This
essay will begin by identifying and analysing the principle themes in the
preaching of the Apostles to Jews and Gentiles in Acts. Then it will ask what
lessons there are for the proclamation of the Gospel today. Firstly an overview
of the contemporary situation, the context to which the Gospel is to be
proclaimed today, will be offered. This will be followed by a discussion on
what lessons, if any, can be drawn for the proclamation of the Gospel in our
own time and situation from the preaching in Acts.
‘A
third of the content of the Acts consists of speeches’,[1]
not all of which are preaching to Jews and Gentiles. Thus, Paul’s farewell
speech to the Ephesians and his defences in the latter part of Acts fall outside
the scope of this inquiry since neither are a proclamation of the Gospel to
Jews and Gentiles. The former is an address to a church,[2]
whilst in the latter ‘the object of the defence is not Christianity or the
individual Christian, but the person and activity of Paul’.[3]
In interpreting the themes for the contemporary situation
it will be necessary to beware of any attempt to offer a ‘correct’ or objective
reading. ‘Modern hermeneutics and literary theory have introduced a major
redefinition of the task of interpretation, shifting the focus of interest from
the intention of the author to the active participation of the reader in
producing the meaning of the text’.[4]
‘How we read the text will vary according
to why we read the text. The search
for one ‘correct’ reading is largely
illusory, and one must accept a plurality of interpretations corresponding to
the plurality of legitimate agendas with which the text may be approached’.[5]
The themes are being read within, and being asked to, speak
to a context twenty centuries from the Mediterranean
of the first century C.E.. Accordingly, although attention will paid to
commentators, choices in interpretation will have to be made and those choices
will reflect the concerns of a particular reader and situation.
What, then, are the principle themes to be found in the
proclamation speeches in the Acts of the Apostles? Dunn identifies the main
kerygmatic themes as: ‘the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus: the call
for a response to this proclamation, for repentance and faith in this Jesus:
the promise of forgiveness, salvation, [and the] Spirit to those who respond’.[6]
Willimon, following Dodd, agrees, citing as themes the proclamation of the resurrection
of Jesus, the call to repentance, the assurance of forgiveness, the guarantee
of salvation and the sending of the Holy Spirit to those who have been saved.
In addition, he speaks of the ‘The age of fulfillment, or the coming of the kingdom of God Israel
In summary, the principle themes may be understood as
answering a number of questions. Who was Jesus? Christology. What was his
significance? He is the fulfilment of salvation history through his life death
and resurrection. What must people do in response? Repent and believe so that
they receive salvation and be gifted with the Holy Spirit. Underlying all this
is the idea that because of the giving of the Holy Spirit, history
, will move towards it
final consummation.
Who do the speeches in Acts say Jesus was and what,
according to the speeches, was his significance? Bayer, notes in terms of titular
Christology, ‘of particular importance in Peter’s speeches are the titles kurioV and
cristoV'.[10]
To the Jewish crowd on Pentecost and the gentile household of Cornelius, Jesus
is proclaimed as the one whom ’God has made… both Lord and [Christ]’,[11]
and as ‘Jesus Christ—[the] Lord of all’[12]
respectively. Hanson comments that ‘“Lord”, [is] a very old title for Jesus,
[which] translates the Aramaic word Mara,
which is found in the primitive Christian Maranatha’.[13]
In his conversation with the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts
8.26-39, Philip identifies Jesus with the Servant of Isaiah 53. Bock observes
that ‘Isaiah 53:7 looks at the innocent, silent suffering of the servant and
compares the figure to a sacrificial lamb, unjustly slain as verse 33 makes
clear (“justice was denied him”)’.[14]
When the eunuch asks who the passage in Isaiah refers to, ‘Philip will explain
that the passage is about Jesus, who is that servant who suffered unjustly (v.
35)’[15]
Bock also notes that ‘what is interesting about the Servant citation of Isaiah
is that it does not cite the substitutionary message but highlights Jesus’
suffering… He is rejected and died unjustly’.[16]
Verse 11 of Isaiah 53 refers to the ‘servant’ as ‘The righteous one, my
servant, [who] shall make many righteous’.[17]
This draws attention to one of the other titles given to
Jesus in Acts. Neudorfer, commenting on Stephen’s speech notes that ‘the title
[righteous one] is a designation for Jesus current among early Jewish
Christians…’ He adds that the identical designation of God as the ‘‘Righteous
One’’ [is] frequent in the OT’.[18]
‘The “Righteous One” was a messianic description in Judaism’[19]
It also alludes again to the innocent who is unjustly punished, and to the
centurion’s statement about Jesus in Luke’s account of the crucifixion.[20]
Peter also speaks about Jesus as the ‘Righteous One’ who is also ‘God’s
servant’ and the ‘author of life’ in Acts 3:
The
God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and
rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But
you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to
you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.[21]
Again, what is seen here
is the innocent unjustly punished, having been preferred for execution over a
convicted murderer.
The discussion about who Jesus was leads us to consider the
significance given to his life, death and resurrection in speeches in Acts. Jervell
argues that Luke ‘is not interested in single episodes… but in the continuous
historical process’.[22]
Thus, in Peter’s speeches the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are viewed
as ‘the fulfilment of scripture [which] will culminate in his parousia and the
judgement of mankind’.[23]
In Stephen’s speech, which has parallels with Paul’s
address in Pisidian Antioch[24],
‘Israel
When
they had carried out everything that was
written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.
But God raised him from the dead; and
for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem
If in the speeches in Acts, the ministry of Jesus is
considered the climax of Jewish salvation history, to what do the speeches
attribute the greater importance, Jesus death or resurrection?
Dunn
notes that ‘[Jesus’] death is mentioned, but only as a bare fact (usually
highlighting Jewish responsibility). The historical fact is not interpreted. It
is never said, for example, that Jesus died on our behalf' or 'for our sins';
there are no suggestions that Jesus' death was a sacrifice’. [29]
Hanson concurs,
arguing that ‘Luke fails to attach special significance to the crucifixion and
death of Jesus’.[30]
Stott, however, disagrees. In commenting on Acts 10.39 ‘They put him to death
by hanging him on a tree’ he argues that ‘Peter was under no necessity to call
the cross ‘a tree’; he did it by design in order to indicate that Jesus was
bearing in our place the ‘curse’ or judgement of God on our sins. [31]
Bock agrees that this is ‘an allusion to Deut. 21:22-23 and the cursed death
that Jesus experienced from the Jewish point of view’[32]
but does not make the leap towards understanding the text in terms of vicarious
sacrifice.
If Jesus
death is not to be seen as a vicarious sacrifice, how is his death and resurrection
interpreted in the book of Acts?
In
commenting on Stephen’s speech, Neudorfer notes a pattern of contrasts, which
is prefigured in the Old Testament, ‘You [Jews] have… but God has…’ Joseph thus
is sold, Moses disowned, Jesus is rejected, all three of them by their own
people. As already noted above, God delivers and in the case of Jesus raises
him from the dead.[33]
In terms of emphasis, in Acts, Jesus’
death is secondary, it is mentioned in order to show who was responsible for
Jesus’ dying and as a prequel to the resurrection.[34]
The resurrection is the pivot around which the preaching of the apostles is
orientated. ‘The principle focus falls on the resurrection of Jesus;’ [35] it forms the central thrust of the
message, both to Jew and to Gentile’.[36]
Without the resurrection, the life ministry and death of Jesus, have no
especial significance. They become a very minor footnote in the history of
second temple Judaism
The
resurrection of Jesus, if it happened, would have been as astonishing to people
in the 1st century as it would be in the 21st century, ‘Aeschylus knew that
resurrection doesn’t happen. It did not take modern science to discover that
once you bury people they tend to stay dead’. [38] ‘When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
scoffed’.[39]
If Jesus was raised from the dead, then it followed for those first Christians
that something decisive has occurred in history. God had acted in such an extraordinary
way that his action demanded a response from both Jews and Gentiles.
In
his speech to the Athenians Paul argued that:
While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance,
now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on
which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has
appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the
dead.[40]
The resurrection of Jesus
inaugurates a general repentance among all people. ‘That God has allowed all
the nations to follow their own way in the past implies that a change has taken
place’. [41]
In
the speeches of Peter, Bayer sees a ‘prophetic repentance preacher’.[42]
In his speeches to Jews, Peter’s words are ‘prophetic calls to Israel Israel
Peter’s
‘speeches are not so much ‘mission speeches’ as they are prophetic calls to
Israel on account of the recent and mighty works of God’.[45]
Acts thus represents a continuation of a tradition that arises in the Old
Testament and continues through Luke’s account of the prophetic ministries of
John the Baptist and Jesus himself. Dunn has argued that there is divide
between the teaching of Jesus and the proclamation in Acts, namely that ‘Jesus
proclaimed the kingdom’, whereas, ‘the sermons in Acts proclaim Jesus’ and that
‘the principle focus falls on the
resurrection of Jesus’.[46]
However, if Bayer is correct, then the apostles’ preaching of repentance, made
necessary and possible by the resurrection, shows a continuity between the proclamation
of the kingdom and the call to repentance in the teaching of Jesus and proclamation
of the resurrection and the call to repentance preaching of in Acts. Indeed,
could it be argued that the resurrection, salvation in Christ and his gifting
of the Holy Spirit are signs that the kingdom is at hand?
This
call to repentance and the offer of salvation are not restricted to Jews but
extended to Gentiles. In Athens
Hanson
notes that there is no strong doctrine of sacrificial atonement, ‘no
Passion-mysticism such as is found in Paul in Acts’. [49]
However, he comments that ‘One unmistakably non-Jewish title used by Luke [for
Jesus] is saviour’. In his address before the council (Acts 5) Peter says that:
God
exalted [Jesus] at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give
repentance to Israel
Bock
comments that ‘Jesus’s exaltation means that… repentance [remains a possibility
for] Israel
A
person and a community can find salvation through repentance, and by being
‘baptised in the Name of Christ’. Jesus is the one whom God has raised and
exalted. ‘The forgiveness of sins is the direct effect of baptism [in his name]
as is the reception of the Spirit… [and] membership in the redeemed people’. [52]
As noted, Acts shows Peter as preacher of repentance but he
is also a preacher of salvation.[53]
This salvation is not restricted to the Jews, ‘the speech to Cornelius’ house
contains explicit statements concerning the salvation of the Gentiles’.[54]
Stephen’s speech is positioned ‘at the beginning of [Luke’s] block in Acts’. It
‘challenge[s] the assumption of Jewish salvific exclusivity’.[55]
According to Hansen, for Paul ‘the resurrection of Jesus [is] the goal of
salvation history’.[56]
Salvation is made possible not on the basis of the crucifixion, a ‘criminal
act’, but on account of the resurrection.[57]
Both
Hanson[58]
and Dunn[59] argue
that realised eschatology is not a major feature in the Acts of the of the
Apostles. Hanson goes as far as to speculate that ‘there are strong reasons for
thinking that Luke was anxious to play down and relax the eschatological
expectation.’ [60]
Dunn notes that ‘the parousia, is noticeable by its lack of prominence.’ [61]
However, Bayer, whilst conceding that eschatology is not a major feature
running through the Acts, points out that it is nevertheless ‘prominent in the
first three chapters, the out pouring of the Spirit… is viewed as fulfilling
eschatological prophecy’.[62]
For instance recalling the prophet Joel, Peter proclaims;
In
the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh...[63]
Jervell,
referencing Acts 2:17, maintains that ‘eschatology is one of the important
dimensions in Luke’s work’ and that ‘the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the
disciples at Pentecost is seen as an eschatological event’.[64]
For Bayer the giving of the Holy Spirit is the fulfilling of eschatological
prophecy. Hanson contends that ‘the leitmotiv
of Acts is given in 1:8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem ,
and in all Judea and Samaria
The
eschatological dimension of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit leads to a
discussion of the final theme, namely that of the place of the Holy Spirit in
the preaching of Acts. In Acts 1:8;
The disciples’ calling, concern, and
mission are not to focus on the timing of the end. Rather they are to receive
the enablement that God will give in the Spirit. They will be Jesus’s witnesses
from Jerusalem
In the
coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost ‘The fearful have found power. A
community is born’.[67]
Later when Peter is asked to give his defence to the council in Acts 4, ‘Luke
makes it clear that as Peter responds, he does so “filled with the Holy Spirit”’[68]
When Peter addresses Cornelius and his household, it is the presence of the
Holy Spirit that confirms the place of Gentiles in the people of God.
Then Peter said, “Can anyone
withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit
just as we have?”[69]
If these are the themes that are found in the preaching of
the Apostles to Jews and Gentiles, what lessons are there for the proclamation
of the Gospel today? It is perhaps worth pausing to ask what is the nature of
the ‘today’ in which one might seek to proclaim the Gospel?
[70]Since
the Second World War, western society has been in transition between modernity
and postmodernity. Modernity could be characterised as being self-assured and
optimistic. From the enlightenment onwards, rational inquiry and science were
the means by which knowledge about the world could be ascertained. The postmodern
condition is one in which ambiguity, and its attendant unease, hold sway. In
modernity ‘personal identity and social integration were found through
production and the work place.’[71]
Whereas postmodernity is ‘a culture based on consumption, the market and personal
choice now.’[72]
In
both the pre-modern and modern world, cultures were dominated by a single metanarrative,
these have all but gone.[73]
In western Europe, Christianity’s big story no longer binds us together. There
are people of all religions and of none. People feel able to augment their own
personal narrative with self constructed spiritualities which draw upon a
‘supermarket’ of world and local religions. In the postmodern world the market
has:
become
the greatest reality for [a] growing number in our society… Consumer choice is
often whimsical, unstructured and unplanned…. In the religious sphere…
tolerance and openness is given to the many diverse forms of the sacred found
in late–modern society.[74]
It
is arguable that the postmodern condition is also a post-religious condition.
the
latin religio comes [either] from the
verb religare, which means ‘to bind’…
religion, it is claimed, is what binds
people together. [Or] the word derives not from religare but from relegare,
which means to ‘contemplate’ or ‘reread’… a word, revelation or tradition that
is at once ancient and still relevant… this is where the possible etymologies
converge: rereading the same texts, even individually, binds people together. [75]
The
postmodern condition is not all postmodernism. Since 2001 the work of atheists
like, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens can
been seen as an attempt by modernists to take back ground lost to both
religious fundamentalism and postmodernism. It has been argued that the turning
point was the attack on the World Trade Centre in September 2001.[76]
To what extent, then, are the themes in a work of theology
written in the 1st century able to provide lessons for the
proclamation of the Gospel to the context summarised above?
It
has been shown that the main themes of the apostles preaching can be summarised
as follows: Jesus is the expected Messiah, he is the Lord of all; in his life,
death and primarily his resurrection, the scriptures have been fulfilled and
both Jewish and Gentile history has reached a pivotal moment; it is now the
time for repentance, to receive forgiveness and with the coming of the Holy
Spirit, the last days have arrived. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, the
Church is emboldened to proclaim this Gospel.
What
‘readings’, then, can these themes be given in today’s context? Perhaps the
most difficult to proclaim in our own day, is that of the eschaton. We cannot
say that the last days are here or not. Perhaps we need to give the notion a
new reading. All of us will face a last day and that reality leaves us with
choices about how we should live our lives. As to whether the scriptures are
fulfilled, again this is a matter of faith. Those who choose to believe in the
resurrection will undoubtedly find allusions to the resurrection in the Old
Testament, as did those in the apostolic age.
The
preaching in Acts has as its central theme the resurrection and exalting of
Jesus. From this can flow the possibilities of forgiveness and salvation from
death. In turn, these can be interpreted as a positive statements about human
possibilities. Forgiveness, after salvation and resurrection, is the prime
virtue that Christianity has to offer the world. It should be no surprise that
in both South Africa and Northern Ireland
In
their proclamation of this Gospel, the first apostles were announcing the
significance of a man whom, to many of the early hearers, may have been an
obscure Galilean. Today, this Galilean is no longer obscure. Even if the
Christian metanarrative no longer commands the adherence of the majority, it is
nevertheless instantly recognisable to most. At first sight, our task might
seem very similar to the apostles teaching to Jews, namely to call people back
to the God of their ancestors. The prophets had constantly called God’s people
back from apostasy. The apostles were calling the people back to God from the
apostasy which had resulted in the crucifixion of Jesus. They could do this
because of the resurrection. Our situations are not as similar as they might at
first appear. The first century Jews, whatever their disagreements, were
inheritors of, and participants in, a religious culture which they saw as being
the tradition of their ancestors. They would not have seen themselves as having
departed from that metanarrative. Today, we live in a post-religious western
society in which many have willingly, and indeed consciously, forsaken the
faith of their ancestors.
Yet,
in some ways there is a similarity: notwithstanding the large numbers of
converts recorded in Acts, the persistence of Judaism after the destruction of
the second temple, and indeed up until the present day, suggests that most Jews
during the apostolic period did not hear, or chose to ignore the proclamation
of the apostles. A response to the call to repentance in the light of the
resurrection of Jesus was seen as unnecessary for many. Our own context is not
dissimilar. One wonders what percentage of those that might hear a call to
repentance in the light of the resurrection respond to it? It can follows that
we should not worry about how many respond to such a call, but rather whether
such a call to repentance, is necessary. If God is real, and most in our
society either aggressively or passively deny that, then it follows that a
turning back to God, a repentance, is necessary. However, as in the first
century, one cannot make people accept what they cannot or will not.
Christians
today proclaim a Gospel that not everyone can accept or believe. This might
cause us to ponder on the nature of repentance, of metanoia. This literally means a change of one’s mind or mindset,
or world view. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas respond to the question ‘Sirs, what
must I do to be saved?’ with ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,
you and your household’.[77]
In the end, belief in God and in the resurrection requires an act of faith.
This is not faith as an epistemological category, faith as a substitute for
evidence, but rather a lived response to the Gospel. In terms of what shape
this would take, we return to the day of Pentecost when ‘those who welcomed
[Peter’s] message were baptised…They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’.[78]
This
essay identified and analysed the following principle themes in the Apostles’
preaching to Jews and Gentiles in the Acts of the Apostles. Jesus is the
expected Messiah, he is the Lord of all; in his life, death and his
resurrection, the scriptures have been fulfilled and both Jewish and Gentile
history has reached it’s pivotal moment; it is now the time for repentance,
receive forgiveness and be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to proclaim
this Gospel. What seems clear is that the central theme of the preaching is the
resurrection of Jesus. All the other themes lead to or respond to it. Jesus ‘was
buried, and rose again: it is certain’ wrote Tertullian, ‘because it is
impossible’.[79]
The resurrection, then as now, can either be a lie, a delusion or true. If
true, it is the Gospel which is proclaimed, if true nothing can remain the
same, for death has been conquered. Its acceptance, today as then, requires a
‘leap of faith’ one which many are either unable or unwilling to make. The
Christian is one who lives with some relation to the resurrection. Whether
doubting or fully believing in it, the Christian may not deny its central place
in their life of faith. In the end the resurrection is proclaimed being lived,
living a life that may be summarised in these words from the service of Holy
Communion.
May
we who share Christ's body live his risen life;
we
who drink his cup bring life to others;
we
whom the Spirit lights give light to the world.[80]
Bibliography
Books
Unless otherwise
stated, all quotations from the Bible are from the NRSV, Harper Bibles (2011-11-22). (Kindle Location 48824). Harper Collins,
Inc..
Barrett,
C.K., A critical and Exegetical
Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles, Vol 1, (Edinburgh: T &T Clark
1994)
Bayer,
Hans F. The Preaching of Peter in Acts in
Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998)
Bock,
Darrell, Scripture and the Realisation of
God’s Promises, in Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of Acts,
(Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998)
Bock,
Darrell, Acts, Baker Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand
Rapids
Common
Worship, Services and Prayers for the
Church of England, (London
Comte-Sponville,
Andre, tr. Huston, Nancy , The Book of Atheist Spirituality (London
Cray,
Graham, Postmodern Culture and Youth
Discipleship: Commitment or Looking Cool? (Cambridge
Dunn,
James D.G., Unity and Diversity in the
New Testament, (London, SCM Press, Second edition, 1990)
Hansen,
G. Walter, The Preaching and Defence of
Paul, in Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of Acts,
(Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998)
Hanson,
R.P.C., The Acts in the Revised Standard
Version, (London: Oxford University Press, 1967)
Jervell,
Jacob, The Theology of The Acts of the
Apostles, Vol 1. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996)
Moberly,
R.W.L, Genesis 12-50, (Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1992)
Neudorfer,
Heinz-Werner, The Speech of Stephen,
in Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel,
The Theology of Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998)
Reaper,
William, & Smith, Linda, A Brief
Guide to Ideas, (Oxford: Lion Publishing plc, 1997)
Robertson,
C. K. Conversations With Scripture: Acts
of the Apostles (New York
Stott,
John R.W., The Message of Acts,
(Leicester, Inter- Varsity Press, Second edition, 1991)
Watson,
Francis, ed., The Open Text, New
Directions for Biblical Studies? (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1993)
Willimon,
William H., Interpretation, A Bible
Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Acts, (Louisville, Kentucky: John
Knox Press, 1988)
Internet Books:
Tertullian,
Evans, Ernest, ed. & tr. De Carne
Christi, Tertullian's treatise on the Incarnation, (London: SPCK, 1956) at http://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_carn/evans_carn_04eng.htm
5th October 2012
Internet Journals:
Beattie,
Tina, The end of
postmodernism: the “new atheists” and democracy, Open Democracy at http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/faith_ideas/the_new_atheists
3rd July 2012.
Websites:
N.T.
Wright on the Postmodern Movement 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P3noKr2T1A
2nd October 2012
[1]
Jervell, Jacob, The Theology of The Acts
of the Apostles, Vol 1. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996).
hereafter ‘Jervell, Acts’ 8.
[2]
Jervell, Acts, 90.
[3]
Jervell, Acts, 87.
[4]
Watson, Francis, ed., The Open Text, New
Directions for Biblical Studies? (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1993), 4.
[5]
Moberly, R.W.L, Genesis 12-50,
(Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 13.
[6]
Dunn, James D.G., Unity and Diversity in
the New Testament, (London, SCM Press, Second edition, 1990) hereafter ‘Dunn, Unity’, 21.
[7]
Willimon, William H., Interpretation, A
Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Acts, (Louisville, Kentucky:
John Knox Press, 1988), hereafter ‘Willimon,
Interpretation’, 34.
[8]
Hanson, R.P.C., The Acts in the Revised
Standard Version, (London: Oxford University Press, 1967). hereafter ‘Hanson, RSV,’ 8ff.
Bayer, Hans F. The Preaching of Peter in Acts, in Marshall, I. Howard, &
Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the
Gospel, The Theology of Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1998), hereafter ‘Bayer, Peter’, 270.
[9]
Bayer, Peter, 260.
[10]
Bayer, Peter, 270.
[11]
Acts 2:36.
[12]
Acts 10:36.
[13]
Hanson, RSV, 40.
[14]
Bock, Darrell, Acts, Baker Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, Kindle
Edition, 2007) hereafter ‘Bock, Acts’,
343.
[15]
Bock, Acts, 344.
[16]
Bock, Darrell, Scripture and the Realisation of God’s Promises, in Marshall, I.
Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of
Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), hereafter ‘Bock,
Scripture,’ 54.
[17]
Isaiah 53:11.
[18]
Neudorfer, Heinz-Werner, The Speech of
Stephen, in Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of
Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), hereafter ‘Neudorfer, Stephen’, 286.
[19] Bock, Acts, 171.
[20]
Bock, Acts, 171.
[21]
Acts 3:13-15.
[22]
Jervell, Acts, 10.
[23]
Bayer, Peter, 271.
[24]
Neudorfer, Stephen, 281.
[25]
Neudorfer, Stephen, 284.
[26]
Neudorfer, Stephen, 284,
[27] Hansen,
G. Walter, The Preaching and Defence of
Paul, in Marshall, I. Howard, & Peterson, David, (eds.) Witness to the Gospel, The Theology of
Acts, (Cambridge: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), hereafter ‘Hansen, Paul,’ 299.
[28]
Acts 13:29-33. My emphasis.
[29]
Dunn, Unity, 17-18.
[30]
Hanson, RSV, 43.
[31]
Stott, John R.W., The Message of Acts, (Leicester, Inter- Varsity Press, Second
edition, 1991) hereafter ‘Stott, Acts’,
191.
[32]
Bock, Acts, 399.
[33]
Neudorfer, 288.
see also Barrett, C.K., A critical and Exegetical Commentary on The
Acts of the Apostles, Vol 1, (Edinburgh: T &T Clark 1994), 142.
[34]
Dunn, ‘Unity’, 19.
[35]
Willimon, Interpretation, 34.
[36]
Dunn, Unity, 17.
[37]
Acts 5:36.
[38] N.T. Wright on the Postmodern
Movement 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P3noKr2T1A
2nd October 2012
[39]
Acts 17:32.
[40]
Acts 17:30-31.
[41]
Hansen, Paul, 315.
[42] Bayer,
Peter, 265.
[43]
Bayer, Peter, 263.
[44]
Bayer, Peter, 264.
[45]
Bayer, Peter, 263.
[46]
Dunn, Unity, 17.
[47]
Hansen, Paul, 316.
[48]
Acts 17:31.
[49]
Hanson, RSV, 44
[50]
Acts 5:31-32.
[51]
Bock, Acts, 248.
[52]
Hanson, RSV, 44
[53]
Bayer, Peter, 268.
[54]
Bayer, Peter, 268.
[55]
Neudorfer, Stephen, 280.
[56]
Hensen, Paul, 301.
[57]
Hensen, Paul, 301.
[58]
Hanson, RSV, 45.
[59]
Dunn, Unity, 18 - 19.
[60]
Hanson, ‘R.S.V’., 45
[61]
Dunn, ‘Unity’, 18 - 19.
[62]
Bayer, Peter, 260.
[63]
Acts 2. 17
[64]
Jervell, Acts, 107.
[65]
Hanson, RSV, 45
[66]
Bock, Acts, 63.
[67] Robertson,
C. K. Conversations With Scripture: Acts
of the Apostles (New York: Morehouse Publishing, Kindle Edition, 2010)
hereafter ‘Robertson, Acts,’ 21.
[68]
Robertson, Acts, 23.
[69]
Acts 10:46-47.
[70]
Much of the following examination on modernity and postmodernity covers the
same ground as a much larger discussion in my dissertation and draws some
material from it.
[71]
Cray, Graham, Postmodern Culture and
Youth Discipleship: Commitment or Looking Cool? (Cambridge: Grove Books
Ltd, 2003), hereafter ‘Culture and Youth’,
5.
[72]
Culture and Youth, 5.
[73]
Reaper, William, & Smith, Linda, A
Brief Guide to Ideas, (Oxford: Lion Publishing plc, 1997), ‘Reaper & Smith Ideas’, 333.
[74]
Reaper & Smith Ideas, 335.
[75]
Comte-Sponville, Andre, tr. Huston, Nancy, The
Book of Atheist Spirituality (London: Bantam Press, 2008), 13, 19.
[76] Beattie, Tina, The end of
postmodernism: the “new atheists” and democracy, Open Democracy
at http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/faith_ideas/the_new_atheists
3rd July 2012.
[77]
Acts 16:30-31.
[78]
Acts 2:41-42.
[79] Tertullian, Evans, Ernest, ed.
& tr. De Carne Christi, Tertullian's
treatise on the Incarnation, (London: SPCK, 1956)
at http://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_carn/evans_carn_04eng.htm
5th October 2012.
[80] Common Worship, Services and Prayers for the
Church of England, (London: Church House Publishing, 2000), 182.
