Acts 2:42-47

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

This is the first of three panels in which Luke describes the Jerusalem community as a whole (2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-16), short idealized summaries set between narrative episodes. The four items of v. 42 have been read as a liturgical sequence and as a plain list of practices, and the second of them, the breaking of bread, returns in v. 46 attached to meals in houses while the temple remains the place of prayer, so the community is still at this stage living inside Israel’s worship. The “all things in common” of v. 44 uses koina, a word Greek moralists applied to the ideal of friendship, and its practical shape is spelled out only in the parallel summary at 4:34-35. Luke also removes growth from the community’s own account of itself: the closing line attributes it to God, “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (v. 47).

From Sermons.com: Join Today to access the most scholarly & well written preaching resources anywhere.