PhilosopherJay

Hi All,

What does the author of Acts know about the life and work of Jesus? Outside of a few elements from John's Baptism and the Passion Story, damn little.

• 1. He had 12 apostles and a mother named Mary.
• 2. 1.21 - There were other men besides the 12 Apostles who knew about Jesus
  Quote:

  (1.22)" beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us,

• 3. God used him to do mighty work and wonders and signs.
  Quote:

  (2.22) "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him."

• 4. Delivered up by a council - "delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,"
• 5. Slain by lawless men - "ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay"
• 6 God raised him up (2:24)"whom God raised up",
• 7. God made him Lord and Christ after his crucifixion - "that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified."
• 8. Jesus was a servant of God.
• 9. Jews denied him in front of Pilate who wanted to release him
• 10. Jews asked for a murderer rather than Jesus
• Quote:

  3:13The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. 3:14But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, 3:15and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

• 11. He is the cornerstone and the way to salvation:
• Quote:

  4:11He is the stone which was set at nought of you the builders, which was made the head of the corner. 4:12And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.

• 12. The Kings of the Earth - Herod and Pilate were against Jesus:
  
  Quote:

  4:26The kings of the earth set themselves in array, And the rulers were gathered together, Against the Lord, and against his Anointed: 4:27for of a truth in this city against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together, 4:28to do whatsoever thy hand and thy council foreordained to come to pass.

  13. Hanged on a tree
  14. Became a prince and savior
  
  Quote:

  5:30The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree. 5:31Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins

  15. God anointed Jesus with the Holy spirit
  16. He did good
  17. He expelled evil spirits
  18. Raised on the third day.
  19. Disciples ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
  20. He charged the disciples to say that he was ordained by God to judge the living and the dead.
  
  Quote:

  10:36The word which he sent unto the children of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all.) -- 10:37that saying ye yourselves know, which was published throughout all Judaea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; 10:38even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. 10:39And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom also they slew, hanging him on a tree. 10:40Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, 10:41not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 10:42And he charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. 10:43To him bear all the prophets witness, that through his name every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sins.

  21. From David's seed.
  
  Quote:

  13:23Of this man's seed hath God according to promise brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus;

  22. John the baptist preached about him:
  
  Quote:

  13:24when John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 13:25And as John was fulfilling his course, he said, What suppose ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there cometh one after me the shoes of whose feet I am not worthy to unloose. 13:26Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you that fear God, to us is the word of this salvation sent forth

  23. Fulfilled predictions.
  24. Jews found no reason to put him to death.
  25. Laid in tomb after death.
  13:28And though they found no cause of death in him, yet asked they of Pilate that he should be slain. 13:29And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.
  26. Apollos taught accurate things about Jesus only knowing about the Baptism of John
  
  Quote:

  18:24Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the scriptures. 18:25This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John:

  27. John preached of Jesus.
  
  Quote:

  19:4And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Jesus.

  28. He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive (not in any gospel)
  
  Quote:

  20:35In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring ye ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

  29. Jews believed him to be dead.
  
  Quote:

  25:18Concerning whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge of such evil things as I supposed; 25:19 but had certain questions against him of their own religion, and of one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

  30. Paul had a vision of Jesus. Jesus sent Paul to preach
  
  Quote:

  26:14And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the goad. 26:15And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 26:16But arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee; 26:17delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee, 26:18to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.

What does the author of Acts tell us about Jesus? Basically he relates only the baptism Story and Passion Story. After being baptized by John, he got the holy spirit. God did miracles through him. He was the Christ and the Jews knew it, but they still got Pilate to execute him. After his death, God exults him to sit with him in heaven. He will judge the dead. He was a descendent of David.
He hung out with the apostles after his death. He sent them on the mission to baptize everyone and give the gift of foregiveness of sins and eternal life.

The only saying of Jesus is one not in any gospel -- "it is better to give than to receive." Outside of a limited part of the baptism and a limited part of the passion story, the text only talks about Jesus' role in the conversion of Paul.
Everything else in the gospels is so irrelevant that Apollos is able to tell about Jesus accurately from the scriptures and the baptism of John.

It appears that like the epistles in the New Testament, in Acts we get no information on any historical event concerning Jesus. Everything is easily constructed by following the Christ formulas in the Hebrew Scriptures.That is why Paul never offers evidence or witnesses. He just proves that Jesus was the Christ from the Hebrew Scriptures:

Celsus writing about 180 seems to know about as much about Jesus, while Paul's letters reveal even less with no information about John the Baptist at all and just a few hints at the Passion story.


Warmly,

Jay Raskin

TedM

I'm not sure where you are going with this, but the first verse of Acts makes clear that Acts is a continuation of the story of Christianity. He clearly claims to be the author of an earlier account, and we all know that the author of Luke addresses the same Theophilus. Since Acts isn't about the life of Jesus but is about the development of early Christianity, it should only be expected that the references to Jesus would primarily focus on the reason Christianity was believed to have been spread: the resurrection.

Nevertheless, I found in just the first chapter a number of references to Jesus that your summary overlooked:

Jesus had been a teacher:
Jesus' followers were from Galilee..reasonable to assume that Jesus was from there also:
The 12 disciples were mentioned by name (Judas Iscariot later mentioned):
Jesus had brothers (subject to interpretation):
He was betrayed by Judas, one of his disciples:
His ministry began with the baptism from John:
And in several places after ch 1 he was called a Nazarene, and in Ch 7 Stephan refers to Jesus as the "Son of Man", a gospel term Paul never used.

Seems to me that there is little reason to think that the author of Acts was unfamiliar with the Jesus described in the Gospels.

Something of interest that Doherty has pointed out is that when the Acts story switches over to Paul and the firsthand 'we' accounts, the depiction of Jesus becomes less specific and sounds more like the Jesus Paul wrote about. I think that is possibly evidence that the latter part of Acts included writings of a companion of Paul.

aa5874

Your assertion contradicts your OP that the author of Acts knew Jesus as a MAN. The author of Acts did NOT know Jesus as a Man but from Scripture.

In the very first chapter of Acts, Jesus was WITNESSED ascending to heaven. See Acts 1.9

Ac 1:9 - The ascension is NOT an event that is carried out by mankind.

In the 2nd century, the Jesus story from the Memoirs of the Apostles was read in the Churches on Sundays and also regarded as Scripture.

"First Apology" LXVII Once there was a Jesus cult then it would be expected that such a cult would have had their OWN peculiar Doctrine their own writings which they regarded as Scripture.

The Jesus in Acts is NOT a man. The Canon is a NON-heretical document.

aeebee50

It is part of the big plan.

PhilosopherJay

Thanks TedM,

A few of these I'm not sure counts as knowledge of Jesus.

He's talking about an account he wrote about Jesus. We can say that Jesus was the subject of another work by the putative author and in this work he did and taught things.

These are mostly things he tells us about the apostles and followers and not about Jesus himself. He knows for example that Judas "burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out," but that's not really knowledge about Jesus. That the author gives names to the apostles is interesting, but as they contradict the apostle list of other authors, this does not give us information strictly about Jesus.

Likewise, that Stephan (chapter 7) had a vision of Jesus in heaven is more about Stephan than Jesus. I guess we can say that he knows that Jesus' followers (Stephan, Peter and Paul) had visions of Jesus in heaven. Again, I was looking more for what he knows about Jesus than his followers.

I would add that he was a Nazarene and he had biological brothers to my list.

TedM

Jay, I guess I'm not getting your point regarding the comment about teaching. The author of Acts appears to 'know' that Jesus was not only a healer who cast out demons but was also a teacher.

It seems to me that the mention of being arrested due to the actions of his disciple Judas qualifies as knowledge about Jesus that adds more detail to the passion story.

I would think also that we can say the author believed that Jesus was commonly referenced as the Son of Man, although he only has that phrase used by Stephan -- one man -- and the argument relies on the gospels for support.

Ted

aa5874

The author of Acts claimed Jesus ASCENDED to heaven in a cloud and that it was WITNESSED by the disciples. Please read the very first chapter of Acts.

Acts 1 Once you INTRODUCE Acts of the Apostles as evidence then you are OBLIGATED to show what the author did claim about Jesus.

It is just not logical that the very Acts of the Apostles which claimed that Jesus ascended to heaven is the same source that you are using to assert Jesus was a man.

Please, please, please.

You would NOT dare use Doherty's writings to argue that Jesus was a man and you would NOT dare use Ehrman to argue for Myth Jesus and it MUST be that you simply cannot use Canonised Acts of the Apostles to argue that Jesus was a man.

Canonised Acts of the Apostles is a post ASCENSION story with main characters like the WITNESSED resurrected and ASCENDED Jesus and the Holy Ghost on and AFTER the day of Pentecost.

It would be HERETICAL and total stupidity for the Church to have Canonised a KNOWN heretical writing

You NEED a CREDIBLE source EXTERNAL of Acts of the Apostles and apologetics to CORROBORATE Acts of the Apostles.

Acts of the Apostles cannot presently be corroborated with respect to Jesus, the Holy Ghost, the family of Jesus, the apostles and Paul.

TedM

aa, give it a rest. I was simply addressing Jay's OP and am not interested in discussing whether Jesus was really a man or not according to Acts. Maybe you should go back to your record-breaking 'logical fallacy' thread--oh yeah it was finally forced to be closed by the moderator..well maybe you can start a new one.

aa5874

I am also SIMPLY addressing what you posted in response to Jay's OP. After all that is the PRIMARY reason for DISCUSSION boards.

Can't you even accept that even ordinary people can disagree?

You may be violating the rules of the forum. Please do NOT discuss the moderator's action.

And you have just contradicted yourself. You are not now addressing the OP at all.

Now, this thread to which you have responded is about whether or not the author of Acts considered Jesus as a Man.

These words are found in Acts of the Apostles.

Acts 10 An ordinary Corrupted dead SINFUL man could NOT have been seen ALIVE on the THIRD day and have the ability to FORGIVE the Sins of ALL mankind.

The author of Acts is NOT writing history or his ACTS is based on fictitious events.

PhilosopherJay

Hi TedM,

It think it is pretty clear that the writer of the Gospel of Luke used a lot of different sources to create his Gospel. I consider it obvious that the writer of Acts is not making up his material, but is also putting together different material. What I am interested in is what that Acts material, which the author/editor used, knew about Jesus.

I take the opening chapter to be material that the editor is making up as it has nothing to do with the rest of the material. For example, in the opening chapter, the disciples elect Mattias (Matthew) to be the 12th disciple but we never hear about him afterwards, nor anything about Joseph called Barsabbas who was apparently also on the ballot to be 12th disciple. Mary and almost all the apostles also disappear from the narrative after the first chapter. The naming of the apostles and the stuff about Judas exploding is just to tie the Acts Material in the rest of Acts to later Gospels.

The first chapter seems to me to be the work of an editor creating a bridge to other gospels. However, starting from the second chapter we are getting text with a very specific knowledge of Jesus.

This knowledge consists of bits and pieces of the John the Baptist gospel material and the passion and resurrection material. Only it is not fleshed out as the gospel material in the New Testament.

To me, it represents a pre-gospel stage of development in the story. In this it resembles the epistles where only a few basic, general facts are known.

What the Acts Material knows about Jesus is pretty much given in a few lines in chapter 10:

A few minor details are added later:

The only real difference between this and what we get from the Pauline epistles is that John the Baptist predicted that someone would come after him. The Acts material is the first text that ties Jesus to John the Baptist, but it doesn't say that Jesus was baptized by John. Rather it says that

As John was preaching the coming kingdom of God, it seems probable that he was talking about God and predicting that God would soon come, and saying that he was not fit to untie God's shoelaces. The text shanghais this prophetical prediction just as it shanghais many prophetical predictions in the Hebrew Scriptures to make it refer to Jesus.

The John Gospel adds to this story connecting John to Jesus through a prophesy of John by adding that John saw Jesus and even saw a dove descend on his head.

This allows us to eliminate any historical connection between John and Jesus. The Acts material is creating a Jesus from prophesy and John's prediction gets fleshed out in later material.

This leaves only the passion and resurrection material which is also coming from prophesy material.

The Acts material shows us a layer that is only slightly more advanced than the layer of material in Paul's epistles. It does show us how the material is slowly developed in later gospel writings to flesh out the Jesus/Christ character.

I expanded these ideas a bit in my blog here

Warmly,

Jay Raskin