The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries

Heidi J. Hornik, Mikeal C. Parsons

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781119304067
  9781405176354
• eBook ISBN:
  9781118597897
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Charting the theological and cultural potency of Acts across the timespan of Christian history, this work of profound scholarship reveals the full extent of the New Testament book's religious, artistic, literary, and political influence.

• Reveals the influence of Acts at key turning points in the history of the Christian church
• Traces the rich and varied artistic and cultural heritage rooted in Acts, from music to literature
• Analyzes the political significance of the book as a touchstone in the church's external relations
• Provides detailed commentary on the exegesis of Acts down the centuries

Acts 1

Overview

The first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles narrates two events: Jesus’ final instructions to and departure from the disciples who then return to Jerusalem (1:1–14), and the death of Judas and his replacement in the circle of the Twelve with Matthias (1:13–26). In the first section, it is the nature and significance of Jesus’ ascension that occupy the attention of subsequent interpreters, both modern and premodern, especially in the creedal tradition. In the New Testament, the ascension is alluded to in John 20:17, Ephesians 4:8–10, and 1 Timothy 3:16, but the departure of the resurrected Jesus is narrated only in Luke 24:50–52 (although see the textual problem in 24:51), Acts 1:1–11, and Mark 16:19 (the Markan account is generally accepted to be dependent on Luke/Acts, see Kelhoeffer 2000 ). Whether or not Jesus ascended bodily was of concern to patristic interpreters (cfr. Irenaeus below), and while Augustine could boast that the whole world accepted the bodily resurrection, that view would be severely challenged with the rise of historical skepticism in the Enlightenment (see Strauss 1835 ). The Ascension scene was a favorite in various media, from bas relief sculpture to book illumination to oil on panel. Who witnessed the ascension (only the apostles? Mary? others?) and where the event took place are also items of concern to some intepreters.

In the second unit (1:15–26), attempts to harmonize Acts’ account of Judas’ death with Matthew’s (and sometimes also Papias) resulted in a variety of solutions (cf., among others, Ephrem the Syrian and the Vulgate translation). Further, the details of the selection process for Judas’ replacement intrigued readers: did the whole community participate, or was it just the Apostles, or even Peter alone? Less popular than the death of Judas in the visual arts, but not entirely overlooked, was the election of Matthias to replace Judas (see Rockefeller‐McCormick manuscript illumination). Over the centuries, most of the interpretations, in general, have focused on the christological and ecclesiological issues that arise from these two passages.

Reception and Interpretation

Jesus’ Ascension (1:1–14)

Before Jesus ascends, Luke notes that he appeared to the disciples over the course of forty days (1:3). The Venerable Bede, eighth‐century British monk and exegete, draws a typological comparison: “Now this number [forty] designates this temporal earthly life, either on account of the four seasons of the year, or on account of the four winds of the heavens. For after we have been buried in death with Christ through baptism, as though having passed over the path through the Red Sea, it is necessary for us, in this wilderness, to have the Lord’s guidance” (Comm. Acts 10).

Karl Barth focuses on the command that the Christian bears witness (Acts 1:8) to the mighty deeds of Christ:

“Ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Ac. 1⁸) – this is enough for the one to whom Christ speaks and who has heard Him. Whether strong or weak, willing or unwilling, successful or unsuccessful, the Christian is a witness, irrespective of whether the miracle occurs, or whether it occurs visibly or invisibly. In all circumstances and with his whole existence he is a responsible witness of the Word of God. He is called to be this (CD 4.3.609).

Following Christ’s commission to the disciples, he departs from them. Luke is the only New Testament writer to narrate Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:9–11, Luke 24:50–53; but the event is alluded to in John 20:17 and found in the longer ending of Mark [16:19]; see also Eph 4:7–10). The Ascension was viewed as a visible manifestation of Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Early Christian creedal formulations (“He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty”), such as is found in the second‐century Apostles’ Creed and the fourth‐century Nicene Creed, reflect language of Christ’s ascension and exaltation that borrows directly, if only partially, from Acts (the depiction of Christ’s exaltation in terms of being seated “on the right hand” derives from early Christian interpretation of Ps 110:1; echoed also in, e.g., Mark 16:19; Rom 8:24; Heb 1:3, 8:1, 10:12; Eph 1:20; Col 3:1). The significance of Jesus’ ascension for the creeds and confessions of the Church has been captured in the “Syndogmaticon” (“an index of the doctrines of the Christian tradition as they appear in the various creeds and confessions of faith”) by Pelikan and Hotchkiss, who catalogue nearly thirty representative creeds and confessions that echo the claim of the Niceno‐Constantinopolitan Creed that Christ “went up into the heavens” (CCF, 1:915).

Early Christians drew out theological implications from what they believed was the reality of Christ’s bodily ascension into heaven. Pseudo‐Justin appealed to Acts 1 in defense of the view that not only could flesh be resurrected, it could also rise: “And when he had thus shown them that there is truly a resurrection of the flesh, he also wished to show them that it is not impossible for flesh to ascend into heaven (as he had said that our dwelling place is in heaven), so ‘he was taken up into heaven while they beheld,’ just as he was in the flesh” (Fragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the Resurrection 9; ANF 1:298; ACCS, 11).

This emphasis on the “bodily resurrection” was also useful to Irenaeus (c. 125–200), in his polemic against Gnostic epistemological, cosmological, and anthropological dualism, which viewed ascension as “a strictly vertical affair” meant to disassociate the spiritual from the “corrupt realm of material existence” (Farrow 1999 , 46). Near the beginning of Adversus omnes haereses, Irenaeus asserts that God’s Spirit had “proclaimed through the prophets and the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion and resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh [et in carne in caelos ascensionem] of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Haer. 1.10.1; a theme he returns to at the end, cf. 5.36.3). It is crucial for Irenaeus that Christ descended and ascended “in the flesh” in order to redeem the flesh (see Haer. 1.9.3; 3.6.2; 3.16.5ff; etc.).

Origen, on the other hand, recommends “thinking of the ascension of the Son to the Father in a manner more befitting his divinity, with sanctified perspicuity, as an ascension of the mind rather than of the body” (Or. 23.2; emphasis added). Origen, in agreement with certain Gnostics, separates the exalted Christ from the human Jesus, precisely at the point of the ascension, though his affirmation of the historicity of the incarnation and resurrection caused him to occupy a space somewhere between Irenaeus and the Gnostics on the issue (Farrow 1999 , 99–100).

In The City of God, Augustine asserts the triumph of the “bodily ascension” with what would be viewed as hyperbole today, if not then as well: “Even if we should grant the resurrection of the earthly body was once beyond belief, the fact is that the whole world now believes that the earthly body of Christ has been taken up to heaven. Learned and unlearned alike no longer doubt the resurrection of his flesh and his ascension into heaven, while there is but a handful of those who continue to be puzzled” (Civ. 22.5; emphasis added). Despite his physical absence, Christ continues to be present in the Eucharist: “he ascended into heaven, and is no longer here. He is there indeed, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and he is here also, never having withdrawn the presence of his glory” (In Joann. 50.13).

The Disciples’ Response and the Role of Mary

The fourth‐century Munich ivory (Figure 2) is a Hellenistic or Western type (defined as a realistic rendering typical of the Greco‐Roman style) (Dalton 1909, 191). The ivory is one of the earliest visual depictions of the Ascension and reflects a meditative aspect of the journey of both Christ and pilgrim (Hansen 2011 ). While later depictions will often couple the ascension with the Second Coming and/or Last Judgment, the artist here has combined it with the resurrection account. By collapsing the two events into one scene, the point is made that without the resurrection there can be no ascension (Hansen 2011 ). The artist borrows details from Matthew 28 to depict two soldiers at the tomb, one of whom has apparently fainted (Matt 28:4). The focus of the scene, however, is on the ascension and the meditation of three Marys on that event. Their gaze is directed by the angel to Christ’s ascension. Luke’s description of the Mount of Olives as a “sabbath’s day journey from Jerusalem” (Acts 1:12) highlights the scene of the ascension as a distinct location, the only narrative setting dignified as a “mountain” in Acts (Alexander 2001 , 1031). The ivory picks up this detail, depicting a beardless Christ a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Acts 1
• Acts 2
• Acts 3–5
• Acts 6–8
• Acts 9
• Acts 10–12
• Acts 13–14
• Acts 15
• Acts 16–17
• Acts 18–19
• Acts 20–23
• Acts 24–26
• Acts 27–28
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1
• Biographies and Glossary
• Bibliography
• Author and Artist Index
• Index of Scripture References
• Subject Index
• End User License Agreement