CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES OF ACTS

Virgil Warren, PhD PDF

CHARACTERISTICS AND PECULIARITIES OF ACTS

Virgil Warren, PhD

1. Along with Luke, Acts has short paragraphs that summarize periods of time the author

does not handle in detail: 1:12-14; 2:43-47; 4:32-35; 6:7; 8:1-3, 25, 40; 12:24-25; 15:33-35, 41; 19:21-22; 28:30-31. They serve as links between the high points the author has highlighted.

2. On some occasions the author introduces a brief note about someone that will play a major role later in the account: Saul at the stoning of Stephen (7:58; 8:1), Barnabas as among those who sold land to support for the needy (4:36-37), John Mark as the one whose mother owned the upper room where the disciples awaited Peter’s fate (12:12).

3. In the mouth of Jesus, Luke states what could become the geographical outline of Acts (1:8): Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.

4. The only New Testament document to refer to Christianity as “The Way”: 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22; cp. 18:25, 26 (note John 14:6; also Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:20)*

5. The only writing besides 1 Peter 4:16 to refer to followers of Jesus as “Christians” (11:26; 26:28)*. Note also the “of Christ” expression in 1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:23.

6. Contains the only dominical saying outside the gospels (20:35; note also 1 Corinthians 11:24, 25-26)

7. Has all eleven usages of the expression “together” (ὁμοθύμαδον) except one (Romans 15:6): 1:14; 2:1, 46; 4:24; 5:12; 7:57; 8:6; 12:20; 15:25; 18:12; 19:29.*

8. Except for Matthew 12:41, Luke-Acts has the double-noun “men _____ ”: Luke 7:37 (sinner woman?); 11:32; 17:12; 24:19; Acts 1:16; 2:22, 29, 37; 3:12, 14; 5:35; 7:2; 8:27; 11:20; 13:6, 15, 16, 26, 38; 15:7, 13; 16:9; 17:22; 21:28; 22:1; 23:1, 6; 28:17*

9. Luke-Acts is the only two-volume work in the New Testament.

10. Provides the only historical framework for tracing the activities in the first thirty-five years of the church. It supplies the historical framework for at least a majority of Paul’s epistles.

11. The only New Testament writing perhaps addressed to a government official (Theophilus; 1:1).

12. Except for Ephesians 5:18, Luke-Acts alone uses the filling imagery for the Spirit.

13. Frequently (79 times) uses “Jews” especially in chapters 9-28, dedicated more to non-Judaean territories. Only 2 appear in chapters 1-8: 2:5, 10). John’s gospel has 68.

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