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Was the Book of Acts a Posthumous Edition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. De Zwaan
J. De Zwaan
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
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Extract

The problem of the genesis of Acts involves various questions so intimately connected that they can scarcely be considered separately. Definite judgments are necessary on the distance between Acts and its sources, on the methods of the author compared with those of a modern historian, on the dates respectively of the composition of the book and of the events themselves, and, especially, on the difference between the author's portrait of the Apostle Paul, its background and setting, and the real Paul as disclosed by his own letters.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 1924 , pp. 95 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1924

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References

1 von Harnack, Adolf, Lukas der Arzt der Verfasser des dritten Evangeliums und der Apostelgeschichte, 1906Google Scholar; Die Apostelgeschichte, Untersuchungen, 1908Google Scholar; Neue Untersuchungen zur Apostelgeschichte und zur Abfassungszeit der synoptischen Evangelien, 1911Google Scholar.

2 Loisy, Alfred, Les Actes des Apôtres, 1920Google Scholar.

3 Goguel, Maurice, Introduction au Nouveau Testament, tome III, Le livre des Actes, 1922.Google Scholar

3a On Acts 5, 14, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,” see below. Interweaving is also observable in Acts.

4 For 28, 30 f., see below; so also for 18, 23 στηρίζων πάντας τοὺς ἀδελϕοὐς.

5 Goguel's opinion (p. 163) that Norden has “demonstrated” (Agnostos Theos, pp. 313 f.) that the we-sections “are of comparatively frequent occurrence in works which in literary character in some degree approach Acts,” is guarded. In fact the parallels are disappointing, the approach to Acts being rather questionable. On the Flinders Petrie Papyri II, 45 and III, 144 (Wilcken, Chrestomathie, no. 1) cf. Roos, A. G. in Mnemosyne, LI, 1923, pp. 262–278.Google Scholar

6 παραδοθεὶς τῇ χάριτι τοῦ κυρίου ὑπὸ τῶν ἀδελϕῶν, a qualification which was not bestowed upon Barnabas and Mark by the Antiochian church on this occasion!

7 See my Handelingen der Apostelen, Tekst en Uitleg, Wolters, Groningen, 1920Google Scholar, ad. loc, and my Imperialisme van den Oudchristelijken Geest, Bohn, Erven, Haarlem, 1919, pp. 107–191.Google Scholar

8 Often more Pauline than Paul himself!

9 The expression is sometimes used for local divinities, especially on foreign soil.

10 For fuller discussion of these matters, see my ‘Use of the Greek Language in Acts,’ The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. II, pp. 30–65.

11 In my opinion ‘sources’ and ‘notes’ come to the same thing when it is a question of arranging.