11
faction, it is probable that these Jewish Christians represented a wing of Judaism that was
even more "fanatical" than the religion as a whole or than the opposition Christ had
encountered during most of his life.
28
Fortunately, at least the leadership of the church
clearly adjudicated against the Judaizers and in favor of sola gratia (see esp. Acts
15:10).
29
The inconsistencies of communicating messages in the first-century empire create
some other inadequate belief systems in Acts, which the early Christians must correct,
though doing so without the rancor exhibited in some of the previous narratives surveyed.
Priscilla and Aquila take an effective preacher, Apollos, aside and explain "to him the
way of God more adequately" (18:26). Paul encounters apparent believers in Ephesus,
who in fact know only John's baptism and have never heard of the Holy Spirit (19:1-7);
here a more full-orbed presentation of the gospel from its beginnings proves in order.
30
Finally, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, Paul predicts what the
epistles will demonstrate frequently did occur: the emergence of false teachers, both
externally and internally, who would "distort the truth in order to draw away disciples
after them" (20:30). We are not told the content of this false teaching but it is serious
enough for Paul to label its proponents "savage wolves" (v. 29).
The Epistles of Paul
We will proceed with Paul's letters in their probable chronological order,
adopting the earlier date for Galatians.
27
For other "Opposition to the Plan of God and Persecution," in Acts, see the chapter so-entitled by Brian
Rapske in Witness to the Gospel, ed. I. Howard Marshall and David Peterson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1998), 235-56.
28
J. Louis Martyn, "A Law-Observant Mission to Gentiles," SJT 38 (1985): 307-24.
29
Cf. further Craig L. Blomberg, "The Christian and the Law of Moses," in Witness to the Gospel, 397-
416.
30
On which, see esp. James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 83-
89.