Apr 20, 2010

More Links Between Luke-Acts


I recently posted on the thematic links that tie Luke and Acts together. Steve Walton has a couple of good paragraphs on this as well. Walton writes:


"Acts is properly to be read as the continuation of Luke's Gospel, and many seeds planted in the Gospel come to fruition in Acts. Thus, the hints of Gentile inclusion found in the infancy narratives (e.g., Luke 2:32) become a major theme in Acts. The new exodus motifs found in Luke, notably the use of Isa. 40–55 (e.g., Luke 3:4–6; see Pao, esp. ch. 2; Turner, Power, 244–50), are fully developed in the renewal and restoration of Israel in Acts (Pao, ch. 4), which now becomes a worldwide, ethnically inclusive community (note the echo of Isa. 49:6 in the key verses Acts 1:8; 13:47). The Lukan emphasis on the Spirit as the power of Jesus' ministry (Luke 1:35; 3:16, 21–22; 4:l [twice], 14, 18; 10:21; 11:13) leads to Jesus promising the Spirit's power for the apostles' ministry (Luke 12:12; 24:49; Acts 1:5), and to the Spirit’s coming to equip the believers for mission and ministry (Acts 2:1–4, 16–21, 38; etc.). To read Acts apart from Luke is to impoverish and badly skew one's reading of Acts (see Walton; Wenham and Walton, chs. 11, 13).

"Reading Luke and Acts together, on the other hand, can explain some puzzles. Such an approach is suggestive for Luke’s apparently diminished emphasis on the death of Jesus in Acts, for Luke has told this story clearly in his Gospel and, while writing Acts, can count it as read and known. The clear statement of Acts 20:28, seeing the blood of Jesus as ‘obtaining’ his people, is the tip of a large iceberg of understanding of Jesus’ crucifixion found in the Gospel, notably in Luke 23 (Wenham and Walton 235)."

Steve Walton, "Acts," in Theological Interpretation of the New Testament: A Book-by-Book Survey, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 79.


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