Volume 5 in a series which strives to place the Book of Acts within its first-century setting, Irina Levinskaya employs impressive archaeological research to throw light on the relation of Jews to the societies in which they lived during the period of dispersion. She surveys commonly held views and challenges current views regarding the true nature of Jewish missionary activity.
The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting locates the Book of Acts within various regional and cultural settings in the eastern Mediterranean. These studies draw on recent archaeological fieldwork and epigraphic discoveries to describe the key cities and provinces within the Roman Empire. The relevant societal aspects of these regions, such as the Roman legal system, Roman religion, and the problem of transport and travel, all help contextualize the book of Acts.
This volume provides a unique opportunity not only to learn about the custodial system of the Graeco-Roman world, but to better view Paul's persona and Christian mission as well. Brian Rapske's outstanding study shows Luke himself to be an ardent helper of Paul the missionary prisoner. "The author has produced an invaluable resource for both Acts and Pauline scholars, having placed the prison narratives of Paul in both their cultural and literary settings. The footnotes alone demonstrate the wealth of socio-cultural knowledge that Rapske brings to his reading of the Acts account as well as his understanding of the Pauline missions via- -vis his suffering in prison." - Journal for the Study of the New Testament
The Book of Acts in Its Ancient Literary Setting includes fourteen chapters devoted to the literary framework that undergirds the Book of Acts. Topics include the text as historical monograph, ancient rhetoric and speeches, the Pauline corpus, biblical history, subsequent ecclesiastical histories, and modern literary method. All of these chapters arise out of a consultation by the project's scholars at Cambridge in March 1993.
Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James
- Provides a fresh perspective on the Book of Acts - Editor's foreword highlights the importance of Dibelius's work - Includes updated notes and bibliographies - Indexes of ancient sources and authors
This book examines the Lukan themes of unity and disunity against ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish social and political discourses on concord and discord to better understand the context in which Luke highlights the themes of unity and disunity.The themes of unity and disunity are particularly prominent in ancient discussions of the reigns of rulers, evaluations of laws/constitutions/forms of government, and descriptions of the contrasting effects of unity and disunity in the destruction and preservation of peoples and cities. These themes are grouped under the broad categories of kingship and law, and the preservation and destruction of cities. The book contends that, in the context of its literary setting, the theme of the unity of the church under one Lord in Acts contributes to Lukan Christological claims that Christ is the true king, and Lukan ecclesiological claims that the Christian community is the true people of God.
Here, gathered for the first time, is a collection of Loveday Alexander's critically acclaimed essays on the Acts of the Apostles. In this collection of essays, Alexander addresses the central question 'What kind of book is Acts?' She approaches the text of Acts with a finely-tuned sense of the complexities of the conventional codes that governed reading and writing in the classical world, and argues that the differences between New Testament texts and contemporary writings in the Graeco-Roman world can be as revealing as the similarities. The collection begins with Alexander's classic analysis of the literary codes governing the preface to Luke's two-volume work, in which she challenges the dominant consensus that the language and structure of the preface evoke the generic conventions of Greek historiography. That insight opens up the possibility of reading Acts alongside other ancient literary genres: the lives of the Greek philosophers, the Greek novels of Chariton and Xenophon of Ephesus, Roman itineraries, Greek and Jewish apologetic, and Latin epic. The process, like the narrative of Acts itself, becomes a rich and evocative voyage of exploration, shedding light both on the varied social worlds of the author and his first readers, and on the complex communication problems underlying the creation of early Christian discourse. This is volume 289 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series and is also part of the Early Christianity in Context series.
Working to place the Book of Acts within its first-century setting, well-known historians and biblical scholars from Australia, the United States, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have collaborated here to provide a stimulating new study that replaces older studies on Acts, including aspects of The Beginnings of Christianity. The composition of Acts is discussed beside the writing of ancient literary monographs and intellectual biographies. Recent epigraphic and papyrological discoveries also help illumine the text of Acts. Archaeological fieldwork, especially in Greece and Asia Minor, has yielded valuable information about the local setting of Acts and the religious life of urban communities in the Roman Empire. These volumes draw on the best of this research to elucidate the Book of Acts against the background of activity in which early Christianity was born. The Book of Acts in Its Palestinian Setting is devoted to a series of studies of those parts of the narrative of Acts that are specifically set in Palestine. The geographical, political, cultural, social, and religious aspects of first-century Jewish Palestine are all explored in order to throw light on Luke's account of the Palestinian origins of early Christianity. There are fresh assessments of the historical significance of key features, persons, and events in Luke's narrative.
