Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast, and we're in the middle of a two-day conversation where we are almost having a gigantic Bible breakthrough together. We're nearly experiencing the joy of brand new Bible discovery, but unfortunately, only almost. There will be no discovery. There will be no breakthrough. But man, it was close. It was right there. Yesterday I started talking about that, and I do think there's a lot to be gleaned from this, and we're going to understand the text better, I think, from going through this failure exercise that we're halfway through right now. But first we've got to go all the way through the failure exercise. So we did half of that yesterday. We're going to do the second half of it today, and then we're going to talk about why I think it was worthwhile, even though there is no actual Bible breakthrough here. All right, I'm going to let Jeff play some music and we'll pick up where we left off. In Acts chapter 5, the religious leaders, it's a Sanhedrin that's some Pharisees, but a lot of Sadducees, they bring everybody in, and a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who's a very important guy. He's honored by all the people. He stood up at the Sanhedrin, and he ordered that the men be put outside. The men are Peter and the disciples. And then in verse thirty five it says, Then Gamaliel addressed them. Some time ago, Theodus appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. And he too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you, leave these men alone, let them go, for if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it'll fail. But if it's from God, you won't be able to stop these men. You'll only find yourself fighting against God. And his speech persuaded them, so instead of killing them, they just gave them a light flogging and sent them on their way, and the apostles rejoiced because they were happy to be considered worthy of suffering for the name. But that guy, Judas the Galilean, in that passage who uh Gomaliel is referencing, is somebody who Josephus once again references. Josephus, who does not like the zealots, says that dude, Judas the Galilean, is the founder of the sect of the zealots. It was all him. So I started digging a little more, and now we're back on the subject of that failed breakthrough that I was talking about. I started digging a little more, and the Jewish background on this guy calls him Judas of Gallanitis. Now are you seeing why I got excited? Once again, that's Judas of Gallonitis. G-A-U-L A N I T I S. And I was like, wait a dang minute. Paul, you clever, clever man, you are subtly referencing the title of this sect, the Zealots, while you are writing a letter to people whose name is derived from the same places where the founder of the sect of the zealots was derived from. Remember, the Galatians are the people of Gaulatia. They are Gauls. They're transplanted Celtic French people who moved to Asia Minor. So I'm reading this in this Jewish encyclopedia, and I'm just jamping at the bit, like practically drooling here. I'm like, I can't wait to go talk to my friends on the internet. They're going to think this is the coolest thing. And once again, we're probably going to win a medal or a plaque or something. So Gallonitis, Gallatians, the Zealots, Judah of Gallonitus. So I'm scrolling the article a little bit just to make sure I'm definitely 100% right and I've 100% definitely solved this ancient riddle that no one else in 2,000 years has ever figured out. And I'm like, no, dang it, never mind. I'm just wrong about everything. So somehow, you know, one of these terms is related to European language, that being Galatia. The other of these terms, Golanitis, is connected to Semitic language and is related to the same place name as Golan, like the Golan heights that you always hear that are disputed kind of in the northeast of historic Israel. And it turns out that that's where this Judah guy who founded the Zealots back in the day is actually from. And he did some work in Galilee as well. That's where he had his big run-in, his big Waterloo moment was in Galilee. So Judah, the founder of the Zealots, who died in 6 BC, I think. I think it was 6 BC. His sons were executed in 4 BC. Judah, the founder of the Zealots, was from Golinitus, but saw it come unraveled while he was leading a rebellion or trying to lead a rebellion in Galilee. So all of that is to say there is no discovery or breakthrough here whatsoever. Absolutely none. But what a lovely opportunity to do two things over the last two days in the course of our ongoing conversation. One, show you how this stuff works to remind you you can do all of this yourself, including fail at it, including think you're tracking down really cool connections that don't actually exist. Even the stuff that you miss on when you start pulling on the threads and using the mountains of resources that are out there, even for normal people like you and me, even the failures that don't go anywhere and the connections that don't actually exist, you still learn stuff. And it's like Edison, right? And you just invented one more way not to make a light bulb. Awesome. That's fruitful, but that's great. But the other reason I wanted to pull on this thread and follow it all the way down is because the word zealous does still appear. And like I briefly alluded to yesterday, it was still probably a weighty word. So when he says zealous, yeah, probably the Galatian audience here isn't thinking of that word exactly the way you and I would, which would be vigorous, and somebody who's just got real energy and gumption for a thing. I mean, zealous, I think, has a more positive connotation in modern parlance, but here I do think it was more likely to have a negative connotation and be associated with agitators, insurrectionists, people who are willing to do really dirty things to achieve subversive political ends. And if that is the case, that would fit with how Paul is characterizing the agitators, the circumcision party, the Judaizers throughout this entire book of Galatians. They're underminers, they're not authentic actors, they're not people of goodwill, they are false, they are using you. And by contrast, remember the stuff from verses twelve through sixteen here in chapter four? Paul's like, but I'm not. Remember? Like you're my dear children for whom I'm again in the pains of childbirth. We have history together, real history. We've seen each other hurt, we've seen each other at our worst, and we care about each other and served each other anyway. But guys, these people aren't like that. They're using you, they're trying to hurt you. They're zealous in the zealot party sense, not in the vigorous sense. And that's fine to be energetic or even to be really shrewd and clever if the purpose is good, but this ain't it, my friends. So in summary, there will be no Bible breakthrough or great discovery. We have not unearthed a buried biblical treasure that everyone else forever has missed over the course of the last two thousand years. Yeah, we'll keep trying. But what we have found here is two parts to this emotional aside, this emotional human plea in the middle of Galatians, this little break, this little oasis in the middle of this very confrontational letter. Part number one is we know each other. We have history, we've seen each other at its worst. I know that you love me. I've seen it. And it's weird that now you're counting me as your enemy because I'm telling you these new people who just came in and are abusing you are telling you things that are lies and telling you not to fall for it. You're mad at me for that now? Come on, you love me because I tell you the truth. Part number two of this thing is he's saying, and about those guys who are coming in. They're emotional terrorists who will do anything and pretend to be anything to use you to get you to be and do what they want for their purposes. That's not the case with me. Think about me, think about them. Now think about me, now think about them. Now look at me, now look at them. What do you see? Is there a difference? I wish I could be there right now so you can hear the tone, so I could change my tone, because I'm I'm perplexed by you. I'm perplexed by what's going on. There's your emotional aside. Now we're back to argumentation starting in verse 21, and that's where we'll pick it up next time around. Hey, I wanted to check back in on something that we processed through a while back, and that is the Patreon, the support thing. I just wanted to say thank you. That's shaken out now over the course of a couple months. You know, we had to change some things on the basic support structure for the thing that makes this podcast happen, that makes it possible. That was massively stressful for me. But that seems to have all settled out, and it really has landed in a perfectly good enough place. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who at any point has supported this program. You don't have to do that. I mean, as long as I can pay the bills, I'm going to keep doing this because I love doing it, and it's yeah, you're doing me a service by caring about the same stuff. You make me pay attention to the Bible to a degree and with an energy and a zeal, if you will, that I might not if this weren't the case. So I'm thrilled to do it and just so honored, and my family is humbled and grateful to all of you for your generosity for supporting this thing to whatever degree that you either have in the past or are currently or might someday in the future. Just thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. Thank you for uh supporting the thing as you've been able to. Y'all are awesome. If you've ever thought about supporting the program, you want to learn more about it, there's always a link down in the show notes or what is it, patreon.com slash the TMBH podcast. I think that's the way it's set up. If it's not, Jeff will delete that so I don't send you to the wrong URL for something that important. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm gonna shut up and we're gonna move on Galatians 4 next time around. I'm Matt, this is the 10 minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.