2 - The current state of research on the speeches of Acts

Summary

Students of the New Testament have been preoccupied with the speeches of Acts, as far as we can tell, from the third century. At that time the disciple of Origen, Pamphilus of Caesarea, composed a commentary with a series of κεφάλαια under which he provided exposition of the Acts of the Apostles. Under the twentieth heading, referring to one of Paul's missionary sermons, Pamphilus made a historical and theological observation: he believed that the speech came from the mouth of Paul and that it represented a ‘thriving teaching about Christ’ (εὐθαλὴς διδασκαλία εἰς Χριστόν). The speeches in Acts, in both their theological and historiographic dimensions have continued to be a topic of discussion up to the present time. In fact, as will be argued in the current chapter, the speeches are viewed as such vital constituents of Acts that, when the book is viewed through the grid of a fresh method, the speeches often serve as one of the first objects to exemplify the results of that new approach.

This chapter has a threefold purpose. First, it canvasses works on the speeches from the so-called Tübingen School to the present, showing that the speeches of outsiders in Acts have been overlooked. Secondly, it offers an explanation as to why the speeches of outsiders have been neglected.