Tape Gems - Two Well Educated Men

By Oscar M. Baker

In Acts 22 Paul is giving his defense before the people (Jews) at Jerusalem, and he says, “‘Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make unto you.’ (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence:…)” (Acts 22:1, 2).

Now it is evident that Paul was a pretty well educated man. He could speak in his own native Hebrew language, which a lot of Hebrews at that time couldn’t do. After the Babylonian captivity the Hebrew language was lost to a great extent among the Hebrew nation, excepting for those who were the educators—the educated men, the Pharisees and the Scribes that had the books. The common people were not using the Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic, and Paul could speak Aramaic. He could also speak Greek, and he had no difficulty in speaking to the Romans when he had a chance to, so evidently he spoke Latin. So Paul spoke several languages and God used these abilities for His purposes.

We have a parallel with that in the O.T. Moses was brought up in all the learning of Egypt, and at that time it was a leading country of the world in learning. And so if there were any other languages to be learned, Moses learned them. He also learned military tactics, he learned the literature, and he learned science that was known at the time. And they were a pretty scientific people, you ought to see some of the inventions they had and some of the things they used back in that time—in fact people really don’t know yet how they built the pyramids, they were really inventors. And Moses was taught all of that as an adopted son of the king’s daughter, and could have been in line to be the next king of Egypt had he chosen to; but he chose to be with his own People.

So there you have two very well educated men in the Bible, one in the Old Testament, and one in the New. So don’t ever underrate Paul’s natural native abilities which God could use, inspiring him, and getting him to use in His work.

[From, “Outline of Acts” tape, 1/9/79.]

Paul’s Defense Before Agrippa

Repeatedly Paul cannot convince them with the truth. In Acts 26, “I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews: Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews:”. Paul finds a man here who knows the customs, and so on, of the Jews better than the others so Paul goes to a little more extent to explain what had happened.

[From, “Outline of Acts”, 1/16/79.]