عنوان

The speeches of opponents in the Acts of the Apostles :

Number

TLets439941

Title Proper

The speeches of opponents in the Acts of the Apostles :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Padilla, Osvaldo

Title Proper by Another Author

their function and contribution to Lukan historiography

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Aberdeen

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2006

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Thesis (Ph.D.)

Text preceding or following the note

2006

Text of Note

By examining the speeches of opponents, the work attempts to investigate what role they play in the unfolding narrative of Luke's second volume.  In addition, the thesis attempts to probe Luke's historiographic horizon by comparing his use of the speeches of opponents to that of other instances in biblical and Second Temple narrative literature. An introductory chapter proposes that the category of the "opponent" or "outsider" is a helpful grid through which to view the manner in which an author builds and strengthens the identity of a community in a historical document. Chapter two reviews research on the speeches of Acts from F. C. Baur to the present.  It is observed that the majority of studies on the speeches have concentrated on matters of historicity and theology. With the work of Martin Dibelius, it is argued that a fresh avenue of research on the speeches was opened, whereby a shift in scholarship slowly began to take place. Rather than focusing exclusively on the historicity of the discourses, scholars began to concentrate on the function of the speeches in Acts as a whole as well as on the historiographic orientation of Acts provided by the speeches. Chapters three to six are exegetical investigations of the speeches of opponents in Acts. Chapter seven examines the speeches of the opponents of Israel in selected Hebrew and Second Temple Jewish narrative literature. The dissertation draws the following conclusions: Luke used the speeches of opponents as one of the channels through which to convey his own ideology.  This literary technique was built upon a theological/historiographical foundation that adhered to the following logic: if God's control over the history of the Jesus movement was such that even the enemy - unwittingly - was helping in its propagation, then it truly must be a movement sanctioned by God.   The speeches of non-Christians in Acts, therefore, are used as a legitimating factor for its readers.

Padilla, Osvaldo

University of Aberdeen

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y