The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (85 page)

Barnett, P.
The Birth of Christianity: The First Twenty Years
. Vol. 1:
After Jesus
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005.

Barrett, C. K.
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.
International Critical Commentary. 2 vols. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994, 1998.

Bauckham, R., ed.
The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting
. Vol. 4:
Palestinian Setting
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Blomberg, C. L.
From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts through Revelation.
Nashville: B&H, 2006.

Bock, D. L.
Acts
. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.

Bruce, F. F.
The Book of Acts.
Rev. ed. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.

Conzelmann, H.
Acts of the Apostles
. Hermeneia. Translated by J. Limburg, A. T. Kraabel, and D. H. Juel. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.

Fitzmyer, J. A.
The Acts of the Apostles.
Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Gasque, W. W.
A History of the Criticism of the Acts of the Apostles
. Beiträge zur Geschichte der biblischen Exegese 17. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1975.

Gill, D. W. J., and C. Gempf, eds.
The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting
. Vol. 2:
Greco-Roman Setting
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.

Haenchen, E.
The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary.
Translated by B. Noble, G. Shinn, H. Anderson, and R. M. Wilson. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971.

Hemer, C . J.
The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History.
Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990.

__________. “First Person Narrative in Acts 27–28.”
Tyndale Bulletin
36 (1985): 79–109.

Hengel, M.
Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979.

Johnson, L. T.
The Acts of the Apostles.
Sacra Pagina 5. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1992.

Keck, L. E., and J. L. Martyn, eds.
Studies in Luke-Acts
. Nashville: Abingdon, 1966.

Kent, H. A., Jr.
Jerusalem to Rome: Studies in Acts
. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972.

Köstenberger, A. J., and P. T. O'Brien.
Salvation to the Ends of the Earth
. New Studies in Biblical Theology 11. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2001.

Larkin, W. J.
Acts
. IVP New Testament Commentary. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1995.

Levinskaya, I.
The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting
. Vol. 5:
Diaspora Setting
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.

Longenecker, R. N. “Acts.” In
The Expositor's Bible Commentary.
Rev. ed. Vol. 10. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.

Marshall, I. H.
The Acts of the Apostles
. Tyndale New Testament Commentary
.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.

Marshall, I. H., and D. Peterson, eds.
Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Nicklas, T. , and M. Tilly, eds.
The Book of Acts as Church History.
Beihefte zur neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft 120. New York: de Gruyter, 2003.

Pao, D. W.
Acts and the Isaianic Exodus
. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/130. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000. Repr. Biblical Studies Library. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000.

Polhill, J.
Acts.
New American Commentary 26. Nashville: B&H, 1992.

Porter, S. E.
The Paul of Acts
. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 115. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999.

__________. “The ‘We’ Passages.” In
The Book of Acts in Its First-Century Setting.
Vol. 2:
The Book of Acts in Its Greco-Roman Setting.
Edited by D. W. J. Gill and C. Gempf. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994, 545–74.

Rapske, B.
The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting
. Vol. 3:
The Book of Acts and Paul in Roman Custody
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Robbins, V. K. “The We-Passages in Acts and Ancient Sea-Voyages.”
Biblical Research
20 (1975): 5–18.

Ropes, J. H.
The Beginnings of Christianity.
Part I:
The Acts of the Apostles.
Edited by F. J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake. Vol. III:
The Text of Acts.
London: Macmillan, 1926.

Schlatter, A.
The Theology of the Apostles: The Development of New Testament Theology
. Translated by A. J. Köstenberger. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

Schnabel, E. J.
Early Christian Mission
. 2 vols. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004.

Stott, J. R. W.
The Spirit, the Church, and the World: The Message of Acts.
Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1990.

Tannehill, R. C.
The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation
. 2 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.

Vielhauer, P. “On the ‘Paulinism’ of Acts.” In
Studies in Luke-Acts
. Edited by L. E. Keck and J. L. Martyn. Nashville: Abingdon, 1966, 33–50.

¹
A. N. Wilson,
Paul: The Mind of the Apostle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 21–22. Ironically, of course, Wilde would
not
have found out how the story finishes even
if
he had read through the end of the book of Acts, since the story is open-ended.

²
E.g., the Tübingen School posited a reconciling tendency in the book of Acts and assigned the book to the second century. A few have suggested a later date on other grounds: see F. C. Burkitt,
The Gospel History and Its Transmission
, 3d ed. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1911), 105–10; M. S. Enslin, “Once Again, Luke and Paul,”
ZNW
61 (1970): 253, 271; and J. C. O'Neill,
The Theology of Acts in Its Historical Setting
(London: SPCK, 1961), 21, 26.

³
For this argument see J. A. Fitzmyer,
The Acts of the Apostles: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
, AB 31 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1998), 54–55.

⁴
E.g., D. J. Williams,
Acts
, NIBC 5 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 13; and W. G. Kümmel,
Introduction to the New Testament
, rev. ed., trans. H. C. Kee (Nashville: Abingdon, 1975), 186. It must also be noted that this is not just a “liberal” vs. “conservative” option, for the generally conservative D. Wenham dates Acts rather late: D. Wenham and S. Walton,
Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Gospels and Acts
, vol. 1 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2001), 297.

⁵
P. Parker (“The ‘Former Treatise’ and the Date of Acts,”
JBL
84 [1965]: 53) noted, “For any Christian to write, thereafter, with the easy optimism of Acts 28 would require almost subhuman obtuseness.”

⁶
For a slightly different track to reach the same conclusion, see A. J. Matill, Jr. “The Date and Purpose of Luke-Acts: Rackham Reconsidered,”
CBQ
40 (1978): 335–50.

⁷
Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
3.1.1; 3.14.1; Eusebius,
Eccl. Hist.
2.22.6; and Jerome,
De Viris Illustribus
7.

⁸
Jerome,
De Viris Illustribus
7.

⁹
C. J. Hemer,
The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History
(Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 107.

¹⁰
E.g., W. J. Larkin,
Acts
, IVPNTC (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1995), 19–20; W. Neil,
Acts
, New Century Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), 28.

¹¹
R. H. Gundry,
A Survey of the New Testament
, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 304; F. F. Bruce,
The Book of Acts
, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 20; D. A. deSilva,
An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods, and Ministry Formation
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004), 354; L. T. Johnson,
The Acts of the Apostles
, SacPag 5 (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1992).

¹²
B. H. Streeter,
The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins
(London: St. Martins, 1953), 539. Kümmel (
Introduction
, 162) also lists Munck, Sahlin, and Koh.

¹³
E.g., the geographical movement of the gospel (T. Zahn,
Die Apostelgeschichte des Lukas
[Leipzig: A. Deichert, 1919–21], 14–15); the adjudication of church controversies (E. Trocmé,
Le ‘Livre des Actes’ et l'Histoire
[Paris: University of France Press, 1957]); or the explanation of the delay of the
parousia
or Second Coming (H. Conzelmann,
The Theology of St. Luke
[New York: Harper & Row, 1961]).

¹⁴
I. H. Marshall,
The Acts of the Apostles
, TNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 17–22.

¹⁵
So D. A. Carson and D. J. Moo,
An Introduction to the New Testament
, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 305; R. E. Brown,
An Introduction to the New Testament
(New York: Doubleday, 1997), 272–73; and Kümmel,
Introduction
, 163.

¹⁶
E.g., The Acts of Paul and Thecla; The Acts of John; The Acts of Peter; et al.

¹⁷
Fitzmyer,
Acts of the Apostles
, 47; and Carson and Moo,
Introduction to the New Testament
, 301.

¹⁸
So is Acts a sort of “biography” of the Holy Spirit, or perhaps a “biography” of the ascended Christ conducting his work through the Holy Spirit and the apostolic church? If so, this would need to be understood within the larger framework of God's salvation-historical purposes, on which see further below.

¹⁹
Against M. C. Parsons and R. I. Pervo (
Rethinking the Unity of Luke and Acts
[Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993], 20–44), who identified Acts as a “romance” and registered concerns about what they see as a shift in genre between Luke and Acts. Also, Luke mentioned other Gospels in Luke 1:1, but he did not mention any such predecessors in the case of the book of Acts (see B. Witherington III,
The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
[Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998], 9).

²⁰
See R. I. Pervo,
Profit with Delight
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987). However, just because the work is entertaining does not mean that it must be in the novel genre. Pervo's genre identification is followed by the Westar Institute's “Acts Seminar.” This seminar, of which Pervo is a fellow, is a sequel to the notorious “Jesus Seminar.” D. E. Smith (“Was There a Jerusalem Church? Christian Origins According to Acts and Paul,”
Forum
3 [Spring 2000]: 57) said, “Today some scholars still propose that Acts can be defined under the genre of ancient history in some sense, but the burden of proof has now shifted to those who would claim historicity for Acts.” In that same volume, D. R. MacDonald (“Luke's Emulation of Homer: Acts 12:1–17 and Illiad
[sic]
24,”
Forum
3 [Fall 1999]: 197) stated that “the Acts of the Apostles is a self-conscious fiction. …The historical stratum, if any, is extremely thin and from my perspective quite uninteresting.” Lucian, in the second-century work
How to Write History
, noted that the historian's task was not free from providing an entertainment value. He wrote, “The task of the historian is…to give a fine arrangement to events and illuminate them as vividly as possible” (51).

²¹
Marshall,
Fresh Look
, 19–21.

²²
See Clement,
Stromateis
5.12; Jerome,
Epistles
53.8. Jerome called it “unadorned history”; Lat.
nuda historia
, which is lit. “naked history.”

²³
Since Luke demonstrated an ability to write in other styles, this is most likely deliberate (so I. H. Marshall,
Acts
, TNTC [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980], 18). J. Polhill (
Acts
, NAC 26 [Nashville: B&H, 1992], 43) noted, “Throughout Acts there is a verisimilitude in the narrative. Jews speak with a Jewish accent, Athenian philosophers speak in Atticism, and Roman officials speak and write in the customary legal style. Luke showed not only a familiarity with such linguistic idiosyncrasies but also the ability to depict them through his style of writing.”

²⁴
Whether Luke understood himself to be writing an inspired work is another question.

²⁵
The full list includes requests and dedications, an apology for defective style, comments on the value and utility of history, mention of predecessors, assurance of impartiality, use of appropriate methodology, and reasons for writing (D. Aune,
New Testament in Its Literary Environment
, 89–90). L. Alexander (
The Preface to Luke's Gospel: Literary Convention and Social Context in Luke 1:1–4 and Acts 1:1
, SNTSMS 78 [Cambridge: University Press, 1993]) disagreed and posited that the prefaces in Luke-Acts are more akin to scientific and technical treatises that were written for a less educated audience. She drew the conclusion that Luke was written for an audience with the same level of education. Of course, not every element had to appear for a work to be considered historiography. When the prefaces to Luke and Acts are compared to Josephus's
Against Apion
, there is an amazing similarity. See Josephus's preface in the second book against Apion: “In the former book, most honored Epaphroditus, I have demonstrated our antiquity, and confirmed the truth of what I have said, from the writings of the Phoenicians, and Chaldeans, and Egyptians” (Josephus,
Apion
2.1).

²⁶
See especially the works of Ephorus (Witherington,
Acts of the Apostles
, 34–35).

²⁷
C. L. Blomberg,
From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts Through Revelation
(Nashville: B&H, 2006), 17.

²⁸
For the former see W. W. Gasque,
A History of the Criticism of the Acts of the Apostles
, BGBE 17 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1975); for the latter see E. Haenchen,
The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary
, trans. B. Noble, G. Shinn, H. Anderson, and R. M. Wilson (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971), 14–50.