The dynamics of judgement and vindication

The research focuses on the court cases in the Acts of the Apostles. It consists of three parts. First, an overview of the court cases in Acts is presented, including instances of mere skirmishes, followed by an analysis of juridical terminology and motifs throughout the book. The analysis shows that the author of Acts provides his readers with a comprehensive and coherent overview of legal authorities before which the apostles and their teaching are tested. The second part focuses on the narrative strategy of Luke. The analysis of literary motifs shows that Luke models the apostles after Socrates in order to emphasize the respectability of the apostles and the credibility of their teaching. It also shows that Luke alludes to the classical Greek tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles when describing a juridical authority which takes on the role of a tyrant to try and suppress the nascent Christian movement. Thus Luke shows on a narrative level how resistance to this movement is futile, because it is vindicated by God. God’s judgement has already become clear when He raised Jesus from the dead, which was a reversal of the judgement of men, and Christ’s vindication. Therefore, in the third part of the research the concept of resurrection is analysed. The resurrection the turning point on which the Book of Acts hinges. In conclusion, the author of Acts shows how the testing of the Christian teaching by juridical authorities leads to a fresh, creative and apologetic Christian theology.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/cb909ad9-ac83-49e4-a568-d71abd17d872