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The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 24:36-53, Not a ghost; hands lifted in blessing
Jesus stands among the disciples, who think they are seeing a ghost. He shows his hands and feet and eats fish, opens the Scriptures to them, and leads them out to Bethany, where he lifts his hands and blesses them.
Luke 24:36-53, in every translation this tool compares.
Jesus appears among the gathered disciples, who are terrified and take him for a ghost. He invites them to touch his body and eats fish in front of them to prove he is no phantom, then shows them how the whole of Scripture points to him and tells them to wait in Jerusalem for power from God. Leading them out to Bethany, he raises his hands to bless them and is taken up into heaven, and they go back to the city full of joy and spend their time praising God in the temple.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sacrifice-and-blood\/","n":"Sacrifice and the daily offering","s":"Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
The resurrection of all the dead had not yet happened, so the disciples think of a ghost (Keener and his notes). Many ancients pictured the dead as shades, and most Jewish traditions held that angels took no earthly food, so the touch and the meal show that he is neither (Keener and his notes). Heiser counts this as the one New Testament use of the word spirit for the disembodied spirit of a human being, a ghost. Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, notes that my hands and my feet is indirect evidence that Jesus was nailed rather than tied. Other Jewish writings also speak of the Scriptures in three parts (Keener and his notes). Priests lifted their hands to give the blessing of Numbers 6:24-27 (Keener and his notes), and Sirach 50:20 describes the high priest Simon II coming down after the temple service and lifting his hands "over the whole congregation of Israelites" to give the Lord's blessing (Strauss). Bethany was on the Mount of Olives, where Acts places the ascension (Strauss). Luke ends as he began, with people at prayer in the temple (the cultural backgrounds notes).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 24:36, 24:37, 24:39, 24:43, 24:44, 24:50 and 24:53
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 24:36-38, 24:41-43, 24:44-46 and 24:50
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 9, The Sin of the Watchers and Baptism, section Spirits in Prison, Chained in Gloomy Darkness
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 24:39, 24:44, 24:50 and 24:51
