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Archive for the ‘Luke-Acts’ Category

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Luke the Chronicler

In 1 & 2 Chronicles, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Samuel, Brill, Ched Spellman, David (king of Israel), Intertextuality, Luke-Acts, Mark S. Giacobbe on April 13, 2024 at 3:23 pm

2024.04.03 | Mark S. Giacobbe. Luke the Chronicler: The Narrative Arc of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles in Luke-Acts. Bible Interpretation Series 211. Brill, 2023. 289 pp. $144.00. 

Review by Ched Spellman, Cedarville University.

In the opening of the Gospel of Luke, the author includes a prologue that overviews his purpose in writing this “orderly narrative” and identifies elements of his method (Luke 1:1–4). Beyond these orienting authorial comments, is it possible to detect any specific textual template that Luke might have made use of as he structured his narration and interpretation of the story of Jesus and the early church?

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Luke in His Own Words

In Bloomsbury, Jenny Read-Heimerdinger, Kendall A. Davis, Luke-Acts, Manuscript Studies, Manuscripts, Textual Criticism on October 31, 2022 at 12:00 pm
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2022.10.08 | Jenny Read-Heimerdinger. Luke in His Own Words: A Study of the Language of Luke-Acts in Greek. LNTS 672. London: T&T Clark, 2022.

Review by Kendall A. Davis, University of Edinburgh.

As anyone who looks at a critical apparatus for the New Testament knows, a significant number of textual variants involve subtle differences like the presence of an article, the order of words, and so on. Many readers will gloss over such variants as being merely “stylistic,” by which they mean to say, “relatively unimportant and meaningless.” Jenny Read-Heimerdinger’s new collection of previous published essays, Luke in His Own Words, challenges this assumption through a thorough analysis of Luke’s Greek as it is preserved in the Alexandrian text (as represented by Codex Sinaiticus [א01] and Codex Vaticanus [B03]) and Codex Bezae (D05). Read-Heimerdinger combines text-criticism, discourse analysis, and New Testament interpretation to argue that many variants between D05 and the Alexandrian text that are often perceived to be merely stylistic are in fact intentional and meaningful. Read-Heimerdinger further argues that the Bezan text of Acts is not necessarily a later expansion of Acts, as frequently assumed, but may preserve a form of Acts that is earlier than the version preserved in the Alexandrian tradition.

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Embodied God

In Bodies of God, Brittany E. WILSON, Luke-Acts, Matthew Sharp, Oxford University Press on March 14, 2022 at 1:57 pm

2022.03.03 | Brittany E. Wilson, The Embodied God: Seeing the Divine in Luke-Acts and the Early Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. pp. xvi + 333. ISBN: 9780190080822. 

Review by Matthew Sharp, University of St Andrews.

God’s body (or bodies) has proved a fruitful and fascinating area of research for over a decade now, occupying scholars of the Hebrew Bible, ancient Near East, Graeco-Roman religion, and the religions of late antiquity. With this book Brittany Wilson adds the New Testament to this conversation as she seeks to dismantle modern Christian-Platonic notions of an invisible incorporeal God and argues forcefully for a portrayal of God in Luke-Acts that is visible, bodily, and capable of a variety of corporeal manifestations.

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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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Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel

In Bloomsbury, Christology, HB/OT, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Metaphor, New Testament, T & T Clark on October 30, 2020 at 6:27 pm

2020.10.19 | Gregory R. Lanier. Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel. LNTS 591. London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Review by Kai Akagi, Japan Bible Seminary.

Gregory R. Lanier’s Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel uses conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to consider the christological significance of four metaphors in the Gospel of Luke: “horn” in 1:68–69, “dawn” in 1:78–79, “mother bird” in 13:34, and “stone-rock” in 20:17–18. After an opening chapter consisting of a literature review, a description of the topic of this volume, and an explanation of method and research objectives, the subsequent four chapters in turn each consider one of the metaphors. The final chapter summarizes the results and offers a synthesis of their christological significance.

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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 »


Conversion in Luke-Acts

In Baker Academic, Brandon Walker, Community, Conversion, Identity, Joel B. GREEN, Luke-Acts on August 8, 2016 at 2:00 pm

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2016.08.15 | Joel B. Green. Conversion in Luke-Acts: Divine Action, Human Cognition, and the People of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Review by Brandon T. Walker, St. John’s College, Nottingham.

Many thanks to Baker Academic for providing a review copy.

Much of the contemporary Western conversation about defining conversion has centred around questions of cognition and morality, repentance and conversion, or around attempts to discover patterns in a conversion narrative. In Conversion in Luke-Acts Joel B. Green offers an insightful take on Luke’s understanding of conversion by using a cognitive and holistic approach. Conversion is an important contribution to Lukan studies as well as understanding ‘conversion’ in antiquity.

In the first chapter Green surveys the pertinent questions concerning conversion in the New Testament (14–15), such as: ‘Is conversion a cognitive category, a moral category or both?’ (14). Read the rest of this entry »


The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel: The Role of the Centurion in Luke-Acts

In Alexander KYRYCHENKO, De Gruyter, Kai Akagi, Luke-Acts, Uncategorized on February 6, 2015 at 10:14 am

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2015.02.03 | Alexander Kyrychenko. The Roman Army and the Expansion of the Gospel: The Role of the Centurion in Luke-Acts. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 203. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2014. pp. xi + 228. ISBN: 9783110344028.

Reviewed by Kai Akagi, University of St Andrews.

Many thanks to De Gruyter for providing a review copy.

This volume is the published version of Alexander Kyrychenko’s PhD dissertation from 2013, supervised by Carl R. Holladay at Emory University. It considers the literary function of the Roman centurion in Luke-Acts in light of the presentation of the Roman military in contemporary Greco-Roman and Jewish literature. Kyrychenko offers his study as concerned with narrative in its attention to the literary and thematic significance of how Luke-Acts presents Roman centurions and contextual in its examination of portrayals of the Roman military across literatures. Read the rest of this entry »