Reading Acts. A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Revised Edition (Reading the New Testament)

293 Pages·2005·8.91 MB·English

by  Charles H. Talbert

Leander E. Keck,
Doktorvater,
with appreciation
Reading Acts
A Literary and Theological Commentary on the
Acts of the Apostles
Revised Edition
Charles H. Talbert
Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.
6316 Peake Road
Macon, Georgia31210-3960
1-800-747-3016
© 2005 by Smyth & Helwys Publishing
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States ofA merica.
Talbert, Charles H.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
ANSI Z39.48-1984 (alk. paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Talbert, Charles H.
Reading Acts : a literary and theological commentary
on the Acts of the Aposdes I Charles H. Talbert.-Rev.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-57312-277-7 (alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. Acts-Commentaries.
I. Tide.
BS2625.53.T35 2005
226.6'07~c22 2004027998
Disclahner of Uability: With respect to statements of opinion or fact available in this work of nonfiction,
Smyth & Helwys Publishing Inc. nor any of its employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or
assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any information disclosed,
or represents that its use would not infringe privately-owned rights.
Contents
Editor's Preface ............................................v u
Author's Preface ............................................i x
Preface to the Revised Edition .................................x i
Introduction .............................................x .iii
Receiving and Preparing for Mission (Acts 1)
Watching and Waiting (Acts 1:1-14) ......................... 1
ReplacingJudas (Acts 1:15-26) ............................. 12
Fulfilling the Mission: Phase One (Acts 2: 1-12:25)
Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4 7) ..................................2 3
The Dual Witness (Acts 3: 1-4:23) .........................3 4
Hostility Grows (Acts 4:24-5:42) ......................... .46
Martyrdom (Acts 6:1-8:4) ...............................5 7
Philip's Mission (Acts 8:4-40) .............................6 8
Paul's Conversion (Acts 9:1-31) ............................8 1
Peter's Witness in Judea (Acts 9:32-11:18) ...................9 1
Nothing Can Stop the Gospel (Acts 11:19-12:25) ............ 102
Fulfilling the Mission: Phase Two (Acts 13: 1-28:31)
Paul's First Missionary Journey (Acts 13:1-14:28) ............. 115
The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-16:5) .................... 127
Paul in Philippi (Acts 16:6-40) ........................... 138
Paul in Thessalonica, Beroea, and Athens (Acts 17:1-34) ........ 147
Paul in Corinth and Beyond (Acts 18:1-18, 19-23) ............ 158
In Ephesus (Acts 18:24-20:1) ............................ 165
To Jerusalem (Acts 20:1-21:26) .......................... 175
Witness in Jerusalem (Acts21:26-23:10) ................... 187
Declared Innocent by Rulers (Acts 23:11-26:32) ............. 197
vi Reading Acts
Declared Innocent by God (Acts 27:1-28:16) ................2 10
Witness in Rome (Acts 28:16-31) .........................2 21
Appendix A: What Is Meant by the Historicity of Acts? ............2 33
Appendix B: Aspects of Biography in Mediterranean Antiquity ......2 51
Select Bibliography .......................................2 55
Editor's Preface
"Reading the New Testament" is a commentary series that aims to present
cutting-edge research in popular form that is accessible to upper-level under
graduates, seminarians, seminary educated pastors, and educated laypeople,
as well as to graduate students and professors. The volumes in this series do
not follow the word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase, verse by-verse method of
traditional commentaries. Rather they are concerned to understand large
thought units and their relationship to an author's thought as a whole. The
focus is on a close reading of the final form of the text. The aim is to make
one feel at home in the biblical text itself. The approach of these volumes
involves a concern both for how an author communicates and what the reli
gious point of the text is. Care is taken to relate both the how and the what
of the text to its milieu: Christian (NT and non-canonical), Jewish (scrip
tural and post-biblical), and Greco-Roman. This enables both the
communication strategies and the religious message of the text to be clarified
over against a range of historical and cultural possibilities. Moreover, a
section of commentary on a large thought unit will often contain a brief
excursus on some topic raised by the material in the unit, sometimes
sketching OT, post-biblical Jewish, Greco-Roman, NT, and non-canonical
Christian views on the subject. Throughout, the basic concern is to treat the
NT texts as religious documents whose religious message needs to be set
forth with compelling clarity. All other concerns are subordinated to this.
It is the hope of all participants in this project that our efforts at exposition
will enable the NT to be understood better and communicated more
competently.
Charles H. Talbert, General Editor

Author's Preface
This volume was completed during summer and fall semester 1995.
Research for the book has occupied me off and on much of my teaching
career. Several incentives toward meeting my deadline were given me during
the 1990s: an invitation to contribute to a Festschrift for Gerhard Schneider
in 1991; an invitation to participate in the 8th Annual Biblical Symposium
at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, in 1994; and an invitation
to have a part on the program of the Luke-Acts Seminar of the Society of
Biblical Literature in 1995. Special assistance in my final preparations was
offered by four Wake Forest undergraduates who undertook individualized
research projects under my supervision in summers 1994 and 1995. Daniel
Hilty, John H. Hayes, Craig Joseph, and Jennifer Trafton did splendid work,
which is acknowledged at appropriate points in the commentary. I am, of
course, indebted to a long history of Lukan scholarship. A special debt is
owed to H. J. Cadbury, Martin Dibelius, Kirsopp Lake, Ernst Haenchen,
Hans Conzelmann, Richard Pervo, Robert Tannehill, Luke Johnson, and the
team that has put together the multivolume set The Book ofA cts in Its First
Century Setting.
Explanations should be offered for two practices in the commentary.
First, in references to the Deity, I follow the lead of Marie Isaacs, Sacred
Space: An Approach to the Theology oft he Epistle to the Hebrews (Shefffield:
]SOT Press, 1992), 67 n. 1: "the capitalization of personal pronouns for God
adopted throughout this work is intended to signal that God is above
gender-not that the deity is male." Second, I stand within and write from
the standpoint of historic Christianity. Therefore, I use the designations BC
and AD.
Gratitude must be expressed to the publishers who have graciously
allowed me to use material from two prior publications. (1) "The Acts of the
Apostles: Monograph or Bios?" in History, Literature and Society in the Books
ofA cts, ed. Ben Witherington III (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
X Reading Acts
1996), 58-72; and (2) "Once Again: The Gentile Mission in Luke Acts," in
Der Treue Gottes Trauen, ed. C. Bussmann and W. Radl (Freiburg: Herder,
1991), 99-110.
Finally, my appreciation must go to my wife, Betty, for her patience and
support throughout the process.
Christmas, 1996
Charles H. Talbert