From One Man We Get All Peoples - 09
All peoples need to come to One Man
I want to hover over that Scripture verse in Acts where Paul is speaking to the “thinking men” of Athens in the Areopagus. It is a sober verse that helps keep a person’s feet on the ground with God.
This is what Paul says about God and mankind to those philosophers:
“26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…” (Acts 17:26-27)
Presumably, the “man” Paul refers to is Adam. Every nation of mankind is descended from him. However, it is also the case that we are all descended from Noah through his three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
What does this have to do with fathers and households and elders?
First, it should make us aware that fathers (in regard to their descendants) are the inviolable root.1 We all descend. We all have fathers. Beginning with our father Adam, down through our father Noah, we are born into mankind through one of three branches: Shem’s, Ham’s, or Japheth’s.
It is likely, that the Greeks to whom Paul was speaking were from the Japhetic family tree (specifically descended from Japheth’s son, Javan).2 History provides the best argument for it.
Sir George Rawlinson, the 19th century British scholar, historian, and theologian wrote in his work, The Origin of Nations (1877), “Javan is the nearest possible expression in Hebrew of the Greek term which we render by “Ionians,” the original form of which in Greek was Iafon-es. Why and how is uncertain; but the fact is indisputable, that the Orientals used this term, universally, as the generic name for the Greek race. The Assyrians called the Greeks of Cyprus the Yavnan; the Persians called those of Asia Minor and the AEgean islands, the Yuna. The terms “Greek,” “Hellene,” “Achaean,” “Dorian,” were unknown in Asia, or at any rate unused by the Asiatics generally, being superseded by the name “Ionian,” with which alone they were familiar.”3
The point is that we all descend from Adam, Noah and then one of Noah’s three sons. As people, we are not far removed from each other. We have a shared history, but we also arrive to our modern day coming with distinct ethnic roots and historical influences. It is also true, for everyone, that God has allotted periods of time and boundaries in geographical places that we might each live and grow and call upon Him from within our time and space. Furthermore, we are supposed to teach our descendants to do the same.
The preacher, Paul, was a Hebrew and therefore from the Semitic family tree. The Semites are descendants of Shem. This racial (or a better term, ethnic) line can be more biblically traced. The Scripture catalogs it for us because it wants to show the link from Shem to Abraham to David, etc. and eventually to Jesus Christ.
The beauty of the Gospel and the Church is that Jesus Christ has broken down the barrier wall that once separated the Jews from the rest of mankind. He brought the gospel of the Son of God to all tribes, peoples and languages. And this is what Paul is attempting to do by bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the men of Athens (men from the line of Japheth and Javan).
The Bible tells us that God calls into His Church people from every nation. Since the crucifixion, all lineages stemming from the ark of Noah are being brought into the safe haven of Jesus Christ’s Church. Shem, Ham, and Japheth all have access to the one way of salvation. Furthermore, God grows and develops church elders to lead from within those various people groups.
The last book of the Bible presents this glorious picture:
9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)
Inviolable means it is never to be broken; it is secure from violation.
Genesis 10:2-4, “2The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 3The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. 4The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 5From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations.
Rawlinson, George, The Origin of Nations, Charles Scribners’ Sons, New York. 1881. pp. 172-173.