To whom also he shooed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Hey listeners, this is Nick from Scripture Central, and today's podcast addresses the question,

What might Jesus have taught his apostles for 40 days?

At the beginning of Acts, Luke mentions how Jesus Christ shoot himself alive after his passion

by many infallible proofs to his 11 remaining apostles, being seen of them 40 days, and speaking

of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Yet, the conclusion to Luke's gospel limits Jesus'

post-resurrection appearances to just a single day, and John chapter 21 mentions only a brief

encounter. Because of the fleeting reference to the 40-day ministry

at Acts Chapter 1, readers of the Bible have wondered what that ministry may have entailed.

Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibbley was one of the first to seriously investigate this extended

period of instruction, which was expanded upon in apocryphal texts written by early Christians.

Many of these writings, Nibbley observes, became a great discomfort for the Christian church as it moved

into the fourth century and beyond. The large literature of the 40-day Mission of the Lord,

Nibbley explains, was early lost from sight by the Christian world because

it was never very popular, and early writers since Clement and origin have employed all the

rhetoric and logic to avoid the crass literalism of Acts chapter 1, verse 3. What could have led to

this discomfort surrounding the mentions of Jesus' 40-day ministry?

In all the texts that Hugh Nibbley studied, four themes emerged regarding this ministry

that would have naturally led to these texts being so unpopular among many of the early Christians.

First, many of these texts assert that the apostles are to be rejected by all men

and take their violent exit from the world.

What time corruptors and false shepherds will appear within the church,

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