Keeping to tradition, BSF, or Bible Study International, is alternating an Old Testament study with a New Testament study. Last year, we took a look at People of the Promised Land, starting with Joshua and ending with Solomon. This year, we’re going to the New Testament with the study of the Book of Acts.
THE BOOK OF ACTS
The book of Acts tells the story of the founding of the early church right after Jesus’ death, starting with Jesus’ ascent into heaven and ending with Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. Sandwiched between two colossal books of the Bible, the book of John and the book of Romans, Acts connects the two nicely.
OUTLINE OF BOOK OF ACTS
- Chapters 1-7 shows the church in Jerusalem and includes Pentecost
- Chapters 8-12 focus on Judea and Samaria
- Chapters 13-28 show the spread of the Christian religion all throughout the Roman Empire
Scholars attribute the writer of Acts to the apostle Luke. The book of Acts reads like a novel with adventure tale after adventure tale, full of riots, shipwrecks, and prisons. The place where Acts was written is not named, but is generally accepted as Rome since that is where the book ends. The events take place from 30 or 33 AD when Jesus died to about 61-63 AD.
The first 12 chapters follows Peter. The rest of the book of Acts follows Paul, or Saul, and his conversion and acceptance as one of the first Christian missionaries. We get to travel all over the Roman world (which means lots of maps on my end!) where we’ll experience the ancient Roman world, as well as visit famous cities of the Bible, such as Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi where Paul wrote letters to the early church and that are in later parts of the Bible.
We will also read important speeches by Paul, Peter, and others as they begin to spread the Gospel to the known world.
WHAT TO EXPECT HERE AT ATOZMOMM.COM
Here, I’ll do my usual, summary, question answers, and then analysis at the end. I love maps so expect a ton of those. I love history so expect a ton of fun historical facts.
One note: This will be my first repeat year of BSF’s studies. I am leaving my old Acts study answers up so you can compare if you so desire. These will be differentiated by “BSF Acts 2019/2020.” The old ones are under “BSF Acts 2012.” If you are Googling, you may land on the old questions so be sure to check my site often to ensure you’re on the correct one.