Basic HTML Version
Q
"On page 35 of the May
Plain
Truth,
in the 'Ouestions and
Answers' section, you made the fol–
lowing statement: 'But there is no
biblical record of a single person
ever receiving God's Spirit during
Christ's earthly ministry.' May
1
cour–
teously call your attention to John
20:22?"
W. T.,
Dalias, Texas
A
John 20:22 reads, "And
when he had said this, he
breathed on them, and said to
them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. ' "
Here on the evening following His
resurrection Jesus was commis–
sioning His disciples to go out into
the world: "As the Father has sent
me, even so
1
send you" (verse 21 ).
For that commission they were to
be given special and unus'tral au–
thority: " lf you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven; if you retain
the sins of any, they are retained"
(verse 23). To fulfill such an awe–
some responsibility, they would
need the very Spirit of God. There–
fore they were commanded to "re–
ceive" or "take hold of" the Holy
Spirit when it would come a few
weeks later.
In John 16:7 Jesus told them
plainly: " lt is to your advantage that
1
go away, for if
1
do not go away,
the Counselor will not cometo you;
but if
1
go,
1
will send [it] to you ."
Here He was speaking of the Holy
Spirit, which He said would not
come unless He went away. And He
was not speaking of a momentary
departure-He was speaking of a
centuries-long absence from the
earth.
So the disciples could not have
received the Holy Spirit at thé time
Christ symbolically breathed on
34
them, since He had not yet " gone
away," or ascended to heaven.
Acts 1:4-8 confirms this. Just be–
fore His ascension, Christ "charged
them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the·
Father [the Holy Spirit, which they
had not yet received] . . . [and] be–
fore many days you sha/1 be bap–
tized with the Holy Spirit." Verse
8: " But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come
upon you [ i t hadn't arrived
yet] .... " The Holy Spirit did
come-on the day of Pentecost-as
described in the second chapter of
the book of Acts.
Q
"1
once heard a sermon on
how to reconcile Genesis
46:27 with Acts 7:14 (whether 70 or
75 of Joseph's relatives went down
into Egypt), but it didn't really seem
correct upon close examination . How
do you reconcile this apparent dis–
crepancy?"
Jetze V.,
Clinton , Ontario, Ganada
A
In chapter 7 of the book of Acts,
Stephen in his final speech
be–
fore the Sanhedrin was apparently
quoting from the Septuagint trans–
lation of the Old Testament. This
version gives the number of Jo–
seph's relatives as 75 (and lists five
names not in the Masoretic text),
whereas the Masoretic Hebrew text
(the basis of the King James and
Revised Standard versions of the
Old Testament) gives the total as 70
(A.
Rahlfs, ed., Septuaginta, pp.
77 , 86).
The Septuagint (abbreviated
LXX) was a translation of the He–
brew Old Testament into Greek,
done in Egypt over a period of a
century or more beginning about
270 B.C. lt was extensively used by
the writers of the New Testament
(see lnterpreter's Dictionary of the
Bible, article "Septuagint"), and it
is evidently the version Stephen
was using when he mentioned
"seventy-five souls. "
lnterestingly enough, Stephen 's
figure is corroborated by a fragment
of the book of Exodus in Hebrew
found among the Oumran (Dead
Sea) scrolls. This fragment , pre–
served at Exodus 1:5, also reads
" seventy-five souls" (F. Cross, The
Ancient Library ot Oumran,
p.
184).
Q
"In your booklet
The Real
Jesus, you write that Jesus
had brothers and sisters. But accord–
ing to Matthew 27:56 and John 19:25
these were the children of Mary, wife
of Cleophas, who was sister to Mary,
Christ's mother. According to the
usual style of Scripture they were
called His brethren, that is, near rela–
tions to our Savior. lf the Virg in Mary
had all these children, one may as–
sume that they married and had chil–
dren. However, history records none
of these children ever saying Jesus
was their uncle.' '
Carmelo P.,
Sliema, Malta
A
Matthew 13:54-56 clearly
states that Christ had tour
brothers : "Coming to his own
country he taught them in their
synagogue, so that they were as–
tonished, and said, 'Where did this
man get this wisdom and these
mighty works? ls not this the car–
penter's son? ls not his mother
called Mary? And are not his broth–
ers James and Joseph and Simon
and Judas? And are not all his sis–
ters with us?' ' '
The phrase "all his sisters" also
implies that He had at least two sis–
ters, and perhaps even more, since
the word "all" instead of "both" is
used.
Sorne claim that these were not
literal brothers and sisters, but
cousins. The Greek in this case,
however, specifically expresses
exact degrees of kinship and blood
relations. The word used for brother.
here is adelphos, and it does mean
" brother." The word for "cousin"
was anepsios (see Colossians 4:1
O
in the Revised Standard Version or
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1977