Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- 1 Reading Acts in the second century: reflections on method, history, and desire
- 2 Jerusalem destroyed: the setting of Acts
- 3 Acts and the apostles: issues of leadership in the second century
- 4 Spec(tac)ular sights: mirroring in/of Acts
- 5 Acts of ascension: history, exaltation, and ideological legitimation
- 6 Time and space travel in Luke-Acts
- 7 The complexity of pairing: reading Acts 16 with Plutarch's Parallel Lives
- 8 Constructing Paul as a Christian in the Acts of the Apostles
- 9 Bold speech, opposition, and philosophical imagery in Acts
- 10 Among the apologists? Reading Acts with Justin Martyr
- 11 The Second Sophistic and the cultural idealization of Paul in Acts
- 12 Reading Luke-Acts in second-century Alexandria: from Clement to the Shadow of Apollos
- Bibliography
- Index of primary sources
- Index of authors
- Subject index
6 - Time and space travel in Luke-Acts
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- 1 Reading Acts in the second century: reflections on method, history, and desire
- 2 Jerusalem destroyed: the setting of Acts
- 3 Acts and the apostles: issues of leadership in the second century
- 4 Spec(tac)ular sights: mirroring in/of Acts
- 5 Acts of ascension: history, exaltation, and ideological legitimation
- 6 Time and space travel in Luke-Acts
- 7 The complexity of pairing: reading Acts 16 with Plutarch's Parallel Lives
- 8 Constructing Paul as a Christian in the Acts of the Apostles
- 9 Bold speech, opposition, and philosophical imagery in Acts
- 10 Among the apologists? Reading Acts with Justin Martyr
- 11 The Second Sophistic and the cultural idealization of Paul in Acts
- 12 Reading Luke-Acts in second-century Alexandria: from Clement to the Shadow of Apollos
- Bibliography
- Index of primary sources
- Index of authors
- Subject index
Summary
To us, the first and second centuries mark different epochs. Whether in relation to the Christian or Roman worlds, this periodization is problematic. Even on a “rational” modern dating of c.85 CE, Acts in some areas may resonate as much with the second century as with the first. One such area is the burgeoning “Second Sophistic” This paper discerns strong classical elements as co-existing with Jewish and Christian, with the corollary that our author envisages pagan readers and listeners, as well as Jewish, Christian, and “God-fearing” Early Christian writings, including Luke-Acts, did make some impact upon second-century pagan writers, including the philosopher Celsus and the satirist Lucian (Cook 1993; König 2006: 230), hence upon their readers. But in the case of “political” texts, the modern periodization finds an ancient analogue: contemporaries contrasted Nerva's and Trajan's “new age” with Domitian's “tyranny” Thus in 100 Rome could be said to be at a cross-roads (Tacitus, Agr. 3.1; Pliny, Pan. 2.2–3; Dio Chrysostom, Or. 1.61). If, then, Acts actually belongs to the second century (specifically, I believe, to the first decade), this contextualization should be eloquent, alike in the contexts of the Second Sophistic, of Roman persecution, especially under Domitian (Lane Fox 2006: 433), and of Christianity's growth.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Engaging Early Christian HistoryReading Acts in the Second Century, pp. 101 - 122Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013