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ABSTRACT

ST. LUKE: JOURNALIST OF THE
FIRST CENTURY CHURCH

BY

Roger Curtis Palms

For nearly 2,000 years, biblical scholars, exegetes
and churchmen have been examining the Acts of the Apostles
as either a theological or historical treatise. This
study shows that Luke, the author of Acts, was not simply
a recorder of historical events, nor just a theological
interpreter of events. In every sense of the word he was
a journalist influenced by the resurrected Jesus, impressed
by the continued ministry of the gospel through the young
church, but, like any journalist, alert to report this news
that was happening among his associates as the gospel began
to Spread from a small nucleus of Jewish believers in
Jerusalem until it encompassed most of the Roman world.

The study (1) investigated and normatively assessed
the reportorial role of Luke the apostle, (2) analyzed the
influences that shaped his thinking and writing, and (3)
examined the interaction between the religious, linguistic,

cultural, political, economic, geographical and social

Roger Curtis Palms

factors, and the processes through which he collated
material for the Acts of the Apostles.

Specifically, the study made a critical analysis
of books, monographs, lectures, and theses written on the
Acts and on Luke as an apostle. This was done by estab-
lishing the influential framework of Luke's world to see
how he functioned as a reporter in the midst of the events
he interpreted, and by researching the published and
unpublished works pertaining to those events. By examin-
ing the Acts journalistically, many questions about the
influence of culture, attitudes of different social groups,
and religious opposition to the Christians were put into
perspective.

Within the last decade there has come a new interest
in the writing of Luke and an appreciation of his journa-
listic competency in reporting the development of the early
church. As modern church renewal through the study of Acts
begins to affect more and more peOple it will be largely
due to the contemporary value of Luke's first century inter-

pretive reporting.

ST. LUKE: JOURNALIST OF THE

FIRST CENTURY CHURCH

BY

Roger Curtis Palms

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

School of Journalism

1971

Accepted by the faculty of the School of Journalism,
College of Communication Arts, Michigan State University,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of

Arts degree.

VMWrJ/xzm

Director of Thesis

ii

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my wife Andrea, and to
my children Grant and Jane, in deepest appreciation for
their patience, forebearance and support throughout the

entire course of study at Michigan State University.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to express his appreciation to
Dr. Vishwa M. Mishra for his continued guidance and
assistance in the preparation of this thesis.

Gratitude is also expressed to the faculty of the
School of Journalism for their friendship and instruction

during my course of study.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM . . . . . .
Introduction . . . . . . .
The Limitations of Other Studies
in the Acts of the Apostles . .

Attempts at Understanding the Acts
Through Historical and

Theological Research . . . . .
Luke, a First Century

Christian Journalist . . . . .

The Problem . . . . . . . .

Statement of the Problem . . . . .
Method of Research . . . . . . .

II. LUKE: THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE . . . .

Luke: The Greek Physician . . . . .

Luke: The Author of Early Christian
Church History . . . . . . . .
The Early Church in Jerusalem . . .
The Church in Judea and Samaria . .
The Church Universal . . . . . .

An Examination of Luke's Reportorial Skills

The Development of Writing Skills . .

The Acquisition and Internalization of

the Norms and Ethical Standards of
the Profession . . . . . .
The Deve10pment and Practice of Skill
of Observation, Reporting and
Interpretation . . . . . . .

Page
iii

iv

l9
19
20

23
23
27
28
28
29

30
31

36

39

Chapter

III. PERSPECTIVE ON THE SOCIO-CULTURAL
OF LUKE'S WORLD

The Religious Influences
The Linguistic Influences
The Cultural Influences
The Political Influences
The Economic Influences
The Geographical Influences

The Social Influences
An Overview

CONTEXT

IV. CONTRIBUTION OF ACTS TO THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH TODAY . . . . . . .
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . .

vi

Page

48

48
54
6O
62
67
71
75
81

85
96

101

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM

Introduction

 

The Limitations of Other Studies
in the Acts of the Apostles

 

 

For nearly 2,000 years biblical scholars, exegetes
and churchmen have been examining the New Testament book
known to us as the Acts of the Apostles (hereinafter
referred to as the Acts). Their studies have led them to
examine this work with a wide range of views--from straight
historical narrative to romantic fantasy. Some have taken
the Acts and analyzed it critically as if it contained
material that had to be disproved. Others have so gilded
it that it became in their hands a mystical book of super-
human content totally unrelated to the flux and influences
of daily living. Still others have made it their own

apologia pro vita sua, reading into the Acts whatever justi-

 

fied their own particular thinking. Even in the twentieth
century, many liberties have been taken with this book
written by Luke the disciple. 'It has become all things

to all men, whether they be great scholars or rude preachers.

Modern missionaries have seen in Luke's work an
authorized manual for their church programs. As if Luke
had ignored his own world and wrote only for the future,
one missionary writer said: "The thoughtful and prayerful
missionary of today will find here a divinely given sample
or precedent for every type of experience and problem he
is called upon to face."1

Luke wrote about the efforts of the apostle Paul
as a missionary. His travels and the establishment of
churches have become guides for modern church missionary
endeavors. But, Paul, like his biographer Luke, did not
live or work in a vacuum. Paul responded to the world
that Luke describes in his writing and the directions
gained from Paul can only be activated by understanding
the direction of his world:

Men have wandered over the world 'preaching the
word' laying no solid foundations, establishing
nothing permanent, leaving no really instructed
society behind them, and have claimed Paul's authority
for their absurdities.

Secondly, people have adopted fragments of St.
Paul's method and have tried to incorporate them into
alien systems and the failure which resulted has been
used as an argument against the apostle's method.2

Many men have made the work of Paul a program to

adOpt without interpretation. They have copied his communi-

cation techniques with little or no attempt at understanding

 

lRobert Hall Glover, Bible Basis of Missions (Los
Angeles: The Bible Book House of Los Angeles, 1946),
p. 26. 1

 

2Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or
Ours? (London: World Dominion Press, 1956), P. 8.

 

what guided and motivated him in the first century. Some
enthusiastic pastors have tried to make the Acts a model

for their own parish efforts and have misunderstood their

own social scene as well as Luke's. "The life of the Jeru-
salem church as described in Acts . . . is often cited as
a model of the perfect society . . . but we are Christians

of the twentieth century, and many of the problems of the

3 And, more than one

first century no longer concern us."
romantic sermonizer has ignored the influences of Luke's
world and made him something other than real as he grew to
become the author of the Acts.4

It is possible to find supportive material for a
particular View of the Acts, while ignoring other refer-
ences that do not support that View. But this kind of
treatment can't be given to the Acts legitimately when
time is taken to analyze the author and his world. It
is neither honest scholastically nor justifiable exegeti-
cally to push aside the parts that go against a personal
favorite assertion.

To take one view or another, no matter how popular
or reasonable, is to over-simplify the mission, the people,

and the influences that caused the writing of the Acts.

Luke was a "victim" of his day, as all men are. To take

 

3George D. Younger, The Bible Calls for Action
(Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1959)} p. 50.

4Graham Chambers Hunter, Luke First Century Chris-
tian (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937), p. 9.

the writing of the Acts for any single thesis is, as the

French put it, terribles simplificateurs, terrible to be

 

sure in all areas.

The contemporary church cannot use the Acts to
answer questions about twentieth century social problems,
or directions for modern missions or guidelines for parish
activities until it understands the answers to the histori-
cal questions asked by Luke and faced by the church of the
first century. Until this is done, history is falsified
and cannot then be used as a basis for answering modern
church questions.

If people consciously or unconsciously ascribe to
Luke their own ideas about his writing, then the true
essence of his work is distorted. To discover the essence
of the Acts is not to project from our day back to the Acts,
but to investigate Luke's work in light of the background
of thought of his time.

Attempts at Understandingythe Acts Through
HistoriCal and Theological Research

 

 

Scholars who have attempted to correct false or
confusing interpretations of the Acts have stressed the
historical and theological method for prOperly understand-
ing the factors influencing Luke's writing.

In the nineteenth century historical scholarship
was applied to the actions and teachings in the Acts, with
the assumption that this would help modern man fit the

Acts into his own contemporary genre. Historians researched

Luke too, and did it all very objectively. Dates, places,

names and Luke's background were critically studied in an

attempt to check his accuracy. ‘
How was one to know if Luke was a reliable author?

Scholars could study Luke's Gospel along synoptic lines,

 

looking at his sources, making literary comparisons and
critically analyzing every aspect of his work. But they
couldn't use the same approach with the Acts. There were
no comparable sources for a synoptic approach (as the
Gospel of Luke can be checked against that of Matthew and
Mark and other non-canonical writings). Was Luke a reli-
able writer? Could the historical accuracy of his writing
stand the tests applied to other books of the New Testament?
The influence of biblical historical criticism made it
difficult for people to rely on the Acts because to trust
in the book's accuracy was to invite the ridicule of the
critics. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
revealed a polarized biblical world with one side unable
to trust the Scriptures and the other side trusting blindly
with little or no scholastic support.

Unmick refers to two scholars, William Ramsay and
Adolf von Harnack, whose critical historical view of Luke's
writing revealed in great detail the accuracy of Luke's

work in the Acts.5 But, their historical confirmation only

 

5W. C. Von Unmick, "Luke-Acts, a Storm Center in
Contemporary Scholarship" in Studies in Luke-Acts. Edited
by Leander E. Keck and J. LouiE Martyn (Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1966), p. 19.

 

opened the door for non-historical questions about the
Acts such as the interpretation of the book, Luke's inten-
tions as he wrote, and the degree of influence that the
Acts should have on the church. Therefore, leaving his-
torical criticism behind them, modern scholars have looked
toward theology for an explanation of Luke's writing.
Unmick explains that new studies, particularly

those of Hans Conzelmann (Die Mitte der Zeit, 1954), the

 

collected essays of Otto Dibelius and work by Philip
Vrelhauer made scholars realize that Luke-Acts was a com-
bined work written with a definite purpose.
Luke had not simply written a life of Christ and
then followed it with a history of the church. He had,
in fact, written both books to show theologically the con-
tinuity of the redemptive life and ministry of Jesus while
he was on earth and the extension of his work through the
lives of the disciples after his resurrection and ascen-
sion. His was a theological treatise, with definite intent
to show the unfolding ministry of Jesus, the brotherhood
of the church in Christ and the mystery of Christ alive
in the world. I
In these studies Luke appeared no longer as a
somewhat shadowy figure who assembled stray pieces
of more or less reliable information, but as a
theologian of no mean stature who very consciously
and deliberately planned and executed his work . . . .

Luke was not primarily a historian who wanted to
give a record of the past for its own sake, but a

 

61bid., p. 21.

theologian who, by way of historical writing,
wanted to serve the church of his own da amid
the questions and perils that beset her.

The historical research and the theological dis-
coveries of the Acts, while opening many windows to Luke's
work, has certainly not answered all of the questions about
his writing. Unmick says that the Acts, through receiving
its share of notice historically and theologically, is
still not a thoroughly examined book. "Thus it cannot be
said that the Lucan writings, Acts in particular, have
suffered from neglect . . . . But it could not be said
that . . . Luke's literary achievement was a storm center
of literary studies."8

As studies move from history to theology, and
scholars are content with their findings, another aspect
of Luke's writing should come to light, one that encom-
passes his theological thinking, his ability as a his-
torian with an eye for accuracy, but also brings into
focus all of the influences of his world that made him
see and select as he did the material for the Acts. It
should be seen that Luke was not simply a recorder of
historical events, nor just a theological interpreter of
events, but in every sense of the word, a journalist
influenced by the resurrected Jesus, impressed by the con-

tinued ministry of the gospel through the young church,

but like any journalist, alert to report this news that

 

7Ibid., p. 20.

8Ibid., p. 23.

was happening among his associates as the gospel began
to Spread from a small nucleus of Jewish believers in
Jerusalem until it encompassed most of the Roman world.

Luke, a First Century
ChriStian Journalist

 

 

It is evident from the foregoing then, that the
journalism of Luke, applied with expertise to his writing
of the Acts, cannot be divorced from his historical or
theological motivations. He was, as scholars have taught,
writing history and his accuracy as a historian seems to
be well documented. He was also communicating theological
concepts based on the continued ministry of Jesus through
the lives of the disciples. But history and theology
were influences upon his writing, not the purpose of his
writing.

In the first of his two works, Luke explains to
Theophilus his purpose for writing:

Many writers have undertaken to draw up an
account of the events that have happened among us,
following the traditions handed down to us by the
original eyewitnesses and servants of the Gospel.
And so I in my turn, your Excellency, as one who
has gone over the whole course of these events in
detail, have decided to write a connected narrative
for you, so as to give you authentic knowledge about
the matters of which you have been informed.

This is Luke's own explanation for his writing,

and he continues it in the Acts with an introduction to

the same TheOphilus, building a bridge between what Jesus

 

9Luke 1:1-4, The New English Bible.

 

did and taught, and the church with the implication that
the Acts was the continuation of those things that Jesus
did and taught.

He does not make the Acts a history, nor would the
eschatological interests of the church have given a reason
for writing a history. Neither does he make it a theolo-
gical treatise because mystically for Luke the message was
Jesus, and Jesus was the message, though this had to be
interpreted to the various cultures Luke encountered. The
Acts is a coherent and systematic account of a series of
events; it is a news story. Robertson explains this style:
"He does not say that it is a chronological order, though
one naturally thinks of that . . . but he employs a differ-

10 His was not

ent word which suggests military order."
just order for order's sake, but order with a purpose. He

set out to accumulate his material, and organize pupposely,

 

which would not have been necessary if he were only doing
a chronological history.

Luke was no mere chronicler of dry details. He
was not a scrapbook historian who simply Spliced
together documents. He used literary sources as
every real historian must. They influenced his
style, in certain parts more than others, but he
put his own stamp upon all the material that he
incorporated.ll

Again, Robertson notes that the outstanding charac-

teristic of Luke's writing is completeness, and this

 

10A. T. Robertson, Luke the Historian in the Light
of Research (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920), p. 53.

ll

 

 

Ibid., p. 56.

10

requires careful writing. The journalist has to omit
much of the material available to him, and it is obvious
that Luke did, for much more happened in Jerusalem, and
during the missionary journeys with Paul than is recorded
in his book. Yet, his book has a completed quality about
it.

Luke had to interpret the personalities in the
narrative, both for the Jews and the Gentiles, explaining
their behavior, their preaching and the reasons for their
actions. He had to take each event and make it as one
event, vivid and clear in its parts so that the reader
knew more than just the facts of the events. The reader
had to also feel and sense the attitudes and influences
of the disciples and the peOple that the disciples met.
Perspective and completeness characterize Luke's work,
and this is what he intended, if we listen to his own
introductory comments to Theophilus about his writing.
Luke must be taken seriously about his purpose; we cannot
dismiss his own explanation of his intent.

Luke, like any other writer, is entitled to be
credited with his own conception of his task. He
disclaims being a slipshod writer in the use of his
material. He has the Greek love for clarity and for
truth. He has the physician's skill in diagnosis
that will stand him in good stead as he dissects the
data before him . . . . He is already in possession

of the evidence before he begins to write, as the
perfect tense shows.

12Ibid., p. 52.

ll

Luke took pains to make himself understood. He
researched his material, assembled it, condensed it and
wrote it down, keeping order and accuracy before him as
his guides. The narrative of the Acts is, Robertson
concludes, simple, not forced, but it is accurate, no
mere dumping out of materials. "Luke is a master artist
in his grouping of the facts, but they are facts."13

To see Luke as a journalist, is not, however, to
make him a mere stenographer or recorder of the events of
the church. He had a message to preach but was more than
an editorialist. He combined history, theology and
preaching in his writing. But he did it in such a way
that made him a storyteller (with the understanding here
that story does not mean fiction). This historical-
theological-homiletical storytelling is best understood
through the investigation of the influences that shaped
Luke's story.

Luke did not decide to incorporate a methodology
into his narrative; he did decide to put down in an orderly
connected way the events that occurred. He did this to
help the church. But his ability to do so came out of his
Greek background, a background not shared by the other
principles in the Acts. It was the influence upon the man
as a Greek and the continued influences of the world around
him that brought forth the Acts in the form that we have.

He neither thought of those influences nor developed them;

 

13Ibid., p. 46.

12

they were a part of him and those influences came out in
his story.

Not that he is likely consciously to have said
to himself, "I will preach Christ by writing a gospel
and the history of the apostolic age." Even though
Luke is of all New Testament writers the most self-
conscious author, we must recognize that in writing
he was moved in the main by motives of which he was
himself (in all probability) imperfectly aware.
Though he had in his make-up something of the story-
teller, and that this gift had been fostered by some
acquaintance with the romantic and historical litera-
ture $2 the Hellenistic age, need not be doubted.

It is Luke's Hellenistic background, the nature of
his roots that gives him the unique characteristics we
find in him as a journalist. He collected his material,
researching and interviewing for both the Gospel and the
Acts before he wrote. The thinking that guided his col-
lection as a Christian journalist was the thinking of a
Greek.

A historian of the modern scientific kind he
certainly was not, but a historian of the Hellenistic
age. His fellows are Polybius and Plutarch, Josephus
and Tacitus. It is important to recognize this,
though important also not to give it the wrong kind
of emphasis. It does not mean that Luke is not to be
taken seriously as a writer of history; the distinc-
tion between fact and fiction was understood long
before he wrote. Moreover, we shall not forget that,
if Luke is something less than a scientific historian,
he is also something more; he is one of the biblical
writers who confronts us with a more than human testi-
mony to Jesus Christ. Yet, true as this is, we shall
understand Luke's testimony better if we recognize
that as a man he shared, as it were by instinct, and
brought to his task, the Hellenistic historians con-
ception of historiography.15

l4Charles Kingsley Barrett, Luke the Historian in
Recent Study (Edinburgh: Epworth Press, 1961), p. 53.

lsIbid., p. 9.

13

And what is that Hellenistic conception of his—
toriography? Barrett draws on the writings of Lucian who

produced his On Writing History shortly after the time

 

Luke wrote. Lucian said, "The one aim and goal of history
is to be useful; and this can result only from its truth.
The one task of the historian is to describe things exactly
as they happened. This is the one essential thing in his-
tory, to sacrifice to truth alone."l6

Luke's accuracy, his historical interest, his
theology, his own missionary interest-—"Luke was not merely
a witness, he took part in the action"l7--were layers of
the basic nature of the man that came from the influences
upon him. Add to this, the continuing influences that
came from the interaction between the various cultural,
religious, political, economic, social, linguistic and
geographical factors that were a part of the setting of
the church in those early days of expansion, and it becomes
clear that Luke had to be an interpretive reporter as he
brought together his material.

Luke's style of writing, examined in the light of
of the interpretive reporting needed in his cultural set-
ting, shows an artistic quality. He is "a painter of short

"l8

portraits, who makes his personalities come through with

 

l6Ibid., p. 10.

17Wm. M. Ramsay, Luke the Physician (London: Hodder
& Stoughton, 1908), p. 25.

18

 

Robertson, op. cit., p. 59.

14

a minimum of descriptive material. He captures the
essence of his peOple without going into character studies
or physical descriptions. He makes his stories vivid by
the power of personalities. The vast subject of the
Christian faith, interpreted through preaching and its
spread throughout the empire is woven into the lives of
Peter and Paul and Barnabas and others without making the
story theirs or anyone else's. It is the story of the
growth of the church, but the reader, be he Jew or Greek,
believer or not, feels the faith of the disciples as he
reads.

Luke is able to move, with his sequence intact,
from speech to event, from narrative to interpretation,
without chopping up the story. It is fluid whether he is
listing Stephen's defense or Paul's shipWreck, or the
arguments over the care of Greek Widows.

He is not only the most versatile writer in the

New Testament but one of the most versatile of all
historians . . . the unity of Luke's style is pre-
served throughout both GOSpel and Acts is his char-
acteristic freedom of expression and in the range of
his vocabulary. Luke exhibits the science of the.
trained student and the skill of the artist is giving
a harmonious picture by the use of varied material.l9

Luke is given the title "literary artist" by
Robertson. He uses language for more than a vehicle of
facts; it has the sensitivity that goes beyond the communi-

cation of facts. He used the Koiné Greek, a vernacular

tongue, with a finish that reveals his intent to communicate.

 

19Ibid., p. 57.

15

20 His artistry like his

"He is fluent, but not prolix."
historiography were means not ends for his reportorial
purposes.

A variety of religious factors shaped Luke's

writing too. The flux of religious influences did not

just begin in Luke's day. It was part of his world as

he grew up and part of the world he was writing to. The
Jews were being Hellenized before the Christians of Jeru-
salem carried the messianic message of Jesus to the syna-
gOgues and finally the temples of the Greek world. Luke
not only had to report the spread of the gospel in his
world so that it could be understood by both Jew and Greek,
he had to understand the influences of Greek thought on the
Jewish disciples even before they became Christians. Gil-
bert explains:

In the process of assimilation of Greek culture
and philos0phy by the Jews there were two external
facts of primary importance. First, there was the
invasion of Palestine by Greek settlers, and second
the dispersion of Jews throughout the Greek world.21

. Luke was not only the recipient of all that this
interaction of religious-philosophical thought added to
his culture, he was, as every man is, a channel of it.

The fact that as a Christian he reported the actions of

the disciples as they interacted in the cultural millieu

 

201bid., p. 58.

21George Holley Gilbert, Greek Thought in the New
Testament (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928), p. 15.

 

 

16

of the first century did not reduce the influences that
he too had on that culture and on the disciples.

It would be poor scholarship to ignore Luke's
influence on the culture. He was part of the Christian
missionary team, as well as a product of the mission. He
was a reporter for what is called in his book "the way" as
well as a believer in it. He was a product of his Greek-
Hebrew world as well as an influence on it. And, it must
be clearly understood that culture means more than a style
of living.

Culture is the 'artificial secondary environment'
which man superimposes on the natural. It comprises
language, habits, ideas, customs, social organiza-
tions, inherited artifacts, technical processes and
values.2

These cultural influences made Luke a writer of
news not a recorder of events. He was not in a vacuum
but a man pushed and pulled and shaped as he sought to
clearly present what he saw happening in the church.

Another example of Luke's interpretive reporting
is that he learned to work with subjects foreign to himself
and present them in a way that made novice and expert
alike trust his accuracy. For example, Luke was very
careful in his presentation of seafaring matters, apparently

schooling himself so that he could accurately report events

at sea that occurred during the missionary journeys.

 

22Richard Neibuhr, Christ and Culture (New York:

Harper & Brothers, 1951), p. 32.

 

17

Navigation and voyages play a large part in the
'we' passages . . . . Three-fifths of the words
which are peculiar to the 'we' passages are techni-
cal terms relating to ships, parts of a ship, naval
officers, sea-winds, management of a ship, and
matters of navigation generally, and almost all of
them are nouns, while the few verbs without exception
denote actions required in seamanship. Such words
are forced on the writer by his subject; and . . .
it is a striking fact that in spite of the novelty
of the subject in Chapter 27, describing the ship-
wreck, the ordinary style and vocabulary are trace-
able with perfect clearness . . . 23

Luke was likewise careful in matters of geographical
detail.
If Josephus crosses Luke's path in historical
details, Strabo, in his geography travels much of
the same ground that Luke traces in the Acts. But
both Strabo and Xenophon tell much less than Luke
does concerning certain parts of Asia minor through
which Paul traveled.24
Luke did not simply copy detail, he understood the
details that he used because he wove them into his story,
not as a historian concerned only to list the facts, but
as a reporter writing for the people who were involved in
the events and lived in the places he described. He
seemed to make it his business to know what he was describ-
ing. For example, there is abundant evidence that Luke
uses the pOpular rather than the official names of pro-

vinces. His purpose was clarity and he had to work to

achieve it.

 

23Ramsey, op. cit., p. 38.

24Robertson, op. cit., p. 179.

18

All the more surprising . . . is the minute
accuracy of Luke in the matter of the Roman pro-
vinces. In the Roman Empire there were provinces
and vassal kingdoms. There were constant changes,
as can be seen in Palestine, which was a vassal
kingdom under Herod the Great.25

How did Luke handle the divisions, changes in
rulers, governors and provincial changes? "There was
constant interchange of provinces between the emperor
and the senate, but Luke ploughs his way safely through."26

Whether the factors that Luke handled were lin-
guistic, religious, political or the intricacies of Roman
law as it differed from Greek law, the evidence comes
through that Luke did the research and the backgrounding
as well as the interpretation needed to relate to his
readers with a reporter's skills.

The Acts is a news story, told by one who not only
covered the story but was part of it. Always the influ-
ences, the research and the writing were under the influ-
ence of his own faith. The man is in the story and the
man is a Christian. He gave himself to his task, and
wrote with "wholehearted consecration of his great gifts
and with high standards before his eyes."27

Luke's life and writing show a broad journalistic

perspective. It appears that during the years A. D. 45

to 64 he attempted to play the role of a perceptive and

 

251bid., p. 181.

2611511, p. 182.

27Ibid., p. 241.

l9

objective news reporter of the events surrounding the
action of the young Church and accurately interpreted the
essence of the gospel to a widely scattered heterogeneous
audience.

In discharging these responsibilities, he seems to
have fully appreciated the socio-economic and cultural
factors which tend to influence religious beliefs. His
theological expertise appears to have been especially
useful in presenting a cogent eye-witness account of the
church's historical events and the missionary journeys of
Paul. Luke's linguistic skills and socio-anthropological
insights helped him perform his role as a reporter of the
Christian Church-related events. It must necessarily be
assumed that the Apostle's role as a reporter was a func-
tion of his journalistic expertise and commitment to the

Christian faith.

The Problem

 

Statement of the Problem

 

Therefore, the study proposes (l) to investigate
and normatively assess the reportorial role of Luke the
apostle, (2) to analyze the influences that shaped his
thinking and writing, and (3) to examine the interaction
between religious, linguistic, cultural, political,
economic, geographical and social factors and the processes
through which he collated material for the Acts of the

Apostles.

20

It is hoped that this study will help to bridge
the research gap in the field of religious journalism,
particularly in biblical studies. Scholars who have
studied the Acts, and sought to interpret this work
either historically or theologically have sensed that
there is more to Luke's writing than that of a historian
and theologian. When the Acts is examined, however, on
the premise that Luke was in fact an interpretive reporter,
the gaps that have been left by the historical-theological

studies are filled.

Method of Research

 

The methods of research employed here will include
documentary and analytic techniques of historical research.

Specifically, the study will critically analyze
books, monographs, lectures, and theses written on the
Acts as a book of the Bible, and on Luke as an apostle.
This will be done by establishing the influential frame-
work of Luke's world to see how he functioned as a reporter
in the midst of the events he interpreted, and by research-
ing the published and unpublished works that pertain to
these events. Thus it will be necessary to collect and
research the biblical writings, commentaries, histories,
theological works, geographical materials, and linguistic
studies as well as exegetical works on the Acts and the
teaching of the disciples. Then, it will be necessary to
classify the material and analyze it for its influence on

the life and ministry of Luke. Finally, these influences

21

will be used as the framework for explaining the writing
of Luke.

Emphasis will be placed on the works of modern
scholars who have had the benefit of the great discoveries
of biblical materials from the Dead Sea area and the Qumran
community over the last thirty years. Weight will be given
to scholars who have tried to capture the design and con-
tent of Luke's writing rather than to those who have
written primarily to support a theological bias. It will
be necessary, however, to give variant views wherever
scholars disagree on issues that are critical to this
study.

The New English Bible will be used as the text for
the Acts because it is a modern translation from manu-
scripts considered by most scholars to be among the earli-

28 Reference will be made to Greek

est and best available.
texts whenever particular wording needs to be researched.
The text will provide the examples of Luke's reporting
skills with explanations coming from the writings of

scholars with varied theological and denominational back—

grounds.

 

281n 1947 archaeological discoveries of ancient

biblical manuscripts in the Wadi Qumran and the vicinity
north-west of the Dead Sea gave many quality texts to the
translators of the New English Bible.

 

Exception to the acclaim given the NEB by scholars
is taken by E. C. Collwell "External Evidence and New
Testament Criticism" in Studies and Documents, edited by
Jacob Geerling (Salt/Lake City: University of Utah Press,
1967). P. 3. '

 

22

Since the ideas on what makes a good reporter vary,
an attempt will be made to examine many authorities on
journalism to achieve a measure for Luke's reporting
skills that is universal rather than provincial. Real-
izing that Luke was a man of his age with Christian con-
victions of his own, this study will seek to determine the
quality of his reportorial objectivity as he wrote for the

public.

CHAPTER II

LUKE: THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE

Luke: The Greek Physician

 

Although the author of the Acts is not named in the
Bible, Luke, the writer of the third gospel, is universally
accepted as the author of the Acts.1 Therefore a closer
look at his life and message is needed.

Luke is mentioned only three times in the Bible,
all in the letters of Paul. To the Colossian Christians
Paul wrote, "Greetings to you from our dear friend, Luke,
the doctor" (Col. 4:14); to his friend Timothy he wrote,
while in his last imprisonment in Rome, "I have no one with
me but Luke" (2 Timothy 4:11); and to Philemon he wrote,
"Epaphras, Christ's captive like myself, sends you greet-
ings. So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow
workers" (Philemon 24). Paul lists Luke among the Greek
workers in the church. In Colossians, he gives the names
of all the Jewish Christians (Col. 4:10), then places

Luke's name in the list of Greek Christians (Col. 4:14).

 

lAlfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commen-

tary on the Gospel According to St. Luke (Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1922), p. xi.

23

24

Little is known about Luke's life before he joined
Paul on the missionary journeys. Studies on the deriva-
tion of his name by Robertson2 and Plummer3 indicate Greek
ancestry and extra-biblical writings such as Eusibius
(Hist. Eccl. 111.4) put his birthplace at AntiOCh in Syria.
This would make Luke an Asiatic Greek.

Since Luke's ancestry seems to be Greek, some
scholars have surmised that he became a convert to Judaism
before he became a Christian. Luke's heavy emphasis on
the Old Testament has caused scholars to search for evi-
dence of Jewish religious convictions. But Robertson,
after researching Luke's writing, concludes that he was
not a Jewish proselyte.4 His familiarity with the Jewish
Scriptures seems to have come from his thorough research
as a journalist rather than from Jewish convictions.

There is also much evidence supporting the belief
that Luke was, by training and practice, a physician.

Paul refers to him as a physician in Colossians 4:14.
Ramsay4 and Hobart6 substantiate this by their research
into the way Luke treated medical subjects, using medical

terms that only a medical man would have used; and, the

 

2Robertson, 0p. cit., p. 16.
3 . ...
Plummer, op. c1t., p. xv111.
4Robertson, op. cit., p. 18.

5Ramsay, op. cit., p. 56.

6William K. Hobart, The Medical Language of St.
Luke (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, & Co., 1882), p. xxx.

 

25

fact that healings are given such a prominent place in
Luke's writing with careful descriptions that show an
unusual interest.

Luke probably practiced medicine as he traveled
on the missionary journeys with Paul. His physician's
eye for diagnosis enhanced his reporter's observations,
and this combination of skills adds detail to his writing.
The muscular healing of the beggar lame from birth tells
as much about Luke the reporter as it does about Luke the
physician.

One day at three in the afternoon, the hour of
prayer, Peter and John were on their way up to the
temple. Now a man who had been a cripple from
birth used to be carried there and laid every day
by the gate of the temple called 'Beautiful Gate,‘
to beg from people as they went in. When he saw
Peter and John on their way into the temple he asked
for charity. But Peter, fixed his eyes on him, as
John did also, and said, 'Look at us." Expecting
a gift from them, the man was all attention. And
Peter said, "I have no silver or gold; but what I
have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, walk." Then he grasped him by the right
hand and pulled him up; and at once his feet and
ankles grew strong; he Sprang up, stood on his feet
and started to walk.7

Luke did not just relate an illustration of
miraculous healing here. He noted the details; i.e., it
was the right hand that Peter grasped; he "sprang up" not
rising slowly; both Peter and John "fixed" their eyes on
him. These are reportorial details that could have been

missed in the simple recording that a lame man was healed.

But there is more than a reporter's eye for detail in this

 

7Acts 3:1-8, The New English Bible.

 

26

story. Luke as a physician, noted that the man had been
lame from birth and must have thought of the atrophied
muscles and sinews and the unused bones which would start
to work after forty years of sitting (Acts 4:22).

But Luke was also able to separate his physician's
role from his role as a reporter. He wanted people to
know about the healing power of God as it was demonstrated
through the disciples, but he reported only the public
cases, not the private ones. The lame beggar (Acts 3:1-8)
and the cripple at Lystra (Acts 14:8-9) were public heal-
ings, and were prOper subjects for the reporter to des-
cribe for his readers. But Luke was also the attending
physician for Paul who was often ill (2 Cor. 12:7; Gal.
4:13; 2 Cor. 1:3-5, 8-10). The reporter who could describe
in detail the public illnesses of other people was pro-
fessionally silent about his own patient.

It is likely that Luke did give medical help to

Paul. They seem to have met first at Troas (Acts
16:10 when the narration changes from saying what
'they' did to what 'we' did) and this was just after
Paul had been in Galatia (where we have seen from
Gal. 4:13 that he was ill); they were together again
at Philippi (Acts 20:6 ff) immediately after Paul had
been in Macedonia (and that was where he wrote his
second letter to Corinth in which he spoke in 1:8-10
of such a serious illness). Luke was with Paul on
the final journey to Rome. Paul's ill health is
reflected in the courteous treatment which Julius

the centurion extended to him giving him '1eave to
go to his friends and be cared for' (Acts 27:3).8

 

8Gordon Robinson, New Testament Detection (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 178.

 

27

Luke, the physician and reporter, was also Luke
the disciple and friend of the people who made up his
story. Always these two parts of his life must be
examined together in order to appreciate his journalistic
work. How he handled his work as a writer and disciple
can best be seen by first outlining the story of Acts,
and then examining the way that he wrote it.

Luke: The Author of EarlyfiChristian
Church History

 

 

In the Acts, Luke recalls the commission given to
the disciples (Acts 1:8), and records the progressive
stages by which the commission is to be fulfilled. Chap-
ters one through seven concern the early church in Jeru-
salem; chapters eight through twelve deal with the church
in Judea and Samaria; and chapters thirteen through twenty-
eight delineate the church universal as the gospel is

carried beyond the Jewish regions.

 

9McNeile does a rather elaborate description of
what he calls literary "panels" that break the Acts into
six periods. His Introduction to the New Testament (1953),
p. 98, calls attention to C. J. Cadoux (in Journal of
Theolpgical Studies, xix, 1918, pp. 333 ff.) who suggests
that "St. Luke splits the history into six periods of five
years each, beginning with the Pentecosts of 29, 34, 39,
44, 49, 54, thus covering a total period of thirty years."

He elaborates further on the panel theory by refer-
ring to C. H. Turner's panels ("Chronology of the New
Testament" in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, i. 421).
These panels go by historical development, each concluding
with some remark that summarizes the events recorded and

 

 

 

 

the success attained. Turner's six periods are: l) The
Church in Jerusalem, summary in 6:7; 2) Extension of the
Church through Palestine, summary in 11:31; 3) Extension

of the Church to Antioch, summary in 12:24; 4) Extension
of the Church to Asia Minor, summary in 16:5; 5) Extension
of the Church to EurOpe, summary in 19:20; 6) Extension of
the Church to Rome, summary in 28:31.

28

The Early Church in Jerusalem

 

Luke begins the Acts by letting the reader appre-
ciate the anticipation of the church as it gathered after
the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, and waited
for the promised indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The dis-
ciples had a commission to "Bear witness for me in Jeru-
salem, and all Judea and Samaria, and always to the ends
of the earth," (Acts 1:8).

That power, Luke records, was given and the rest
of his story is the working of that power in the disciples'
lives as they carried the gospel into the world. An
aggressive preaching ministry created opposition from the
religious leaders. But, although imprisonment was used

to hinder and frighten the disciples, the new movement

spread.

The Church in Judea and Samaria

 

The story is woven around Philip a Greek, Peter
an uneducated Jew who had experienced the life, ministry,
death and resurrection of Jesus, and Saul of Tarsus a
rabbi and possible student of Gamaliel, whose conversion
brought Old Testament teaching and evangelical zeal to
the wider mission of the church. It is the story of per-
secutions that strengthened rather than limited the faith—
fulness of the young church to its cause; and, it is the
story of Herod, a king who was determined to keep his

realm in order.

29

Luke does not dwell on the persecution because
his story is larger than that, but he reports it as a
strong factor in the scattering of the disciples as far
north as Phoenicia, Cyrpus and Antioch. At Troas, Luke

joined the disciples.

The Church Universal

 

It is here that the narrative of the story incor-

porates the we passages. Luke began to write what he
himself observed and participated in. It is the story of
Paul's three missionary journeys and his final journey

as a prisoner to Rome. This is the longest section of
the three-part narrative.

The center of the faith had moved from Jerusalem
to Antioch, from the Jews to the Gentiles, and Luke records
the story of this movement with all of the intrigue and
interwoven problems that is intrinsic to every great move-
ment. He told Theophilus at the beginning what he intended
to do, and with deliberate skill, he did it. His narrative
has a steady and regular forward movement.

Luke's story is a news story. The people in the
narrative are described as they acted, without bias or
Opinion. Luke does not hush up the dispute over the care
of widows; the boldness of the disciples in the face of
persecution is told without flourish; and the disciples'
relationship with one another is described with both the

strengths and weaknesses of men who have a common cause

but do not always see eye to eye on the way to work

30

for that cause. The disciples are totally involved in
the social scene and Luke does not separate them from it.
The characters in Luke's story are not described as pic-
turesque saints, but men of human frailty who try to
remain obedient to their commission. In writing as he
did, Luke gave the human interest angle that journalisti-
cally permits the reader to identify with the people in

the story.

An Examination of Luke's Reportorial Skills

 

Reading the text of the Acts provides indices of
Luke's skill as a reporter. Although the term "journalist"
suggests formal training and the practice of certain pro-
fessional roles, it must be understood that this title is

given Luke on a post hoc or ad hoc basis. A look at Luke's

 

work under the guidelines of accepted journalistic prac-
tices shows how remarkably close to prescribed journalistic
standards he came.

Writing in Journalism Quarterly, Philip M. Burgess

 

and Paul S. Underwood list three traditional areas impor-
tant to the training of a journalist, particularly for
international journalism, the kind of journalism undertaken
by Luke. They list: "1) The development of writing
skills; 2) the acquisition and internalization of the norms
and ethical standards of the profession; and 3) the devel-

Opment and practice of skills of observation, reporting and

31

interpretation."10

Along with these, say Burgess and
Underwood, must go social analysis skills. An analysis
of Luke's reportorial skills will show that Luke possessed

all of these parameters.

The Development of Writing Skills

 

It has already been shown that Luke had an orderly
plan in mind as he wrote the Acts. His introductory
remarks to Theophilus serve as a commitment to purpose
and he was obligated by that commitment to write a clear
narrative. It has also been shown that his diagnostic
and reportorial skills gave him an eye for detail, but his
commitment and eye for detail were valuable only to the
extent that he exercised his skill as a writer.

Scholars have studied Luke's Gospel more exten-
sively than the Acts. In the Gospel studies, Luke has
been highly praised as a writer with original writing
skills--skills that are liberated from the confinement
of the style of his sources. Many scholars assume that
Mark was Luke's prime source of information for the Gos-
pel. But, because Luke rewrites the material freely,
transposes the order of events for clarity, and has so
freed himself from Mark, a few biblical scholars like
P. Feine (Eine Vorkanonische Uberlieferung des Lukas in

Evangelium und Apostelgeschichte), and G. Streeter (The

 

 

10Philip M. Burgess and Paul S. Undersood, "New
Approaches to Educating the International Student," in
Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, p. 520.

 

32

Four Gospels), have suggested that he had some other

 

source called "proto—Luke." Creed, however, accepts
Luke's Marcan sources and credits him with being a writer
of such skill that it made possible his independent
treatment of the gospel narrative.
An examination of Luke's treatment of the Marcan
text shows him to have carried through a drastic
revision of the language. The characteristic Marcan
idioms are obliterated, and the whole narrative is
made smoother and more consecutive.
He has no scruple in transposing (e.g. vi. 12f.,
viii. l9, xviii. 35), or fusing recorded events
(e.g. xix. 45) if by so doing he will improve the
literary connection or the dramatic setting.11
The same creative writing skills that Luke put
into his Gospel are also found in his second book, the
Acts. Heretofore, many scholars had given weight to the
assumption (as they did with the GOSpel) that Luke was a
borrower. They assumed that the Acts, since it had no
counterparts, had to be made up of literary borrowings
‘from Paul.

Plummer has compiled tables, comparing words and
phrases in the Acts with like words and phrases in the
letters of Paul.12 These are intended to show that Luke

did, in fact, borrow his literary technique from Paul.

But this is to ignore a widely held assumption that

 

11John Martin Creed, The GOSpel According to St.
Luke (London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd., 1957), p. 1xi.
12Alfred Plummer, "A Critical and Exegetical Com-
mentary on the GOSpel According to St. Luke," International
Critical Commentagy (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1922),
pp. liv-lix.

 

 

 

33

language is a socio-cultural phenomenon. Since Luke and
Paul held the same religious convictions, traveled together
on missionary journeys and used the same Koiné Greek that
was common to the people of their day, it is, then, likely
that they showed similarities in their use of language.
Even today it is not unusual for people in a close rela-
tionship to use one another's vocabulary. It would be
unusual if Luke and Paul did not use similar words and'
phrases as they explained the Christian message to their
contemporaries. But this in no way detracts from Luke's
literary abilities. Luke expressed his intention to Theo-.
philus of wanting to communicate the church events and
since he is writing to a Christian, it seems natural that
he would use words and phrases that were common to the
preaching of churchmen like Paul.

The disciples were communicating a message and the
message was as much a part of Luke's story as the way that K
it was communicated. The message was bound to sound the
same in Luke's writings and Paul's because of the close
contact between Paul and the disciples who were proclaim-
ing the message, and Luke who was reporting its proclama-
tion. Luke's quotations from Paul's speeches would
naturally contain words that Paul also used in his letters.
And, theological terms that the disciples used to proclaim
the Christian message would appear in Paul's letters and

in Luke's explanation of the proclamation in the Acts.

34

The best test of Luke's writing skills is not how
he compared with other New Testament writers, but how he
used the language itself. An examination of Luke's work
strictly on the basis of writing style shows clearly that
his prime purpose was the purpose of every journalist--
communication. Creed, in his explanation of Luke's
treatment of the gOSpel, gives some insights that show the
author of Acts to be a first rate reporter.l3

Creed describes Luke's introduction to Theophilus
as a sentence that is carefully balanced and done in irre-
proachable literary Greek. Luke could have composed a
beautiful piece of literary prose in both the Gospel and
the Acts. His education and facility with the language
gave him the needed talent for that kind of writing. Were
he simply a historian or a theologian or an essayist, his
purpose would have been served by using this purer Greek
prose that he used in his introduction. But Luke's pur-
pose was reportorial with a larger goal than beauty and
style. For, immediately after expressing his intent to
TheOphilus in literary Greek, he made an abrupt change to
the Koiné or common Greek that characterizes the rest of
his writing. Creed explains:

The transition proves the author to be a con-

scious artist. He could, if he wished, have written

throughout as a professional man of letters; if he
does not maintain his polished and polite style, it

 

l3Creed, Op. cit., pp. ixi ff.

35
is because he judges it unsuitable to tranSpose
the traditional material into another idiom.l4

The people in the church and the marketplace
understood the common Greek and so, in the interest of
good reportorial purpose, that's the idiom Luke chose to
use. Furthermore, because of the Hellenizing of the Jews
and the same influence of Hebraisms among the Greeks, the
peOple had a mixture of words in their common market-place
language that had roots in both Greek and Hebrew culture.
Luke captured this so well that some scholars have supposed
that he was using a form of Semitic-Greek dialect. But,
Papyri discovered in Egypt has shown that the Greek used
was not a dialect of Hebrew-Greek but the common Greek of
the empire, mixed as it was because of the cross-currents
of people and languages.

Luke, then, did not use the Semitic-Greek of Jews
whose formal language was Hebrew (or in many cases Aramaic)
nor the classical Greek of the sophisticated Greek writer,
but the Koiné of the marketplace, the dialect that the
people (even many Romans) used in their daily conversa-
tions. It was a dialect limited in vocabulary but a
dialect that everyone understood throughout an empire tra-
versed by the missionaries and inhabited by the converts
to Christianity. Luke, as a journalist, used the language

form that communicated most clearly to all of the peOple.

 

14Ibid., p. 1xxvi.

36

The Acquisition and Internalization of
the Norms and Ethical Standards of
the Profession

 

 

 

The internalization of the norms of journalism
causes a reporter to seek out the story that needs to be
told. It is not a job, it is an attribute. Luke seems
to have possessed this attribute.

The introduction to Theophilus has been examined
both from the standpoint of the expression of Luke's
self-imposed requirement for systematic organization and
clarity and from the angle of his literary skill.

It can serve again here to show the burden Luke
felt to present clearly the life of Jesus in his Gospel
and the events that formed and shaped the infant church
and its message about Jesus. Luke makes it plain that he
wants to get the story and he wants it to be read. In
his introduction to the Acts, when he again addressed
Theophilus, he reemphasized his avowed purpose of having
the same orderly account in the Acts as he attempted to
render in the gOSpel. But in his comment to Theophilus
he is doing more than just telling his plan. He is saying
to his reading public "there is no fakery or falsehood in
what I am writing." The Acts was to be no poetic piece
dedicated to the Muses, but an accurate narrative with
details that could be checked, and was dedicated to a real
person.

That TheOphilus is a real person, and not a

symbolical personage representing devout Christians
in general, is scarcely doubtful . . . the name was

37

a very common one . . . . Moreover, the epithet
Kpdtiote is far more likely to have been given
to a real person than to a fictitious one.

Luke, like every reporter, was concerned to get
an accurate story, but he was also sensitive to the feel-
ings of the reading public. Though he was free to write
as he would, even to change and adjust the material from
his sources to suit his journalistic style, and was care-
ful to use the dialect of the people, he nevertheless
maintained high standards in his writing.

Good writers in Luke's day were alert to Phryni-

16 These words were

chus' list of condemned vulgarisms.
not immoral words (as in cursing) so much as they were
simply not used in better speech. Where there seems to
have been only a preference for a particular word in
Phrynichus' list because of custom, Luke freely made his
own choice to suit his writing. Luke does not hesitate
to use the word "orthros" to describe the period before
daybreak, even though Phrynichus lists it as an unaccept-
able word. But, when there was a word or phrase that

was offensive, Luke corrected these words and phrases
from his sources and used the words and phrases that were

considered more proper by Phrynichus. Luke was no mere

COpyist writing directly from his sources but a responsible

 

15 . ...
Plummer, op. c1t., p. xxx111.

16For a longer list of Phrynichus' condemned words
see J. M. Creed, The Gospel According to St. Luke, pp.
lxxxii ff.

 

38

reporter who was sensitive to the feelings of his reading
public. A few examples will substantiate this sensitivity.

Phrynichus condemns the use of the word pppmg
"corpse" or "carcass." Matthew uses it in his Gospel when
quoting a parable of Jesus and Mark uses it in describing
the burial of John the Baptist, and John the Elder uses it
three times in The Revelation, but Luke does not use it,
changing the word to the acceptable word ppmg.

Raphis "needle" is condemned by Phrynichus; Luke
substitutes belonae, the word which Phrynichus endorses.
Luke substitutes aepais "maiden" for the more common but
proscribed word korasion "little girl."

But this respect for the feelings of the reader
does not mean that Luke sacrificed journalistic accuracy
or was a timid writer. There was no evidence that he
shaped the news or shaded it for his readers. For example,
even though as a physician he remained silent about Paul's
illnesses, he was not protecting Paul. He reported with-
out apparent qualms Paul's outburst, "God will strike you,
you whitewashed wall," (Acts 23:3) when Paul was furious
at the high priest Ananias for having him struck in the
mouth by attendants.

One other distinct point marks Luke as a reporter
who had internalized the norms of the profession. He was
ready to gather material for his story any time and any
place. Luke had the advantage of being free while Paul

was in prison and no doubt interviewed peOple and filled

39

in the gaps in his narrative during that time. No scholar
has labeled him a reporter, yet all give evidence that he
researched, questioned and investigated. Robertson's
portrayal comes closer to characterizing Luke as a pro-
fessional journalist than that of any other scholar.
Robertson suggests:

One would feel sure that Luke would make it his
business while in Palestine to seek interviews with
important persons who could add bits of color to his
narrative about Christ. . . . A few questions would
draw out much information which Luke would be quick
to jot down.17

This, Robertson admits, is a feeling. But it

seems that if he had put the same study into the Acts as
he put into the Gospel, he would find the same kind of
interviews and data gathering. Without realizing it,
Robertson was describing a journalist.

The Development and Practice of

Skill of Observation, Reporting
and Interpretation

 

 

 

When scholars assume that Luke c0pied from other
writers, or was influenced by other sources, and therefore
any originality in his work has to be due to some form of
corruption in his sources, they run into a problem. An
example from Acts 7:16 will illustrate a problem that is
easily handled when Luke is seen as a reporter of skill
and his intent to write an orderly account is taken

seriously.

 

l7Robertson, 0p. cit., p. 48.

40

In his article, "Style and Text in the Greek New
Testament,"18 G. D. Kilpatrick refers to Luke's account
of one of Stephen's speeches: "There he ended his days,
as also our forefathers did. Their remains were later
removed to Shechem and buried in the tomb which Abraham
had bought and paid for from the clan of Emmor at Shechem"
(Acts 7:16). This is a passage quoted from Genesis 50:13
which translates in the Septuagint (the translation that
Stephen would have used) mnemeion for the word "tomb."
But Luke writes mppmg which has the same meaning but is
different from the LXX and different from the word for
tomb he uses elsewhere. Kilpatrick, treating Luke as a
mere copyist, gives three possible explanations for this
change in Acts from the LXX: 1) that mnemeion was cor-
rupted to magma in all the manuscripts of Acts by scribes
who sought to make all of the manuscripts consistent;

2) that Luke was using a particular text of the LXX that,
unlike the others had mpppg instead of mnemeion; or, 3)
that all of the LXX texts had been corrupted by copiers
before Luke did his research.

It is possible that Luke was using a text of the
LXX that had the change in it, but to accept Kilpatrick's
first and third suggestions is to deny what almost every

scholar of ancient biblical texts admits-~that the ancient

 

18G. D. Kilpatrick, "Style and Text in the Greek
New Testament" in Studies and Documents, Vol. xxix, edited
by Jacob Geerling TSalt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1967), p. 157.

 

41

scribes feared to change even one iota of what they con-
sidered to be Holy Writ. Their reputation for care in
transcribing the Bible is well attested by scholars.

Kilpatrick overlooks a fourth possibility for
Luke's use of a different word, that being a reporter,
Luke used the word magma because it is the word that
Stephen used in his speech. Since mnemeion and mppmg
have the same meaning, Stephen could have learned the
Old Testament passage the way that he said it. Or, being
a Greek he may not have had a good foundation in Old
Testament scripture and misquoted the passage. Certainly,
in the impromptu circumstances of preaching at his own
trial just before he was taken out and stoned, he did not
have time to research the passage. Also, Stephen may
have used the word by choice. Certainly Luke is not con-
fused about the two words because he uses mnemeion else-
where in his writing. It seems logical to conclude, then,
that Luke was quoting Stephen directly and was not the
hapless victim of poor sources as Kilpatrick makes him out
to be. This dilemma facing Kilpatrick would have been
easily solved if he had taken Luke's intentions as a
journalist seriously. The questions he raises are answered
by Luke's stated intention to write a connective narrative
and give authentic knowledge.

During the time that Luke was gathering his
material for the Acts, he was with Paul and Paul's compan-

ions. It is probable that he was acquainted with most of

42

the twelve. His interviews and probing research give evi-
dence of purpose as a reporter because he gives his readers
more than the simple facts of a story. He surrounds his
stories with details coming from his careful observation.
"Some of the Lucan narratives give us a little story com-
plete in itself, in which the differing characters and
conflicting motives of the actors contribute to the
whole."19

Such a complete story is given in Acts 21-22.
Paul, in A.D. 57 was rescued by Roman soldiers from crowds
threatening to lynch him in the Court of the Gentiles. He
was permitted by the military tribune to address the crowd
from the top of the steps leading from that court to the
Antonia fortress. Luke does not content himself with the
report of the near riots, the arrest, or Paul's speech.
He adds the finishing touch that is so characteristic of
his reportorial observations and interpretive reporting.
Luke writes: "He addressed them in the Jewish language"
(Acts 21:40). Paul had been speaking to the commander in
Greek and it seems a minor point that Luke makes about his
switching tongues. But when the reason for the switch is
understood it becomes obvious that Luke was no mere recorder
of events but a skillful interpretive reporter.

F. F. Bruce teaches that in that period Hebrew,

Aramaic and Greek were used by the peOple with equal

 

19Creed, op. cit., p. lxviii.

43

facility depending on the circumstances. But there was a
feeling among the Jews that to use Hebrew or Aramaic was
more patriotic. For the stricter Palestinian Jews, Greek
smacked of Hellenization, and although they used Greek
they objected to the Greek influences in their lives.
This feeling was compounded toward Paul who was preaching
to the Gentiles.

The crowds would have expected Paul to speak Greek,
and would have understood him well enough if he had. But,
he chose Hebrew and quieted them emotionally as he
attempted to show them what he was doing. Luke did not
miss this crucial point. His skill and observation moved
him past the simple recording of the speech and the events
surrounding it. His readers were given the opportunity
to be present and catch Paul's intent as he addressed the
crowd. The story could only have been presented this way
by one who was alert to all of the circumstances and
wanted his readers to know the emotion as well as the
facts of the event.

This same quality of observation and interpretation
can be seen in the line, "It was in Antioch that the dis-
ciples first got the name of Christians" (Acts 11:26).

The story was about the scattering of the disciples because
of persecution and their preaching at Antioch. The line

is of no consequence to the story but has much to say about
the origin of the word "Christian." The believers did not

name themselves and Luke realized that this distinguished

44

them from other self—named religious groups. They were
called believers, Nazarenes, or followers of the way, but
not "Christians" before Antioch. Luke was alert to this
minute change in labels that took place in Antioch and
related it to his readers. It changes nothing of the
story but shows the careful reporting that enabled him

to note the difference in epithets used by the people of
that particular city. It is a Greek term, and as Bruce
explains:

Jews would not have given them a name containing
the element "Christ" (the Greek equivalent of
Messiah), for that would have been tantamount to
admitting that Jesus, whose followers these people
were, was indeed the Messiah. To Gentiles, however,
Christ was merely a name (if rather an odd one), with
none of the religious associations which it had for
Jews; and so, as they heard these people talk so much
about their Lord and Savior as Christos, they called
them Christianoi, "Christ's people."20

Luke's observation, his ability to note and des-

cribe the details that fill out and accentuate a story,
also reveals his attempts at conquering his own bias.

He was a Greek, a Christian, a missionary and a journalist.
These were all influential to his writing, but he seems to
have attempted to be fair. The report of the choosing of
the seven deacons illustrates his ability to separate his
feelings and report with balance and fairness.

During this period, when disciples were growing

in number, there was disagreement between those of
them who spoke Greek and those who spoke the language

 

2OF. F. Bruce, "The Dawn of Christianity," Vol. I,
The Spreading Flame (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman's
Publishing Co., 1953), p. 102.

 

45

of the Jews. The former party complained that their

widows were being overlooked in the daily distribu-

tion. So the Twelve called the whole body of disci-

ples together and said, 'It would be a grave mistake

for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait

at table. Therefore, friends, look out seven men of

good reputations from your number, men full of the

Spirit and of wisdom, and we will appoint them to

deal with these matters, while we devote ourselves

to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.I This

proposal proved acceptable to the whole body. They

elected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy

Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,

and Nicolas of Antioch, a former convert to Judaism.

These they presented to the apostles, who prayed and

laid their hands on them.21

Luke did not comment on the way that this selection

took place, but he did name the seven, an unnecessary part
of the story since only Stephen and Philip were mentioned
again and many other active people in the church were
never mentioned. But it seems he was showing an attitude
as well as documenting his work. All of the men chosen,
judging from their names, were Greek. It was the Hellenists
who were complaining, yet the church leaders in Jerusalem
elected all Greeks to handle the distribution. Luke was
showing that in Christ the believers had no bias nor fear
that they would be used by groups within the church. What-
ever his own feelings about the issue, Luke gives no cause
for Hebrew or Greek Christians to complain about his report-
ing. At no point does Luke reveal anger at either party,

and his listing of the names says more about their oneness

than any interpretive comments could have done. Again, it

 

21Acts 6:1-6, The New English Bible.

 

46

is the full account, not merely the recording of facts
and events, that makes Luke the true journalist.

One other vignette points to Luke's alert eye for
detail and ability to report so that the interpretation
is part of the story. It is the story of Philip meeting
the Ethiopian eunuch.

Then the angel of the Lord said to Philip,

"Start out and go south to the road that leads
down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is the desert
road.) So he set out and was on his way when he
caught sight of an Ethiopian. This man was a
eunuch, a high official of the Kandake, or ueen,
of EthiOpia, in charge of all her treasure.

The story goes on to tell how Philip explained the
Messianic passages of Isaiah the Prophet to the Ethiopian,
and how he responded by asking for baptism. The story of
his conversion is complete in itself but Luke adds the
fine details. He tells how Philip happened to be on the
road and exactly what road he was on. Luke had researched
the event before he wrote about it. He checked his geo-
graphy, found the official's exact office and reason for
being in Jerusalem (8:28) and the particular passage that
he had been reading aloud, and from which Philip was able
to explain to him the Messiah.

In a book that puts twenty or more years into
twenty-eight chapters, Luke had to omit much detail. Yet,

when he wrote this story he added every bit of detail that

he could, giving a full and complete account as he promised

 

22Acts 8:26 ff., The New English Bible.

 

47

Theophilus. By eliminating detail, he might have added
more events to his story, but he was a practicing reporter
and the story he told had to be complete because it was a
story about people for people--and more than facts were
involved.

Luke fits the description of a journalist as des-
cribed by Burgess and Underwood. Luke's abilities as a
journalist have been examined, but this examination so
far has only shown what he did and how he did it. The
influences upon Luke's life and work must also be examined
in order to fully comprehend his work as a journalist.

Luke's life as Greek, physician, Christian and
writer are only part of the making of this first century
journalist. There were more influences that shaped him
as he gathered material for the writing of the Acts. His
world was an influence upon him and it contained stimuli
that was religious, linguistic, cultural, political,
economic, geographical and social. To understand the

reporter requires an understanding of his world.

CHAPTER III

PERSPECTIVE ON THE SOCIO-CULTURAL

CONTEXT OF LUKE'S WORLD

As a practicing journalist in the first century,
Luke reported the develOpmental stages of the Christian
Church. To do so, he had to understand the context of
the environment that affected his reporting. In this
chapter the religious, linguistic, cultural, political,
economic, geographical and social influences upon Luke's

reporting will be analyzed.

The Religious Influences

 

The Christian message was tempered by the religious
climate in which it was preached. Luke, therefore, inter-
preted the adaptation not by drawing attention to it but by
accurately reporting the preaching and attitudes of the
disciples as they moved within it. Luke described the
church's mission as it interacted with both the Jewish and
Graeco-Roman religious beliefs. Luke never described the
Christian witness as an Opposition to the established
beliefs, but rather as the fulfillment of them. At no

place in his reporting did he redicule other religions,

48

49

but neither did he allow his readers to believe that
Christianity was just one of many religions. Like a
modern communicator, he described the witnessing church
as part of the overall religious community, influenced by
it and working within it.

When the disciples were witnessing to the Jews,
Luke included the Old Testament Scriptures in his narra-
tive. When the witness was carried to the Greek world,
Luke reported the message of the fulfillment of their
spiritual hunger in Jesus Christ. He reported how the
disciples planted the Christian gospel in the religious
tradition of the Jews and Greeks. He demonstrated his
awareness that the message of the church was not a nega-
tive reaction to the religious environment of the people
but rather a positive presentation about Jesus Christ
within that environment.

An example of Luke's awareness of the religious
context in which the gospel was being communicated is
found in his treatment of miracles. Luke was careful to
avoid the impression that the gospel presentation was
based on the working of miracles. He recorded the mira-
cles as part of news reporting; he did not make them the
main story. In Acts 8, Simon the magician wanted the
miracle working power of the disciples so that he could
have a following. Luke could have eliminated the chance
of his reader's thinking that the Christian faith was

just a miracle working religion by not reporting the

50

miracles. But the miracles were part of the mission work
and the peOple responded to them. So Luke risked the
reader's misunderstanding for journalistic accuracy.

The first religious opposition that Luke reported
came from the Jews in Jerusalem. He reported that the
general Jewish public reSponded to the message but that
it was the Jewish leaders who were critical and annoyed
because the disciples were teaching the people directly.
It was jealousy (Acts 5:17) more than theology that
brought the Opposition.

Their faith in Christ led the Christians to give
new interpretations to Old Testament teachings, interpre-
tations that established Judaism could not accept. The
Christian view Of God working in history was Jewish and
markedly different from the prevailing Greek view of God.
Luke as a Greek understood this, and was able to interpret
a movement that the Jewish common man could identify with
and yet was the kind of movement that added the dimension
of personal faith needed by the Greeks. Luke was able to
interpret the appeal that the gOSpel held for both the Jews
and the Greeks.

When the disciples were persecuted by the Jews,
they began to preach to the Greeks. But it was not a dir-
ect move. Luke leads his readers from Palestine into the
Greek world by way of Samaria where the people were
despised by the orthodox Jews of Palestine. The Jews

regarded them as racial and religious half-breeds because

51

of the Assyrian foreign settlers in Samaria and the sacred
hill which was thought of as a rival to the sacred temple
in Jerusalem.

So it was a bold step for these Jewish Christians
to preach to the people Of Samaria. In the overall pic-
ture of the growth of the Christian Church, this brief
venture into Samaria could probably have been ignored.

But to the journalist Luke, it was an answer to the ques-
tion that many of his readers would have asked, ”How
could the Jewish disciples go directly from the Jews to
the Greeks with the gospel?" Luke showed that they did
not.

Having reported this intermediate step, the stage
was set for Luke to explain the scattering of the disciples
to preach to the dispersed Jews throughout the Gentile
world and the resulting influences from the Greek reli-
gions.

Among the Greeks, religion was everywhere--but not
personalized. Tenney explains:

The entire religious culture of the past was
represented by the buildings and rites of pagan
worship; its legends and ethics were ingrained
into the peOple; and as Christianity slowly pene-
trated the fabric of society, it met the resist-
ance of these antecedents.l

The Greeks had no objection to the teaching about

another god, but would not listen to the teachings of a

faith that was personalized. Gnosticism tolerated new

 

lMerril C. Tenney, New Testament Times (Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 112.

 

52

thought, but not dogmatic theology. This Opposition was
compounded by a sense of history and patriotism that made
the Greeks defensive of their gods because their gods

were a part of their heritage. Luke reported this encounter
between committed believers in one Saving God and the

varied beliefs of people whose religious loyalties changed
with the local, the degree of nostalgia that each held for
his favorite god and the amount of loyalty each held for

the integrity of the Greek state.

The simplicity of reporting the encounter between
the Christians and the Jews was replaced by the Complexity
of the Greek beliefs. Luke had to be alert to every new
encounter if he was going to make sense to his readers.

Filson, in The New Testament Against Its Environment,

 

gives an indication of what Luke encountered as a reporter:
Athens and the other cities had their gods. The
guilds had theirs. The governments had theirs, and
in many cases even claimed that their sensual rulers
were divine. In government, religion, business,
amusement, labor and social clubs the pagan world
was built on the pattern Of polytheism.2
Rome was losing control of the old Roman religions
when the Acts was written. The educated were becoming
more skeptical, an increase in foreign slaves and the shift
in population from the rural areas to the cities reduced

the number of worshipers of the local and village deities.

Octavian had tried to bring back the old Roman religions.

 

2Floyd V. Filson, The New Testament Against Its
Environment (London: S.C.M. Press, 1950), p. 29.

 

53

He thought that it would be a way of giving solidarity
and integrity to the state. But it was artificial, all
it did was create a nostalgic feeling for the past.

It was into this religious ferment that the
Christians moved. Luke's reportorial eye had to pick
out each distinct influence as it was brought to bear on
the Christians. He had to understand and then put into
his writing the shades of differences between the various
religions encountered as the disciples moved about. Yet
he had to keep his story moving smoothly, allowing his
readers to see these influences and feel the pressures
but at the same time not allow his story to become a dis-
course on non-Christian beliefs.

Whether it was Jewish temple politics, the popular
Greek cult of Eleusis, the Egyptian cult of Serapis,
Atargatis of Syria or the powerful cult of Mithra, Luke
had to understand them and interpret them to his readers.
He had to show how these various beliefs influenced the
disciples' preaching without spending all of his time on
religious discussions. And, he had to understand theolo-
gically how they conflicted with the faith he held. For
as a reporter in this religious ferment, his loyalty was
to the Christian church. In this sense, Luke was not a
detached reporter, but he was an Objective one. His
reporting was interpretive and truthful. Through-his
reporting the reader was given the Christian message even

as he was given the report of the preaching of the Christian

54

message. Luke seems to have been concerned to render
objective truth at all times. A careful reading of the
Acts shows this concern to have been an asset. It caused
him to seek out even obscure facts and details to document
his story.

As a reporter, Luke did not ignore the other reli-
gions influencing the disciples. His readers, living
under similar influences, would have been able to identify
the pressure and antagonism caused by the encounter of the

various religions by the Christian missionaries.

The Linguistic Influences

The Acts was written by a Greek using the Greek
language. But this is not simply a conclusion to be
stated; it is rather a point of departure wherein Luke,
the Greek, using his own language reported and interpreted
the influences of several languages upon the preaching of
the disciples.

The use of the Greek language in the Acts can be
understood only when the linguistic influences upon the
author using the language is understood. Luke's thinking
and writing was shaped by four languages, and by the cul-
tures in which those languages developed.

Greek, one of the languages, was the speech of the
educated Hellenized classes, and was the medium of both
cultural and commercial interaction between the Jews and
the foreigner. Latin was the language of the Roman occu-

pation army. Latin borrowings have been found in the

55

common tongue Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the
majority of the people in Palestine. Together with Hebrew,
Aramaic provided the chief means of communication for the
Palestinians. Hebrew was the sacred tongue of the Jewish
scriptures. In Hebrew the lettered Jew had an important
means of literary expression. It was the language Of the
learned, particularly the rabbis. SO from the day of
Pentecost, when the disciples first preached in Jerusalem,
to the reporting of Paul's last imprisonment in Rome, Luke
was continually researching and reporting events described
and influenced by various tongues.

But all of these languages influenced each other,
too. Just as the use of Latin in law and commerce influ-
enced Aramaic, so Greek influenced Hebrew and Hebrew
influenced Greek. Luke chose to use Koiné instead of the
more classical Greek because all of the people used this
tongue some of the time. It means, though, that the peo-
ple would have brought into the Koiné many variations from
their own principal tongue.

Strong suggests that this maze of languages was
not without its effect on Luke's reporting. For, just as
he sought to report events from the languages in which
these events occurred, so he also adjusted to the community
and whatever primary language influences were brought into

the secondary language.3

 

3Augustus H” Strong, ngular Lectures on the Books
of the New Testament (Philadelphia: The Judson Press,
1914), p. 144.

 

 

56

This kind Of awareness could not come from the
simple reporting of words and terms used by people in a
particular locale. Luke was not a recorder. Luke's
reporting had to come from an understanding of the roots
and influences Of words that formed the linguistic back-
ground of the various peoples. '

For example, Luke was apparently so familiar with
the formal Hebrew of the Old Testament that some scholars
have wondered if he was a Jewish proselyte. His knowledge
of Hebrew however appears to have come from his own study
Of the Hebrew Scriptures. Likewise there is evidence that
Luke knew both the classical Greek, which he probably
studied as a young man, and the variations of Koiné Greek
which he learned at the various places visited by the
disciples. Cadbury says:

His language shows in its adaptation of style

to Greek idiom Of his time that he was a man of
some cultivation, at home in the speech of the
current Greek and not to be reckoned a mere bar-
barian or one ill at ease in the speech and civil-
ization of the far flung area in which the Greek
influence had come to dominate.4

In his writing, Luke revealed his awareness of
local color in language. He reported what he heard even
when it was a little embarrassing. An example of this
is found in Acts 17:18. Paul was preaching in Athens

about the many Athenian gods. The people, according to

Tenney, were quite blasé and SOphisticated and did not

 

4Henry J. Cadbury, The Book of Acts in History
(London: Adam and Charles Black, 1955): P. 53.

57

mind hearing about Paul's new god. But, they were not
about to be pushed by his preaching for a commitment to
Jesus Christ.5 So they responded to Paul by calling him
a "seed picker," a slang term which referred to a bird
that picked up crumbs and seeds Off of the streets. It
was used in a derogatory way to refer to a man who posed
as an expert, even though he only had seeds and crumbs of
information and bits and pieces of knowledge. It was a
term peculiar to Athens, but Luke was astute enough to
catch it.

Again, in a demonstration of his accuracy in using
languages, Luke referred to the city authorities in

Thessalonica as pplitarchs, (Acts 17:8). Scholars for

 

many years thought that Luke had taken a general term for
civil authorities and mistakenly used it as a specific
title. They based this assumption on the absence of this
term in any Greek literature of that time. But modern
archaeological finds from the ruins of Thessalonica have

yielded an arch of the city gate with the word politarchs

 

inscribed on it as a specific title. In his concern to
be journalistically accurate, Luke had sought for and used
the exact terminology of that particular city.

Another indication of Luke's concern for linguis-
tic accuracy is found in his coverage of the disciples'

Speeches. While Luke's own style appears in his condensed

 

5Tenney, Op. cit., p. 267.

58

news reports, the language Of the speaker is accurately
recorded in his coverage of original addresses.6

Luke's sources did not always give him the same
account of an event. In one instance he reported exactly
what he heard without rewrite. The example Of this is
found in his report of Paul's conversion as he researched
it in Acts 9, and Paul's own description Of it as he des-
cribed it in Acts 22 and Acts 26. Luke reported in Acts
9:7 "Meanwhile the men who were traveling with him stood
speechless; they heard the voice but could see no one."
But later, when Paul referred to this Damascus road
experience, he said "My companions saw the light, but did
not hear the voice that Spoke to me," (Acts 22:9). And,
in Acts 26:14 Luke reported Paul as saying "We all fell
to the ground, and then I heard a voice saying to me in
the Jewish language. . . ." '

Scholars have been bothered by this discrepancy
and have questioned Luke's accuracy. But what at first
appears to be a problem turns out to be an example of

Luke's concern to write exactly what he heard without

trying to put it together into some kind of harmony. In

 

6In his book Speeches in the Acts, F. F. Bruce
examines the assumption of some scholars that Luke inherited
the tradition Of historical writers like Heroditus and
Thucydides and composed the speeches he reported. His
findings, however, Show that the Speeches reported by
Luke are so awkward in comparison to the rest of his
writing and phraseology and words so non-Lukan that he
concludes: "Luke did not compose them, but he reproduced
his source with considerable literalness."

59

Acts 22:9 and 26:14, Luke was reporting the conversion

as Paul remembered and described it. Later on, perhaps
during one Of Paul's imprisonments when Luke had time,

he researched the Damascus road experience (Acts 9:7)
himself, perhaps even interviewing Paul's traveling com-
panions. Unlike the modern journalist, this discrepancy
did not seem to bother Luke. And, rather than make the
story clearer journalistically, he wrote each account as

it was given to him. This may have been acceptable to

his early readers and has proven helpful to modern scholars
who are interested in all variations, but it is one example
where Luke differed from the interpretive concise reporting
of the modern journalist.

Luke's facility with languages is also evident in
these three accounts of Paul's conversion. Each reference
to the conversion was made in a different language, yet
Luke was able to report each one. In Acts 22:9 Paul was
standing on the steps of the Fortress of Antonia, address-
ing a hostile Jewish crowd. He gave them the account of
his conversion in Hebrew. In Acts 26:14, he spoke in
polished Greek to a cultured and distinguished audience
which included the chief citizens of Caesarea, members of
the Imperial Service and King Agrippa I. And, when Luke
checked out the same story with the people who accompanied
Paul on the Damascus road, it was probably an interview in

Aramaic.

6O

Luke's ability, then, with the major languages and
the colorations of those languages enabled him to be the
kind of skilled reporter who could find the exact word

(such as politarchs), research speeches in different lan-

 

guages, and catch the derogatory Slang words of those who
were Opposed to the Christian message. These influences
in his writing became part of the medium of explanation
whereby his readers were given insight into the linguistic

influences on Luke and his fellow disciples.

The Cultural Influences

 

The world of the first century was a welter of
cultures that conflicted with one another. Every person
encountered by the disciples had been shaped by different
influences, making the reaction on one person to the
preaching of the disciples different from the reaction
of another. Tenney said:

Like the rivers which ran into the Mediterranean

Sea from all sides, pouring into it their sediment
and feeding its waters, so the many peoples com-
prised within the constantly expanding domain of Rome
brought into it all their cultural contributions.
Africans, Teutons, Greeks, Jews, Partheans, and
Phrygians mingled in the provinces and cities and
Shared their national heritages.

Since there are no definitive frontiers to the
cultural influences upon Luke's writing, there are many

features in the Acts that can be classified different ways.

Some features are Greek, some Hebrew, some Roman and some

 

7Tenney, Op. cit., p. 67.

61

Christian. Some are partially one and partially another,
some are a mixture of many. It fell on Luke to give his
readers a particular View as he saw it. This view of
Luke's was conditioned by the influences on him and all
of the contemporary color that formed his thinking.

The book of Acts is the view of one Christian who
was raised a Greek within a culture that contained the
tangled strands of many cultures. His observations were
those of a Greek of mixed culture, writing about disciples
of varied cultures moving in a world Of conflicting cul-
tures and all of it forming a contemporary color that went
all the way back to the very ancient beginnings of the
migrations to the west Of the various indigenous cultures.

It is impossible to sort out the various cultural
influences that affected Luke's writing. It can only be
Shown that Luke did report the contemporary color that was
part of the particular event that he covered.

An example of the different conflicting cultural
influences that Luke encountered is found in Acts 14:8-20.
Here was a group of people untouched by Judaism, influ-
enced by Rome, understanding Greek but speaking Lycaonian,
confronting Christians who were Jews and Greeks, hearing
about God coming to earth as the man Christ Jesus and
trying to distinguish that in their minds from the coming
of Zeus and Hermes. It was a difficult story for Luke to
report because of all Of the cultural strands woven together,

but he did it. He even recognized that the persecution,

62

when it came, did not come from the people of Lystra but
from Jews who came into the city from Antioch and Iconium.
As a reporter, Luke was able to keep the narrative
of the news events separate from the contemporary color,
yet still Show the interrelationship. He could give his
readers the total picture of the Lystra experience because
he made it his business to understand the cause and effect

of the various cultural influences there.

The Political Influences

 

Throughout the Acts, the political influences of
the Greek, Hebrew and Roman world Show themselves separately
and together in a kind of kaleidoscopic montage that influ-
enced the thinking, preaching, and essentially every aspect
of the disciples lives.

But, these political influences upon them were not
purely Roman, Greek or Hebrew, for each of these was a com-
posite of all of the centuries of political development
that made the different systems. Roman justice could be
found in the Greek political system, and Jewish nationalism
could be traced among the Romans and the Greeks. Greek
culture and language had permeated the Jewish and Aramaic
world bringing a new familiarity and linkage with western
life and thought. Tenney showed the overlapping political
influences:

The Hasmonians, descendants of the valiant and

patriotic Maccabees, had revived dreams of Jewish

independence, had infused a warrior Spirit into the
nation that had been in subjection Since the Exile,

63

and had promoted zeal for the law. The Idumean
Herods, alien by blood but Jewish by religion, had
re-established the Temple with its ritual and sacri-
fices and under Roman suzerainty had given Palestine
comparative peace after the bitter strife under the
Hasmoneans.8

One example from Acts 24 demonstrates Luke's ability
as a reporter to find out the legal aspects of his story.
It is the trial of Paul before Felix the Roman governor.

Luke proved his ability to write in the area of Roman law.

u T; 2:37 7.1“ ALE—W'fii‘j

Luke explained in Acts 24:5 that the charge brought

against Paul was that of being a troublemaker and fomenter

IQP; Cid—cl; Km“ 1:

Of discord. But, the Asian Jews who brought the charge

then left the area. Paul, in his defense, objected to

this on the grounds that they must be present to make their
charges. In this, Paul was legally correct. Luke in
reporting it caught the single legal loophole in the case.
The Roman law was very strong against accusers who abandoned
their charges.

There are several examples of this kind of legal
case in Roman legal history. Pliny records one in the
Tribunal of Trajan at about this same period in history.
Sherwin-White comments:

Once again the author of Acts is well informed.

But there is more to it than that. The disappear-
ance Of one set of accusers may mean the withdrawal
of the charge with which they were particularly
associated. The Asian Jews had accused Paul of two

things: One, preaching everywhere, i.e. throughout
the 'world,‘ and two of bringing Hellens into the

 

81bid., p. 66.

64

Temple. Charge one was taken over by the Jewish
clergy, charge two, according to Acts could not be
substantiated.9
Felix adjourned the case and waited for the arrival
Of the Tribune Lysias. Luke was able to succinctly present
to his readers the legal aSpects of this trial without
getting bogged down in boring legal technicalities.
Likewise, Luke was alert to the political structure
and boundaries of the region. He was able to present to
his readers unusual situations such as the time that Felix
told Paul he would hear his case, even though Paul was
from a different province (Acts 23:35). Normally a leader
of one province could not try cases from another province.
But, because of a Shakeup due to senatorial extortions,
Cilicia did not have an imperial legate at the time of
Paul's trial. Thus Felix was within his rights when he
took Paul's case under his own jurisdiction. Luke had
accurately unravelled the sometimes confusing legal system
and interpreted it to his readers so that their questions
about Cilicia and Felix's judging Paul's case would be
understood. He could have ignored all of these political
influences on the story. A theologian or historian might
have; a journalist could not.
In another story reported by Luke, Paul and the
other disciples were attacked by the people of Ephesus

because their preaching was cutting into the profits of

 

9A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Societygand Roman Law
in the NewiTestament (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press,
1963), p. 52.

 

 

65

the Silversmiths who made idols of the goddess Diana.
Luke said that the town clerk quieted the crowd (Acts
19:35). Sherwin-White credits Luke with a good grasp of
the political ranking in that city. The town clerk was
largely in control. He supervised the city council and
the city council ruled the city. Thus it was that the
town clerk was the prOper official for the Silversmiths
to approach, and Luke in gathering his data reported it
accurately. Sherwin-White adds: "The author of Acts is
very well informed about the finer points of municipal
institutions at Ephesus . . . he even used the correct

technical terms ennomos ekklesia to distinguish the regu-
10

 

larly appointed meetings from the present concourse."

The council had three meetings each month, one
that was considered to be the regular meeting and two that
were extra meetings. But Luke reported that this was an
assembly, making it neither the regular nor one of the
extra meetings. However, it was not completely chaotic
because, says Luke, the town clerk asked Demetrius, the
leader of the angry Silversmiths to bring his charges,
later, presumably at one of the appointed meetings.

Even Luke's use of the term Asiarchs (Acts 19:31)
was the proper term to describe the dignitaries who urged
Paul not to meet before the assembly. Luke's use of the

plural shows how accurately he reported his story, because

 

10lbid., p. 87.

66

the term Asiarchs, referring to the ex-presidents of the

 

provincial council of Asia, was a word peculiar to Ephesus.
In some other eastern provinces, the corresponding title
went only with the office of the President of the Council.
For example, there was only one Lyciarch, and only one
Pontarch or Bithyniarch. In Ephesus, the term was used a
different way, and Luke found out that distinction before
he wrote.
Luke's accuracy as a journalist can be checked.
As scholars discover more and more about ancient Rome,
the reportorial work of Luke is substantiated. Sherwin-
White, in his concluding remarks about Luke's report of
Paul's trial in Acts 24 says:
This interpretation of the charge against Paul
is confirmed by the parallel evidence Of the letter
Of Claudius to the Alexandrines. . . . Claudius
there sums up his objection to certain political
actions of the Jews as "stirring up a universal
plague throughout world" . . . the similarity to
the formulation of the charge against Paul is
startling. . . . It is evident that the narrative
of Acts is using contemporary language. The charge
was precisely the one to bring against a Jew during
the Principate of Claudius or the early years of
Nero.11
Luke was an interpreter of the political scene.
The Stoics saw the world as simply the essence of what
exists. The Romans concluded that the world was structured

on political orders. But in a non-Greek, non-Roman way the

early Christians understood the world to be neither a

 

11Ibid., p. 51.

67

passive gift nor a system of government to be developed.
They derived their meaning from the basis of their message
of Christ.

Luke saw that this Christian message could not have
nurtured itself on any political system or myth of the
emperor. He reported the development of the Christian
Church within the legal-political situation of each city
in his narrative. This is the mark of a skilled journalist

and Luke exercised his skills carefully.

The Economic Influences

 

In his article, "The Economic Background Of the
New Testament," F. C. Grant stated that Christianity was
not an economic movement. But the early church activities
were influenced by the economic conditions and Luke was
aware of those influences. Grant said that Luke wrote to
Show that "Christianity was from the very beginning a
purely religious movement, a cult, a body of beliefs and
practices centred(sic) in something else than the economic
welfare or well-being Of any racial, national, or social
group."12

To be aware of the economic conditions was to be
aware of the great influences Of Rome. It was Rome that

built the trade routes, kept the roads Open, supplied the

Ships and equipped the army to keep the Pax Romana. Luke

 

 

12F. C. Grant, "The Economic Background of the New
Testament," in The Background of the New Testament and Its
Eschatology, edited by W. D. Davis and D. Daube (Cambridge:
At the University Press, 1956), p. 101.

 

 

68

wrote the Acts at a time when the number of citizens of
the Roman Empire was growing rapidly and when the Roman
economy was stable.13

Generally the economic background of the New Testa-
ment is one of a rising tide of well being. The only
exception was Palestine with its poverty and over-popula-
tion and declining food supply. This had an influence on
the early church. Luke described the arguments over the
care and feeding of widows (Acts 6:1-2). He also reported
the trip made to Jerusalem by Paul and Barnabas to carry
money from the churches outside of Palestine to the needy
Christians in Palestine (Acts 11:30). So Luke was writing
out of two worlds, the poor Palestinian world where Chris-
tianity was born and the Graeco-Roman world of stability
and economic progress.

Luke says very little about the finances of the
peOple in his story but this in no way indicates a lack
of awareness of the economic influences on the people the

disciples preached to or the disciples themselves. As in

the rest of his writing, Luke drew attention only to

 

l3Rome's approximate economic figures for this
period are listed in An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome,
Vol. 5, pp. 4 ff.

 

Army and Navy under Augustus 240 (in millions of denarii)
Praetorium and urban cohorts 35
The dole 60
Public buildings and roads 5
Games 2
Civil Service __2
400

Income approximately 450 million denarii

69

material that needed to be explained. He did not bother

to explain Situations or circumstances that were understood
by the majority of his readers. This is well illustrated
in three stories where the economics involved had to be
explained and one story where the economics would have

been understood by all.

When the disciples preached at Ephesus, Luke wrote
that the resulting riots were started by Demetrius. He
explained the economic reason:

There was a man named Demetrius, a Silversmith

who made silver Shrines of Diana and provided a
great deal Of employment for the craftsmen. He
called a meeting of these men and the workers in
allied trades, and addressed them. "Men," he said,
"you know that our high standard of living depends
on this industry. And you see and hear how this
fellow Paul with his propaganda has perverted crowds
of peOple, not only at Ephesus but also in practi-
cally the whole of the province of Asia. He is tell-
ing them that gods made by human hands are not gods
at all. There is danger for us here; it is not only
that our line of business will be discredited but
also that the sanctuary of the great goddess Diana
will cease to command respect." 4

At Philippi, the disciples healed a slave girl who
was said to have been possessed Of an oracular spirit.

Her owners dragged Paul and Silas to the city square where
they were flogged. Luke explained the economic reason for
this to his readers: "Once, when we were on our way to

the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who was possessed

by an oracular spirit and brought large profits to her

owners by telling fortunes," (Acts 16:19).

 

14Acts 19:24-27, The New English Bible.

 

70

In Acts 19, Luke eXplained the economic signifi-
cance in the conversion of some of the Ephesian magicians.
He wrote: "And a good many of those who formerly prac-
ticed magic collected their books and burnt them publicly.
The total value was reckoned up and it came to fifty
thousand pieces of Silver," (Acts 19:19-20).

Each of the above incidents was a local Situation
and the economics involved would not have been known by
most of Luke's readers. This was interpretive reporting.
Luke carefully explained the economics within the context
of his reporting. An economic situation that required no
explanation is found in Acts 27. This is the story of
Paul's journey to Rome and Shipwreck in the winter storms.

The dangerous season for sailing began about
September 14 and lasted until the second week in November.
After November 14 all navigation stopped on the Open seas
until winter was over. Luke reported that the fast was
over when they set sail, so it was later than October 5.
"It was risky to go on with the voyage," (Acts 27:9).

But the captain insisted on sailing and as a result the
ship was wrecked in a severe storm.

Luke gave his readers the details Of the journey,
the route taken and a description of the shipwreck, but
said nothing about the economic factors that caused the
captain to sail in precarious weather, probably because
it was a Roman ship and everyone would have known the

economic reason.

71

Cadbury says that the Emperor Claudius had recently
undertaken to make good all losses due to storms at sea.

In fact Sutonius reported that Claudius devised every
possible inducement for securing the import of food to

Rome even in winter. The ship's captain had everything

to gain and very little to lose, with the exception of his
own life, by pushing on and taking a chance at getting to
Rome before winter. The passengers were non-paying soldiers
and their prisoners. The cargo Of corn, although valuable
in Rome, was just as valuable to the captain if sunk because
of Claudius' promise of reimbursement.15

Rome was the imperial power. Everyone was influ-
enced by Rome and the policies of the emperor would have
been well known. Luke did not describe what was already
understood.

Luke understood and reported the economics influ-
encing the development and growth of the Christian Church.
The economics of the first century affected the disciples
not as a system but as a basic part of human existence. The
story Of peOple carrying the Christian message to other
peOple involved economics and Luke accurately described

these economic influences.

The Geographical Influences

 

Geography also influenced Luke's writing of the

Acts. But he wrote about it only as part Of the larger

 

15Cadbury, Op. cit., p. 60.

72

narrative. It was impossible for Luke to bring all of the
geography into a story anyway; because if he described one
area visited by the disciples, it meant that he had to
ignore the others. This iS an important consideration
because if for a moment he turned his readers' attention
to either the oriental or occidental neighborhoods of the
cities visited by the disciples, he had to leave the other
out. Then, if he turned back to the other part of the
geographical picture there might appear to be some incon-
sistency. In the cities visited by the missionaries, one
geographical section might be Anatolian another Hellenic,
and still another Semitic. Each of these sections would
influence Luke's writing, as the disciples moved around
the cities.

An example Of how Luke treated well known geograph-
ical details is found in Acts 23, where Luke reported how
Paul was removed from Jerusalem to Caesarea under heavy
armed guard. This was a distance of about sixty miles.
Luke does not tell the reader the route that they traveled,
but it is easily traced by his descriptions. Luke says
"the infantry took Paul and brought him by night to Anti-
patris," (Acts 23:31). This means that they traveled
thirty-five miles in one night, a very difficult feat and
one that would raise questions if the readers did not know
the highly developed Roman road system. But everyone did.

Antipatris was accessible by two excellent Roman

roads, on which some of the ancient milestones are still

73

standing. One road went west and then north, the other
went north and then west. Either could have been swiftly
traveled even on the darkest night.

Again geography enters into Luke's narration when
he reports that the next morning the soldiers left them
and only the cavalry escorted them the rest of the way to
the castle. The readers would have understood this because
the rest of the distance traveled was through open country
where the population was Gentile, giving little Opportunity
for the pursuing Jews to ambush them.

Another evidence of Luke's ability to handle geo-
graphy is found in Acts 20-21, the account of the hurried
journey to Jerusalem for the Passover. Luke reported the
overland and navigational routes so accurately that scholars
have had no difficulty retracing the route and the stops.

Pfeiffer and VOS credit Luke's accuracy in never
confusing the city of Antioch in the Galatian region with
a city Of the same name near Damascus. They write:

Antioch was not a city of Pisidia but lay on

the north side of that district in Phrygia when

Paul came through on his first missionary journey.
Ramsay observes that the accurate and full geo-
graphical description of Antioch of that time would
have been 'a Phrygian city on the side of Pisidia.‘
But the convenient way of alluding to it came to be
'Pisidian Antioch' to distinguish it from the Antioch
on the Maeander River. Only as the term 'Pisidia'
became widened in inclusiveness did 'Antioch of

Pisidia' receive universal acceptance. This latter
title for the town found its way into some of the

74

later, inferior biblical manuscripts. . . . But
the better manuscripts read correctly 'Pisidian
Antioch.‘ Thus Luke's language is seen again to
correlate minutely with contemporary conditions.16

The same accuracy held true when Luke handled the
colonial status Of such cities as Philippi. In Acts l6,
l7, l8 and 19, Paul is Shown to have been indicted before
the municipal magistrates of a Roman colony. There were
communes within the Greek cities where the Roman soldiers
and their families lived. Paul's travels took him through
these settlements because, for military reasons, they were
located at the central points Of communication. Luke never
confused the cities and the Roman citizen colonies or
communes within those cities. His readers always knew
which part he was talking about.

Sherwin-White explains the difference between the
military colonies in the Greek cities and the Roman cities
of the western provinces. Luke understood that:

Provincial Romans in the eastern Empire lived in

a different legal and social atmosphere from their
fellow citizens in the western provinces. In the
latter, Roman material and cultural civilization
dominated the life of the communities, and technical
Roman status was being steadily granted to whole
communities in increasing numbers. The Mediterranean
provinces in the west were becoming an extension of
Italy, and the term provincia togata was coined to
indicate this massive extension of Roman rights and
Roman ways. . . . In the eastern provinces the pre-
dominent civilization was Hellenistic and the pre-

dominent language Greek. There were no romanized
communes of provincial origin, no cities which had

 

 

16Charles F. Pfeiffer and Howard F. Vos, The
Wycliffe Historical Geggrgphy of Bible Lands (Chicago:
Moody Press, 1967), p. 347.

75

acquired Roman citizenship enbloc and so become
what were called municipia civium Romanorum.l7

 

AS the disciples moved out from Jerusalem to the
various cities of the Greek world, the author of Acts was
careful to inform his readers about every detail of geo-
graphy that influenced his story.

Curtis MacDougall in Interpretative Reporting com-

 

mented that an account can be devoid of errors in fact,
spelling and the like but still be inaccurate if the
impression given to the reader is wrong. Luke's credibility
is evident in his geographical accuracy. His is more than

a well researched report; he was there. His readers travel
with him, observing, feeling, and experiencing the events

through his descriptive writing.

The Social Influences

 

An examination of the interaction between the
Greek, Hebrew, Roman and Christian cultures Shows the
social groupings and resulting antagonism that influenced
the proclamation of the Christian message and Luke's
reporting of that proclamation.

The Jews saw the Christians as perverters of the
Temple worship and the Mosaic law. The Greeks saw them
as narrow and anti-social in their behavior, and the Romans

found them to be a nuisance. Tenney writes:

 

17Sherwin-White, Op. cit., p. 175.

 

76

Tacitus, writing Of the times Of Nero, calls
Christians 'enemies of the human race.‘ It is
hardly possible that Tacitus should have applied
to them this epithet because of saddism or sourness
on their part. It is more likely that he considered
them to be anti-social because they did not conform
to the social habits of the time.18

Luke encountered all Of this, yet had to be an
Objective reporter about the social pressures that directly
influenced him. The Acts Shows no anger or violent out-
bursts nor even subtle innuendos of feeling by the author
as he reported the encounters of the disciples with the
various social problems Of their day.

The Christians did not have a high social standing.
They could not point to any kind Of social heritage for
prestige. Their founder had been condemned as a criminal
or rebel and their own preachers were thrown into jail
repeatedly for causing riots. Their numbers were small
and they had no economic or political power to recommend
them socially.

Luke knew this and had to report his story not
only from the angle of the social response of the people
to the disciples but also from within the church as the
disciples argued with each other about how to reach the
public without compromising their message. An example of
the disciples' relationship with their social environment

is found in Acts 21:21--22:29. An example of their rela-

tionship with each other is found in Acts 15.

 

l8Tenney, op. cit., p. 125.

77

In Acts 21 and 22, Luke shows his readers the
pressure that was on the disciples from both the Jews and
the Greeks. They were trying to communicate the gospel
message to both. Luke, in spite of his own Greek heritage,
was able to report accurately the feelings of the Jews
toward the Greeks and wrote without comment the directive
to the Greeks to abstain from meats offered to idols for
the sake of the Jews.

The Jews attacked Paul because they assumed that
he had brought Gentiles into the temple. Luke reported
what happened, not commenting on the Jewish mistake, even
though it might have pleased him personally to do so.

There seems to have been no need in Luke to assert his

own social position, even though it was his peOple who
were being attacked unjustly. He reported what he saw and
let his readers form their own judgments.

The story brings in each of the social communities.
The Greeks were becoming Christians through Paul the
Christian Jew. The Jewish leaders got upset and Paul
appealed to them as a strict Jew. But when they called in
the Roman soldiers, he referred to his Roman citizenship.
As a journalist, Luke kept these several social attitudes
separate, and gave his readers the chance to see how they
all were a part of the disciples' environment.

In his report Of the meeting Of the disciples at
Jerusalem in Acts 15, Luke showed how the disciples related

to each other. During this conference the disciples openly

78

argued with each other and discussed how much of the gospel
was Jewish and how much Of it could be given directly to
the Gentiles without their coming through Judaism. It was
a problem that could have Split the church. Luke showed
how the disciples handled their social and theological
differences and came to an agreement that brought harmony
to the church.

Luke summarized their social cohesion by reporting
the words of James, "My judgment therefore is that we
should impose no irksome restrictions on those of the
Gentiles who are turning to God. . . ." (Acts 15:20).

When it was decided to send a letter to the Gentile Chris-
tians, Luke entered this very loving letter into his story
in its entirety.

Luke knew the Jews, the Greek Gentiles, and he
knew the missionaries. He could describe how one set Off
the other and how their antagonisms influenced the actions
of the others. Yet, he never took sides, or blew up a
Situation beyond its prOportions. Luke had a story to
tell. The story had emotions and social influences, but
it was always the story that came first. An example of
this is found in Acts 15:36—41.

Paul and Barnabas were good friends. It was Barna-
bas who first commended Paul to the Christians. But, when
Paul suggested a return visit to Syria and Cilicia, they
argued. Barnabas wanted to take his nephew John Mark

along. Paul refused because Mark had deserted them on an

gm

79

earlier journey into Pamphylia. Luke was alert to this
fight not because it was a fight but because it explained
why Paul and Barnabas parted company. Luke wrote, "The
disPute was so sharp that they parted company. Barnabas
took Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus, while Paul chose
Silas," (Acts 15:39). This was a social conflict that
influenced the mission Of the church. Luke did not stumble
at it, ignore it, or take sides. He reported it, and went
on with his narrative.

The Acts is a story about a people who were
unacceptable socially, struggling to present themselves
and their message to their world, while at the same time
trying to work out their own social differences. Luke as
a reporter could not ignore this crucial aspect of the
forming of a peOple out of many cultures and life styles
into a family called Christians.

'Social pressures are subtle. They are not des-
cribed so much as they are felt. No reporter can say that
something was done because of this or that social influ-
ence or pressure. But he feels it, and it is his job to
relate this feeling to his readers so that they are part
Of the event, yet without drawing attention to this feel-
ing or diverting the reader's attention from the event.

It is the journalist's skill that weaves in the
social flavoring, the emotions--joys, anxieties, tensions,
fears--or whatever is influential in a story. Luke handled

the social influences that surrounded the disciples, was

80

apparently alert to his own feelings and kept them out
of his story, and used the social influences like all of
the other influences as descriptive stepping stones to
move the story along.

It would have been a Simple matter for Luke to
write objectively about events in the church as he heard
about them. He could have outlined a communication design
that showed how the Christian message was carried by the
disciples to the world around them. But this would have
been a denial of the disciples' own humanity as it was
shaped by the warp and woof of all of the influences that
go into the forming of a people.

The church was forming in a world of myriad influ-
ences. JudaiSm provided the roots of the Christian faith.
Hellenism, provided the intellectual soil in which the
faith grew. Roman imperialism gave the protection that
opened the field of its growth. Paradoxically, these
three cultures became Christianity's bitterest enemies.
Judaism regarded Christianity as a pernicious heresy,
Hellenism saw it as philosophical nonsense and Roman
imperialism regarded it as impractical weakness. Each of
these three conflicted with the other two, differing both
by ancestry and viewpoint. Still, together, they formed
the matrix in which the Christian Church was formed. As

a reporter, Luke presented that matrix to his readers.

3'

81

An Overview

 

The Christian Church did not develop in a vacuum
but was part of the world which surrounded it. The early
church men and women had typical first century minds,
influenced and conditioned by the world around them. Yet,
“h

they had experienced a new found faith and were committed

to carry the message of that faith to their fellow man. i

‘wu A. .I-x . an

Curtis D. MacDougall has written: "It is incon-
ceivable that there ever will come a time when there will

-not be those whose full-time function it is to find out

?-—‘ "“ ' "'

what is going on and to transmit that information to others,
together with a proper explanation Of its significance."19
It is this finding out of what was going on that is des-
criptive of Luke the journalist as he reported the events
of the Acts.

The Acts, although demonstrating historically the
develOpment of the early church, is better viewed as a
news story about Christians in the first century. The
religious, linguistic, cultural, economic, geographical
and social influences that have been examined are to be
seen not so much as historical views, although they are
historically accurate, but rather colorings giving differ-
ent insights to the news events of the Acts.

There have been two traditional ways to look at

the early church. One way is to look at the church as an

 

19Curtis D. MacDougall, Interpretative Reporting,
4th Edition (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1963),
p. 5.

 

82

historical phenomenon subject to historical and sociolo-
gical interpretations; the other way is to see the church
as an eschatological group developed and guided by the
Holy Spirit and understanding very little of its own
development. Neither of these views is exclusive of the
other nor accurately explains the development of a diverse
group of peOple into a society which was part of, yet
separate from, the society around it.

It is this distinction from the rest of the world,
this creation of a new society, that Luke has reported.

He has acknowledged history, understood the socio-cultural
influences and cut a cross section through them to expose
all that shaped the church as it grew. What Luke saw and
reported is supported by secular evidence. But even more
important than his reportorial accuracy is his ability to
relate to his readers what he sensed and experienced around
him.

The journalism that went into the making of the Acts
came out of the shaping and molding Of the journalist who
wrote it. Luke, like his contemporaries, was a product as
well as a reporter of the first century events. The fact
that he was a Christian helped him put together the many
and varied influences that shaped the people who preached
the message Of Jesus and the people who heard that message.

As a journalist, Luke goes down in history as a
contributor to the whole first century social scene. Luke

takes his readers on a conducted tour of the Graeco—Roman

83

world. The scene is Observed through the eyes not of a
citizen but as a resident foreigner. Sherwin-White said:
In Acts or in that part of Acts which is con-
cerned with the adventures of Paul in Asia Minor
and Greece, one is aware all the time of the
Hellenistic and Roman setting. The historical
framework is exact. In terms of time and place
the details are precise and correct. One walks
the streets and market-places, the theatres and
assemblies of first-century Ephesus or Thessalonica,
Corinth or Philippi, with the author of Acts. The
great men of the cities, the magistrates, the mob,
and the mob leaders, are all there. The feel and
tone of city life is the same as in the description
of Strabo and Dio of Prusa. The difference lies
only in the Jewish shading.20
The book then is a book of Acts, a history of strik-
ing deeds. It is the only history of the church's growth
until Eusebius wrote almost 300 years later. It is a report,
a record of events, an interpretive news story coming out
of first century Graeco-Roman-Hebrew society. It was the
beginning of a movement that would grow and influence the
entire world. Luke was the reporter on the scene, guided
by his determination to be accurate, his love of the gospel
and the mission of the church, and his diagnostic eye for
detail.
Luke and the growing church were part of a changing
and developing world of mixed cultures. The develOping
church in the first century was a new enterprise, and it

became one of the most far reaching in world history.

Luke, the physician practicing the reportorial arts and

 

20Sherwin-White, Op. cit., p. 120.

84

skills of what centuries later would be called "Journal-

ism,’ showed plainly how this new enterprise began.

CHAPTER IV

CONTRIBUTION OF ACTS TO THE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH TODAY

How did the message of Jesus, which theologically
is both what He said and what He did, get from the twelve
disciples in Jerusalem to the Greek and Roman world? Jews
and Greeks, men of varied backgrounds bound together
spiritually as followers of Jesus, preached the message as
they traveled to the major cities of Asia Minor. Luke,
acting as a reporter, covered the travels of the disciples
and reported their encounters with the various religions
and cultures. His book, the Acts, is the story of the
young Christian Church as it began and spread in the first
century.

It has been Shown that as a reporter, Luke had to
know the gospel message as it came from Jesus, the message
as the disciples understood and proclaimed it, and the
reaction of the non-Christians to that message. This

required an understanding of the disciples' backgrounds,

the world and its influences upon them, and the experiences

and knowledge of his readers. Luke brought the various

85

86

facets of his report together into a news story about the
church. And today, perhaps more than at any other time in
history, the Acts of the Apostles is becoming a guide for
the renewal of the Christian Church.

Historically, Christians have tended to build the
church in one of two ways. They have either based their
beliefs and church organization on the teachings of their
own leaders without regard to Apostolic tradition, or they
have made the Bible a contemporary message without regard
to the historical basis of that message. For example,
much of the eighteenth and nineteenth century theological
literature distorted the person and message of Jesus, and
the faith and practice of the early church. Schleiermacher
put his stress on introspection rather than on the Bible as
the authoritative message of God the way the disciples did
(Acts 2:15 ff).l Hegel portrayed God and man as not too
disparate. The easy terms of relationship that he taught
were very different from the fear of the Lord that Luke
reported (Acts 5:1-10).2 And Strauss contended that while
each individual is impure, mankind as a whole is perfect.
Luke reported that the disciples preached the sinful nature
of every person and the need for individual conversion

(Acts 3:19--4:12).3

 

1For further elaboration see: Hugh Ross Mackintosh,
Types of Modern Theology (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1937), p. 95.

2

 

Ibid., p. 115.

31bid., p. 120.

87

Even the social movements Of the twentieth century
have largely ignored the meaning and message of Acts.
Oscar Cullmann, writing from Basel, explains the conflict
that has come from attempting to apply the gospel message
to the present world without first understanding the message
as it was proclaimed in the first century. He explains that
modern man cannot work as a Christian without an historical
endeavor. The asking of various contemporary questions
presupposes the answers to the historical questions in the
Acts. Questions about the present cannot be superimposed
upon an historical work with legitimate answers. The his-
torical work must first be understood, the questions and
answers of that day realized, in order to prOpose proper
questions based upon discoveries of former answers. Other-
wise history is falsified and a poor foundation is laid
for the Christian discussion Of current problems. Cullmann
continues:
Anyone, without the least historical endeavor,
. . . can speak on everyday social and political
questions and claim his support for this or that
modern solution which one finds personally appeal-
ing. One promotes in this way the origin and
spread of the unfortunate slogans which distort the
historical truth from the start.4
The church and its satellite agencies has in former
years branched out from the message Of Jesus and the found-

ations laid by the early church to create for itself many

organizational and theological problems. The great

 

4Oscar Cullmann, Jesus and the Revolutionaries,
trans. by Gareth Putnam (New York: Harper & Row, 1970),
p. ix.

 

88

recession, the darkness of the period between A.D. 500

and 950, the expansion through the Crusades, the squabbles
of the reformers, the fragmentation of denominations and
the confusion of social and political programs have all
come from attempts by the church to operate without first
studying the church as it began. Luke's work has not been
misunderstood, it has been largely ignored.

But Since the late 1960's there has sprung up
among Christian peOple a desire to rediscover their herit-
age. Frustration and lack of spiritual fulfillment have
turned the disenchanted, the young, and the concerned to
search again for a message in the Bible about the real
Jesus and the beginnings Of the Christian Church. In this
quest, there has come a rediscovery of the Acts. Luke's
accuracy in research and reporting is giving twentieth-
century Christians the look they crave at the early church.

In many parts of the world, the church, particularly
the rigid liturgical church, has found a new movement
starting both within and outside its structure. As in the
experiences reported in the early chapters of Acts, people
today are beginning to gather in small groups to pray, to
study the Bible and to Share with their neighbors the mes-
sage of Jesus Christ as they have experienced it in their
own lives. For many church leaders, this has been confus-
ing. It is unlike anything they have programmed or organ-
ized. These people are discovering in Luke's report a

clear explanation of the kind of church fellowship that

 

J

89

they long to have. And many are beginning to find in the
twentieth century the exciting experiences of the Chris-
tians in the first century.

Slowly, some of this grass roots movement has begun
to affect the organized church structure. Denominationalism
has begun to break down, not through the organizational
Consultation on Church Union, but through the common bond
of Christian experience and love that has brought people
together. Believers are beginning to reach out to each
other across human barriers as their forefathers did in
the first century across Jewish, Greek and Roman cultural
barriers.

In returning to the Christian life style of Acts,
church members are beginning to find a new direction.

For them the Christian faith is becoming less of a spec-
tator religion and more Of a personal involvement. Folk
masses, new forms of ministry such as coffee houses and]
theater, are involving people. Like Philip (Acts 8:26 ff)
and James (Acts 15:13 ff), peOple today who were once side-
line Observers are getting into the movement of faith and
witness. Lyman Coleman in his creative worship book Agpg
A_l_i_y_e_ says:

There comes a time in every man's life when he
has to decide. Either he is going to be a slave to
others' ideas and traditions, or he is going to
think for himself, decide his own course of action,
and pursue it whatever the cost might be. In a word,
it is a choice between conformity and conscience.

Unfortunately, the traditional is oftentimes

identified with the status quo in religion, morality,
and politics, and anyone who questions the status quo

[Henchman-wriwm-m i -.‘iw‘

90

is accused of being against God, against good
behavior, and against his country.

In the Book of Acts, we see how the early church
was confronted with a decision between conformity
and conscience. Up to that time, the Gospel was
considered only for the Jewish people and the
thought of associating with non-Jewish people to
bring the Gospel to them was immediately suspect.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit led Peter to break
with tradition.

Today there are similar issues that call for
courageous and creative action. Whole worlds in
our society have been cut off because of certain
taboos among Christians. Many of these worlds cry
out for the Gospel.5

Two examples Of contemporary movements to
re-identify with the first century church will explain the
value of Luke's more-than-historical, more-than-theologi-
cal news story about the early Christian church.

On March 4, 1970, in Frankfurt, Germany, a theolo-
gical convention met to examine the mission of the church.
It stemmed from a deep unrest in German churches and mis-
sionary societies due to the so-called departure from the
genuine goals of mission Of the Christian church. The
group gathered out of a strong desire for a more biblical
motivation for the practice of mission. Out of this con-
sultation came the Frankfurt Delcaration. The first of
seven points agreed to and Signed by leading German theolo-
gians read:

Christian mission discovers its foundation,

goals, tasks, and the content of its proclamation
solely in the commission of the resurrected Lord

 

5Lyman Coleman, Acts Alive (Newtown, Pa.: The
Halfway House, 1966), p. 70.

 

91

Jesus Christ and his saving acts as they are reported
by the witness of the apostles and early Christianity
in the New Testament. Mission is grounded in the
nature of the Gospel.

We therefore Oppose the current tendency to
determine the nature and task of mission by socio-
political analysis of our time and from the demands
of the non-Christian world. We deny that what the
Gospel has to say to people today at the deepest
level is not evident before their encounter with them.
Rather, according to the apostolic witness, the Gospel
is normative and given once for all. The situation of
encounter contributes only new aspects in the applica-
tion of the Gospel. The surrender of the Bible as our
primary frame of reference leads to the shapelessness
of mission and a confusion of the task of mission with
a general idea Of reSponsibility for the world.6

The declaration is moored in the message of the

Apostles and the growth of the early Christian Church as
Luke reported it. These Christians are aware that the
early Christians were not ashamed to proclaim the teachings
of Jesus and to live by them. Although the content of
Jesus' teaching is in the gospels, and the result of these
teachings is evident in the established churches that
received the epistles, the book that shows how the teach-
ings went from Jesus to the forming of the church is the

Acts.

Like these early disciples, Christians once again
are attempting to proclaim the gospel not as part of the
world's political or social message but as definitive from
Jesus and influenced by the world. Christians are learning

how it was done in the first century as Luke reported.

 

6"The Frankfurt Declaration," Christianity Today
(June 19, 1970), 5.

 

92

Luke's reporting in the first century provided the basis
for the Frankfurt Declaration in the twentieth century.
The second movement indicative of a trend toward
an application of the gospel as Luke saw it applied by
the early church, is found in the youth movements known
by various names such as "The Jesus People," "The Children
of God," "The Jesus Movement," and "The Jesus Freaks."
Recent magazines and newspapers have shown this movement
to be a return to the basic gospel message as proclaimed
by the disciples and reported by Luke in the Acts. Church-
men have labeled it a new form of fundamentalism. Many
church people see it as vulgar because the young Christians
in the movement have adopted the styles of the youth
counter-culture.
Earl C. Gottschalk, Jr., staff reporter of the Wall
Street Journal, wrote on March 2, 1971:
It's easy to see why conventional churchgoers
are startled--and often offended--by the Jesus
PeOple. Their brand of Christianity is of a kind
that has not been widespread Since the turn of the
century. They believe fervently that the Bible,
line for line, is literal truth, every word
inspired by God. They believe in the Ten Command-
ments--and in the hellfire of Divine punishment,
and they are against promiscuity, greed, pride,
drunkenness, drugs, debauchery and laziness.
One of the main differences between this movement

and the fundamentalist movement of fifty years ago is that

this is not led by denominational leaders. It is springing

 

7Earl C. Gottschalk, Jr., "Hip Culture Discovers a

New Trip," The Wall Street Journal (March 2, 1971), l.

 

‘v’sv'mj (71193.5(..uxmj7 ' "- .1 113?; 3 5 -_ . I: q
l . To

93

up Spontaneously in many parts of the United States, and
it is similar to movements of the same kind in South
America and the Dominican Republic. Whereas the Proste-
stant Reformation and the nineteenth century revivals were
led by strong leaders, these new movements are springing
up as people tell other peOple about Jesus Christ. In a
Feb. 9, 1971, £22k magazine article, Brian Vachon said:
The Jesus movement seems to be springing up

simultaneously in a miscellany of places, and

often in the last place you would think to look

. . . hundreds of ministers are joining the non-

denominational movement which has been swelled by

tens of thousands of new converts.

What happened in the early church, as Luke reported
it, is happening again. And, there is a heavy reliance on
the methods of the early church as they are learned from
Luke's news accounts. Luke reported that the disciples
preached and taught in the streets (Acts 2:1-47), gathered
to pray on the beach (Acts 21:6), and taught in the syna-
gogues (Acts 13:14 ff). Like the early disciples, the
young Christians today are also going where the people are.
They are preaching on the streets, in coffee-houses, on
the beaches and, when they get the Opportunity, in estab-
lished churches. And, as the disciples were full of grace
and power and worked miracles, according to Luke (Acts 6:8),

the young Christians are claiming the same experiences. A

blind girl said:

 

8Brian Vachon, "The Jesus Movement is Upon Us,"
Look (February 9, 1971), 16.

u

94

One student, having experienced faith healing
himself, felt led to pray for my Sight.

Three Christian students and I went to the
chapel on campus to petition the Lord for my eyes.
(For appearance sake I wore thick, heavy glasses.)
When we started to pray, I personally thought these
three were a little off their rockers, but I will
try anything once.

Three things I remember distinctly. I felt
waves of heat as though my body was consumed by a
holy fire; I saw a great blinding light; and one
of the students shattered my glasses on purpose.
He felt the glasses had to be broken in order for
anything to happen. The minute the glasses were
broken the Holy Spirit took over. I blacked out
for about 5 minutes, but when I came to I could
see. I visited an eye Specialist and he said I
have 20-20 vision in both eyes. As you read this
give all praise, honor and glory to Christ--for
His Name is Wonderful.

She expressed feelings very similar to Paul's conversion
as.recorded by Luke (Acts 9:1~9), and praised God as did
the cripple healed in Acts 3:1-10.

Another modern incident is similar to Luke's record
in Acts and indicates how closely the young Christians
follow the example of the early church. In Acts 4:32-37,
Luke reports that Christians who had land or houses sold
it and laid the money at the apostles' feet. In San Fran-
cisco, David Abraham, editor and publisher of the Oracle,
an underground paper accepted Christ on Haight Street. He
turned over all rights to his paper to the Jesus PeOple.10

Luke was not simply a historian. Had he been one,

his message in the Acts would have been interesting and

 

9This Week, unpublished newsletter from Inter-
Varsity Christian Fellowship, Madison, Wis., April 12,
1971. (Mimeographed.)

10Edward E. Plowman, "Jesus Presses are Rolling,"
Christianity Today (April 9, 1971), 38.

 

 

 

95

informative but not COpy suitable for the twentieth-

century church. He was, however, a reporter of the total

first century church scene. People find it easy to identify

with other peOple who live in genuine cultural situations
with the pressures of life affecting them. This Luke has
reported.

Whatever comes of the contemporary movements, the
church will be affected by these develOpments that spring
directly from a rediscovery of the events reported by
Luke in the first century. As a practicing journalist,
Luke provided the comprehensive background for understand-
ing the church as it began. He has given the modern
Christian a heritage, a point of reference for inspiration
and renewal. For men and women who want a personal commit-
ment and a vital relationship with the God they claim
through Jesus ChriSt, Luke offers a journalistic on-the-
spot report of how it was in the early church. Luke, the
first century Christian journalist, faithfully delivered

copy that was news then and still is.

"IF; 75??" 53—h “$1.31 A. '2: WET m

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The development and growth of the first century

Christian Church took place within the milieu of Greek,

Roman and Hebrew society. In that welter of cultures and

religions, each influencing the other, the early disciples

traveled and preached the gOSpel as they understood it.
The story Of their work and travels, and the resulting
growth of the Christian Church, has been described in the
Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke, a Greek physician
and disciple.

Although many scholars have examined the Acts,
most have analyzed it as either an historical or theolo-
gical treatise. Their studies have failed to explain a
fundamental characteristic of the book; that the author
was personally involved in the events that he narrated
objectively to his readers. Luke was on the scene, writ-
ing what he heard and saw and explaining to his readers
how certain events occurred which led to the development

of the church fellowship in the first century.

96

'7 rum mm

H- «a.

 

97

Luke did not content himself with simply copying
down dates and recording the activities of the growing
church. Neither did he preach or speculate on the essence
of the church as the extension of the body of Christ. His
book served as an interpretive bridge between the teachings
of Jesus as recorded in the gospels and the established
church as it is found in the epistles. Acts is the key to 1
understanding how the message received from Jesus in i

Palestine was disseminated to the people who constituted

 

[mfl‘I'J '1. '4.‘ 1. -
!

the church in the cities of Asia Minor.

To write his narrative, Luke practiced the skills,
and aimed at the objectives of the professional journalist.
When the Acts is examined journalistically, many questions
about the influence of culture, attitudes of different
social groups, and religious Opposition to the Christians
are put into perspective. Luke's readers are told not just
how and why the church grew but what influenced the church
as it grew.

Luke researched events, interviewed people, and
traveled with the disciples on their missionary journeys.
He did not write as either a theologian or historian; he
reported the development of the church as a news event.

The data that Luke gathered, the care he took to
use proper titles and place names, and his facility with
local terminology demonstrates his concern for accuracy
in reporting. His interest in detail gives his news account

an eyewitness impression that takes the reader on the scene

98

with him. Luke's skill made possible the readers' sharing
the feelings of the disciples as they argued, struggled
and preached. The result is a genuine human interest news
story.

As a practicing journalist, Luke understood and
interpreted to his readers the religious, linguistic,
cultural, political, economic, geographical and social
influences that affected the disciples and those to whom
they preached. He also seemed to be aware of how they
influenced his own thinking. Luke also demonstrated that
he was able to work with the four major languages, Greek,
Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic, and the variations of each as
he encountered them in his travels. He showed how the
disciples adapted their preaching to different cultural
and religious beliefs and brought people of different
backgrounds together to form the church. And, as a reporter,
Luke seemed to consciously keep his own biases out of his
story. He reported antagonism to the Christians and even
persecutions without bringing into the story his prejudices
about what was happening. Even though he was a Greek, he
reported the Greek-Hebrew conflicts impartially.

International journalism, the kind of journalism
practiced by Luke, is thought by modern journalists to
require three basic areas of training: (1) the development
of writing skills; (2) the acquisition and internalization
of the norms and ethical standards of the profession; and

(3) the development and practice of skills of observation,

 

99

reporting and interpretation. Analysis of the Acts shows
that Luke did in fact have these aspects in his work as
a reporter for the early church.

Within the last decade there has come a new inter-
est in the writing Of Luke and an appreciation of his
journalistic competency in reporting the development of.
the early church. There seems to be a renewed interest
in the style and message of the early church, and the source
Of study for this renewal is the Acts.

History reveals a basic lack of awareness of the
early church's purpose and practice as they are recorded
in the Acts. Doctrine has been taught as if Christians
lived in a vacuum and church organizations run as if struc-
ture and prestige are all important. A corrective to this
is the rediscovery of the disciples' message and work as
they encountered their world. The study of Acts can offer
the modern Christian a basis for understanding his world
and the mission of the church today.

Increasingly, an appeal to the ways and message Of
the first century church is becoming important to the
modern Christian. Personal faith and proclamation of the
teachings and ways of Jesus are being studied and imple-
mented, particularly among the young creative Christians.
Acts is being studied by those who want to be proclaimers
of the message and reformers of the church.

Continuing study of the Acts with attention paid

to the sensitivity of the disciples and their attitudes

100

about people around them as they taught the message of
Jesus, should add a dimension of warmth and enthusiasm
that up to this time has not been too evident to the non-
Christian. As modern church renewal through the study of
Acts begins to affect more and more people, it will be
largely due to the contemporary value of Luke's first

century interpretive reporting.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

101

. ‘ . _mmamlflm

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

 

Books

Allen, Roland. MissionarngethOds: St. Paul's Or Ours?
London: World Dominion Press, 1956.

Barrett, Charles Kingsley. Luke the Historian in Recent
Study. Edinburgh: Epworth Press, 1961.

 

Bruce, F. F. "The Dawn of Christianity." The Spreadipg
Flame. Vol. I. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1953.

 

. The Speeches in the Acts of the Apostles.
London: The Tyndale Press, 1942.

 

Cadbury, Henry J. The Book of Acts in History. London:
Adam and Charles Black, 1955.

 

Coleman, Lyman. Acts Alive. Newtown, Pa.: The Halfway
House, 1966.

 

Collwell, E. C. "External Evidence and New Testament
Criticism." Studies and Documents. Edited by
Jacob Geerling. Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press, 1967.

 

Creed, John Martin. The Gospel According to St. Luke.
London: MacMillan and Co., 1957.

Cullmann, Oscar. Jesus and the Revolutionaries. Translated
by Gareth Putnam. New York: Harper and Row Pub-
lishers, 1970.

 

Filson, Floyd V. "The New Testament Against Its Environ-
ment." Studies in Biblical Theology, No. 3,
7th Ed. London: S.C.M. Press, 1963.

Gilbert, George H. Greek Thought in the New Testament.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928.

102

[-15 an L175"... ...—23. ’4 -' .' T ' .1 '.'~'.~'!"-\'-. u“ a! I

103

Glover, Robert Hall. Bible Basis of Missions. Los Angeles:
The Bible Book House of Los Angeles, 1946.

 

Grant, F. C. "The Economic Background of the New Testa-
ment." The Background of the New Testament and
Its Eschatology. Edited by W. D. Davis and D.
Daube. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1956.

 

 

Hobart, William K. The Medical Language of St. Luke.
Dublin: Hodges, Figgis & Co., 1882.

 

Hunter, Graham Chambers. Luke First Century Christian.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1937.

 

Kilpatrick, G. D. "Style and Text in the Greek New Testa-
ment." Studies and Documents. Vol. xxix. Edited
by Jacob Geerling. Salt Lake City: University of
Utah Press, 1967.

 

MacDougall, Curtis. Interpretative Reporting. 4th Ed.
New York: The MacMillan Company, 1963.

 

Mackintosh, Hugh Ross. Types of Modern Theology_(Schleir-
macher to Barth). New York: Charles Scribners
Sons, 1937.

 

 

McNeile, A. H. An Introduction to the Study of the New
Testament. 2nd Ed. Oxford: At the Clarendon
Press, 1953.

 

 

Neibuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1951.

 

Pfeiffer, Charles F. and Vos, Howard F. The Wycliffe
Historical Geggraphy of Bible Land_. Chicago:
Moody Press, 1967.

 

 

Plummer, Alfred. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on
The GOSpel According to St. Luke. 5th Ed.
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1922.

 

 

Ramsay, William Mitchell. Luke the Physician. Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956.

 

Robertson, Archibald T. Luke the Historian in the Light
of Research. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920.

 

Robinson, Gordon. New Testament Detection. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1964.

 

Sherwin-White, A. N. Roman Society and Roman Law in the
New Testament. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press,
1963.

 

 

104

Strong, Augustus H. Popular Lectures on the Books of the
New Testament. Philadelphia: The Judson Press,
1914.

 

 

Tenney, Merrill C. New Testament Times. Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans PubliSHing Company, 1965.

 

The New English Bible. Oxford University Press, 1961.

 

Unmick, W. C. von. "Luke-Acts, a Storm Center in Con-
temporary Scholarship." Studies in Luke-Acts.
Edited by Leander E. Keck and J. Louis Martyn.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1966.

 

Younger, George D. The Bible Calls for Action. Phila-
delphia: The Judson Press, 1959.

 

Journals

Burgess, Philip M. and Underwood, Paul S. "New Approaches
to Educating the International Student. Journalism

 

 

 

Quarterly. Vol. III, NO. 3 (Autumn, 1970), 519-529.
Magazines
"The Frankfurt Declaration." Christianity Today (June 19,
1970), 5.
Plowman, Edward E. "Jesus Presses Are Rolling." Chris-

 

tianity Today (April 9, 1971), 38.

 

Vachon, Brian. "The Jesus Movement is Upon Us." Look.
February 9, 1971, 16.

 

Newspapers

 

Gottschalk, Earl C., Jr. "Hip Culture Discovers a New Trip.‘
Wall Street Journal, March 2, 1971, p. l.

 

Unpublished

 

This Week, unpublished newsletter from Inter-Varsity Chris-
tian Fellowship, Madison, Wisconsin, April 12, 1971.
(Mimeographed.)

 

105

General References

 

Arensberg, Conrad M. and Kimball, Solon T. Culture and
Communication. New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1965.

 

 

Benedict, Ruth Fulton. Patterns of Culture. New York:
Houghton & Mifflin Co., 1934.

 

Black, Matthew. An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and
Acts. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1954.

 

Blaiklock, F. M. The Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1959.

 

Blunt, A. W. F. The Acts of the Apostles. Oxford: At
the Clarendon Press, 1923.

 

Boas, Franz. Race, Language and Culture. New York:
The Macmillan Company, 1940.

 

Bornkamm, Gunther. Early Christian Experience. Trans-
lated by Paul L. Hammer. New York: Harper and
Row, Publishers, 1966.

 

Brown, Charles Henry. Informing the People. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1957.

 

Brown, Stanley C. Evangelism in the Early Church. Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963.

 

Bruce, F. F. The Book of the Acts. Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956.

 

. New Testament Histogy. London: Thomas
Nelson & Sons, Ltd., 1969.

 

 

Brucker, Herbert. Journalist, Eyewitness to Histopy. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1962.

 

Brunner, Emil. The Misunderstandingiof the Church. Trans-
lated by Harold Knight. Philadelphia: The West-
minster Press, 1953.

 

Bultmann, Rudolph. Theology of the New Testament. Trans-
lated by Kendrick Grobel. Vol. I. New York:
Charles Scribners Sons, 1951. '

 

Burkitt, Francis Crawford. The GOSpel History and Its
Transmission. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1925.

 

Burnside, W. F., Editor. The Acts of the Apostles. Cam-
bridge: University Press, 1916.

106

Cadbury, Henry J. The Making of Luke-Acts. London:
S. P. C. K., 1958.

 

Calvin, John. Commentary Upon the Acts of the Apostles.
2 Volumes. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub-
lishing Company, 1949.

 

Carrington, Philip. The Early_Christian Church. Cam-
bridge: At the University Press, 1957.

 

Carver, William Owen. The Acts of the Apostles. Nash-
ville: Broadman Press, 1916.

 

Coblentz, Edmond D. Newsmen Speak: Journalists on Their

Craft. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1964.

 

u

Conzelmann, Hans. The Theology of St. Luke. New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1960.

 

 

Copple, Neale. Depth Reporting. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1964.

 

Craig, Clarence Tucker. The Beginnings of Christianity.
New York: Abingdon—Cokesbury Press, 1943.

 

Cullmann, Oscar. Peter, Disciple-Apostle Martyr. Trans-
lated by Fond V. Filson. Philadelphia: The
Westminster Press, 1953.

 

. The State in the New Testament. New York:
Charles Scribners Sons, 1956.

 

 

Daniels, Boyd L., and Suggs, M. Jack. "Studies in the
History and Text of the New Testament." Studies
and Documents. Edited by Jacob Geerling. Salt
Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1967.

 

Davidson, F.; Stibbs, A. M.; and Kevan, E. F. The New
Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishifig Company, 1956.

 

Davis, W. D. Paul and Rabbinic Judaism. London: 8. P.
C. K., 1965.

 

Deissmann, Adolf. Light from the Ancient East. Translated
by Lionel R. M. Strachan. New York: George H.
Doran Co., 1927.

 

. Paul, A Study in Social and Religious Histopy.
Translated by William Wilson. New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1912.

 

 

107

Dodd, C. H. The Apostolic Preaching and Its Develgpment.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1963.

 

Easton, Burton Scott. Early Christianity. Edited by
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Edman, Irwin. The Mind Of Paul. New York: Henry Holt
and Company, 1935.

 

 

Epp, Eldon Jay. The Theological Tendengy of Codex Bezae .
Cantabrigiensis in Acts. Cambridge: At the E
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Erdman, Charles R. The Acts: An Exposition. Philadelphia:
The Westminster Press, 1919.

 

Flender, Helmut. St. Luke: Theologian of Redemptive
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I.F.¢.:f_h.'. 3' .‘.f‘.nw,‘. '-' _' ....

Foulder, M. D. Type and History in Acts. London: S. P.
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Gabelein, Arno Clemens. The Prophet St. Paul. New York:
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Grant, W. M. Ideals of the Early Church. London: James
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Hannan, Wilfred Lawson. Luke the Evangelist, a Study of
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Harnack, Adolf von. New Testament Studies, I. Luke the
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. New Testament Studies, III. The Acts of the
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. New Testament Studies, IV. The Date of the
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Translated by J. R. Wilkinson. London: Williams
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. The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in
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Harrison, R. K. Archaeology of the New Testament. London:
The English Universities Press, Ltd., 1964.

 

108

Hayakawa, Samuel I. Language in Action. New York:
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Henry, Carl F. H., Editor. Revelation and the Bible.
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Jonsson, Jakob. Humour and Irony in the New Testament.
Bokautgafa Menningarsjods Reykjavick, 1965.

Kasemann, Ernst. New Testament Questions of Today.
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Keck, Leander E., and Martyn, J. Louis. Studies in Luke-
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Kennedy, H. A. A. St. Paul and the Mystery Religions.
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Klausner, Joseph. From Jesus to Paul. Translated from
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Knox, John. Chapters in a Life of Paul. New York:
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Knudsen, Ralph E. Theologygin the New Testament. Valley
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Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity.
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Lietzmann, Hans. History of the Early Church. Translated
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Longenecker, Richard N. Paul, Apostle of Liberty. New
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Lunly, T. Lawson, Editor. The Acts of the Apostles.
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Mackinley, G. Recent Discoveries in St. Luke's Writings.
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Moe, Olaf. The Apostle Paul: His Life and His Works.
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Morton, A. Q. The Structure of Luke and Acts. New York:
Harper & Row Publishers, 1964.

 

 

109

Nestle, Eberhard and Aland, Kurt. Novum Testamentum
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Nida, Eugene. Customs, Culture and Christianity. London:
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. God's Word in Man's Language. New York:
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O'Neill, J. C. The Theology of Acts in its Historical [a
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Parker, Joseph. Apostolic Life as Revealed in the Acts I
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Parkes, James. Judaism and Christianity. Chicago:
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Phillips, J. B., Translator. The New Testament in Modern
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Ramsay, William Mitchell. The Church in the Roman Empire
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. St. Paul, the Traveler and Roman Citizen.
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. The Cities of St. Paul: Their Influence on
His Life and Thought. Grand Rapids: The Baker
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Reicke, B. O. The New Testament Era. Philadelphia:
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Richardson, Alan. An Introduction to the Theology of the
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Richardson, William J., Ed. Revolution in Missionary
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tions, 1966.

 

Riddle, Donald W. Paul, Man of Conflict. Nashville:
Cokesbury Press, 1949.

 

Riddle, Donald W. and Hulson, Howard H. New Testament
Life and Literature. Chicago: UHIVersity of
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110

Robinson, A. T. Epochs in the Life of St. Paul. New
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Schmithals, Walter. The Office of Apostle in the Early
Church. Translated by John E. Steely. Nashville:
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Schnackenburg, Rudolf. The Church in the New Testament.
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Schramm, Wilbur. The Science of Human Communication.
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Scott, Charles S. Christianity According to St. Paul.
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Scott, Ernest F. Man and Society in the New Testament.
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Scott, John Adams. Luke, Greek Physician and Historian.
Evanston, 111.: Northwestern University Press,
1930.

 

Siebert, Frederick Seaton; Peterson, Theodore; and Schramm,
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Stalker, James. Life of St. Paul. Grand Rapids: Zonder-
van Publishing House, 1964.

 

Stauffer, Ethelbert. New Testament Theology. Translated
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1955.

 

Stifler, J. M. An Introduction to the Study of the Acts
of the Apostles. New York: Fleming H. Revell
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Still, James Ironside. St. Paul on Trial. New York:
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Talbert, Charles H. Luke and the Gnostics. Nashville:
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Taylor, William M. Paul the Missionary. New York: Harper
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The Street PeOple. Valley Forge, Pa.: The Judson Press,
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Thompson, J. A. The Bible and Archaeology. Grand Rapids:
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111

Torrey, Charles Cutler. The Composition and Date of Acts.
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Unger, Merrill F. Archaeology and the New Testament.
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Vaughn, C. J. The Church of the First Days. London and
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Vedder, Henry C. The Dawn of Christianity. Philadelphia:
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Weiss, Johannes. Earliest Christianity: A History of the
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Westcott, Brooke Foss and Hort, Fenton John. The New
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Wilcox, Max. The Semitisms of Acts. Oxford: At the
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Wilson, Philip Whitehall. The Church We Forggt: A Study
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Wood, C. T. The Life, Letters and Religion of St. Paul.
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Yamauchi, Edwin M. Greece and Babylon: Early Contacts
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Journals

Westley, Bruce H. and MacLean, Malcom S. "A Conceptual
Model for Communication Research." Journalism
Quarterly. Vol. 34 (Winter, 1957).

 

 

Unpublished Materials

 

Arichea, Daniel C. "A Critical Analysis of the Stephen
Speech in the Acts of the Apostles." Unpublished
Ph. D. dissertation, Duke University, 1965.

Baker, Kenneth W. "Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the
Acts of the Apostles." Unpublished Ph. D. dis-
sertation, Marquette University, 1967.

112

Bruton, James R. "The Concept of the Holy Spirit as a
Theological Motif in Luke-Acts." Unpublished
Ph. D. dissertation, The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, 1967.

Cottle, Ronald E. "The Occasion and Purpose for the Final
Drafting of Acts." Unpublished Ph. D. disserta-
tion, University of Southern California, 1967.

Jegen, M. Carol Frances. "Christian Community: The Glory
of Christ: A Study in the Theology of Acts."
Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Marquette Uni-
versity, 1968.

Mundy, Luther M. "Tradition and Composition in the
Speeches of the Early Chapters of Acts." Unpub-
lished Ph. D. dissertation, Emory University,

1965.
Talbert, Charles H. "Luke-Acts: A Defense Against
Gnosticism." Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation,

Vanderbilt University, 1963.

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