A Theology of Luke and Acts

Darrell L. Bock, Andreas J. Kostenberger

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780310523208
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

This groundbreaking work by Darrell Bock thoroughly explores the theology of Luke's gospel and the book of Acts. In his writing, Luke records the story of God working through Jesus to usher in a new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be God's people even in the midst of a hostile world. It is a message the church still needs today. Bock both covers major Lukan themes and sets forth the distinctive contribution of Luke-Acts to the New Testament and the canon of Scripture, providing readers with an in-depth and holistic grasp of Lukan theology in the larger context of the Bible.

I. Howard Marshall: "A remarkable achievement that should become the first port of call for students in this central area of New Testament Theology."

Craig S. Keener: "Bock's excellent exploration of Luke's theological approach and themes meets an important need in Lukan theology."

Part One

INTRODUCTORY MATTERS

Chapter 1

THE OFTEN LOST IMPORTANCE OF LUKE-ACTS AND THE ORIENTATION OF THIS STUDY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrett, C. K. Luke the Historian in Recent Study. London: Epworth, 1961. Bovon, F. Luke the Theologian. 2nd ed. Waco TX: Baylor University Press, 2006. Idem. “Studies in Luke-Acts: Retrospect and Prospect.” HTR 85 (1992): 175–96. Fitzmyer, J. A. Luke the Theologian: Aspects of His Teaching. New York: Paulist, 1989. Gasque, W. A History of the Criticism of the Acts of the Apostles. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1975. Gregory, A. F. The Reception of Luke and Acts in the Period before Irenaeus: Looking for Luke in the Second Century. WUNT. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2003. Hengel, Martin. Acts and the History of Earliest Christianity. London: SCM, 1979. Johnson, L. T. “Luke-Acts, Book of.” ABD, 4:404–20. Kurz, W. S. Reading Luke-Acts: Dynamics of Biblical Narrative. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993. Marshall, I. Howard. Luke: Historian and Theologian. 3rd ed. Exeter: Paternoster, 1993. Mills, W. E., and A. J. Mattill. A Bibliography of the Periodical Literature on the Acts of the Apostles (1962–1984). Leiden: Brill, 1986. Rowe, C. Kavin. “History, Hermeneutics and the Unity of Luke-Acts.” JSNT 28 (2005): 131–57. Idem. “Literary Unity and Reception History: Reading Luke-Acts as Luke and Acts.” JSNT 29 (2007): 449–57. Talbert, C. H. “Shifting Sands: The Recent Study of the Gospel of Luke.” Pp. 197–213 in Interpreting the Gospels. Ed. J. L. Mays. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981.

The biblical material from Luke-Acts is probably the largest and most neglected portion of the NT. Of the 7,947 verses in the NT, Luke-Acts comprises 2,157 verses, or 27.1 percent. By comparison, the Pauline letters have 2,032 verses and the Johannine writings have 1,407.1 In addition, only Luke-Acts tells the story of Jesus Christ from his birth through the beginning of the church into the ministry of Paul. This linkage is important, for it gives perspective to the sequence of these events. Many Christians consider Matthew and Acts together, because canonically Matthew is the first gospel and Acts includes the history of the apostolic church. But the canonical link is Luke-Acts, not Matthew-Acts, since Luke authored both volumes. So thinking biblically, it is important to keep Luke and Acts together and tell the story of Acts with an eye on Luke.

So what causes the neglect of these two volumes, especially as a unit?

First, the gospel gets absorbed in discussions about Jesus and the other gospels. Luke has always had third place among the Synoptics. In the early church, Matthew was seen as the lead gospel, having apostolic roots and being seen as the first gospel to be written. In the last two centuries, Mark has taken this central role. Now seen as most likely the first gospel to be written, this gospel now becomes a key point of focus in the study of Jesus. Its outline is the lens through which discussion of Jesus, especially the historical Jesus, is often conducted. John has always had a prime position as the “spiritual” gospel, a description that goes back to Clement of Alexandria in the second century.2 So Luke got lost in the shuffle.

Second, Acts got separated from Luke as the canon distinguished between gospels and the history of the early church. This severed the two volumes, and people read the works as separate pieces. This has caused readers to lose the links between the two volumes and the theological story that both volumes together tell. The gospel of Luke was related to the other gospels, while Acts was left to itself on a genre island telling the story of the early church. The continuity between Jesus and the launching of the early community was lost in the shuffle.

Our goal in this look at Luke-Acts is to reconnect the volumes to each other and to tell Luke’s theological story in which one cannot see Jesus without understanding the story of the community that he was responsible for launching. The key actor in this theology is God himself. It is his plan that Jesus carries out. It is his promise, long revealed and now actualized, that Jesus brings. The link that exists between God and Jesus, the one sent to bring the promise, is at the hub of the theology. Luke portrays the plan of God as worked out in fulfillment of the divine promise. The inauguration of this fulfillment came through Jesus and through the church, which consists of both Jew and Gentile. The completion of this fulfillment will come when Jesus returns (Acts 3:18–26). These books stress the continuity of God’s promise, and they present this progress in a pastoral way that instructs and comforts.

Beyond this, the Spirit that Jesus himself brings is also a key part of the story, especially in the activity of the preaching and mission of the new community. So there is the outline of trinitarian activity in the two works. The enablement of the Spirit as the gift of the new era’s presence is also a central theme. We will try to trace this story and its theology keeping an eye on the narrative rather than extracting themes ripped out from their context.

Luke wrote to Theophilus to give him assurance about the things he had been taught (Luke 1:4).3 A major supposition of that assurance is the recognition that God was at work in the recent events, events that were in fulfillment of God’s promises (vv. 1–2). Two aspects of that claimed fulfillment, however, would be troubling: a dead Savior and a persecuted community of God that included Gentiles, when Israel held the hope of the promise. Since the church was undergoing persecution, as Acts so vividly portrays, Theophilus, or anyone like him, might have wondered if that persecution was God’s judgment on the church for being too racially broad with his salvation. Was God really at work in the church, and was Jesus really at the center of the plan? How did the promise become so broad and how could a dead Savior bring it to pass? These are core questions of community identity that Luke-Acts explains.

Luke-Acts assured Theophilus that persecution of the church was not a sign of judgment. Instead, the persecution had been predicted and was a means by which the message could go out to even more people across the world. The work details how Jesus is at the center of God’s plan, a plan that anticipated not only his death, but also more significantly his resurrection-ascension4 to God’s right hand, where he offers the benefits of salvation as Lord to any who come to him. Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles pictured the outworking of the broad mission of the promise. His role, like that of others in the church, was not undertaken on his own initiative, but was the direct result of the work of God. Thus God and his activity are at the center of Luke-Acts.

So we introduce Luke-Acts by discussing some key introductory issues and the question of its unity to start. Then we will proceed to present the theology in steps, looking at the major topics Luke treats. Often we will first survey the theme in narrative order and then synthesize the results in a separate chapter. Occasionally within the overview or the synthesis, we stop and take a closer look at specific verses and the exegetical issues tied to the theme at that point.

The overarching purpose of Luke covers important ground. Luke-Acts seeks to show that the coming of Jesus, Christ, and Son of God launched the long-promised new movement of God. The community that has come from his ministry, the suffering these believers experienced, and the inclusion of Gentiles are part of God’s program promised in Scripture. In the ancient world, unlike the modern, it is not that which is new that is seen as valuable but that which is old. Thus Luke explains that this seemingly new movement is actually rooted in old promises and in a design that God promised and now has executed through Jesus, the sent promised one of God. The community tied to him suffers, not out of judgment but by design, for before exaltation there is suffering.

The controversial inclusion of Gentiles was not the rebellious act of renegade theologians but the product of direct intervention by God. The ministry of Paul, as the example of this mission and outreach to all, is not a failure but has taken the word about Jesus to the hub of the world, to Rome, as Paul faithfully follows the call of God even in the midst of persecution. This is how the community is to function in a world that often rejects the message of Jesus and persecutes those who believe it. The power of God’s word and message is best displayed when those who are rejected faithfully and ethically live in a manner that reflects Christ’s own rejection and faithfulness.

Power is best seen in dependent strength. Such strength measures effectiveness, not by the world’s standards of the use of power, but by faithful dependence on carrying out the call and mission of God with the character God seeks to form in his people. This ability and strength comes from the Spirit whom Jesus provides as a result of God’s vindication of Jesus in his resurrection. So Luke-Acts tells the story of God working through Jesus in the provision of new era of promise and Spirit-enablement so that the people of God can be the people of God in the midst of a hostile world. It is a message that still fits the church today. It is why Luke-Acts occupies such a large portion of the NT and why the church cannot neglect its message.

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1. Kurt and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament (trans. Erroll R. Rhoads; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 29. Although a rough way to make a comparison, the next longest gospel, Matthew, occupies 87 pages in the Nestle-Aland text, while Mark takes up 60 and John 73 pages. Luke comprises 96 pages. Acts is 88 pages long. That makes for a total of 184 pages for the Lucan material. Paul’s letters comprise 153 pages of text.

2. As reported by Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. 6.14.7, who attributes this to Clement of Alexandria (AD 150–211) in his work Hypotyposes. Eusebius says this about Clement and John’s gospel, “But, last of all, John, perceiving that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospel, being urged by his friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel. This is the account of Clement.”

3. Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50 (BECNT 3a; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 15–16, discusses this theme in terms of the purpose of Luke’s gospel.

4. The expression “resurrection-ascension” reflects the fact that Luke regards these events as fundamentally one event, even though they were separate. Acts 2:20–36 shows how closely Luke linked these two events.

Chapter 2

THE CONTEXT OF LUKE-ACTS: A SHORT INTRODUCTION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Part One: Introductory Matters
• Part Two: Major Theological Themes
• Part Three: Luke and the Canon
• Bibliography
• Scripture Index
• Subject Index
• Author Index