🇬🇧 Christ Is Risen! 🌞
Acts XVIII, 26 – ‘παρρησθαζσθαι’ – ‘parresiazesthai’ - ‘confidently, openly behaved and spoke’. Priscilla is a diminutive form of the Latin female name Prisca, the wife of Aquila. The wife is named before the husband because of her greater activity in promoting preaching and spreading the faith.
Acts XVIII, 27 – ‘προτρεψαμενοι’ – ‘protrepsamenoi’ – literally:
turned them forward to themselves
, i.e. 'exhorting', probably 'encouraging'.
Acts XVIII, 28 – ‘δημοσια’ – ‘demosia’ – ‘in public, publicly’.
The story of a Jew Apollos who joined the Christians. The meaning of his characterisation is that he taught good godly living, much like Jesus did, but on the basis of repentance. In fact, this means that he understood John the Baptist’s preaching correctly, but did not know about Jesus. When he was made aware, he continued as a Christian (he is a saint, one of the 70 apostles).
Paul also mentions him in his letters.
I wrote about this in detail earlier, see the links:
12042023.html
05052023.html
To the Saints co-apostolic Cyril and Methodius, the enlighteners of
the Slavs:
The reading of the Apostle is one of those read to saint
bishops-teachers (more suitable for Methodius, who was a bishop, while
Cyril (Constantine the Philosopher) was a priest). This High Priest
is
Jesus Christ, Who offered Himself as a sacrifice to Himself together
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as witnessed by the Council of
Constantinople in the 12th century.
Matthew V, 16 – ‘εμπροσθεν’ – ‘emprosthen’ – ‘before, in the presence of’.
The Gospel reading speaks of the meaning of the enlightenment of Jesus’ disciples, and in particular of the saints’ brothers-enlighteners. It also explains their glory among people.
The words that Christ came to fulfil the Old Testament are also important.
The iota
(the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, and the Hebrew
letter yod
is also the smallest) appears in the history of the Church
- in the 4th century, during the Arian controversy, the doctrine of the
Son’s likeness in the essense to the Father
was introduced as a
compromise option instead of the correct doctrine of ”consubstantial”.
The first word differs from the second in the Greek language… by one
letter inside… It is the letter iota
! Yes, exactly the iota
!
Historians say that the general understanding of the faith and the whole of Christianity depended on the acceptance or rejection of one small letter.
We can see that in Scripture even what seems insignificant is
important. All Scripture is inspired by God
. And everything matters,
even if we may not understand it.
These words also show that the Lord shows His love for us even in such small things, that He cares about everyone, and such special examples are also one of the countless evidences of this.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!