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Studies in Luke-Acts: Retrospect and Prospect*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

François Bovon
François Bovon
Affiliation:
University of Geneva
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Extract

Let me begin with a personal note. Three experiences in my work on Luke-Acts will explain both the selection of the topics I shall discuss in this article and my view of the present situation in the study of Luke-Acts.

(1) After ten years of reading the recent studies of Luke-Acts and then working on the text itself, I made the observation that the general understanding of the theology of the Gospel of Luke on the basis of its redactional elements was rarely helpful in my effort of writing a commentary on this Gospel. Just as contributors to the more recent volumes of the Theological Dictionary to the New Testament no longer propose interpretations generally applicable to all three synoptic Gospels, the exegete working with a particular pericope can no longer be satisfied with generalizations about Lukan theology. Indeed, such general assumptions may actually be impediments rather than useful tools for the understanding of a particular text. This is not universally recognized because the attention of scholars has been held by another problem, namely, the substitution of a diachronic redactional interpretation of the Gospels by a synchronic literary interpretation. The underlying dilemma is, of course, the old question of the connection between exegesis and biblical theology. A promising solution might be to immerse oneself into a single relevant text, as Odette Mainville has done in her recent dissertation on Acts 2:33, and to obtain universality through the understanding of particularity—in other words, to follow Kierkegaard rather than Hegel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 175 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1992

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References

** François Bovon will join the faculty of Harvard Divinity School as Frothingham Professor of New Testament Studies in the fall of 1993.

1 Bovon, François, Luke the Theologian: Thirty-Three Years of Research (1950–1983) (Princeton Theological Monograph Series 12; Allison Park, PA: Pickwick, 1987) esp. 418Google Scholar.

2 Bovon, François, L'Evangile selon saint Luc (1,1–9,50) (Commentaire du Nouveau Testament 3a; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1991)Google Scholar.

3 See, for example, Schweizer, Eduard, “υἱòς κτλ.,” TDNT 8 (1972) 363–92Google Scholar.

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42 One of these propositions has been criticized; it does not seem that a genre has existed with (1) the life of the founder, and (2) the story of his successors. See Balch, David L., “The Genre of Luke-Acts: Individual Biography, Adventure Novel, or Political History?” South-western Journal of Theology 33 (1990) 5–6Google Scholar.

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49 Meynet, L'Evangile selon saint Luc.

50 Meynet, Avez-vous lu saint Luc?

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52 Meynet, Avez-vous lu saint Luci 32–37.

53 Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, 216–17.

54 See the appendix below for a discussion of the work of Jean-Noël Aletti.

55 Jervell, Jacob, Luke and the People of God: A New Look at Luke-Acts (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984)Google Scholar. For my own opinion on this position, see Bovon, Luke the Theologian, 334–39.

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77 See above n. 28.

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81 Roberts, Colin H. and Skeat, T. C., The Birth of the Codex (The British Academy; London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

82 Bovon, L'Evangile selon saint Luc, 226–27.

83 Aletti, , L'art de raconter Jésus-Christ. Space does not allow me to give justice to Charles L'Eplattenier, Lecture de l'évangile Luc (Paris: Desclée, 1982)Google Scholar. It is also important to mention Barr, David L. and Wentling, Judith L., “The Conventions of Classical Biography and the Genre of Luke-Acts: A Preliminary Study,” in Talbert, Charles H., ed., Luke-Acts: New Perspectives from the Society of Biblical Literature (New York: Crossroad, 1984) 63–88Google Scholar.