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Author: Frank Dicken
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2014-10-09
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9783161532542
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Were the three rulers with the name "Herod" in Luke-Acts a composite character? Frank Dicken explores their narrative similarities and interprets them as a single character in light of other examples of conflation in Jewish and early Christian literature."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Frank Dicken
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-10-20
Total Pages: 265
ISBN-13: 0567675653
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLike all skilful authors, the composer of the biblical books of Luke and Acts understood that a good story requires more than a gripping plot - a persuasive narrative also needs well-portrayed, plot-enhancing characters. This book brings together a set of new essays examining characters and characterization in those books from a variety of methodological perspectives. The essays illustrate how narratological, sociolinguistic, reader-response, feminist, redaction, reception historical, and comparative literature approaches can be fruitfully applied to the question of Luke's techniques of characterization. Theoretical and methodological discussions are complemented with case studies of specific Lukan characters. Together, the essays reflect the understanding that while many of the literary techniques involved in characterization attest a certain universality, each writer also brings his or her own unique perspective and talent to the portrayal and use of characters, with the result that analysis of a writer's characters and style of characterization can enhance appreciation of that writer's work.
Author: Christine H. Aarflot
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2020-06-26
Total Pages: 300
ISBN-13: 1532693494
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Acts of the Apostles reveals a God at work. However, what do God’s actions reveal about God’s character? This question drives the present study, whose ultimate goal is to discover what portrayal Acts constructs of God through God’s actions. Aarflot demonstrates how Jesus’s ascension and the development of the gentile mission prove key to Acts’ distinctive portrayal of God. The study explores what happens to the characterization of God when Jesus’s character comes to resemble God through the ascension, noting in particular the effect of ambiguous language that might refer to either God or Jesus on the portrayal of God. It also considers how Acts depicts God through actions in Israel’s past in relation to the narrative present. This is done by looking at how God is characterized at decisive moments of Acts’ plot. The resulting observations are ultimately synthesized in a final chapter presenting the portrayal of God in Acts. The results of the study have implications for the discussion of the impact of Christology on theology, and furthers the discussion of “God” in the New Testament by delineating a constant, yet developing image of God, and solidifies previous research’s observations on the centrality of God’s actions to Acts’ narrative.
Author: Kylie Crabbe
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Published: 2019-11-18
Total Pages: 436
ISBN-13: 3110615193
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLuke/Acts and the End of History investigates how understandings of history in diverse texts of the Graeco-Roman period illuminate Lukan eschatology. In addition to Luke/Acts, it considers ten comparison texts as detailed case studies throughout the monograph: Polybius's Histories, Diodorus Siculus's Library of History, Virgil's Aeneid, Valerius Maximus's Memorable Doings and Sayings, Tacitus’s Histories, 2 Maccabees, the Qumran War Scroll, Josephus's Jewish War, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch. The study makes a contribution both in its method and in the questions it asks. By placing Luke/Acts alongside a broad range of texts from Luke's wider cultural setting, it overcomes two methodological shortfalls frequently evident in recent research: limiting comparisons of key themes to texts of similar genre, and separating non-Jewish from Jewish parallels. Further, by posing fresh questions designed to reveal writers' underlying conceptions of history—such as beliefs about the shape and end of history or divine and human agency in history—this monograph challenges the enduring tendency to underestimate the centrality of eschatology for Luke's account. Influential post-war scholarship reflected powerful concerns about "salvation history" arising from its particular historical setting, and criticised Luke for focusing on history instead of eschatology due to the parousia’s delay. Though some elements of this thesis have been challenged, Luke continues to be associated with concerns about the delayed parousia, affecting contemporary interpretation. By contrast, this study suggests that viewing Luke/Acts within a broader range of texts from Luke's literary context highlights his underlying teleological conception of history. It demonstrates not only that Luke retains a sense of eschatological urgency seen in other New Testament texts, but a structuring of history more akin to the literature of late Second Temple Judaism than the non-Jewish Graeco-Roman historiographies with which Luke/Acts is more commonly compared. The results clarify not only Lukan eschatology, but related concerns or effects of his eschatology, such as Luke’s politics and approach to suffering. This monograph thereby offers an important corrective to readings of Luke/Acts based on established exegetical habits, and will help to inform interpretation for scholars and students of Luke/Acts as well as classicists and theologians interested in these key questions.
Author: Jenny Read-Heimerdinger
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2024-08-22
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 0567711390
DOWNLOAD EBOOKJenny Read-Heimerdinger explores the characters of Luke-Acts in order to situate them in the Jewish world to which they belong. Through a close reading of the Greek text, she argues that Luke emerges as a person thoroughly steeped in a Jewish view of Scripture, familiar with a range of associated oral traditions; and that taking account of the Jewish features allows new insights into the way that the author situates events and characters firmly within the history of Israel, before the Church was a separate institution or religion. Read-Heimerdinger proposes that such a view of his work implies an addressee capable of understanding what he received and that one eminently qualified candidate is Theophilus, the high priest in Jerusalem 37-41 and brother-in-law of Caiaphas. The Jewish perspective of Luke's two volumes is more visible in forms of the text not used for modern translations, notably that of Codex Bezae and the early versions, which are rejected by the editors of the Greek New Testament on which translations are based. Read-Heimerdinger draws on the analysis of the variants of the Greek text analysed in her previous Luke in his Own Words (2022), in a manner more accessible to readers unfamiliar with Greek. The variant readings make use of a sophisticated knowledge of Jewish exegetical techniques that would generally be discarded by later generations of Christians but which are increasingly being recognized by NT scholars, in line with Jewish historical studies of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism. Seeing the characters of Luke-Acts through Theophilus' eyes brings exciting insights and a fresh understanding of the author's message.
Author: Reuben Bredenhof
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-12-27
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 0567681750
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBredenhof analyses the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31) by examining its functions as a narrative, considering its persuasiveness as a rhetorical unit, and situating it within a Graeco-Roman and Jewish intertextual conversation on the themes of wealth and poverty, and authoritative revelation. The parable portrays the consequences of the rich man's failure to respond to the suffering of Lazarus. Bredenhof argues that the parable offers its audience a prospect for alternative outcomes, in response both to poverty and to a person who has risen from the dead. This prospect is particularly evident when the parable is read in anticipation of the ethical and theological concerns of Luke's second volume in Acts. Bredenhof asserts that reading within the context of Luke-Acts contributes to the understanding of Luke's purposes with this narrative. It is in Acts that his audience witnesses the parable's message about mercy being applied through charitable initiatives in the community of believers, while the Acts accounts of preaching and teaching demonstrate that a true reading of “Moses and the prophets” is inseparably joined to the believing acceptance of one risen from the dead. Through a re-reading of Luke 16:19-31 in its Luke-Acts context, its message is amplified and commended to the parable's audience for their response.
Author: Frank Dicken
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2023-08-08
Total Pages: 189
ISBN-13: 1498233619
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Gospel of Luke is a book about Jesus, claiming to provide assurance concerning what its reader has been taught about Jesus. But how does it do that? This book provides an answer to that question by helping readers understand Luke as a gospel story in its historical context and with appreciation for the author's literary artistry and theological perspectives. Part one explores background information and literary features of Luke such as its author and first readers, genre, plot and character development, the role of programmatic passages, and interpreting the large number of parables included by Luke. Part two focuses on themes that run throughout the Gospel: Jesus's mission, salvation, discipleship, the kingdom of God, resurrection, and ascension. The discussion of these features and themes will provide readers of Luke's Gospel with a grasp of its overarching framework so that they are able to comprehend Luke's unique presentation of Jesus's life and read the Gospel with increased confidence for themselves.
Author: Alexander Phillip Thompson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Published: 2023-01-30
Total Pages: 330
ISBN-13: 3110773910
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow are the resurrection appearances of Luke’s Gospel shaped to offer a climax to the narrative? How does this narrative conclusion compare to the wider ancient literary milieu? Recognition and the Resurrection Appearances of Luke 24 proposes that the ancient literary technique of recognition offers a compelling lens through which to understand the climatic role of the resurrection appearances of Jesus as depicted in Luke 24. After presenting the development of recognition in ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman literature, Thompson demonstrates how Luke 24 deploys the recognition tradition to shape the form and function of the resurrection appearances. The ancient recognition tradition not only casts light on various literary and theological features of the chapter but also shapes the way the appearances function in the wider narrative. By utilizing recognition, Luke 24 generates cognitive, affective, commissive, and hermeneutical functions for the characters internal to the narrative and for the audience. The result is a compelling climax to Luke’s Gospel that resonates with Luke’s wider literary and theological themes. This work offers a compelling analysis of the Luke’s Gospel in the ancient literary context in light of the ancient technique of recognition that will appeal to those interested in narrative approaches to the New Testament or the interpretation of the New Testament in the wider literary milieu.
Author: F. Scott Spencer
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 2019-04-30
Total Pages: 894
ISBN-13: 146745267X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe story Luke tells in his gospel, says F. Scott Spencer, is “a compelling, complex narrative confession of faith in God. To what degree anyone joins Luke in that faith journey is up to them, but any responsible interpreter must attend considerately to Luke’s theological roadmap.” In this latest addition to the Two Horizons New Testament Commentary series, Spencer integrates close textual analysis of Luke’s unfolding narrative with systematic theology, spiritual formation, philosophical inquiry, and psychological research. With section-by-section commentary, Spencer highlights the overriding salvific message that runs through Luke’s gospel. Pastors, scholars, and students alike will benefit from Spencer’s insight into Luke’s theological significance.
Author: Zach Preston Eberhart
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2024-03-25
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9004692037
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume reimagines the first-century reception of the Gospel of Mark within a reconstructed (yet hypothetical) performance event. In particular, it considers the disciples' character and characterization through the lens of performance criticism. Questions concerning the characterization of the disciples have been relatively one-sided in New Testament scholarship, in favor of their negative characterization. This project demonstrates why such assumptions need not be necessary when we (re-)consider the oral/aural milieu in which the Gospel of Mark was first composed and received by its earliest audiences.
