Bringing in the
Name
“After this Paul
left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of
Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had
commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he
was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers
by trade. And he reasoned in the
synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks” (Acts18:1-4).
As you may know, the original New Testament Greek texts were
copied by hand so they could be distributed to the churches. On rare occasions
individual scribes, hoping to illuminate the text, added explanatory notes which,
though they’re not part of the received text, shed light on it. One of these
variants is found in Acts 18:4.
The accepted text of The Acts of the Apostles reads as above: “And he (Paul) reasoned in
the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.” An
enterprising scribe at some point added a phrase: “And he reasoned in the
synagogue every Sabbath, bringing in the name of the Lord Jesus; and
tried to persuade the Jews and the Greeks.”[1]
“Bringing in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Interesting! It appears that this scribe, having heard Paul speak, was thinking
of his method of expounding the scriptures.
Paul had little more than the Old
Testament in his hands. The New Testament, apart from some of the Gospels, had
not yet been written. Thus Paul argued almost solely from the Jewish scriptures
that Jesus was the Messiah and did so by reading Messianic passages from the
Old Testament, “bringing in (inserting) the name of the Lord Jesus” where it
was appropriate to do so. It’s sound methodology and I commend the method as a way of reading the Old Testament.
I think of Isaiah 53:4,5:
“Surely Jesus
has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Jesus was pierced for
our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace, and by Jesus’ wounds we are healed.”
Paul’s homiletic is especially apropos
when we read the Book of Psalms for, as I believe, all the psalms are Messianic
and all can be placed in Jesus' mouth or applied directly to Him. Accordingly:
When I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no
evil, for you, Lord Jesus, are with me;
your rod and your
staff, they comfort me (Psalm 23:4).
That puts a face on our companion as we
walk through that dark valley. The Lord Jesus
will walk with us though all others must turn back.
David Roper
7.10.17
[1] For those of you who care about this
sort of thing, one 7th Century manuscript [D] and some versions of the Syriac
and Vulgate have the variant: “και εντιθεις το ονομα του κυριου Iησου.”
