Peter Kirby

There is a well-known tradition of defending the historicity of Acts on the basis of its accuracy concerning titles, geography, and other matters and its historical intent as revealed in the prologue (and possible eyewitness status). The literature is voluminous and will not be detailed here; quotes are often cited from William Ramsey, A. N. Sherwin-White, and F. F. Bruce among others.

There is also a well-known tradition of discrediting the historicity of the gospels, going back to D. F. Strauss and before. But a tradition of discrediting the historicity of the Acts of the Apostles is not known to me. What I would like to know is where to find some books or articles that seek to respond to the apologetics for Acts and/or that tend to undermine the factual nature of the stories in Acts and/or that present "liberal" commentary on the stories.

Please note that this is simply a request for references and does not mean that I have made any claims concerning the historicity or otherwise of Acts.

best,
Peter Kirby

Toto

Randal Helms Who Wrote the Gospels includes Acts. He finds literary and mythic themes in Acts that tend to discredit it as history.

Donald Harman Akenson's Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus attacks the historicity of Acts; he claims that since there are discrepancies between the letters of Paul and the narrative of Acts, that Acts must be judged to be unreliable, on the theory that Paul's letters are first hand evidence.

There is this online essay: Problems with Luke as History, which tackles Luke-Acts together.

Celsus

The Secweb library also has Sid Green's Hidden History in Acts of the Apostles.

Joel

Toto

I guess you could also call Eisenman a critic of the historicity of Acts, although he seems to give it more credit than you would expect.

I've also just come across this:

Luke's Story of Paul in Corinth:Fictional History in Acts 18

Peter Kirby

Doughty's article looks promising. Thanks.

I've come across a reference in Colin Hemer that "Zeller, who made the only thorough study of Acts by a member of the Tübingen School, stressed the Peter-Paul parallelism as a creation of the writer. This writer aims to justify the existence of a Gentile Christianity in the period 110-130, and therefore compromises the distinctiveness of Paul in order to conciliate the Jewish Christians." (The Book of Acts, p. 309) E. Zeller's book is titled Die Apostelgeschichte nach ihrem Inhalt und Ursprung kritisch untersucht (Stuttgart, 1854), translated as The Contents and Origin of the Acts of the Apostles, Critically Investigated, 2 vols., translated by Joseph Dare (London 1875-76). I couldn't find a used copy, but it is in some California university libraries.

Does anyone know of later studies in print that critically investigate the book of Acts?

thanks again,
Peter Kirby

Vorkosigan

What about Eisenman's James the Brother of Jesus?

Richard Pervo has a book on Acts as a novel. Can't think of the name offhand. Hang on...

Toto

Googling Zeller's book:

The Trial of the Gospel: An Apologetic Reading of Luke's Trial Narratives by Alexandru Neagoe

Introduction

The introduction is online, and contains a survey of the literature on Acts from the point of view of its apologetic purposes. It doesn't explicity discuss historical validity, but attributing an apologetic motive to any text tends to indicate it might not be historially accurate.

There's also a bibliography on Acts reseach here: http://cranfordville.com/ActsResearch.pdf

Toto

vBB can't handle this URL:

http://www.bts.edu/trobisch/BookReviews/bookspra.htm#Pervo,%20Richard%20I:%20Profit%20with %20Delight;%20the%20Literary%20Genre%20of%20the%20 Acts%20of%20the%20Apostles%20(Philadelphia:%20Fort ress%20Press,%201987).%20[Jennie%20A.%20Barrington]

To find it, go to

BookReviews

search for Pervo

Review of Pervo's Profit with Delight; the Literary Genre of the Acts of the Apostles

Geoff Hudson

Absolutely!

Your thread has prompted me to have another go at Acts. Each time I do, something falls into place. I believe that I am cracking it.

No-one knows of a temple gate called Beautiful (Acts 3:3,9), so where is it?

Geoff

Toto

The Westar Institute is putting on an Acts seminar this fall in Sonoma County:

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Event.../fall2003.html