Social Identity Theory (SIT) is a promising tool in New Testament studies for helping readers understand the dynamics and formation of group identity in the First Century. The specific contention of this dissertation is that the author of Luke-Acts seeks to create and shape identity among God-fearers in the New Christian Movement by means of “cultural memory” and prescribed group behavior. Luke has an inclusive agenda that involves decentralization of the Jewish establishment, while redefining a number of core symbols of Judaism (notably the Temple and the land) around Jesus. Luke’s robust sense of gospel - rooted in Israel’s history, while extending to all people – forms a crucial backdrop for investigating his ethnically universalist tendencies and his narrative methods of communication. Specifically, social identity is formed through the use of prototypes and exemplars, characters that resemble a quality that the group either desires to promote or eliminate. Luke communicates many of these facets through speeches, utilizing elements of firstcentury Greco-Roman rhetoric. My eclectic, yet integrated approach aims to do justice to under-recognized features of social identity formation in Luke’s two volume work, with a particular focus on volume two (Acts).

The hermeneutics of social identity in Luke-Acts

Since its appearance nearly 35 years ago, Black's New Testament Commentary Series has been hailed by both scholars and pastors for its insightful interpretations and reliable commentary. Each book in the series includes: an insightful introduction to the important historical, literary, and theological issues; key terms and phrases from the translation highlighted in the commentary where they are discussed; explanations of special Greek or foreign terms; references to important primary and secondary literature; and a Scripture index.Paul's letter to the Galatians may be the boldest exposition of the gospel and one of the best examples that Paul's theology first and foremost emerged within the framework of a living community. Dunn's sensitivity to the letter's larger flow of thought and his adept hand at guiding us through the sometimes murky waters of Paul's thought combine to make this commentary refreshingly accessible and eminently serviceable. With a penetrating but never pedantic analysis, Dunn opens Paul's letter to the troubled believers in Galatia with a skill that comes only with knowing the subject exceedingly well.

The Epistle to the Galatians

Scholarship on the book of Acts frequently proceeds under the 'no final con flict' slogan when it comes to employing a diversity of methods. In this essay, however, some of the fundamental assumptions and approaches to Acts in recent scholarship are examined and challenged, raising questions related to the proliferation of method in New Testament and early Christian studies, the underlying methodological assumptions of particular interpre tive approaches, and the sublimation of theology and ideology in scholar ship. The past 15 years of Acts scholarship provides the context for this broad survey and interaction. The essential contours of the discussion are focused around matters related to genre, the nature of Acts as 'text', the book's connections to its broader socio-cultural and historical worlds, and, finally, to matters related to post-critical interactions with Acts. No easy solutions are offered in this essay; rather, the broad discussion of method in current Acts scholarship pushes for a return to...

Madness in the Method? the Acts of the Apostles in Current Study:

The paper argues that Luke 19:41-44 has, since the publication of the Kairos Document in South Africa in 1985, been understood in eschatological terms by biblical scholars and missiologists. However, when read as an episode in a long narrative of Luke-Acts which is about the fortune ( tyche) of Israel and against the backdrop of the mission of Kairos in Greek mythology, the picture suddenly changes. The episode becomes a watershed point between the rejected ministry of Jesus and the future mission of the church (the Way) which provides countless opportunities to individuals and groups who fail to recognise and snatch the first opportunity presented to them. The conclusion of the paper is that unlike Kairos , son of Zeus who offered a lifetime opportunity to individuals, Jesus, the representative of God offers countless opportunities to all who turn to the Way that leads to him. A foundation for the latter is laid in the gospel while it continues in the Acts of the Apostles.

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Jesus and the tyche of Jerusalem : a reflection on the mission of Jesus in Luke 19:41-44 with special reference to the mission of Kairos in Greek mythology

This article presents a model for “intercultural exegesis” and applies this model to Luke 22:69 and Acts 7:56. In this process, the term “Son of Man” is approached from two perspectives: that of a biblical culture in the first century Graeco-Roman world, and that of a current Christian culture in Africa. The study concludes that the “Son of Man” concept in the selected texts not only includes a reference to the eschatological saviour, judge and defender, but also creates a sense of Jesus’ solidarity with his fellow human beings. Such an understanding would certainly have led to Jesus’ exaltation by his followers, who lived under conditions of social turmoil in the Graeco-Roman world of the first century, and would lead to such an exaltation by those who experience similar circumstances in Africa today.

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The social setting of Jesus' exaltation in Luke-Acts (Lk 22:69 and Ac 7:56)

Qelle place occupe Etienne dans le developpement du christianisme primitif? Les specialistes en discutent encore. Juif chretien hellenophone, il fut un personnage historique, on peut l'affirmer. Les problemes critiques que souleve le discours que Actes 7 lui attribue meritent consideration. Neanmoins, on peut soutenir que ce texte represente pour l'essentiel une prise de position critique a l'egard du Temple qui n'etait pas seulement celle d'Etienne en personne, mais bien celle de l'ensemble du mouvement chretien primitif a Jerusalem. Dans le climat politique et religieux ou Etienne denonca le Temple, le culte du Temple, et ses fideles, son franc-parler lui valut d'etre persecute. La mort d'Etienne se comprend le mieux avec, a l'arriere-plan, la tension eschatologique des juifs de Palestine, qui n'avait fait que monter quand ils prevoyaient l'erection d'une statue de Caligula dans le Temple et se preparaient a mourir en le defendant - en 40 ap. J.-C.

Stephen, the temple, and early Christian eschatology

This article argues that the recent scholarly consensus of an essentially gentile Thessalonian church being persecuted by its gentile neighbours is founded on unsound premises. The Jewish community in Thessalonica would have had good reason to oppose Paul and the congregation he formed. The exegesis of key texts in 1 Thessalonians does not support the reconstruction of the church as composed of gentiles unconnected with the synagogue, and the ethnic background of the persecutors cannot be ascertained on the basis of the letter. The dismissal of Acts as a source of historical information is unwarranted.

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Who persecuted the Thessalonian Christians

This study examines the eschatological discourses in Matthew and Luke. Each is considered in its narrative context, and with detailed attention given to developments in the transmission from their common source, Mark. While both reflect awareness of historical events during the period between the composition of Mark and the time of writing, they relate to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple very differently. While Matthew is clearly written after 70 CE, the eschatological discourse is not influenced by the events of that period. The eschatological discourse in Luke, on the other hand, has been fundamentally reshaped in the light of those events.

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The destruction of Jerusalem and the transmission of the Synoptic eschatological discourse

It is widely accepted in scholarship that the hypothetical sayings collection Q originated in the Jesus movement which persisted in Galilee after the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. This study accepts the hypothesis of a source, common to Matthew and Luke, not merely written in Greek but also reflecting a tradition of oral delivery in Greek. It accepts also that many of the traditions preserved therein originate in the historical ministry of Jesus, without identifying these with any earlier layer identified by previous scholarship. The Galilean provenance of Q is questioned, in the light of eight factors, which are considered in turn: (1) the nature and definition of Q, and its relationship to other Jesus traditions; (2) the language of Q; (3) scribal skills in rural Galilee; (4) the purpose in committing Q to writing; (5) geographical allusions in the reconstructed document; (6) the nature of itinerancy in the mission charge; (7) Israelite traditions and institutions; and (8) Q and primitive Christian kerygma. It is argued that Q was transcribed to facilitate wider and more efficient dissemination of the tradition of Jesus' teaching in the Greek language, and that the impetus and occasion for this would not have occurred in Galilee. The provenance of Q is therefore to be sought elsewhere.

Q and Galilee

Recent Historical Jesus studies have made little use of material found in the Pauline epistles. This is particularly surprising, given that previous generations of New Testament scholarship have operated on the premise ofthe chronological, and often theological, priority of Paul. The trend in historical Jesus scholarship associated, fairly or unfairly, with the Jesus Seminar, which diminishes the Jewish background and character of Jesus, requires the repudiation of Paul's testimony, despite its chronological priority. This paper assesses the material in Paul's letters afresh, and offers an assessment of its significance for reconstructing the historical Jesus and the collection of the Gospel traditions.

N.H. Taylor

Papers

Stephen, the temple, and early Christian eschatology

Who persecuted the Thessalonian Christians

The destruction of Jerusalem and the transmission of the Synoptic eschatological discourse

Q and Galilee

Paul and the historical Jesus quest