Customer Reviews

History, Literature, and Society in the Book of Acts

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Edited by Ben Witherington, this book offers some of the best scholarship on Acts I have read. This is hardly surprising given the caliber of scholar that has gathered together, including C.K. Barrett, C.H. Talbert, Loveday Alexander, Richard Baukham, Joel Green, and Witherington himself. But what really makes this compilation valuable is that first-rate scholarship is combined with cutting edge issues related to the study of Acts. The book does not further one viewpoint, but intends "not to argue for the validity of any one particular point of view but to give the reader exposure to the variety of the pertinent current discussion, with sufficient bibliographic resources that one may pursue further study in an area of interest." (From the Preface). This it does.

The first set of articles discuss aspects of the genre of Acts and the relationship of Acts' genre to the historical method. A number of informed perspectives are offered on the genre of Acts. My favorite article in this section is a provocative piece by J. Jervell. Jervell argues that Acts was heavily influenced by the Jewish belief of salvation oriented historical perspective. Thus he was influenced by Old Testament histories such as the Samuels and the Kings, as well as the Maccabean corpus. Jervell argues that Luke even saw himself as writing scripture. He makes his case so clearly that I found myself wondering why I had not thought of it before.

The next set of articles deals with historical and theological difficulties in Acts. Topics such as Luke's portrayal of the Jewish authorities and the nature of Luke's theology of the cross are ably discussed.

The final set of articles deals with literary criticism. Joel Green, a leading Lucan scholar, discusses the historical implications of some of the repetitive narratives in Acts. Another of my favorite articles in this collection is in this section. By Ben Witherington, the article provides an excellent discussion about applying the lessons learned about the author of Acts from the study of his redacting activities in the Gospel of Luke. His conclusion is sound: "What we learn from such an exercise is that Luke did not likely engage in free composition of his material, even the speech material, but rather drew on edited sources according to his various purposes and agendas."

To the student of the Acts of the Apostles, I highly recommend this study. Although pricey, it provides well-written articles on often neglected topics by the best in the field.