Lecture #10: Acts & the Catholic Epistles

COURSE: New Testament

Lecture #10: Acts & the Catholic Epistles

Acts

• Acts is the second volume in Luke's 2 vol. history of Jesus and the spread of the church

It is balanced by comparison with Matthew and Mark.

Luke is much more concerned with the poor, women, and the outcast, as well as the gentile (of which he was one) than any of the other gospels.

Since there is no comparable 1st century historical document there is a tendency to see acts as definitive history, which it certainly is not.

Theologically and historically, this leads to mistakes.

• An interpretive point to remember is that Luke is first a theologian and only secondarily a historian.

Example one always goes "up to Jerusalem”, a term from the Hebrew Scriptures, even though physically standing on the Mt. of Olives you look down on it.

• Basically, the book of Acts traces the story of the Christian movement from the resurrection of Jesus to the time when the Apostle Paul was in Rome preaching the gospel unhindered, under house arrest for two years.)
• Most of the first half is occupied with the Jerusalem Church and its relationships, while the latter half is dominated by Paul.
• Theologically, Luke is showing how Christianity progressed geographically from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the Earth (Rome.) This includes Europe as well (Macedonia) (look at Acts 1:8)
  
  
• He used sources about the Jerusalem church (writing after 70), and also some sources that seem to be from Antioch of Syria, early a large church.
• Much of the book (beginning in 16:10) is narrated in the first person plural and many believe that the beloved Physician, Luke, (mentioned in Col 4:14; and 2 tim 4:11) is that narrator.
• Either he used a travel diary or, more likely, the writer used the we style to indicate events of which he was an eyewitness.
  
  
• Luke's purpose was to awaken faith by showing triumphant progress of the Good News and to defend Christians against the charge that they were destructive of Jewish institutions and a troublesome element in the empire.
• Pentecost (Acts 2: read) is found only in Acts and there are no other references anywhere

This occurred 50 days after the resurrection (10 days after the ascension)

Approximately 120 people were there when the Holy Spirit descended including Jesus Mother and brothers.

• John's gospel has the Holy Spirit given the same day as the resurrection when Jesus breathed on them, and they received the Holy Spirit (John 20).
• Paul acknowledges being filled with the Holy Spirit and talks a lot about it but there is no mention of Pentecost.
• This does not invalidate the event but certainly shows selective editing for theological purposes.

Luke's theological perspective

• Luke believes that Jesus came in the middle of time.
• He sees the Hebrew scriptures leading up to Jesus and the age of the Church as the rest of time.
• It is a sign of a creative theologian; for central to Luke/Acts is an explanation of the delay of the end.
• it is this perspective which makes possible the long-term church
  
  
• Luke as theologian has to write Acts to complete his story--the age of the church--Luke is the only one of the writers to see the long haul and tries to point out that we better plan on it.
• Peter and Paul are not singled out for their importance as Apostles in and of themselves but because they got to Rome,
• Paul's own writings mention his first missionary activity in Arabia which is missed entirely by Luke because it does not fit his scheme of getting to Rome.
• Other than Paul's conversion in Damascus there is no mention of the Syrian Church, other than it was early.
• Antioch is picked up because this is the church that commissioned Paul on his so called "missionary journeys" but otherwise, how it got there is not discussed.
• There is no interest in the church of Jerusalem after the fall in 70 CE even though it continued, though it moved, and influenced Mohammed in Arabia by around 600 CE.
• Luke omits a lot of church history if it is not part of his theology.
• The fact is there were Christians in Rome as early as 40 to 42 but Luke ends his book with Paul in Rome about 62-64 since this fits his theology.
• His Judean geography is awful but his Roman government titles are excellent.
  
  
• Luke glosses over the problems in the Jerusalem church discussing how deacons were appointed (7 of them) to serve the Greek speaking members. (Acts 6:1-7)
• The fact is, Paul's own words, particularly in Galatians, show a different and deeper problem.
• It is in fact the Jewish Christians, led by James the brother of Jesus, that had Paul arrested when he came to Jerusalem with the offering from the gentile churches so there were some real problems.
• All these Luke passes over to give the effect of a unified church probably because the problems of the 40's, 50's and 60's were no longer problems in the 80's and 90's, when Luke was writing.
• Luke presents the organizational structure of the church coming from the apostles in Jerusalem before 70 but this probably never existed.
• The church after the fall of Jerusalem became an Arabian church and the structure was lost but Luke writing after the fall sees this as the perfect age of the church and there was no Jerusalem control left to argue with Luke's interpretation.
• Peter is shown as early going to the side of the gentile or Greek speaking church, but the fact was, as Paul shows, this was late and not early for Peter,
  
  
• As was the custom in all ancient writings which we have preserved, the speeches and summaries were constructed after the fact.
• However, the main journey of Paul from his missionary field of the Aegean with an offering to Jerusalem, his arrest and journey to Rome, as well as many minor details appear to be correct in the book of Acts.
• The offering was for the "poor" at Jerusalem who were there because they had tried communism in the church in Jerusalem and had run out of money, with people unwilling to go back to work.

Why? Because they were sure the lord was going to return shortly.

• Paul was following a tradition of bringing an offering similar to the offering to the temple in an earlier day, but his hopes were for reconciliation, as has been pointed out, there were problems between the gentile and Jewish church that ran deep.
• Acts is the only history we have of the early church so there are no other histories to compare it too unfortunately.

However, firsthand sources, such as Paul's letters, are to be preferred for historical accuracy over the book of Acts.

Hebrews

• neither the author ship nor the time of writing of Hebrews is known
• It got into the canon because it was believed to be Paul, but nowhere is Paul's name found and there is no question today that it couldn't have been him.
• The gender of the writer is not known either and some scholars, particularly at the end of the 19th century, argued for Priscilla, a woman mentioned in Acts as a teacher, as the author.
• even the time of writing is debated.
• Some scholars maintain that all the talk about the temple indicates it was before the temple was destroyed in 70, but most seem to think that it was sometime between 70 and 90 CE., when the memory of the temple was still reasonably fresh.
• It is probable that the reference to the temple still standing was a literary device to offer Christ to the Jews who were still mourning the destruction of the temple.
  
  
• Hebrews contains the longest sustained argument found anywhere in scripture.
• With a careful and closely knit discussion, the unknown author moves with confidence step by step through an elaborate proof of the pre-eminence of Christianity over Judaism.
  
  
• Evidently, the recipients of the letter were on the point of giving up their Christian faith and returning to the Jewish beliefs and practices of their ancestors.
• to win them back the author emphasizes three main points.
• Read 1. the superiority of Jesus Christ to the Prophets (read 1:1-3); to the angels (1:5-2:18 – read 2:16-18); and to Moses himself (3:1-6 – Read 3:3)
• The superiority of Christ's priesthood to the Levitical priesthood (4:14-7:28 – read a little of 5:7-10)
• The superiority of Christ's sacrifice offered in the heavenly sanctuary to the many animal sacrifices offered on earth by the levitical priests (8:1-10:39 – read 9:11-14)
  
  
• At frequent and appropriate junctures within the theological discussion the author inserts earnest admonitions based on the argument in the immediately preceding section.
• literally this is a sermon, not a letter. The author uses Christian themes already visible in Paul as proof texts from the Hebrew Scriptures.
• the heroes of faith in Chapter 11 is borrowed from Ben Sirach 44:1-50:24

This is sometimes called The Faith Chapter.

• The connection of Hebrews to Rome came early and it may have been written to believers there.
• The writer has no great concern for the themes of Messiah, Son of Man or other apocalyptic terms but is deeply involved in roles of high priest, Lord and King and Christ being the permanent sacrifice.
• In this sense it is a very conservative work for it does not see the end of the age, but it continues which is another argument for the writing after the fall of the temple in 70.

James

• This letter was a sermon in the form of a letter and has about 60 imperatives in the letters 108 verses.
• The author presupposes a knowledge of the gospel on the part of his readers and is concerned to remind them how Christians ought to live.
  
  
• It has the name of James, the brother of Jesus. who was head of the church in Jerusalem, but there is no question that this is not so.
• The letter comes from the last decade of the 1st century or first decade of the 2nd and the writer has knowledge of the letter of I Peter and of the letters of Paul, which were collected and published between 70 and 80 CE.
• The letter is in excellent Greek, obviously a first language, so it is probably written by a Hellenistic Christian.
  
  
• It is sometimes said that Paul and James were in conflict on the question of faith and works.

The difference is that for Paul, faith was a believer's loyal relationship to Christ through experience.

By the time of James, doctrine had been developed and for him faith was a mere assent to theological statements. (see 2:14-19)

While James speaks of works, Paul speaks of fruits of the Spirit (read Gal 5:22-23)

For Paul, works are works of the law and are opposed to faith.

On the other hand, Paul did not believe that empty belief in God was possible. => Paul's motto was faith working thru love (Gal 5:6)

• This whole idea of faith being an assent to theological statement dates James from late in the 1st century or later.

I Peter (written CE 112 under Trajan)

• Was written to give encouragement and hope to Christians in the northern part of Asia Minor during a persecution.
• The fact that I Peter presupposes Pauline theology and paraphrases some of Paul's letters, particularly from Romans and Ephesians (which is later than Paul) indicate it was probably the persecution under the Emperor Domitian.
• Thus, a date between 95 or 112 CE is most likely.
• There is not much question that it came from Rome, which was already associated with Peter's preeminence.
• Basically, the letter urges the gentile converts in Asia Minor to be firm and rejoice in their trials which they share with all Christians around the world.
• by participating in the sufferings of Christ the genuineness of their faith will be demonstrated. (see: I Peter 1:6-7; 3:13-15)

II Peter - Last Book written

• Was not the same author as I Peter but written sometime later, early in the 2nd cent.
• The author i indebted to the book of Jude (compare 2:1-8 with Jude 4-16) also, the author refers to all the letters of Paul (3:15) in a way that presupposes not only that they had been collected into a corpus but that they are regarded as equal to "the other scriptures
• Thus, this letter is written by someone who considers Peter his teacher and published under his name. It is very possible that this letter was written by Clement of Rome, a bishop there in 140-150 CE (Marcion?)

Jude

• The letter of Jude was written to warn against false teachers who had made their way into the church.
• Little is said about the content of their teaching, but the letter gives a vivid sketch of their character and methods.
• They are immoral covetous men who reject authority – Grumblers, malcontents, loudmouthed boasters. they will experience God's judgment
• Though the author is concerned to safeguard right doctrine, he offers no systematic refutation of the false teaching.
• The destination of the letter cannot be determined but the author refers to himself as "Jude, the brother of James", inferring that he is one of the brothers of Jesus himself (see Matt 13:55 where the brothers are named: James, Joseph, Simon and Judas)
• Most scholars believe that the style, content, and probable date of this tract (late first or early 2nd century) require the conclusion that Jude's name has been used by a later writer to lend authority to his urgent appeal. He is reflecting a very established institutional church.
• Jude quotes from the book of the Ethiopian Enoch (v14) and probably from the testament of the 12 patriarchs as if they were scripture.
• These did not even make the apocrypha within Judaism.
• For this reason, Martin Luther felt the book of Jude should be thrown out of the canon (along with James, Hebrews and Revelation)