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Bible - NT - Acts: Journey to Rome

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Traveling by sea to Rome, Paul encounters a storm, plunges into the sea and then arrives at Malta. He is an unreluctant Jonah, cross the sea westward to call a Gentile empire to repentance.

But why the unusually detailed travelogue in Acts 27? Sidon, Cyprus, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Myra in Lycia, Cnidus, Fair Havens, and on and on: Luke provides a step-by-step record of the trip. The closest analogy is Numbers 33: “the sons of Israel journeyed from Ramseses, and camped in Succoth. And they journeyed from Succoth, and camped in Etham. . . . And they journeyed from Etham, and turned back to Pi-hahiroth. . . .” Paul is not only Jonah but Israel journeying to the promised land of . . . Rome!

There are a couple of ways to view this analogy.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 6:09 am

Bible - NT - Acts: Imperial Acts

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To her credit, Brigitte Kahl (in Horsley, ed., In the Shadow of Empire) recognizes that Acts gives a fairly sympathetic portrait of Rome. In the various episodes where Paul is suspected of subverting the empire, “Acts makes every effort to draw as favorable a picture as possible,” not only of Paul’s ministry but of Roman officials: “Many times Roman officials testify that Paul is no threat to Roman rule.”

It is not to her credit, though, that Kahl then attempts to show that Luke reinvented the story of Paul in the aftermath of the destruction of the temple as a way of providing security for Christians who might be under suspicion:

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, April 20, 2009 at 2:41 pm

Bible - NT - Acts: Who crucified Jesus?

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It has become common among NT scholars to insist that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. This is certainly true in the sense that crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, and also highlights the important political dimension of Jesus’ death. It is also true, as the hymn expresses it, “I crucified Thee.”

But the apostles were not squeamish about blaming the Jews, specifically the Jewish leaders, for Jesus’ death:

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, April 14, 2006 at 3:27 pm

Bible - NT - Acts: Acts 2:23

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Acts 2:23 is often cited as a central text in understanding the doctrine of foreordination; it is seen as demonstrating in a particularly explicit way the compatibility of foreordination and human responsibility. God predetermined the cross, and yet those who put Jesus to death are “wicked.” A marginal note in my NASB suggests an alternative understanding. The “godless men” at the end of the verse refers not to the Jews’ godlessness but to “men without the law” (the Greek is ANOMON); that is, Gentiles. Thus, the passage says that Jesus was delivered up by the predetermination of God, and the Jews nailed Him to the cross through the hands of Law-less (read “Torah-challenged”) Romans. The predetermination in view would seem to be the same predetermination as is found in Romans 9-11: God’s predetermination that Israel would fall.

This doesn’t eliminate the force of the verse for the doctrine of predestination. We can still say that the Jews sinned when they sent Jesus to the cross, and that this sin was predetermined. But the verse does not explicitly describe the Jews as “godless” or “wicked,” and the only thing that the verse explicitly says about the Gentiles who nailed Jesus to the cross is that they are “lawless” in the sense that they are not Jews.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 at 5:40 pm

Bible - NT - Acts: Acts 20:20

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Jerome Neyrey has an interesting article on Acts 20:20 in the current issue of JSNT. He examines the cultural background to Paul’s use of the phrase “in public and from house to house” by examining various expressions in Greek and Latin writers that correspond to modern “public” and “private.” These, in turn, are gendered spaces; women are covered and inside (and their sexual organs are “private) while men engage in activities in the agora, the fields, and in public (and their sexual organs are also “outside”). The binary “shame/honor” cuts across these divisions as well: It is shameful for a woman to be uncovered or out in public and it would likewise be shameful for a man to be “indoors” when all his fellows are outside (cf. Paris at the beginning of the Iliad, whisked away from the battlefield to the bedroom with Helen). Paul’s statement that he has proclaimed the gospel in public and in houses refers to his open (“political”) proclamation before kings and in public spaces, and to his “private” ministry in synagogues (considered as private spaces) and in house churches. In Gentile public spaces, Paul is allowed to preach without restriction, while in both public (temple) and private (synagogue) spaces the Jews restrict his speech. Neyrey claims that for Luke, as for other ancient writers, certain cities and spaces were considered honorable, and thus Paul’s claim that he preached in public is a claim to honor. This is an intriguing contribution to recent efforts to recover a fully “political” Paul.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at 2:28 pm

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