Although the date of Acts requires no introduction there has been consistent
apathy in recent years with regards to this longstanding debate. While the ‘majority’ of
scholars have been lulled into thinking it was written between 70 and 90 CE the vast
majority of recent opinion is unanimously adamant that this middle range date is a
convenient, political compromise. A large part of the problem relates to the recent and
remarkable neglect of historical, textual, and source-critical matters. Compounding the
problem further are the methodological flaws among the approaches to the middle and
late date of Acts. A historiographical approach to the debate offers a stronger framework
for evaluating the primary and secondary sources. Under this umbrella, and with the
support of modern principles of textual criticism and linguistics, the historical context of
Acts is determined to be concurrent with a date of 62-63 CE.
This thesis also examines the much-neglected issue of Acts and its sources. As a
consequence, it was found that there is no clear evidence that Luke used Paul's letters or
the writings of Josephus—which (in concert with other evidence) effectively removes the
plausibility of a late date of Acts. Additionally, the relationship between the date of Acts
and the various interpretations on the end of Acts demonstrate that many of the modern
and more recent theories are not only assumptive (especially with regards to genre), in
some cases they utilize anachronistic literary methods that were originally applied to
nineteenth-century novels. It is proposed below that the ancient interpretation (that Luke
wrote no more because he knew no more) remains the most logical in light ofthe
combined literary and historical evidence. This interpretation is further strengthened by a
study of the variants at the end of Acts, the fall of Jerusalem (and its aftermath), the great
fire of Rome and the subsequent persecution of Christians under Nero—all of which
strongly indicate a pre-64 CE state of affairs. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/29184 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Armstrong, Karl L. |
| Contributors | Porter, Stanley E., Westfall, Cynthia, Christian Theology |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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