31/10/2022
❤️Acts 9,31❤️:"So the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied."
--> Luke stresses the peace and growth of the church and emphasises the role of the Spirit in that growth. What is noteworthy is the “peace” that the Christians of Judea and elsewhere enjoy in contrast to the reaction of Jerusalem Jews to Saul.
Judea --> means the southern part of Palestine as differentiated from Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Idumea. It does not designate the wider territory occupied by the Jewish people and part of the Roman province of Syria.
Samaria --> denotes the region south of Galilee, from the Plain of Jezreel south to the northern border of Judea.
Galilee --> is now mentioned for the first time in Acts. The Greek name Galilaia is found in the LXX as the translation of Hebrew Gālîl meaning “circle, circuit, district.” In the postexilic period it was the name for the northern part of Palestine, surrounded by the Jordan River, the plain of Jezreel, Mt. Carmel, Ptolemais, Tyre, and Syria. Pliny speaks of Galilee as “part of Judea adjoining Syria.”
It was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord --> Thus was the Christian movement being consolidated as “church.” A new element is introduced into the description of the Christian church --> “the fear of the Lord” is an idea from the Old Testament, it refers to the beginning of knowledge. Luke introduces that idea to enhance the wisdom that characterised early Palestinian Christians.
In the comfort of the Holy Spirit --> The growth of the church is thus ascribed to the comfort (in Greek paraklēsis which may be translated also as “encouragement, exhortation, consolation”) of the Spirit.