Description
Book SynopsisIn this volume Joshua Paul Smith challenges the long-held assumption that Luke and Acts were written by a gentile, arguing instead that the author of these texts was educated and enculturated within a Second-Temple Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, Smith considers the question of Lukan authorship from multiple fronts, including reception history and social memory theory, literary criticism, and the emerging discipline of cognitive sociolinguistics. The result is an alternative portrait of Luke the Evangelist, one who sees the mission to the gentiles not as a supersession of Jewish law and tradition, but rather as a fulfillment and expansion of Israel’s own salvation history.
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1 On Method 2 A Note on Ἰουδαῖοι: Translation and Categorical Criteria 3 Chapter Summary 2 “As One Zealous for the Law”: Lukan Authorship in Early Christian Memory 1 The Early Reception of Lukan Authorship 2 Λουκας in the New Testament 3 Luke the Evangelist in the Patristic Imagination 4 Why Was Luke So Variously Remembered? 5 Conclusion 3 Resurrecting Luke the Author 1 The Author Is Dead, and We Have Killed Him 2 Reports of the Author’s Death Were an Exaggeration 3 “Consulting the Oracle”: Authorship and Luke/Acts 4 Cultural Intertext 5 Luke’s Interpretation of Israel’s Scriptures 6 Social and Cognitive Linguistics 7 Summary and Conclusion 4 “Beginning with Moses and All the Prophets …”: Luke’s Jewish Interpretation of Israel’s Scriptures 1 On “Israel’s Scriptures” 2 On “Jewish Interpretation” and “Christian Interpretation” 3 Luke’s Interpretation of Israel’s Scriptures: A Brief Overview 4 “Do You Understand What You Are Reading?” 5 “Echoes of Luke/Acts in Luke/Acts”: An Exegetical Interlude 6 A Gentile Proselyte? 7 A Matter of Time: Luke vs. Justin Martyr 8 Conclusion 5 “Keeping Yourselves from These Things, You Will Do Well” (Acts 15:29): Luke and Jewish Law 1 Torah Praxis and Halakha in Luke and Acts 2 The Apostolic Decree and Moral Impurity 3 Jewish Festival Observance in Luke and Acts 4 Conclusion 6 Τὰ Ἔθνη and the Authorship of Luke/Acts: A Socio-Cognitive Perspective 1 Cognitive Linguistics and Social Identity 2 Preliminary Considerations 3 τὰ ἔθνη in Luke and Acts: Mapping an Idealized Cognitive Model 4 τὰ ἔθνη in Other Early Christian Writings 5 Conclusion Summary and Conclusion 1 Reading Luke and Acts after the Shoah 2 Conclusion Appendix: Insider/Outsider Language in Luke and Acts Bibliography Index
