plan.’ ” He “emphasizes the continuity of salvation history.”79 If Luke thinks in terms of epochs, they are only two, the time of prophecy (1:70;
10:24; 16:16, 31; 18:31; 24:25, 27, 44; Acts 3:18, 21, 24; 10:43; 15:15 – 18;
26:22 – 23; 28:23) and the time when it has been fulfilled (1:1; 4:21; 22:37;
24:44; Acts 1:16; 3:18; 13:26 – 40). Luke does not regard the new as discontinuous with the past. His narrative shows “how Jesus represents the continuation of the biblical story.”80 Smith tentatively allows “that the intention to write scripture should not be excluded from a consideration of the purpose as well as the result of the composition of the Gospels.”81 I would argue this point more positively. Luke presents the scriptural story and its themes as culminating in Jesus.
Why write church history? Luke states in the preface that he wished to reassure the readers about the truth of the gospel. His work is an apology for the Christian movement that is valuable to Christian insiders since it seeks to relieve any potential incertitude and also help them understand who they are, where they came from, and where they are ultimately headed.
Why was this necessary? When Luke wote, the Christian community had largely separated from its Jewish roots, and the Jewish rejection of Jesus was overwhelming. That split forced the question: Who are the real people of God?
Paul raised this concern much earlier in Rom 9 – 11. His answer is that not all Israelites belong to Israel and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants (Rom 9:6 – 7). As Paul explains via a lengthy argument in Rom 9 – 11, Luke-Acts explains via a lengthy narrative that God sanctions the inclusion of Gentiles in the people of God and that the rejection of Jesus as the Messiah by some in Israel is part of a long, sad story in which many have opposed God’s purposes. For Gentile believers, Luke’s narrative legitimizes their decision to convert to this faith. Brown concludes:
By divine providence a Gospel that had its beginning in Jerusalem, the capital of Judaism, ultimately came to Rome, the capital of the Gentile world. The Gentiles addressed by Luke-Acts could thus be assured that their acceptance of Jesus was no accident or aberration but part of God’s plan reaching back to creation, a plan that ultimately includes the conversion of the whole Roman world.82
As the preface makes clear, Luke’s purpose is to assure believers: “in order that you may recognize in full the certainty of the teachings in which you have been instructed” (1:4). The Christian community was not a reclusive fringe group that broke off from Judaism. The promise was to Israel (1:14 – 17, 67 – 79; 2:29 – 35; Acts 2:39; 3:25 – 26; 5:31; 7:5, 17;
10:36; 13:23, 32 – 34; 26:6 – 7), and many in Israel, but not all, did respond to God’s initiative to gather them. God’s visitation, however, created a divided response (Luke 2:34), and those who did not listen “will be completely cut off from their people” (Acts 3:23). Those who did listen and submit to God’s plan fulfilled the Scripture that God intended Israel to become a light to the nations (Gen 12:3; Isa 12:4; 42:6; 49:6; Ezek 47:22 – 23). Through their mission to the world Gentiles will come to Christ and be included in the people of God.
Luke wrote with the assurance that the Gentile Christians “will listen”
(Acts 28:28). Squires highlights the parallels between the beginning of Luke’s gospel and the conclusion of Acts 28:28.83 Luke’s work ends with the fulfillment of the predictions with which it began. Salvation came to the Gentiles as a result of the direct intervention of God. It was validated by Scripture, Jesus' ministry that prefigured the inclusion of Gentiles, the certification of the Spirit, and visions and dreams that followers experienced in Acts, which reveal that this is God’s way.
Structure
I. Prologue and Infancy Narrative (1:1 – 2:52) A. Prologue (1:1 – 4)
B. The Annunciation to Zechariah (1:5 – 25) C. The Annunciation to Mary (1:26 – 38)
D. The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth and Mary’s Thanksgiving Psalm (1:39 – 56)
E. The Birth of John and Zechariah’s Thanksgiving Psalm (1:57 – 80) F. The Birth of the Messiah (2:1 – 21)
G. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (2:22 – 40) H. Jesus' Pronouncement in the Temple (2:41 – 52) II. Preparing for Ministry (3:1 – 4:13)
A. The Preparatory Ministry of John (3:1 – 20) B. Jesus as the Son of God (3:21 – 38)
1. Jesus' Baptism (3:21 – 23a) 2. Jesus' Genealogy (3:23b – 38)
C. The Testing of Jesus in the Wilderness (4:1 – 13) III. Jesus' Ministry in Galilee (4:14 – 9:50)
A. Jesus in Nazareth and Capernaum (4:14 – 44) 1. Jesus' Nazareth Manifesto (4:14 – 30)
2. Illustrations of Jesus' Teaching, Healing, and Exorcisms (4:31 – 44) B. Calling and Controversy (5:1 – 6:49)
1. Peter’s Confession and Calling (5:1 – 11) 2. Four Controversy Stories (5:12 – 6:11)
a. The Healing of a Leper and a Paralytic (5:12 – 26) b. The Call of Levi (5:27 – 39)
c. Plucking Grain on the Sabbath (6:1 – 5) d. Healing on the Sabbath (6:6 – 11)
3. Jesus' Choosing of Twelve Apostles and the Sermon on the Plain (6:12 – 49)
a. The Calling Out of the Twelve Apostles (6:12 – 16) b. The Sermon on the Plain (6:17 – 49)
C. Are You the One Who Is to Come? (7:1 – 50) 1. The Healing of a Centurion’s Servant (7:1 – 10) 2. The Raising of the Widow of Nain’s Son (7:11 – 17) 3. John the Baptist (7:18 – 35)
4. The Parable of the Two Debtors (7:36 – 50)
D. Responding to Jesus and the Word of God (8:1 – 21) 1. Jesus' Itinerant Teaching (8:1 – 3)
2. Parable of the Sower (8:4 – 8)
3. Interpretation of the Parable (8:9 – 18)
4. Statement about Jesus' Expanded Family (8:19 – 21)
E. Jesus' Power over Creation, Demons, Sickness, and Death (8:22 – 56)
1. Jesus' Power over the Sea and Legions of Demons (8:22 – 39) a. Jesus' Power over the Sea (8:22 – 25)
b. Jesus' Power over the Gerasene Demoniac (8:26 – 39) 2. Jesus' Power over Sickness and Death (8:40 – 56)
a. Touch of a Woman with an Incurable Hemorrhage (8:43 – 48) b. The Raising of Jairus’s Daughter from Death (8:40 – 42, 49 – 56) F. Preparing the Disciples (9:1 – 50)
1. The Mission of the Twelve and the Feeding of Five Thousand (9:1 – 17)
a. Sending of the Twelve (9:1 – 10)
b. Feeding of the Five Thousand (9:11 – 17)
2. Earthly Suffering and Eternal Glory (9:18 – 36) a. Jesus' Questioning His Disciples (9:18 – 27)
b. Jesus' Transfiguration on the Mountain (9:28 – 36) 3. The Disciples' Failure and True Greatness (9:37 – 50) a. Jesus' Exorcism of a Demon (9:37 – 43a)
b. Jesus' Prediction of His Betrayal (9:43b – 50) IV. Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem (9:51 – 19:28) A. On Being Disciples (9:51 – 10:42)
1. The Beginning of Jesus' Journey to Jerusalem (9:51 – 62) 2. The Mission Campaign of the Seventy-Two (10:1 – 24) a. Appointment of the Seventy-Two for Mission (10:1 – 16) b. Return of the Seventy-Two (10:17 – 24)
3. The Parable of the Merciful Samaritan (10:25 – 37) 4. Mary and Martha (10:38 – 42)
B. On Prayer (11:1 – 13)
1. The Model Prayer (11:1 – 4)
2. Parable of the Reluctant Neighbor (11:5 – 10)
3. Parable of the Father Who Gives What His Child Needs (11:11 – 13) C. Jesus and Beelzebul; Light and Darkness (11:14 – 36)
D. Woes against the Pharisees and Lawyers (11:37 – 54)
E. On the Current Eschatological Crisis and Preparing for the Last Judgment (12:1 – 13:9)
1. Call to Fearless Confession (12:1 – 12)
2. The Parable of the Rich Fool and Storing Up Treasure with God (12:13 – 34)
3. Warnings to Make Ready for the Unexpected Crisis (12:35 – 59) 4. Warnings to Repent and the Parable of the Unproductive Fig Tree
(13:1 – 9)
F. On Recognizing the Reign of God (13:10 – 15:32)
1. The Release of a Bent Woman on the Sabbath and the Parables of the Mustard Tree and Leaven (13:10 – 21)
a. Healing in a Synagogue on the Sabbath (13:10 – 17) b. Parables about God’s Reign (13:18 – 21)
2. The Accomplishment of God’s Purpose Despite Rejection (13:22 – 35)
a. Question about the Number Who Will Be Saved (13:22 – 30) b. The Necessity of Jesus' Death in Jerusalem (13:31 – 35) 3. Healing the Man with Dropsy (14:1 – 6)
4. Banquet Invitations (14:7 – 14)
5. The Parable of the Banquet (14:15 – 24) 6. True Discipleship (14:25 – 35)
7. The Parables of the Shepherd and the Woman (15:1 – 10)
8. The Parable of the Compassionate Father and His Two Sons (15:11 – 32)
G. On the Faithful Use of Wealth (16:1 – 31) 1. The Unrighteous Agent (16:1 – 13)
2. Jesus' Teaching on Money and the Reign of God and the Law and the Prophets (16:14 – 18)
3. The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19 – 31) H. On Faith (17:1 – 19)
1. Directions for the Disciples' Life Together (17:1 – 10) 2. A Thankful Samaritan among Ten Lepers (17:11 – 19) I. On Eschatology (17:20 – 18:8)
1. The Day of the Son of Man’s Revealing (17:20 – 37)
2. The Parable of the Widow and the Wicked Judge (18:1 – 8) J. On Entering the Reign of God (18:9 – 19:28)
1. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (18:9 – 14) 2. Entering the Reign of God (18:15 – 34)
3. The Healing of a Blind Man (18:35 – 43) 4. Jesus Meets Zacchaeus (19:1 – 10)
5. The Parable of the Vengeful Throne Claimant (19:11 – 28) V. Jesus in Jerusalem (19:29 – 21:38)
A. Jesus' Royal Entry into Jerusalem (19:29 – 46) B. Jesus' Teaching in the Temple (19:47 – 21:38)
1. Jesus' Teaching in the Temple and the Challenge to His Authority (19:47 – 20:8)
2. The Parable of the Vineyard Tenants (20:9 – 19) 3. The Question about Tribute to Caesar (20:20 – 26) 4. The Question about the Resurrection (20:27 – 40)
5. The Question about David’s Son, Warnings about Self-absorbed Scribes, and the Example of a Poverty-Stricken Widow (20:41 – 21:4)
a. Question about the Messiah as David’s Son (20:41 – 44) b. Warnings against the Scribes (20:45 – 47)
c. Example of a Widow (21:1 – 4)
6. The Destruction of the Temple and the Coming of the Son of Man (21:5 – 38)
VI. Jesus' Suffering and Death (22:1 – 23:49)
A. Judas’s Selling Out to Satan and the High Priests (22:1 – 6) B. Jesus' Last Supper (22:7 – 20)
C. Jesus' Parting Words to His Disciples (22:21 – 38)
D. Jesus' Prayer and Arrest on the Mount of Olives (22:39 – 53) E. Peter’s Denial and the Mockery of Jesus (22:54 – 65)
F. Jesus on Trial (22:66 – 23:25)
G. The Crucifixion of Jesus (23:26 – 49)
VII. Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension (23:50 – 24:53)
A. Jesus Dead and Buried, Raised and Living (23:50 – 24:12) B. Resurrection Encounter on the Road to Emmaus (24:13 – 35)
C. Jesus' Appearance to the Disciples and His Ascension (24:36 – 53) 1. This assertion was questioned in the nineteenth century under the influence of F. C. Baur, whose model of dialectic history dated Acts in the second century so that the author could not have been a companion of Paul.
2. Martin Hengel, The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ (trans. John Bowden; Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2000), 54.
3. F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1951), 5.
4. Martin Dibelius, Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (ed. H. Greeven;
London: SCM, 1956), 148. See also R. F. Strout, Toward a Better Cataloging Code (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, Press, 1956), 7.
5. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Luke the Theologian: Aspects of His Teaching (New York: Paulist, 1983), 9, 22.
6. Ibid., 16 – 22. Contra Vernon K. Robbins, “The We-Passages in Acts and Ancient Sea Voyages,” BR 20 (1975): 5 – 18; and “By Land and by Sea: The We-Passages and Ancient Sea Voyages,” in Perspectives on Luke- Acts (ed. C. H. Talbert; Danville, VA: Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, 1978), 215 – 42. On Luke as the author of the we-passages, see Colin J. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History (ed.
C. H. Gempf; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1990), 312 – 34.
7. Claus-Jürgen Thornton, Der Zeuge des Zeugen. Lukas als Historiker des Paulusreisen (WUNT 1/56; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1991), 200. J. B.
Lightfoot (St Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [1879;
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, repr. 1959], 241 – 42), contends that the first we- passage in Acts 16:10 occurred near the time of Paul’s malady mentioned in Gal. 4:13 – 14. He deduces from this that Luke may have joined Paul “in a professional capacity.”
8. The biggest problem in regarding Luke as a companion of Paul is the estimation, common among scholars, that the portrayal of Paul in Acts differs significantly in theology and factual details, notably, the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15 and Gal 2), from the Paul revealed in his letters (see Philipp Vielhauer, “Zum ‘Paulinismus’ der Apostelgeschichte,” EvT 10 [1950 – 51}: 1 – 15). This discussion is best left to a commentary on Acts, and Joseph A. Fitzmyer (The Acts of the Apostles [AB; New York:
Doubleday, 1998], 145 – 47) and Jacob Jervell (Die Apostelgeschichte
[KEK; Güttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998], 81 – 84) offer weighty counterarguments (see also Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke [AB; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981], 1:47 – 51).
9. Fitzmyer, Luke the Theologian, 22.
10. The arguments of William Kirk Hobart (The Medical Language of St.
Luke [1882; repr. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1954]) and William M. Ramsay (Luke the Physician and Other Studies in the History of Religion [London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1908], 1 – 68) that Luke’s vocabulary paralleled that found in Greek medical writings was refuted by Henry J. Cadbury (The Style and Literary Method of Luke [Harvard Theological Studies 6;
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920], 39 – 72). W. G. Marx (“Luke the Physician, Re-examined,” ExpTim 91 [1979 – 80], 168 – 72) seeks to revive the possibilities. The arguments of Loveday Alexander (The Preface to Luke' s Gospel: Literary Convention and Social Context in Luke 1.1 – 4 and Acts 1.1 [SNTSMS 78; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993]) about Luke’s affinities to the style of technical or scientific writing in his preface may add more evidence to the argument, but one must always guard against parallelomania.
11. David E. Garland, Colossians/Philemon (NIVAC; Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1998), 278.
12. Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, Luke-Acts: Angels, Christology and Soteriology (WUNT 2/94; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 31.
13. Rick Strelan, Luke the Priest: The Authority of the Third Gospel (Aldershot, Eng.: Ashgate, 2008), 106. He goes perhaps too far in arguing that Luke was a priest (117 – 44).
14. Hengel, The Four Gospels, 101.
15. Ibid., 100. See, e.g., Let. Aris. 1:1; 2 Macc 2:32; 6:17; Sir 6:35; 9:15;
22:6; 27:11, 13; 38:25; 39:2; and Josephus, J.W. 7.3.2 §42; 7.8.1 §274; Ant.
9.10.2 §214; 11.3.10 §68; 12.3.3 §§136 – 37; 20.8.3 §157.
16. Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 146 – 47.
17. It is likely that Luke omitted this material to limit Jesus' mission to Galilee. Luke reserved the issue of food purity (Mark 7:1 – 23) and the justification of the Gentile mission for the second volume (Acts 10:1 – 11:18) (so Gregory E. Sterling, “ ‘Opening the Scriptures’: The Legitimation of the Jewish Diaspora and the Early Christian Mission,” in Jesus and the Heritage of Israel: Luke’s Narrative Claim upon Israel’s
Legacy [ed. D. P. Moessner; Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999], 215).
18. See 3:7 – 14; 3:23 – 38; 4:2b – 13; 5:1 – 11; 19:1 – 10, 11 – 27; 22:28 – 33, 35 – 38; 23:6 – 16; 23:27 – 31; 23:39b – 43; 23:47b – 49.
19. Whether Matthew or Luke followed and had access to and used the other may be irresolvable and takes us beyond the purview of this commentary.
20. C. F. Evans, St. Luke (TPI New Testament Commentaries; London:
SCM, 1990), 26 – 27, citing 1:5 – 2:52; 3:10 – 14; 3:23 – 38; 4:16 – 30 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 5:1 – 11; 5:39 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 7:11 – 17; 7:36 – 50 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 8:1 – 3;
9:51 – 55; 9:61 – 62; 10:1, 17 – 20; 10:25 – 28 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 10:29 – 37; 10:38 – 42; 11:5 – 8; 11:27 – 28; 12:1 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 12:13 – 21; 12:35 – 38 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 12:47 – 48; 12:49 – 50; 12:54 – 56; 13:1 – 9; 13:10 – 17; 13:31 – 33; 14:1 – 6; 14:7 – 14; 14:28 – 35; 15:1 – 10; 15:11 – 32; 16:1 – 15; 16:19 – 31; 17:7 – 10; 17:11 – 19; 17:20 – 21; 17:28 – 32 (possibly influenced by Mark, Q); 18:1 – 8; 18:9 – 14; 19:1 – 10; 19:41 – 44; 21:34 – 36; 22:15 – 18, 27, (31 – 33), 35 – 38; 23:6 – 16; 23:27 – 31; 23:39 – 43; 24:13 – 53.
21. Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women: Studies in the Named Women in the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 190, noting the work of Thorlief Boman, Die Jesus- Überlieferung in Lichte der neuen Volkskunde (Güttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967), 122 – 37.
22. Luke mentions thirteen women not mentioned in the other gospels, and stories about men are frequently paralleled by stories about women: the angelic annunciation to Zechariah (1:11 – 20) and to Mary (1:26 – 38); the praise of God in the temple for the child Jesus by Simeon (2:25 – 35) and Anna (2:36 – 38); mention of the widow of Zarephath (4:25 – 26) and Naaman the Syrian (4:27) in Jesus' first sermon; the first healings of a demoniac (4:31 – 37) and Peter’s mother-in-law (4:38 – 39); the healing of a loved one, the centurion’s slave (7:1 – 10) and the only son of the widow of Nain (7:11 – 17); the parable of the two debtors, representing Simon the Pharisee and the woman who was a sinner (7:36 – 50); the lesson on serving with the parable of the merciful Samaritan (10:25 – 37) and Mary and Martha (10:38 – 42); parables of the reign of God, the man who sowed a mustard seed (13:18 – 19) and the woman who hid leaven in some meal (13:20 – 21); those healed on the Sabbath, a daughter of Abraham (13:10 –
17) and a man with dropsy (14:1 – 6); parables about prayer, the urgent host and the reluctant neighbor (11:5 – 8) and the persistent widow and the wicked judge (18:1 – 8); parables of the last judgment, two men in bed (17:34) and two women grinding meal at the same place (17:35); those Jesus encounters on the way to crucifixion, Simon of Cyrene (23:26) and the daughters of Jerusalem (23:27 – 31); and the resurrection announcement to the women at the tomb (23:55 – 24:11) and the appearance to the followers on the road to Emmaus (24:13 – 27).
23. Bauckham, Gospel Women, 112 – 13.
24. Ibid., 189.
25. Bauckham (ibid., 165 – 86) also argues that Joanna is the Junia mentioned by Paul (Rom 16:7) and that her husband Chuza (Luke 8:3) had either chosen the name Andronicus or she was widowed and he was her second husband.
26. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (SP; Collegeville, MN:
Liturgical, 1991), 5.
27. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, 34.
28. Hemer (ibid.) also cautions regarding genre criticism, “We can find almost whatever we seek, and we can see significance in what we find. In such a case the study of literary forms is a task to be pursued with special caution, with a care not to use categories which arise out of imposed, rather than inherent, classifications.”
29. F. Gerald Downing, “Theophilus’s First Reading of Luke-Acts,” in Luke’s Literary Achievement: Collected Essays (ed. C. M. Tuckett;
JSNTSup 116; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995), 99.
30. See Rudolf Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition (trans. J.
Marsh; New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 371; Robert A. Guelich, “The Gospel Genre,” in Das Evangelium und die Evangelien (ed. P. Stuhlmacher;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1983), 183 – 219.
31. David E. Aune, The Westminster Dictionary of New Testament and Early Christian Literature (Louisville/London: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 204.
32. Jonathan Knight, Luke’s Gospel (New Testament Readings; New York: Routledge, 1998), 4.
33. Charles H. Talbert, What Is a Gospel? The Genre of the Canonical Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977); Richard A. Burridge, What Are the
Gospels? A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography (2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).
34. Knight, Luke’s Gospel, 6.
35. I. Howard Marshall (“Acts and the Former Treatise,” in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting; vol. 1: The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting [ed. B. W. Winter and A. D. Clarke; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1993], 173), comments: “The use of ‘things’ in the plural is an odd way of referring simply to the life-story of one person. And the word
‘fulfill’ may also suggest more than simply the life of Jesus, the more especially since Jesus himself spoke of things that were yet to be fulfilled in the activity of his followers (Lk. 24:47 – 49).”
36. Aune, The Westminster Dictionary, 280.
37. David E. Aune, The New Testament in Its Literary Environment (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987), 119.
38. Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, 1.
39. Henry J. Cadbury (The Making of Luke-Acts [London: SPCK, 1927;
repr. 1968]) gets credit for identifying the work as Luke-Acts with the hyphen. Patrick E. Spencer (“The Unity of Luke-Acts: A Four-Bolted Hermeneutical Hinge,” CSR 5 [2007]: 341 – 66) dismantles the arguments that would dissolve the unity of Luke-Acts and confirms that the four bolts that keep Luke and Acts hinged together — genre, narrative, theology, and reception history — remain firmly in place.
40. Bruce W. Longenecker, Rhetoric at the Boundaries: The Art and Theology of New Testament Chain-Link Transitions (Waco, TX: Baylor Univ. Press, 2005), 166 – 70. Arie W. Zwiep (The Ascension of the Messiah in Lukan Christology [NovTSup 87; Leiden: Brill, 1997], 118) lists seventeen motifs shared by Luke 24:36 – 53 and Acts 1:1 – 14; see the Literary Context for 24:36 – 53.
41. Longenecker, Rhetoric at the Boundaries, 219.
42. Daniel Marguerat, The First Christian Historian: Writing the “Acts of the Apostles” (SNTSMS 121; trans. K. McKinney, G. J. Laughery, and R.
Bauckham; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002), 47 – 48; and James D. G. Dunn, The Acts of the Apostles (Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996), xv.
43. Longenecker, Rhetoric at the Boundaries, 216.
44. Spencer, “The Unity of Luke-Acts,” 353, citing Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 8 – 10.
45. Daryl D. Schmidt, “Rhetorical Influences and Genre: Luke’s Preface and the Rhetoric of Hellenistic Historiography,” in Jesus and the Heritage of Israel: Luke’s Narrative Claim upon Israel’s Legacy (ed. D. P. Moessner;
Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999), 27.
46. Alexander, The Preface to Luke’s Gospel, 102.
47. Schmidt, “Rhetorical Influences and Genre,”32. “Its style is between that of vernacular spoken Greek and a more elevated prose found, for example, in Polybius and Diodorus.” See Lars Rydbeck, “On the Question of Linguistic Levels and the Place of the New Testament in the Contemporary Language Milieu,” in The Language of the New Testament:
Classic Essays (ed. S. E. Porter; JSNTSup 60; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1991), 177.
48. Aune (The Westminster Dictionary, 78) notes that “acts” “was a term applied to entire historical works (Polybius 1.1.1; 9.1.5 – 6;
Diodorus Siculus 1.1.1) or to portions of them (Xenophon, Education of Cyrus 1.2.16; Polybius 4.1.3; Josephus, Ant. 14.68; Diodorus Siculus 1.1.1;
16.1.1; Dio Cassius 62.29).
49. Aune, The Westminster Dictionary, 77. He also (ibid., 368) summarizes the conventions found in the prefaces of historiographical works: (1) emphasis on the importance of the subject; (2) inadequacy of previous treatments; (3) the author’s circumstances and the reason for writing; (4) the author’s impartiality and concern only with the truth; (5) the author’s intensive research efforts; (6) the thesis of the author, including his view of the causes of the events he will narrate; (7) a brief outline of the work’s contents. Luke adopts some of these conventions in his preface.
50. Robert F. O’Toole, The Unity of Luke’s Theology: An Analysis of Luke-Acts (Good News Studies 9; Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1984), 17.
51. See Daryl D. Schmidt, “The Historiography of Acts: Deuteronomistic or Hellenistic?” SBLSP 24 (1985): 417 – 27; and Brian S. Rosner, “Acts and Biblical History,” in The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting; vol.
1: The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting (ed. B. W. Winter and A.
D. Clarke; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 65 – 82.
52. Jervell, Die Apostelgeschichte, 78 – 79.
53. Hengel, The Four Gospels, 100 – 101. Gregory E. Sterling (Historiography and Self-Definition: Josephus, Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography [NovTSup 64; Leiden: Brill, 1992]) argues that the genre of