Salvation in Acts

Two choice quotes from I. Howard Marshall

"It is our thesis that the idea of salvation supplies the key to the theology of Luke. Not salvation-history but salvation itself is the theme which occupied the mind of Luke in both parts of his work."

"Our claim is not that salvation is a feature unique to Lucan theology in comparison with the rest of the New Testament, but that it is the central motif in Lucan theology."

I. Howard Marshall, Luke Historian and Theologian (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1988), 92, 93.

The Irony of Scattering as Spreading of the Word

“An ironic theme in Acts, which plays a major role in its plot structuring, is that persecuting attempts to suppress God’s word lead to the spread of that work. This theme is a major instance of the Lukan motif of reversal-God reverses or overrules human attempts to control history and if that the persecution associated with Saul occasions the spread of Christianity, eventually to Antioch, where the converted Paul is summoned (coming full circle) to minister to Christians. Acts structures this theme in three steps: Acts 8:1, 3-5; 11:19-20, and 11:25–26.”

William S. Kurz, Reading Luke-Acts: Dynamics of Biblical Narrative (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 144.