Acts 1:15-26
An add-on from yesterday: “…and His brothers.” (v. 14b) This is the first mention of Jesus’ brothers being counted among His followers. Presumably His death and Resurrection had won them over?
This choice of Matthias to be the 12th… Somewhere else, probably in a sermon somewhere, it was pointed out to me that this is the last occurrence in the Bible of casting lots. From now on decisions are made with prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This description of Judas’ death (v. 18) is quite graphic, more so than anything else that we read in Scripture – but Herod being eaten by worms comes in a close second (Acts 12:23)!
As a final note, the word “apostle” is standard for us today, like when we refer to the twelve apostles. But today’s note of Matthias being numbered with the eleven apostles (v. 26) is not a common usage. I can only find the word “apostle” twice in the Gospels, first in Luke 6:13 where Jesus chose twelve from his disciples “whom he named apostles,” and in Mark 6:30 where the twelve are called apostles when mention is made of their return from the mission of preaching and healing (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apostle.) Although “apostle” also appears in verse 2 in this chapter, more commonly the apostles are referred to as the twelve or the eleven.
Slava Bohu!
Thanks, Fred. In this passage (v. 16) is the first time I think I have seen the term, “Holy Spirit”, chronologically. Good point about the casting of lots for guidance for the final choice, but it was a follow up after they had set the criteria and narrowed the choices down to two, presumably after prayer. My study Bible says that apostle means messenger, as in a missionary, whereas disciple is a learner or follower.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by saying this is the first time seeing “Holy Spirit” chronologically. There are multiple Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit (e.g., Psalm 51:11; Isaiah 63:10) as well as prior references in the Gospels (e.g., Mt. 1:18-20; Luke 1:15, 1:35; John 1:33).