In Acts 13:2-4, Luke remarkably used many of the same key
terms found in Numbers 8. Just as God set apart (αφοριζω, 13:2 = Nm 8:11) and commissioned (επιθησουσιν . . . τας χειρας αυτων, 13:3 Nm 8:10, 12) the temple ministry
(λειτουργια,
13:2 = Nm 8:22, 25, 26) of the Levites for a work (τα εργα, 13:2 = Nm 8:11, 15, 19) for the Lord (κυριου, 13:2 = Nm 8:10-22), the Holy Spirit set
apart Barnabas and Saul and commissioned them for a work of the Lord. For Luke’s
readers, his figurative use of the special terms (λειτουργεω) triggers this connection
with the Levites’ commissioning. (Thomas Richard Wadsworth, “A Worship Service
or an Assembly: An Investigation of the Terminology Used to Describe Church
Meetings in the New Testament” [PhD Thesis; Midwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary [May 2022], 139)
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