centurion that he should be kept in charge, and should have indulgence; and not to forbid any of his friends to minister unto him. But after certain days, Felix came with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned of righteousness, and self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, Go thy way for this time; and when I have a convenient season, I will call thee unto me. He hoped withal that money would be given him of Paul: wherefore also he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But when two years were fulfilled, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and desiring to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in bonds.”

The Book of Acts, Chapter 24, verses 22 through 27, American Standard Version

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VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author, founder of Crystal Sea Books, and part-time vocal talent. Today on Anchored by Truth we want to continue our series on the historical reliability of the books written by Luke. These books include the gospel that is named after him and the book of Acts. To start us off in our discussions we are using some extracts from Crystal Sea’s upcoming audio book version of one of RD’s books, Doors of Destiny: A Choice Orbs Tale. Now just as informational note we’d like listeners to know that even though the audio version of Doors hasn’t been released, hard copies and e-book versions of Doors of Destiny are already available from Amazon or our website. RD, why don’t you set the scene for the extract that we’re going to hear today?

RD: Well as a reminder to anyone who wasn’t able to be with us last time Doors of Destiny is an adventure tale about four children – 1 brother and 3 sisters - who encounter what’s called a choice orb on a walk through their local woods. Choice orbs are sort of magic marbles that take people out of the normal realm of space and time to places where spiritual battles are being waged and entire worlds can be won or lost based on the outcome of the battles being fought on those worlds. For our 4 earthly travelers their main goal is just to get home. But as part of getting home they find themselves drawn into and playing important roles in saving these other worlds. In today’s scene, Randy, the brother is engaged in a fierce battle with a two-headed beast called the Beast of Two Deaths. Randy has a powerful Shepherd’s Rod that can change shape into various kinds of weapons. He was fighting alongside a centurion named Cornelius and Cornelius’ stallion, Fortis. But Randy has just seen Cornelius get killed. Now Randy has to decide whether to continue to stay on Fortis and continue the fight. His older sister named Danell has been watching from a safe hiding place but all that is about to change.

---- Doors of Destiny extract – Randy’s charge

VK: Wow. So Randy has decided to fight to protect his family. Is he successful?

RD: For anyone who’s curious about the outcome of the battle and what happens next I’d suggest they get a copy of Doors of Destiny for themselves. It’s not only a great adventure tale but it also is packed with references that will help people learn more about scripture and help them think about the role of faith in helping people navigate the real spiritual battles that we all face.

VK: And I think that’s an important note. There are a lot of books out there that not only don’t help people deepen their faith but actually take them in the other direction. It’s nice to know that it’s possible to enjoy a story that is not only entertaining but also edifying. And one of the reasons that Doors has that quality is that you made a point to be sure that Doors always pointed people back to scripture as its inspiration. Many of the scenes and characters in Doors would point people to the Book of Acts wouldn’t they?

RD: Exactly. In fact, the name Cornelius comes from chapter 10 of Acts. And that’s a good starting point for our discussion today about the historical reliability of the book of Acts. Today I wanted to point out that Luke as a historian did a magnificent job of getting names and titles of a significant number of people and government officials right. By doing so Luke proved that he was a very careful observer and recorder.

VK: Can you give us a couple of examples of what you’re thinking about?

RD: Sure. Let’s take a look at Acts, chapter 24. We heard a portion of this chapter in our opening scriptures for today. In the section we listened to we heard several names of people who were prominent in Israel during the middle part of the first century AD which is the time period covered by Acts. We heard the names Felix, Drusilla, and Festus in connection with the trial of Paul. The fact that Felix was the Roman procurator at the time in question is corroborated by two other ancient historians, Josephus and Tacitus. These ancient historians also confirm that Felix’s wife was named Drusilla. Since Felix was the procurator – more or less the governor – it makes sense that he would be involved in judicial proceedings involving a controversial figure like Paul. Also, Luke’s identification of Festus as Felix’s successor is likewise confirmed by Jospehus and another ancient historian, Suetonius.

VK: And, even though it wasn’t part of our opening scripture readings today, elsewhere in Acts Luke mention Drusilla’s older sister, Bernice and her husband Agrippa. I think that Josephus also confirmed that these were real historical figures in Israel at this time. But the Agrippa who was married to Bernice is actually the son of the first Agrippa that Luke had mentioned earlier in Acts, chapter 12.

RD: Yes. The first Agrippa that Luke mentions was Herod Agrippa I who was ruler of Judea from A.D. 27-44. He is the one who persecuted members of the early church. Herod Agrippa I’s reign is confirmed by coins that have been found with the inscription, “The Great King Agrippa, Friend of the Caesar.” His son, Herod Agrippa II, ruled the area of Galilee from A.D 56-95. This is the Agrippa that Paul appeared before in the trial that we heard about in today’s scripture. Paul appealed to this Agrippa before Paul was sent on to Rome. Similar to his father Herod Agrippa II’s likeness is also found on coins.

VK: And that’s just the beginning of the individual people that Luke mentions for which we have plenty of extra-Biblical confirmation. Luke also gets facts about certain individuals right that were at one time thought to be wrong.

RD: Right and not just Luke but the other gospel writers as well.

VK: Can you give us an example of what you’re thinking about here.

RD: For many years there were questions about the existence and the actual title of Pontius Pilate—the Roman governor who presided over the trial of Jesus. Later Roman writers, as well as almost all Bible reference works, referred to Pilate as the “procurator” of Judea but Luke and the other gospel writers called Pilate a “governor;” not a procurator. The fact that “governor” was the correct title was confirmed in 1961, when a two by three foot stone was discovered that had a Latin inscription. The translation of the inscription reads as follows:

Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberieum to the Caesareans.

This was not only archaeological confirmation for the existence of Pilate but it was also confirmation that Pilate was the Prefect, or governor, of Judea.

We now know that the title “Procurator” was not used at the time of Jesus’ trial for the Roman governors. This title only came into usage at a later time, during the reign of the emperor Claudius, A.D. 41-54. During Claudius’ reign the title of the Roman governors shifted from Prefect to Procurator. Although the later Roman writers gave Pilate the incorrect title, the Luke and the other gospel writers did not. They called him a governor—not a procurator.

VK: And it wasn’t just government officials that Luke correctly named was it? Luke correctly named the two high priests who presided during the life of Jesus. Caiaphas’ existence was confirmed when a limestone ossuary containing an inscription bearing his name was found in 1990 in the Old City of Jerusalem. And Josephus confirms that Ananias was the high priest who preceded him. Not only did Luke get the names of individual people right, Luke was also a master and keeping the various titles of Roman government officials in order. And given the Romans’ propensity for complicated organizational structures, particularly when it came to the various provinces and cities included in their far-flung empire, this is no small achievement. This would have been particularly true when the Roman empire was at the height of its power which is when Luke wrote his books.

RD: That’s an excellent observation. Stephen Neill who was a Scottish bishop and New Testament scholar and who wrote several books about the New Testament said that, “Experience shows that nothing is more difficult than to get titles exactly right.” And as you have observed Luke wrote his books when Rome controlled not only Europe but also most of the mid-East and a pretty good chunk of North Africa. And Luke and Paul travelled quite widely so they were in a lot of different parts of the empire and therefore encountered a wide variety of officials with a wide variety of titles.

VK: And we can understand that just by looking at the various governmental structures in our own state of Florida which is a very large state. At the local level we have counties but within those counties are cities and towns. The legislators at the county level are most called county “commissioners” but in cities or towns they’re called “council members.” The chief law enforcement officer of a county is a “sheriff” but in a city or town it’s a “chief.” But there are certain officers that aren’t localized to a county or city such as a “state attorney.” And there are two counties in Florida, Dade and Duval, where the local government structures have been consolidated. So it would be easy for someone who wasn’t familiar with Florida to get titles wrong if they were writing a book about their travels through Florida.

RD: Exactly. And it would demonstrate their accuracy as an observer if they got the titles right. So, let’s look at some of the specifics of public officials that Luke got right. These examples come from an article on reknew.org entitled “Is the book of Acts reliable,” but there are a huge number of other sources out there that people can consult. The governors of senatorial provinces in Cyprus (13:7), Achaia (18:12), and Asia (19:38) are accurately termed “proconsuls” (anthupatoi), whereas those over imperial provinces such as Syria and Judea are correctly termed hagemon (Luke 2:2?; 3:1; Acts 23:24; 26:30). Similarly, Herod is not called “king” of Galilee, but “tetrarch” (Luke 3:1; Acts 13:1), while other members of the Herod family, Agrippa I and II, are properly titled “king” (basileus, 12:1; 25:13).

Similarly, Luke notes, quite incidentally, that Phillipi is a Roman colony (16:12) whose magistrates are therefore called “praetors” (stratagoi) and whose attenders are called “lictors” or “serjeants” (rabdouxoi) (16:35). In Thessolonica (17:6), however, the chief authorities are called “politarchs” (politarxai), a term not found elsewhere in extant literature but six times confirmed by archeological findings in Thessalonica. Stephen Neill concluded that “Exactly the right title is used at exactly the right time and place.”

Luke accurately noted that the “town clerk” (grammateus) of Ephesus (19:35) functioned as the liaison officer between civic administration and the Roman government in the province of Asia as well as taking part in the town assemblies (19:39). Even on a relatively obscure island like Malta Luke got the title of the island’s leader right by naming “Publius” as the “chief official” of the island of Malta (to proto tas nasou) (28:7). Luke’s use of the correct title has now been confirmed by inscriptions found on the island.

VK: In fact, another very prominent archeologist, Sir William Ramsay, who started out as a critic of the historicity of the book of acts was won over by Luke’s constant attention to such details as titles. Ramsey wrote, “The officials with whom Paul and his companions brought in contact are those who would be there. Every person is found just where he ought to be: proconsuls in senatorial provinces, asiarchs in Ephesus, strategoi in Philippi, politarchs in Thessolonica, magicians and soothsayers everywhere.” Ramsey gives a great illustration of why it’s so important for us to at least do a modicum of study about the historical background of the Bible’s books, especially the ones like Acts that are historically rich. Luke made some observations in Acts that we can’t confirm for ourselves like Christ’s ascension. But we can know that Luke was right about the ascension because we can be confident that he got facts right that we can check.

RD: Yes. And just one final example to close the loop on the scriptures we used today. It might be one thing to get a name right. It might be another to get a title right. But we have to remember that historical events are set in specific time frames. So, if we get confirmation that Luke got all three right it’s sort of historicity trifecta.

VK: Historicity trifecta. Try saying that 3 times fast…

RD: I’ll pass, thank you. Anyway in our first opening scripture we heard about Paul being brought before a man named Gallio as part of a dispute with some Jews in Achaia but as a Roman official Gallio had no interest in judging what he deemed to be an internal matter pertaining to their religion. Luke’s identification of Gallio as proconsul of Achaia in A.D. 51 has been confirmed by a discovered inscription at Delphi (18:12) so this harmonizes excellently with Luke’s account in Acts.

VK: Well in this episode of Anchored by Truth which we’ve entitled the facts in Acts we’ve taken a look at how Luke was consistently accurate in his observations about people, governing officials, and positions and titles. Next time we’re going to take a look and see how Luke did with details about geography and local customs.

RD: And – spoiler alert – we’re going to find out that Luke was just as accurate when he wrote about places as when he wrote about people. And if Luke was so careful when he wrote about mundane things like government titles and local customs I think it can give us enormous confidence that he was no less careful when he told us about Jesus rising from the dead and ascending to the Father to represent us as our Advocate.

VK: Sounds like it’s a great time to have a prayer. Since we’re approaching Veterans Day how about if today we listen to a prayer for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and others who willingly place themselves in harm’s way so we can enjoy freedom in our nation.

---- Prayer for deployed soldiers

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” We hope you’ll be with us next time as we continue our discussion of the remarkable historical accuracy of Luke – who was not only a physician who addressed bodily needs but a historian who continues to minister to spiritual needs today. We hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show. Also, we’d to remind listeners that even though the audio version of Doors hasn’t been released, hard copies and e-book versions of Doors of Destiny are already available from Amazon or our website.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the American Standard Version)

The Book of Acts, Chapter 18, verses 12 through 16, American Standard Version

The Book of Acts, Chapter 24, verses 22 through 27, American Standard Version

(Sources used for this episode or other in this series)

https://reknew.org/2018/12/is-the-book-of-acts-reliable/

https://crossexamined.org/historical-accuracy-book-acts/

https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1311-accuracy-of-the-book-of-acts-the

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/stewart_don/faq/historical-accuracy-of-the-bible/question12-gospels-historically-accurate.cfm

https://www.angelfire.com/sc3/myredeemer/Evidencep13.html

Doors of Destiny – Chapter Twenty Extract

Fortis stomped and pawed impatiently, as if urging Randy to allow him to finish the battle they had begun.

“Fortis, no. Hold…stay…no.” Randy’s voice was barely a whisper.

Fortis reared slightly and neighed urgently, but Randy still hesitated.

Danell had seen Cornelius go down, and was now beside herself with grief and anxiety. She thought that with Cornelius dead there was little hope they could still drive off the beast, especially if it were up to only Randy and the rod. She watched Fortis carry Randy to safety, but she also watched as Fortis turned again toward the beast, and she could see the indomitable stallion getting ready to charge again. She saw and sensed Randy’s hesitation, and she wanted to yell at Randy to just stop and get off Fortis. She desperately wanted Randy to come talk to her before he did anything stupid, but as she kept watching, she saw no indication that he was thinking about her at all. Even though Randy did not charge, he also did not dismount. She thought she saw Randy settle himself more firmly into the saddle, and she feared the worst.

Danell jumped up and started yelling, “Randy, no! Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”

When Danell jumped up the beast spotted her, and it quickly spotted Rhonda and Ruthie, who had left their latest hiding place and were running to join Danell. Both heads licked their lips hungrily, but the beast decided to finish off Cornelius’ death first. It lumbered toward Cornelius.

Randy heard Danell and saw her expose herself. He also saw Rhonda and Ruthie, and he knew the beast had seen them. His heart was pounding. He was still shaking from Cornelius’ loss, but when he saw that the beast was now aware of his family, he hesitated no longer.

He was about to order Fortis to charge when Fortis stamped impatiently and looked at the shield that still protected them both.

Without blinking Randy said, “Spear.”

The rod immediately transformed itself into a sturdy spear with a large iron spearhead.

Randy glanced at the spear and ordered, “Really big spear.”

The rod obediently lengthened the spear by two feet.

Then Randy remembered the encounter with Inanna and how she had noticeably shrank back when she saw the scroll with diamonds on either end.

In a voice flecked with steel he commanded, “Diamond spearhead.”

Instantly the rod transformed the spearhead from cold iron to crystal-clear diamond, but this diamond had an emerald-green glow around it.

Randy knew nothing of bridle and reins, and his legs were too short to reach the stirrups, but he was not going to let those limitations stop him. With his left hand he grabbed a good fistful of Fortis’ mane while whispering apologies. Somehow he found a way to jam his feet into part of the saddle or various straps so he could hold himself upright while he held the spear under his right arm. He hoped his strength would be enough for one good strike.

When he was as ready as he thought he could be, he quietly said to Fortis, “Charge.”

Randy had not tried to sound strong or authoritative when he gave his final commands to the rod and Fortis, but anyone listening would have heard words that rung with both strength and authority. And courage.

A strong wind came up across the Plains of Justice, swirling this way and that. Overhead a blue sky grew dark, and in the distance lightning bolts marked the moment that the final charge began.

Danell started to rush down from her place toward the Plains of Justice, fumbling with the pen as she ran. Her foot hit an unforgiving rock and she went down. The pen rolled several feet away.

The vicious beast reached Cornelius’ body, reared up, and towered over it. The great Beast of Two Deaths bellowed in triumph.