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20.1 | Stanley E. Porter McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, ON, Canada In this paper, I return to some fundamental questions regarding sin and salvation in Luke and Acts, and, based upon this evidence, attempt to characterize how Luke and Acts treat the question of salvation for Jews and Gentiles. I begin by examining the language of sin and salvation in Luke–Acts. I do this based upon an examination of two different lexical semantic domains along with their interaction. I then trace the use of these lexical items within these domains through Luke’s Gospel and then Acts, drawing preliminary conclusions along the way. I conclude that both Luke’s Gospel and then the book of Acts speak of how both Jews first and then Gentiles are sinful and in need of salvation provided by God through Jesus Christ. |
20.2 | Zachary K. Dawson Regent University School of Divinity, Virginia Beach, VA, USA This article argues that the author of Acts employed specific stylistic choices to highlight elements of Peter’s vision in Acts 10.1–11.18 that relate intertextually with Jewish literary texts, particularly 1 Enoch’s Book of Dreams. This relationship, previously underexplored in scholarship, includes parallel features such as heavenly visions, descending objects, clean/unclean animal divisions, and the use of animals as symbols for human groups. Using Jay L. Lemke's model of intertextual thematic analysis, this study examines how these thematic formations create meaning relationships between texts. The analysis reveals that Acts deliberately establishes these intertextual, co-thematic ties to subvert specific Jewish values expressed in the Book of Dreams, particularly the belief that Jews must maintain complete separation from Gentiles to preserve moral purity and ensure their place in the new Jerusalem. Instead, Acts promotes Jewish-Gentile unity within the church, specifically addressing Jewish believers who might have been inclined to distance themselves from Gentiles due to purity concerns., |
20.3 | Benjamin G. Frostad At the climax of Paul’s sermon in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch, the author of Acts places in Paul’s mouth a statement affirming justification by faith and the insufficiency of the law (Acts 13.38-39). While this statement uses language that resembles Paul’s epistles, many scholars contend that Luke nonetheless misunderstands and misrepresents Pauline theology. Moreover, the relationship between this statement and the surrounding context is unclear. How to these verses connect with the rest of Paul’s sermon in Acts 13, and what do they tell us about Luke’s theology of Torah? This article argues that Luke uses authentic Pauline thought in a way that is both skillful and intentional, but that clarifies Paul’s critique of Torah by embedding it within an unambiguously pro-Torah portrait of the apostle. Luke makes clear that, while the law is insufficient as an instrument of salvation, it nonetheless remains valid as a way of life. In short, Luke is engaging in Pauline interpretation. By intentionally drawing on Pauline language and theology but placing it within a narrative context that validates Torah observance, Luke suggests to his readers a way of reading Paul. |
20.4 | Daniel Aaron Webster Welch College, Gallatin, TN The use of music by early Christians to promote doctrine—whether it be orthodox or heterodox—is in keeping with Paul’s command to use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to address one another (Eph. 5:19) and to teach and admonish (Col. 3:16). But this practice did not begin with Paul. The use of singing as instruction has been part of the community of faith at least since the time of Moses (Deut. 31:19–22), and, as Matthew Gordley (2011) has demonstrated, teaching was a feature of ancient music even outside of Jewish-Christian contexts. The concern of this article is not only that early Christians taught with song but also what early Christians taught with song. Basil of Caesarea (c.330–c.379) reports that Christians used a very “ancient formula” when they “praise Father, Son, and God’s Holy Spirit” (Of the Holy Sp., 29). The prevalence of the triadic formula in second and third-century apocryphal and pseudepigraphic didactic hymns supports Basil’s claim that teaching the Father, Son, and Spirit with hymns is germane to Christianity.
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