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Archive for the ‘Book of Acts’ Category


Dating Acts in Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts

In Bloomsbury, Book of Acts, Daniel B. Glover, Dating NT, Karl L. Armstrong, Luke-Acts, Paul on September 17, 2021 at 3:00 pm

2021.9.15 | Karl L. Armstrong. Dating Acts in Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts. LNTS 637. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2021.

Review by Daniel B. Glover, Lee University.

Karl L. Armstrong’s new monograph, Dating Acts in Its Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts, presents what he calls a new, historiographic approach to identifying the date of Acts. Bucking both current and longstanding trends in Acts scholarship, Armstrong argues for a precise date of 64 CE, a date during the reign of Nero and preceding the death of Paul, the famed fire of Rome, and the Jewish War (66–70 CE). Armstrong is revivifying an older position in Acts scholarship but also leveling new arguments in its favor. What follows is perhaps the strongest, most comprehensive case yet offered for an early date for the Acts, and, for that reason, deserves a detailed, substantive engagement as is offered later in this review.

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The Hope of Israel

In Baker Academic, Book of Acts, Brandon D. CROWE, John Mark Tittsworth, Luke-Acts, Resurrection on December 4, 2020 at 3:00 pm

2020.12.20 | Brandon D. Crowe. The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020. pp xvi + 239. ISBN 9780801099472.

Review by John Mark Tittsworth, independent scholar. 

The Hope of Israel contains three chapters that analyze specific texts about “the resurrection in Acts” (pp. 19–102), followed by four others that synthesize the “theological significance of the resurrection in Acts” (pp. 104–93). Before all this, Crowe introduces “the state of the question” about the resurrection in the book of Acts (pp. 3–18). He notes that this topic “is widely regarded to be important for theology in Acts” (p. 13), but only few have devoted more than a few pages to the matter. Crowe engages with biblical scholarship throughout the work, but when he maps his argument onto systematic theology, he is necessarily limited. Thus, the second part of The Hope of Israel brings a biblical theology of Jesus’s resurrection in Acts into dialogue with exemplars from the Protestant Reformed tradition, such as Geerhardus Vos, Herman Bavinck, and Francis Turretin.

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NTG Editio Critica Maior: Acts

In Annette HÜFFMEIER, Book of Acts, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Editio Critica Maior, Garrick V. Allen, Georg GÄBEL, Gerd MINK, Holger STRUTWOLF, Luke-Acts, Manuscript Studies, Manuscripts, Textual Criticism on July 31, 2019 at 6:30 pm

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2019.7.8 | Holger Strutwolf, Georg Gäbel, Annette Hüffmeier, Gerd Mink, and Klaus Wachtel (eds). Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior. III Die Apostelgeschichte/Acts of the Apostles. 3 parts, 4 volumes. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2017.

Review by Garrick V. Allen, Dublin City University. 

The Editio Critica Maior (ECM) of Acts – the most comprehensive and intricate edition of Acts to date – is the second volume to appear in the ECM series after the Catholic Epistles (2013, 2nd ed). The ECM represents a generational, international, and collaborative project, the results of which are worthy of the gargantuan effort involved in producing the edition. Read the rest of this entry »


Basileia bei Lukas

In Book of Acts, Christian BLUMENTHAL, Gospels, Herder, Kingdom of God, Luke-Acts, Michael Kochenash on July 20, 2018 at 5:00 pm

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2018.07.11 | Christian Blumenthal. Basileia bei Lukas: Studien zur erzählerischen Entfaltung der lukanischen Basileiakonzeption. Herders Biblische Studien 84. Freiburg: Herder, 2016.

Reviewed by Michael Kochenash.

Christian Blumenthal’s Basileia bei Lukas is a detailed study of the use and conception of βασιλεία in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Blumenthal gives special attention to implications arising from the narrative location of βασιλεία statements—along with any observable developments within the narrative chronology—and to narrative indications of space in relation to Luke’s conception of βασιλεία. Moreover, in addition to all of the “kingdom of God” statements in Luke and Acts, Luke’s characterizations of Jesus as a king (e.g., the narratives of his birth and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem) also fall within the purview of Blumenthal’s study. To say the least, Basileia bei Lukas covers a lot of ground. Read the rest of this entry »


Acts: An Exegetical Commentary. Volume 2: 3:1-14:28

In Baker Academic, Book of Acts, Craig S. KEENER, Justin A. Mihoc on June 7, 2015 at 8:16 pm

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2015.06.12 | Craig S. Keener. Acts: An Exegetical Commentary. Volume 2: 3:1-14:28. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013. Pp. xxxix + 1153.  Hardcover. $59.99. ISBN 9780801048371.

Review by Justin A. Mihoc, Durham University.

This review was published in RBL 6/2015, here.

This commentary, as well as the ever growing amount of scholarship on Acts, attests the still intensifying interest in this New Testament book in recent years. A number of other serious Acts commentary projects are expected to appear in the near future and to bring in new exegetical perspectives (Steve Walton; Heidi Hornick and Mikeal Parsons; Martin Meiser, to name but a few). The much-awaited second installment of Craig S. Keener’s four-volume commentary on the book of Acts continues on the same note as the previous volume.It represents, undoubtedly, a tour de force and much more than a mere verse-by-verse exegetical treatment of the biblical text. Read the rest of this entry »