The Hope of Israel

The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles

Crowe, Brandon D.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781493422142
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This volume highlights the sustained focus in Acts on the resurrection of Christ, bringing clarity to the theology of Acts and its purpose. Brandon Crowe explores the historical, theological, and canonical implications of Jesus's resurrection in early Christianity and helps readers more clearly understand the purpose of Acts in the context of the New Testament canon. He also shows how the resurrection is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. This is the first major book-length study on the theological significance of Jesus's resurrection in Acts.

Part 1: The Resurrection in Acts

1
The State of the Question

The Resurrection in Acts

A Universal Message

We begin in Acts 17. After Paul and Silas made their way to Thessalonica, they entered a synagogue, and for three Sabbaths Paul reasoned with those present about the suffering and resurrection of Jesus, who is the Christ (v. 3). Some of the Jewish people were convinced, along with many Greeks and leading women; these joined the movement Paul and Silas represented. Others fomented an uproar and tried to seize Paul and Silas.

Later in Acts 17 Paul and Silas arrived in Athens, that bastion of classical philosophy, which Paul considered to be a hotbed of idolatry. Having gained the ear of the philosophers of the day, Paul gave them something new (for indeed, they enjoyed new things): he preached the resurrection of Jesus (v. 18) and that there would be a day of righteous judgment by this man who had been raised from the dead (vv. 30–31).

Whether, then, it was in a Jewish synagogue or in history-rich Athens, Paul in Acts consistently drew attention to the resurrection of Christ.1 In the synagogue, the resurrection is the crucial point for proving the messianic status of Jesus from the Scriptures. On trial before the Areopagus, the resurrection of Jesus is proclaimed to those who are not steeped in the Jewish Scriptures. Jesus of Nazareth, according to Paul, has been raised from the dead, and this is a cosmic event with implications for all people.

Beyond Paul, we find a similar emphasis on the resurrection throughout Acts. Indeed, whether the audience was Jews or gentiles, Pharisees or Sadducees, kings or congregants, a remarkable consistency is found in the apostolic emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is firmly rooted in the Jewish Scriptures, yet is also a message with universal relevance.

Acts 17 thus provides a preview for my argument. Simply put, in Luke’s second volume, the resurrection of Jesus bears a weighty load, weighty enough to merit extended reflection.

The Resurrection and the Interpretation of Acts

It is not difficult to identify any number of knotty exegetical issues in Acts, and it may be that attending to the role of Christ’s resurrection in Acts will help untangle some of these. Acts is, from one perspective, a transitional book, and many of the exegetical difficulties seem to be tethered to this unique period in the history of the church. At the same time, Acts is a programmatic book for subsequent generations of Christians, providing the apostolic basis for the early Christian message and delineating the life of the earliest community of Jesus followers. As a transitional book, Acts recounts a number of nonrepeatable events; as a programmatic book, Acts provides guidance for the church in subsequent ages. It therefore behooves the exegete to wrestle with which portions of Acts are transitional, unrepeatable moments in the history of salvation and which are programmatic events that believers today should emulate.2

Parsing out these distinctions is tricky. For example, in what sense was the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost a qualitatively new event in the history of redemption, and in what sense ought we to see the Spirit’s work as contiguous with divine activity in ages past? If the Holy Spirit comes to all people—Jews and gentiles—by Acts 10, then why had the Spirit not already fallen on the group of Ephesian believers in Acts 19? Similarly, why did the Samaritans not receive the Spirit when they believed? On a different note, why is so much attention devoted to the defenses of Paul in the latter chapters of Acts?

These issues have been variously addressed, and the number of thorny exegetical issues in Acts could easily be multiplied. No one volume would be sufficient to address them all. Nevertheless, in what follows I will argue that a robust appreciation of the resurrection of Christ in Acts—which is a prominent Lukan emphasis—provides a hermeneutical guide to help us untangle a number of knotty issues in Acts.

The Centrality of the Resurrection in Acts

In what follows I argue that the resurrection of Christ is one of the major emphases of Acts, which unifies and provides coherence for the theology of Luke’s second volume.3 By resurrection I simply mean the reality for Luke that Jesus of Nazareth had risen bodily from the dead to new life. Luke presents the resurrection of Christ as a singular turning point in the accomplishment of salvation that ushers in the age of the exalted Messiah. By focusing on the resurrection message of Acts, we are thus able to perceive with greater clarity the purpose(s) of Acts, and we are also better able to wrestle with questions related to the newness and contiguity of the gospel message with what has come before. My argument consists of two parts, which correlate to the two halves of this book. In part 1, I exegete relevant texts in Acts pertaining to the resurrection. In part 2, I explore the theological implications of the resurrection in more detail.

A few more words on these two divisions are in order. First, we need to appreciate how the resurrection is a major artery connecting various events and passages in Acts. To use another analogy, the resurrection of Christ serves as a powerful theological adhesive that contributes to the theological unity of Acts. For example, the resurrection is foundational to understanding the Lukan emphasis on the kingdom—which bookends Acts—and is also necessary to understand the rationale and timing(s) of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, the resurrection consistently plays a climactic role in the apostolic preaching. Indeed, I will also propose that the resurrection—though typically not an end in itself in the preaching—is often the logical key to the apostolic preaching in Acts,4 since the resurrection explains the implications of the work of Christ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Part 1: The Resurrection in Acts
• Part 2: The Theological Significance of the Resurrection in Acts
• Bibliography
• Scripture and Ancient Writings Index
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• Back Cover