Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians

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“Fourth, Luke places the explicit citation and interpretation of Scripture almost exclusively within the speeches of his characters.” (Page 25)

“Fifth, the speeches in Acts demonstrate both Luke’s Hellenistic sensibilities—he uses speeches in the manner of historiographers, and he has his characters interpret the Greek version of Scripture—and his immersion in contemporary Judaism: his manner of interpreting the Septuagint finds parallels in the practice of Palestinian Jews who interpreted the Hebrew Scripture.” (Page 25)

“The heart of my examination of Luke-Acts is the analysis of the portrayal both of Jesus and of the apostles in terms of prophecy. Luke characterizes Jesus and the movement that bears his name in ways that anyone familiar with the biblical tradition should recognize as having the marks of the prophet: being inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaking God’s word, embodying God’s vision for humans, enacting that vision through signs and wonders, and bearing witness to God in the world. Reading Luke-Acts in this fashion demonstrates the profound degree of continuity between the two parts of Luke’s story: it is from beginning to end a story about God’s prophets.” (Page 4)

“The second implication is theological: Luke writes his narrative concerning the church as the continuation of the story of Jesus.” (Page 11)

“There is an obvious overlap between the last characteristic (embodiment) and this one. Insofar as the prophet expresses God’s vision for humanity in his or her own life, that is already a form of enactment. But the distinctive aspect of this characteristic is the way in which the prophet works for the realization of God’s vision in the larger world of human culture and politics. Moses once more provides the model. He works tirelessly to form a people that can distinctively live according to God’s vision for all humanity.” (Page 48)