Luke Was Not A Christian Reading The Third Gospel And Acts Within Judaism

In this volume Joshua Paul Smith challenges the long-held assumption that Luke and Acts were written by a gentile, arguing instead that the author of these texts was educated and enculturated within a Second-Temple Jewish context. Advancing from a consciously interdisciplinary perspective, Smith considers the question of Lukan authorship from multiple fronts, including reception history and social memory theory, literary criticism, and the emerging discipline of cognitive sociolinguistics. The result is an alternative portrait of Luke the Evangelist, one who sees the mission to the gentiles not as a supersession of Jewish law and tradition, but rather as a fulfillment and expansion of Israel’s own salvation history.

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James

In this book Jacob Jervell challenges two widely held theories about Luke: that he was a representative of the institutional church, and that his writing was directed primarily at Gentile readers. He also presents much valuable insight into the growing pains of the early church, especially the relationship of the Jews to the Jewish Christians, and the relationship of both these groups to the Gentiles.

This survey of the history of critical scholarship on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles draws particular attention to the interpretation of Luke's treatment of Jews and Judaism. It notes that the Holocaust was a major turning point in the history of New Testament scholarship.

This book focuses on the authority and status of the author of Luke-Acts. What authority did he have to write a Gospel, to interpret the Jewish Scriptures and traditions of Israel, to interpret the Jesus traditions, and to update the narrative with a second volume with its interpretation of Paul and the other apostles who appear in the Acts narrative? Rick Strelan constructs the author as a Jewish Priest, examining such issues as writing and orality, authority and tradition, and the status and role of priests. The analysis is set within the context of scholarly opinion about the author, the intended audience and other related issues.