Acts PDF
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cover next page > title: author: publisher: isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: ebook isbn13: language: subject publication date: lcc: ddc: subject: cover next page > < previous page page_i next page > Page i Acts INTERPRETATION A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching < previous page page_i next page > < previous page page_ii next page > Page ii INTERPRETATION A BIBLE COMMENTARY FOR TEACHING AND PREACHING James Luther Mays, Editor Patrick D. Miller, Jr., Old Testament Editor Paul J. Achtemeier, New Testament Editor < previous page page_ii next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii Acts INTERPRETATION A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching William H. Willimon < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible, copyright, 1946, 1952, and © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and used by permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Willimon, William H. Acts. (Interpretation, a Bible commentary for teaching and preaching) Bibliography: p. 1. Bible. N.T. ActsCommentaries. I. Title. II. Series. BS2625.3.W56 1988 226'.607 87-26085 ISBN 0-8042-3119-2 © copyright John Knox Press 1988 10 9 8 Printed in the United States of America John Knox Press Atlanta, Georgia 30365 < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v SERIES PREFACE This series of commentaries offers an interpretation of the books of the Bible. It is designed to meet the need of students, teachers, ministers, and priests for a contemporary expository commentary. These volumes will not replace the historical critical commentary or homiletical aids to preaching. The purpose of this series is rather to provide a third kind of resource, a commentary which presents the integrated result of historical and theological work with the biblical text. An interpretation in the full sense of the term involves a text, an interpreter, and someone for whom the interpretation is made. Here, the text is what stands written in the Bible in its full identity as literature from the time of "the prophets and apostles," the literature which is read to inform, inspire, and guide the life of faith. The interpreters are scholars who seek to create an interpretation which is both faithful to the text and useful to the church. The series is written for those who teach, preach, and study the Bible in the community of faith. The comment generally takes the form of expository essays. It is planned and written in the light of the needs and questions which arise in the use of the Bible as Holy Scripture. The insights and results of contemporary scholarly research are used for the sake of the exposition. The commentators write as exegetes and theologians. The task which they undertake is both to deal with what the texts say and to discern their meaning for faith and life. The exposition is the unified work of one interpreter. The text on which the comment is based is the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The general availability of this translation makes the printing of a translation unnecessary and saves the space for comment. The text is divided into sections appropriate to the particular book; comment deals with passages as a whole, rather than proceeding word by word, or verse by verse. Writers have planned their volumes in light of the requirements set by the exposition of the book assigned to them. Biblical books differ in character, content, and arrangement. They also differ in the way they have been and are used in the liturgy, thought, and devotion of the church. The distinctiveness and < previous page page_v next page > < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi use of particular books have been taken into account in decisions about the approach, emphasis, and use of space in the commentaries. The goal has been to allow writers to develop the format which provides for the best presentation of their interpretation. The result, writers and editors hope, is a commentary which both explains and applies, an interpretation which deals with both the meaning and the significance of biblical texts. Each commentary reflects, of course, the writer's own approach and perception of the church and world. It could and should not be otherwise. Every interpretation of any kind is individual in that sense; it is one reading of the text. But all who work at the interpretation of Scripture in the church need the help and stimulation of a colleague's reading and understanding of the text. If these volumes serve and encourage interpretation in that way, their preparation and publication will realize their purpose. THE EDITORS < previous page page_vi next page > < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii PREFACE I began work on the Book of Acts with the fear that my challenge as an expositor would be somehow to make ancient history live for modern Christians. I knew enough about modern Christians to know that for many of us the acts of people in the past, even people of some notoriety like Paul or Peter, usually fail to move us. As a preacher, I have struggled through many a Sunday morning desperately trying to coax an unwilling congregation into the murky, stagnant waters of history by convincing them that a twenty-minute plunge into the past would do them a lot of good. A half century ago Fosdick warned us preachers against the peril of assuming that anybody in the pew wonders what ever became of the Jebusites. As often happens when one studies Scripture, I was amazed by the contemporaneity of the Acts of the Apostles. Here is remembrance in service of the reformation of the church. The church, even when Acts was written, already needed reformation, self-criticism, bold recollection. The church in any age lives and breathes and grows by remembrance. Remembrance is a risky venture for the church. But not always. In my library I have probably a dozen histories of local churches, most of them as scintillating to read as a telephone directory. All of them are affectionately written by some sincere local historian to insure that the contribution of dear Uncle Mortimer to the construction of the banisters on the front steps of the church will not be forgotten. Such church history is down-home hagiography, idealized remembrance with most of the messy, really interesting stuff lovingly censored. Fierce arguments over the purpose of the churchthe trustees' debate over what to do with the 1948 Christmas offering, the person who stormed out in a huff in 1959 over the selection of a new pastorare nowhere to be found, swept under the carpet. In their place we have lists of former pastors, past teachers of the Men's Bible Study Class, and fascinating data on the square footage of the new parsonage. Now the author of Acts is not above a little hagiography of his own. But you need not spend a long time with Acts before you discover that Acts is engaged in a more significant undertaking than the writing of an official history of First Church < previous page page_vii next page > < previous page page_viii next page > Page viii Jerusalem. A first encounter with Acts can be deceptive. At first one thinks, "I have come face-to-face with history," but upon further reading one discovers that Acts is a much more interesting character than even history. A pleasant, if somewhat idealized, recollection of the past becomes an assault upon present reality, a bold refashioning of the church, a critique of our current discipleship arrangements. What first appeared to be history, or apostolic memoir, explodes into a fierce argument about the nature of the church, the meaning of the Christian life, and the sustenance of discipleship. And why would you or I still take the trouble to listen and then to teach and preach from Scripture unless we were interested in effecting the same in our church today? I am endebted to scholars and friends like Franklin Young, Fred Craddock, Moody Smith, and the editors of this series who read and reacted to this commentary as it was written. Because of the nature of the Acts of the Apostles and my vocation as a preacher, I am perhaps even more endebted to the people whom I have been privileged to serve during my two decades of ministry. They, like Theophilus before them, raised the right questions for which Acts provides many of the right answers. They are the ones today, who in their own struggles to be God's church, must answer to the interrogation of Scripture. May my efforts here help them in that faithful dialogue. < previous page page_viii next page > < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix CONTENTS Introduction 1 What Is an Acts? 4 The Purpose of Acts 8 Dear Theophilus 11 The Presence of Christ in Acts 13 The Position of Acts 15 Preaching in Acts 16 Commentary Prologue Acts 1:126 19 1:114 Waiting and Praying for Restoration 19 1:1526 Leadership in the Community 22 Part One Witness in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria Acts 2:19:43 27 The Community Is Born: What Happened on Pentecost (2:147) 27 28 2:113 The Sound of a Mighty Wind: Pentecost 33 2:1441 What Does This Mean? A Pentecost Sermon 39 2:4247 The Gospel Embodied in Community What Does the Gospel Do? (3:14:31) 42 43 3:110 Healing and Witness at the Temple 46 3:1126 Testimony Before the People 48 4:122 Testimony Before the Authorities
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