Acts (Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament)

Parsons, Mikeal C., Parsons, Mikeal C., Talbert, Charles

• Editore: Baker Academic
• Anno: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781585588213
• Argomento: Teologia e religione
• Categoria: Commento della Bibbia

In Acts, the third of eighteen volumes in the Paideia commentary series, leading biblical scholar Mikeal Parsons gleans fresh theological insight into Acts by attending carefully to the cultural and educational context from which it emerges. Parsons see Acts as a charter document explaining and legitimating Christian identity for a general audience of early Christians living in the ancient Mediterranean world. Pastors, graduate and seminary students, and professors will benefit from this readable commentary, as will theological libraries. The Paideia commentaries are designed to be read through and used, not shelved and referenced. The main text is supplemented with maps, sidebars, and photographs. Indexes and reference lists help readers locate discussions in the commentary and in other secondary literature.

PART 1
ACTS 1–7

The Sense of a Beginning

The first part, Acts 1–7, centers primarily on the activities of Jesus’ followers in and around Jerusalem. It traces events involving key persons in the early Christian movement: Peter and the apostles, the selection of the Seven, and the martyrdom of Stephen. It is clear from the opening pages that the movement known as “the Way” was one of several expressions of first-century Judaism(s).

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Acts 1–7 in Context

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The people and places of the Jerusalem church (1–12)

►The sense of a beginning (1–7)

The beginning of the church (1)

The miracle and meaning of Pentecost (2)

The healing of a lame man (3:1–4:31)

Tensions within and without (4:32–5:42)

Stephen and the Seven (6–7)

Beyond Jerusalem: Philip, Saul, Peter, and others (8–12)

The missionary activities of Paul (13–28)

Paul’s mission to the Gentile world (13–19)

Paul’s farewell journey (20–28)

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Acts 1

The Beginning of the Church

Introductory Matters

The opening chapter of Acts serves not only to set the stage for the emergence and spread of the earliest Christian community; it constantly refers back to the previous story of the founder of that community, Jesus of Nazareth. Acts 1:1–14 functions as the introduction to the book. The remainder of the first chapter (1:15–26) is devoted to the accounts of the defection of Judas from the circle of the Twelve and the selection of his successor.

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Acts 1 in the Narrative Flow

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The people and places of the Jerusalem church (1–12)

The sense of a beginning (1–7)

►The beginning of the church (1)

Introduction (1:1–14)

Preface to Acts (1:1–5)

Departure of Jesus and response of the disciples (1:6–11)

Narrative summary (1:12–14)

Death of Judas and election of Matthias (1:15–26)

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Tracing the Narrative Flow

Introduction (1:1–14)

The surface structure of 1:1–14 falls into three parts: Acts 1:1–5 represents the literary preface—the introduction proper—and includes several formal features common to prefaces of antiquity. Acts 1:6–11 describes the departure of Jesus and the response of his disciples and borrows elements from Greco-Roman and Jewish assumption scenes. Acts 1:12–14 forms a summary statement at the end of the episode and as such represents a common literary convention employed by Luke to provide transition from one episode to the next.

1:1–5. The presence in 1:1–5 of a “secondary” preface (which refers to an earlier work) does not, in and of itself, demonstrate narrative unity. Sequential books in antiquity employed any one of three types of prologues (see Palmer 1987, 427–38): (1) Some writers presented a summary of the preceding book and an outline of what was covered in the present volume (see Polybius, Hist. 2.1.4–8; 3.1.5–3.3; see also his explanatory note in the fragments of book 11; Diodorus Siculus, Hist. 1.4.6–5.1; Philo, Mos. 2.1). (2) Others give a retrospective summary of the preceding book and move directly into the contents of the present work (see Xenophon, Anab.; Josephus, Ant.; Herodian, Hist.). (3) Still others give a prospective summary, but do not mention the previous volume (see Appian, Hist. Rom. 1.13–15; Diodorus Siculus, Hist. 2.1; Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.praef.). Luke apparently followed the first pattern of a retrospective summary and an outline of what was to follow. Acts contains a brief, retrospective summary, which describes the contents of the Third Gospel as what Jesus began to do and teach until the very day he was taken up (1:2). A prospective outline of the contents of Acts is given in 1:8. This prefatory summary was, as we have seen, a typical literary convention of antiquity (Lucian, Hist. conscr. 23).

Thus the narrator has chosen to present a retrospective summary and a prospective outline of the contents of Acts, similar to, but not in exact correspondence with, the first option. By crediting Jesus with the outline and by shaping it into the form of a promise, the narrator creates audience expectations that the witness to the gospel will be fulfilled “to the end of the earth.” Are these expectations fulfilled?

In addition, Acts 1:1–5 exhibits several literary conventions typical not just of sequels but generally characteristic of narrative beginnings in late antiquity. The first is the presence of a first-person narrator in the preface (see Philo, Mos. 1.1; Diodorus Siculus, Hist. 1.3.1). Such narration is used in both Luke and Acts to provide a frame for the story (see Luke 1:1–4; 5:14; Acts 23:22; for a similar rhetorical device, see also Josephus, BJ 1.76; Ant. 1.100; Arrian, Anab. 5.11.4; John 3:15–16). First-person narration facilitates the move of the audience from a point of view external to the story to an internal point of view—the audience moves from the position of arm-chair spectator to full participant in the story.

A second convention is the naming of Theophilus (1:1) as addressee. Historically, these names in antiquity are believed, in many cases, to represent a benefactor/client relationship between the named person and the author (see Aelius Aristides, Hier. log. 51.63; Horace, Carm. 1; Sat. 2; Josephus, C. Ap. 1.1; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 1 Amm.1.2; Hermogenes, Invent. 3.1). Regardless of the historical background, from a literary perspective Theophilus functions to circumscribe the reception of Acts. To imitate the authorial audience of Acts,the real reader must assume the posture of Theophilus, a “lover of God.” Theophilus, then, functions as a hermeneutical bridge between the narrative world of the text and the “real world” of the audience. The naming of Theophilus here in Acts 1, of course, also recalls the mention of Theophilus in Luke 1. Evoking Theophilus at the beginning of the narrative is a literary strategy that reminds the audience of the previous volume, Luke, and provides the authorial audience with entry to the narrative world of Acts.

The authorial audience recognizes that the command not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised (1:4) echoes Luke 24:49, but Jesus’ note that John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (1:5) more closely resembles the Markan form (Mark 1:8) of that saying than either Matt 3:11 or Luke 3:16 (both of which add “and fire” to “Holy Spirit”).

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Litotes

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In Acts 1:5, Luke uses litotes, a favorite rhetorical device in which a statement is made by ...