LUKE-ACTS AS INTERPRETED HISTORY

LUKE-ACTS AS INTERPRETED HISTORY

Virgil Warren, PhD

I.  Selectivity

            The fact that the book does not recount all the events means that selection has occurred. If selection has occurred, the writer does not just tell about a bunch of things that happened (“stream of consciousness”). Rather, he is a historian that makes a judgment about what events are epitomes and direction-setting events. Seeing the big picture, a historian chooses events that—from the vantage point of God above or of later perspective—prove to be more important because of their impact on subsequent events or prove more useful to any distinctive purpose the author may have.

II.  “Re-connection”

            When selection occurs and the in-between material drops out, new connections take place between the remaining parts. A historian’s skill lies in accentuating the right connections. He draws attention to the big picture on the basis of his wider experience that has kept him from getting lost in the details.

            One device Luke uses in his gospel and in The Acts is a short summarizing paragraph to cover intervening events: Luke 1:80; 2:40, 52; 4:14-15, 44; 7:1; 21:37-38; Acts 1:12-14; 2:43-47; 4:32-35; 5:42; 6:7; 8:1b-3, 25, 40; 9:31, 43; 12:24, 25; 13:1-3; 15:33-35, 41; 16:4-5; 19:10, 21-22; 28:16, 30-31.

III.  Evaluative Statements

IV.  Indications of Prophecy-Fulfillment

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