Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

that the period of oppression expired very quickly after their captivity, under the conquest of Cyrus,
the Medo-Persian who destroyed the Babylonian Empire, and not only emancipated all the Jews but
rebuilt the temple with his own money. Of course, the Jews who remained were no longer in
captivity, but bona fide and honored citizens of the Persian Empire. Therefore, while they lost their
tribehood they retained their identity as loyal members of the house of Abraham; and the very fact
that we see them all represented in this grand religious convocation away down at the end of the
Jewish dispensation is demonstrative proof that they had retained their membership and perpetuated
their fidelity to the Jewish religion through all of these ages. The Jews, by reason of their enterprise,
had settled in all the prominent cities of the known world during the old dispensation, which in that
respect is a grand dumbration of the new. The Jews in all ages are God’s peculiar people, whether
under the smiles of loving approval or under the awful castigatory rod of His righteous judgments.
Just as the Jews at the close of the Mosaic dispensation were dwelling in every country under
heaven, and thus representing it, so they are now dwelling beneath every sky, speaking every
language and dialect, cultured in the institutions of every nation, and thus under the providential
hand of Abraham’s God, they are now in a wonderful though mysterious manner being prepared for
the metropolitanship of the globe, when the elect remnant will be gathered from the ends of the earth,
rebuild Jerusalem, receive with shouts of welcome their own glorious descending King, and come
again as in former days to the front of the world, there to abide during the glorious theocracy which
shall girdle the globe with salvation and holiness unto the Lord. Thus in the present age, God in a
wonderful manner, in the dispersion and culture of the Jews in every nation under heaven, is
preparing them for the millennial metropolitanship of all nations. We must remember that the
primitive church was all Jews, including apostles, disciples and converts. Here we have a catalogue
of the most prominent nations of Asia, Africa and Europe, all represented by their delegates from
the Jewish synagogues in their midst. These delegates represent all Israel in their dispersion,
throughout the inhabitable globe. The very fact of their presence in this great national and
ecclesiastical convocation, which has existed since the days of Moses, is demonstrative of their
identity with the Jewish Church and nation during all by-gone centuries, seven hundred years since
their first deportation into Babylon. Away with the chimera of the “lost tribes.” They were not lost
then; neither are they now lost. They simply lost their tribehood, which in no way affected the
integrity of Israel. So is their tribehood still lost. We seldom now find a Jew in the Old or New
World who knows to what tribe he belongs. In the final gathering into Palestine, only a remnant will
come home (Romans 9:27) but doubtless in that remnant all of the tribes will be represented, though
they know it not.
ALL DRUNKEN.
13. The E.V. says, “of new wine.” A mistake. Oinos, “new wine,” the simple grape juice, an
innocent, reviving, nutritious drink, does not here occur: but glencos, “fermented wine,” which was
a slow intoxicant. Satan had not yet invented alcoholic wine, the intoxicant of the present day. That
oinos, “new”, wine, was what Paul recommended to Timothy for his health, as a valuable sanitary
drink. The alcoholic wine of the present day would have made them drunk by nine o’clock, which
was too early for their fermented wine to take effect, whereas the oinos, the simple expressed juice
of the grape, was not an intoxicant.