Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory. 

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Acts 17-19.

Our reading today brings us to more cities we are familiar with from the letters Paul later wrote: Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus. Whole books have been written about the situations in each of these cities and especially about Paul's letters to the communities there. Of the three, Paul spent the least amount of time in Thessalonica, even though it was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. He was literally run out of town. The First Letter to the Thessalonians, probably the very first book of the New Testament to be written, was Paul's attempt to fill in the gaps left in his teaching at the time of his departure. (When we get to the letter, his anxiety will be clear; today's reading gives us the context for it.)

Fresco of St Prisca
 Church of St Prisca (Rome)

Paul's native Tarsus was considered second only to Athens in the quality of its philosophical schools. As a boy, Saul may have heard great things about Athens. Having escaped from Thessalonica, where better could an Apostle dream of preaching Jesus Christ than in the noblest center of culture the ancient world knew? If he could reach the minds of those social influencers, he may have thought, he could reach their students for generations to come. Alas, they were, as Luke tells us, only really interested in novelties,
not in really good news, especially if it required them to change their habitual thought-patterns. Corinth was the opposite of Athens. If Athens was dedicated (at least by reputation) to the life of the mind, Corinth's reputation was, well... (There's a list of social pariahs in 1 Cor 6:9-10, followed by "and such were some of you.") However, the first people Paul met in Corinth were not stereotypical Corinthians but exiled Roman Jews: a woman named Prisca (Luke uses the diminutive Priscilla) and her husband Aquila. This dynamic duo would become Paul's faithful collaborators. We see him send them to Ephesus, and by the time we read the Letter to the Romans, they will be back in the Eternal City (see Romans 16:3). Prisca and Aquila are the ancient Church's most outstanding models of the lay apostolate.

Start reading here.

For additional background

Now that we're being introduced to Saul of Tarsus, it's time for me to introduce you to my single favorite volume on St Paul. This is the book I would recommend to someone who wanted to read one (only one) book that combined the life and letters of St Paul. Written by the noted Scripture scholar N. T. Wright, this is a flowing narrative that is Scripturally enlightening and historically sound. Paul: A Biography gives the reader a way of following Paul through the Acts of the Apostles and as he writes his letters and makes Paul the person that much more approachable.