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Paul and Barnabas stated that while David's body decayed at death, Yeshua's did not. This lack of decay of Yeshua's body as seen in his resurrection as taught by his most intimate followers was interpreted by them as proof, supposedly for Paul and Barnabas, that: "And by him (Yeshua) all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:39).
Next we get a warning from Luke that if you do not believe what Paul had just said then upon you will come all which was spoken by Habakkuk the prophet.
The Luke admonished his listeners to believe this claim (remission of sins through Yeshua) on the basis of a verse from the prophet, Habakkuk 1:5, as quoted in Acts 13:41:
“Look you scoffers (or despisers) wonder and perish because I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.”
This is effective to scare almost anyone to never doubt what Paul said. Is that you? Well let us investigate this claim.
Again this verse as quoted in Acts 13:41 is taken out of context. Let me explain.
Habakkuk's mission was between 607 and 586 B.C.E. In his short book the prophet protested to God for allowing the wicked to prosper and the innocent to suffer. This is a problem with which Jeremiah, Malachi, and Job wrestled and challenged the Almighty. God had shown Habakkuk the terrible suffering that would befall Israel at the hands of Babylonia. It is with this background that we arrive at verse 5 of Chapter 1 in Habakkuk as it appears in translation from the original Hebrew text. “Look among the nations and behold and wonder in amazement for a work shall be wrought in your days which you will not believe though it be told you."
“Look among the nations and behold and wonder in amazement for a work shall be wrought in your days which you will not believe though it be told you.”
Answer for yourself: What was this "work that shall be wrought in your days" which they would have a hard time believing?
Answer for yourself: Keeping our interpretation within the context of what Habakkuk said, was "this work that shall be wrought in their days which would be hard to believe" concerning not believing in the remission of sins as Paul is said to have taught as said by Luke (notice this work was to be accomplished 600 years before Yeshua's birth according to Habakkuk)? No way.
Answer for yourself: Or was this "work…hard to believe" the invasion and deportation of Jewry along with the destruction of the Temple? You got it! This invasion and destruction of the Temple would be very hard for the Jews to believe. The Temple was one of the seven wonders of the world.
To apply this verse to Yeshua is totally a perversion of Biblical interpretation.
Since the context of Habakkuk deals with the Chaldeans (Babylonians), the "work that shall be wrought in your days" has to be during the time frame when the Babylonians were a threat to the Jews. Paul used this passage are applying to the time of Yeshua's and connected it to remission of sins. This is a flagrant misuse and quote of the Jewish Prophet and totally takes his message out of context. It is one thing to say something and totally another to use a Prophet's oracle and present it to non-Jews unaware of what the Prophet and his message originally intended. With the almost total ignorance of the Jewish Scriptures in the Christian Church today little has changed.
Answer for yourself: Tell me now, was it the Romans or the Babylonians who posed the problem for the Jews during the time of Yeshua?
Answer for yourself: Can you see that this quote by Luke, supposedly from the mouth of Paul, was misappropriated 700 years and concerned itself with a totally different situation never intended by the original author?
Answer for yourself: It is right to propose that what you are teaching is a fulfillment of a Prophet's oracle when it is not? This technique is done so often in the New Testament it is almost beyond counting!
In this verse the prophet Habakkuk, speaking in God's name, announced to the people the terrible and incredulous events which would befall them and which they would find impossible to believe. Even more significant is how totally unrelated this passage from Habakkuk is to the subject of remission of sins. This was never Habakkuk's intention. There is nothing in Habakkuk remotely related to that topic.
The Lukan author of Acts who attributed these sermons to Paul and Barnabas either lost the thread of the original theme or did not understand the passage. Such an address could only succeed with an audience as ignorant of the message of the prophet as was the writer (Gentiles who were not well versed in the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures). It saddens me to say that such an audience fill the churches of Contemporary Christianity today. They repeatedly read the New Testament but spend little time with the Jewish Scriptures. Thus when the New Testament records and quotes in error passages from the Old Testament nobody knows! May God forgive us!
Again a Jew would not make this mistake
Answer For Yourself: This again brings into question as to who the authors really are who wrote the New Testament which does such violence to the Jewish Scriptures?
Let us not forget that as Christians we are told to believe the writers of the New Testament are supposedly apostles of Yeshua. We would expect that they, anointed of the Holy Spirit after Pentecost, supposedly knew and were familiar with the Jewish texts to the point where they could never make such mistakes in interpretation, or even worse, add to or take away for the Holy Word Of God. In no way can this be construed to be the work of the Holy Spirit!
Answer For Yourself: Can God make such mistakes in context concerning books He already revealed to Holy men of old? I think not!
As for Habakkuk, the rest of the chapter and message is that the morally upright in Israel may suffer for a time, but in the end, they would survive to taunt their oppressors. The flip side of the message is that the wicked would enjoy temporary success but would eventually be overthrown. God commands we add not nor take away from His Word and in such imprecise use of His Word where passages are continually taken out of context for theological purpose in the presentation of Jesus to the unsuspecting and unknowledgeable Gentiles of the world in order to make Jesus out to be something he is not nor was ever intended to be is not only a travesty but an affront to our Holy God!