Community and Gospel in Luke-Acts: The Social and Political Motivations of Lucan Theology (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series (No. 57))

286 Pages·1989·4.08 MB·English

by  Philip Francis Esler

SOCIETY FOR NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES
MONOGRAPH SERIES
General Editor: G. N. Stanton
57
COMMUNITY AND GOSPEL
IN LUKE-ACTS

Community and gospel in
Luke-Acts
The social and political motivations of Lucan theology
PHILIP FRANCIS ESLER
Barrister of the New South Wales Supreme Court and
Part-time Lecturer in Religious Studies and Divinity,
University of Sydney
I CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 1987
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First published 1987
First paperback edition 1989
Reprinted 1989,1994,1996
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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Esler, Philip Francis.
Community and gospel in Luke-Acts.
(Monograph series / Society for New Testament Studies; 57)
Bibliography.
Includes index.
1. Bible. N.T. Luke — Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. Bible. N.T. Acts — Criticism, interpretation, etc.
3. Sociology, Biblical. I. Title. II. Series: Monograph
series (Society for New Testament Studies); 57.
BS2589.E85 1987 226'.4o67 86-28415
ISBN 978-0-521-32965-5 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-38873-3 Paperback
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TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements page xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 The socio-redaction criticism of Luke-Acts 1
1. Social and political influences on Lucan theology 1
2. Towards a socio-redaction criticism of Luke-Acts 2
3. The methodology of the social sciences 6
The comparative method 9
4. Objections to the application of the social sciences
to the New Testament 12
5. Legitimation and Luke-Acts 16
2 The community 24
1. Luke's audience - a Christian community 24
2. When and where 27
3. Jews and Gentiles in Luke's community 30
Introduction: the case for a Gentile audience 30
The universalist theme in Luke-Acts 33
The incident at Nazareth (Lk 4.16-30) and
pious Gentiles 34
God-fearers in Luke-Acts 36
3 Sectarian strategies 46
1. Introduction 46
2. The sociology of sectarianism: typology and model 47
3. Sectarian strategies in Luke-Acts 53
Church and sect 53
Sectarian responses to the world 58
From Jewish reform movement to Christian sect 65
vu
Contents viii
4 Table-fellowship 71
1. Table-fellowship between Jews and Gentiles in
Luke-Acts 71
2. Jewish antipathy to dining with Gentiles 73
The anthropological perspective: external threat
and purity laws 73
Literary and historical evidence for the Jewish
ban on dining with Gentiles 76
3. The attitude to table-fellowship between Jews and
Gentiles in Galatians, Mark and Matthew 86
Table-fellowship in Galatians 87
Table-fellowship in Mark 89
Matthew and table-fellowship 91
4. Table-fellowship in Luke-Acts 93
The conversion of Cornelius 93
The Apostolic Council 97
Other instances of table-fellowship between Jews
and Gentiles in Acts 99
The nature of the meal in Acts 27.33-8 101
Table-fellowship and Luke's legitimatory purpose 105
5 The law 110
1. Introduction 110
2. The law in Luke's Gospel 111
The infancy narratives 111
Jesus'respect for the law 114
Jesus' transcendence of the law 115
Jesus'challenge to the law 117
Jewish paranomia in the Third Gospel 118
Luke 16.16-18 120
Lucan omissions of legal material 121
3. The law in Acts 122
Stephen and the law 122
Paul and the law 125
4. Conclusion 128
6 The Temple 131
1. The prominence of the Temple in Luke-Acts 131
2. Luke's ambivalent attitude to the Temple 133
3. The explanation for Luke's attitude to the Temple 135
Historical reality and Lucan redaction in Acts 6.1-8.3 135
Contents ix
Introduction 135
The identity of the 'Hebrews' and the 'Hellenists'
in Acts 6.1 136
The expulsion of the Hellenists from Jerusalem 139
The conflict between Hebrews and Hellenists 141
Temple, God-fearers and Gospel 145
The attitude of Diaspora Jews to the Temple and
the law 146
The Temple and the cult 148
Marginalized God-fearers in Jerusalem 154
The impact of the Gospel 157
4. Conclusion: Luke's redaction and the needs of his
community 161
7 The poor and the rich 164
1. A theology of the destitute in Luke-Acts? 164
2. Luke's theology of poverty and its social setting 169
3. The rich and the poor in the Hellenistic cities of the
Roman East 171
Social stratification 171
The experience of poverty 175
Conclusion 179
4. The Lucan version of the Nazareth pericope in its
Hellenistic setting 179
The social strata represented in Luke's community 179
Luke 4.18-19 and the experience of poverty 180
Conclusion 182
5. The rich and the poor in Luke's community 183
The upper socio-economic strata in Luke's
community 183
The poor in Luke's community 185
Conclusion 187
6. Luke's theology of the poor 187
Good news for the poor, grim news for the rich 187
The rich and the poor in 1 Enoch 92-105 189
Luke's attitude to salvation: its other-worldly
dimension 191
Luke's attitude to salvation: its this-worldly
dimension 193
7. Conclusion 197
Contents x
8 Rome and the ancestral theme 201
1. Politically sensitive material in Luke-Acts 201
The Roman empire in Luke-Acts 201
2. Apologetic or legitimation? 205
An historical outline of the apologetic explanation 205
Problems with the apologetic approach 207
An analysis of the religio licita theory 211
Roman respect for ancestral tradition 214
The ancestral theme in Luke-Acts 215
Conclusion: political legitimation in Luke-Acts 217
Epilogue: community and Gospel 220
Notes 224
Index of biblical references 259
Index of secondary authors 267