Luke's Second Volume:

The Acts of the Apostles 

With today's lesson we move beyond the earliest canonical sources for Jesus (the Synoptic Gospels and their own source documents) and concern ourselves with the next generation of writings:

1) the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the first Church History, which is thought to have been written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke, and

2) the Johannine writings which tell the fascinating story of a very important early Christian community.

The Author/Editor of Luke-Acts had an inestimable influence on the development of the Church's understanding of itself as an institution established by God and perpetuated by the Holy Spirit. In fact Luke's work, and Luke's work alone, was the primary source of the elevated teaching on the Holy Spirit that eventually resulted in the Holy Spirit being acknowledged as the third person of the Holy Trinity. And it was the Holy Spirit that became the theoretical power source that formed the basis of the authority of the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons that came to control the church after Jesus and his apostles left the scene.

Even today, in the catholicizing Churches, it is the bishops who control the dissemination of the Holy Spirit to the faithful laity through the sacraments. And in the final analysis, Luke himself and his forerunner, Paul, appear to have been the actual creators of the concept of the church itself. It is obvious that these assertions raise serious questions about the origins of significant elements of today's Christian teaching and how accurately they reflect the mind of Jesus of Nazareth. We are left with the uncomfortable feeling that with the passage of time, the historical Jesus fades into the background as later writers--beginning with the authors of the New Testament documents themselves--transform Jesus in accordance with their individual agendas.

Read Carefully:

• What to Expect, p. 141
   

• Pages 141-144, especially focusing on:
   

  • the discussion on the Genre of Acts and its relation to the Genre of the Gospel of Luke,
    and the problem of the genre of the two-volume book Luke-Acts;
    if Luke's Gospel is a biography, and Acts is a history,
    then what is the genre of the combined two-volume work of Luke-Acts?
     

  • the Thematic Method as compared to the other methodologies used thus far for studying the individual Gospels
     

• the Excursus on the Author of Luke-Acts, pp. 158-160

Major Themes: pp. 144-157

• The Transition from Luke's Gospel to Acts, pp. 144-148
   

  • Pentecost: Was it the really the Birthday of the Church?
     

    • Other than Acts 2:1-4,
      Pentecost is Mentioned Nowhere Else in the NT
      (in 1 Corinthians 16:8, Paul is speaking of the Jewish Holiday of Pentecost)
       

    • Remember . . .
      how Luke changed Jesus' post-resurrection rendezvous with the apostles
      from the Galilee (as Mark/Matt) to Jerusalem to accord with Acts 1:4-8.
       
      Did Luke do this precisely to set up the coming of the Pentecost in Acts?
       

    • And Remember . . .
      among the canonical gospels, only Matthew mentions the church;
      and Matthew inserted these references to the church
      into passages that he was copying from Mark and Q.
      
      Did the author of Matthew place these words onto Jesus' lips
      to give the impression that Jesus was the Originator of the church?
       

    • Also Remember . . .
      the online Bible Concordance results for the word "church";
      compare the two instances of the word "church" in Matthew
      with the very numerous occurrences of the word "church"
      in Acts and the letters of Paul;
      
      So who was the real originator of the church? Jesus? Paul? Luke? Matt?
      And why does Acts have many references to the church,
      while there are none in the Gospel of Luke?
       

  • How Accurate was Luke's Presentation of the History of the Apostolic Church?
     

    • Was the author of Luke really the physician companion of Paul?
      (see the Excursus, pp. 158-160)
       

    • We have seen that Luke seems to disagree
      with the principle tenet of Paul's "gospel":
      Jesus' crucifixion being an atoning sacrifice
       

    • See my web page on Paul vs. Luke for the discrepancies
      between Paul's and Luke's versions of Paul's "Conversion"
       

• Themes in the Speeches of Acts, pp. 148-157, Boxes 10.3, 10.4
   

  • Luke used traditional Greek historio-graphical techniques,
    (especially the ad hoc creation of speeches),
    to compose his history of the Apostolic Church.
     
    Luke put words into the mouths of the protagonists
    to frame the events in accord with Luke's own agenda
     

  • Review my web page on Paul vs. the Apostles
    detailing the discrepancies between Paul's own account
    of his relationship with Genuine Apostles of Jesus
    and Luke's version of the same events.
    
    Is Luke covering up a severe disagreement and split
    between Paul and the Historical Disciples of Jesus,
    whom Paul himself calls the "Pillars of the Church"?
     

  • In reading through the section on Luke's use of speeches in Acts,
    how important to him is the theme of promoting Paul and his "gospel"
    over the Disciples of Jesus as the genuine representative of the Jesus event?
     
    Is it significant that as the Book of Acts progresses,
    Peter and Jesus' Apostles fade into the background,
    while the narrative focuses more and more on Paul?

Learn the Key Terms on p. 162 with special reference to their original context in the chapter