Five Problems in Acts

Eighth Friday after Pentecost

Before we get started on the Acts Bible Study there are a some overall problems  we need to be aware.

1. The overarching problem is how historically accurate is Acts. In the history of Biblical scholarship there have been two major views. German scholarship has largely viewed Acts as historical fiction. German scholars tend to treat Acts as if were a novella with Luke the author spinning a number of legends about the Apostles into delightful religious tales that illustrate Luke's own theology. 

English scholars have tended to regard Acts as, on the whole, accurate history about the development of Christianity from 30 till 63 A.D. Luke, like any historian, picked and chose what events he wanted to narrate and from what perspective he wanted to show them. 

Of course there are many variations of these two views. American scholars are as diverse as America. There are representatives of both German and English views and everything in between. There is no distinctively American view of this problem. I, good Methodist that I am, am somewhere in the middle, although I would say I lean toward the English side of things. As always I expect to view some things differently at the end of our study than I view them now. 

2. Although 17 of the 28 chapters of Acts are about Paul, Luke shows no knowledge of Paul's letters or even that Paul wrote letters.

3. The speeches of the Apostles in Acts are all written in Lucan literary style and with Luke's theology. To what extent do they accurately represent the thought of Peter, Stephen, Philip, Paul, and James?

4. Acts ends very oddly, with Paul under house arrest but preaching freely in Rome. Luke does not mention the persecution of Christians in Rome under the emperor Nero and the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, all of which happened a year later and all of which Luke doubtless knew about. Why?

5. Unlike any other book of the NT, including the Gospel of Luke, Acts has two different text types. That is to say one family of manuscripts and Latin translations, the Western text, is distinctively different from the the two other families, the Alexandrian and the Byzantine. The Western text is 9% shorter. It is more anti-Jewish. It contains some differences that portray women negatively. It also contains some other variations that may be closer to the original text of Acts. Remember, we do not have the original, penned by the author, original manuscripts (what scholars call the "autographs") of any of the books of the Bible (or of any ancient Greek work). 

There are other problems as well, but these are the ones I regard as major. 

I'm really committed to this study. I've done a lot of reading and will do a lot more. We have a lot to learn together. The study will normally be two days a week, although this week it's three. We'll continue to have Faith Journey Mondays, theology Wednesdays, and Prayer and Spirituality Thursdays. I'm not sure about Fridays. Could be anything. Could be surprises. Give me suggestions for things you would like for us to talk about.

Faithfully,

Christian