The Stephen Speech

This book is developed from a doctoral dissertation entitled A Literary and Redactional study of Acts 7,2-53; that dissertation and this book have this in common, that they try to explain how vv 2-16 of Stephen's speech are integrally related to vv 17-53 of the same speech. This explanation, or exegesis, is the core of this book, and the subject of Part Two of these pages; from the exegesis offered there it is clear that vv 2-16 are essential to the meaning and impact of Stephen's speech. Not only, however, is our goal in the exegetical section to explain the function of Stephen's verses 2-16; we give an interpretation of the entire speech and og a number of problems of comprehension which still disturb exegetes today. Preceding this section of exegesis is a history of exegetical opinion about the meaning of Stephen's speech, about its sources, its relationship to the accusations against the Saint, about the significance of vv 2 - 16 within the total speech. Following our exegesis is an Appendix in which we offer data of varying value to show not only that one man's style is evident throughout Stephen's speech, but that this style is the style of the rest of the Acts of the Apostles and very close to that of the Gospel of Luke.

This book represents a major contribution to ongoing studies on the Acts of the Apostles, particularly on the manner in which the New Testament writer quotes and interprets the Old Testament. The discussion confines itself to an examination of the nine explicit quotations in Stephen’s speech of Acts 7, which are identified with introductory formulae. Adopting text-historical, methodological, and hermeneutical approaches, this study brings the reader up-to-date in this ever-growing and important field in New Testament studies, and provides the harvest of decades of research into the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. It will be of interest to all students, ministers, and scholars alike, and to anyone wanting to go deeper into the heart of the Bible.

This historical reappraisal of the Acts of the Apostles, written in narrative form, allows the reader to understand the biblical author's worldview, historical and ideological assumptions, and purposes as they were communicated through portions of this work. Marion Soards analyzes the speech texts by comparing them to writings from ancient history, rhetoric, and midrashic interpretation of scripture. He points out the interesting features in the speeches and highlights the thematic similarities. Soards provides a clear picture of the manner of writings in Acts, the theology, and the encompassing history of the early Christian period, and he supplies a sound basis for contemporary Jewish-Christian relations.

The volume contains contributions by many of the major discourse analysts of the New Testament, including E.A. Nida, W. Schenk, J.P. Louw and J. Callow. Some of these essays deal with methodology, raising necessary questions about what it means to analyse discourse. Others demonstrate an already committed approach by reading specific texts. A 'state-of-the-art' volume for all scholars interested in this increasingly important area of New Testament research.

Why did Saint Luke, in writing Acts, include the long speech attributed to Stephen? For years we frankly wondered; for it seemed to be a rather pedestrian discourse. Various discussions in commentaries indicated that we were not alone in our puzzlement. A detailed analysis of the printed comment on Stephen soon revealed that the Lucan materials given in Acts 6 and 7 had not been scrutinized in great depth. The need to do so became obvious. The opportunity to undertake a concentrated study of these two chapters in Acts presented itself when we began our graduate work in 1960 in Union Theological Seminary in New York. The first results of that investigation were submitted to the faculty of that distinguished institution in 1964. Since that time several essays and monographs have appeared to throw further light on the problem but also to complicate the basic issues. Such recent discussions have been taken into account in the preparation of the present volume. It contains a radical revision and up-dating of the original dissertation.

What was Luke's attitude to the Jerusalem temple? Steve Smith examines the key texts which concern the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in Luke-Acts. Smith proposes that Acts 7 is a fuller discussion of the material contained in the Gospel sayings on this subject, which themselves make frequent allusion to the Old Testament and the interpretation of which thus requires an understanding of Luke's use of the Old Testament. Accordingly, in this work, Steve Smith makes a thorough review of Luke's use of the Old Testament, and proposes that relevance theory is a capable hermeneutical tool to permit the reconstruction of how Luke's readers would have understood references to the Old Testament. Using this approach, the key texts from Luke-Acts are examined sequentially, and Luke's apparent criticism of the temple is examined in a new light.