Fortress Press Studies in Luke/Acts (5 vols.)

by Martin Dibelius; Jack Dean Kingsbury; Robert C. Tannehill; Marianne Palmer Bonz

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 1991–2004

Overview

Fortress Press Studies in Luke/Acts offers five volumes of in-depth scholarly analysis of the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Conflict in Luke provides a literary analysis of three structured themes in the Gospel. Editor K. C. Hanson’s The Book of Acts compiles 11 essays written by twentieth-century German theologian Martin Dibelius—an early pioneer in New Testament form criticism—and provides contemporary discussions of Dibelius’ views. Robert Tannehill’s two-volume analysis on narrative rhetoric in Luke-Acts shows how repetitions of ideas and formal structures contribute to—and enhance—the author’s message. The Past as Legacy completes the collection by illustrating how Luke-Acts’ composition and structure may have been influenced by heroic or historical epics like The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey.

The Logos Bible Software edition of Fortress Press Studies in Luke/Acts is designed to encourage and stimulate your study and understanding of the books’ numerous textual elements. Scripture passages link directly to your English translations and to the original Greek text, and important concepts link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. In addition, you can perform powerful searches by topic and find what other authors, scholars, and theologians have to say about Luke’s and Acts’ composition.

Key Features

• Provides the latest in Lukan scholarship
• Illustrates how Luke-Acts’ literary elements enhance its message
• Studies Luke-Acts as a historical epic

Product Details

• Title: Fortress Press Studies in Luke/Acts
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Volumes: 5
• Pages: 1,442

Individual Overviews

Conflict in Luke: Jesus, Authorities, Disciples

• Author: Jack Dean Kingsbury
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Pages: 180

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Intertwined with Luke’s story of Jesus are two other story lines: the story of the authorities, who come into conflict with Jesus over the crucial issue of whom God has chosen to rule Israel, and the story of the disciples, who are both loyal and uncomprehending. Kingsbury leads the reader into the dramatic narrative of Luke’s Gospel by tracing and interpreting all three stories. An introductory chapter provides orientation to basic features of literary analysis.

In Conflict in Luke, Jack Dean Kingsbury enables us to hear afresh the story of Luke’s Gospel—a story in which conflict catalyzes development and change. Writing with his usual care and clarity, Kingsbury traces Jesus’ ongoing conflict with the forces of Satan, wtih religious authorities, and even with his own disciples. Kingsbury’s effort magnifies our appreciation of the complexity, beauty, and theological depth of the Third Gospel. His literary-critical approach has born fruit that many readers—especially pastors and students—will find quite delectable.

—Susan R. Garrett, professor of New Testament, Louisville Seminary

Kingsbury follows procedures established long ago by Horace and other ancient critics for examination of a work in terms of the author’s purposeful structuring of themes and narrative material. In the process, he makes a distinctive contribution through his exploration of conflict as an inviting port of entry into Luke’s literary miracle.

—Frederick W. Danker, emeritus professor, Lutheran School of Theology

Jack Dean Kingsbury is emeritus professor of biblical theology at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia.

The Book of Acts: Form, Style, and Theology

• Author: Martin Dibelius
• Editor: K.C. Hanson
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 2004
• Pages: 256

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This volume brings together some of Dibelius’ most important work. While he is especially renowned for his commentaries, Dibelius was on the forefront of literary analysis, the relationship of theology to literary artistry, and the importance of contemporary Greco-Roman history for the analysis of the Book of Acts. As an aid to students, each essay has been supplemented with additional notes and bibliography to show where the discussion has continued since Dibelius. This will provide an excellent supplementary textbook for courses on the New Testament or the Bible.

This new edition, edited by K. C. Hanson, contains up-to-date notes pertaining to each essay. These notes contain updated footnotes and resourceful and pertinent bibliographies. . . . the wonderful appendices with bibliographies and listings of German and translated works of Dibelius, along with lists of abbreviations and the like, are the work of an accomplished editor. This volume holds a proud place among the classics and is a must read for the student of Acts and the student of the history of New Testament interpretation.

—Society of Biblical Literature

Martin Dibelius (1883–1947) was professor of New Testament at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and one of the most important biblical scholars of the twentieth century. Among his many publications in English are From Tradition to Gospel, The Sermon on the Mount, Paul, and The Pastoral Epistles (Hermeneia).

K. C. Hanson has taught biblical studies at Episcopal Theological School and the School of Theology at Claremont, Creighton University, and St. Olaf College. His published works include Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts.

The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation, vol. 1: The Gospel according to Luke

• Author: Robert C. Tannehill
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Pages: 358

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

In this volume, Tannehill shows how the narrative contributes to the impact of Luke’s literary whole. The study further shows that Luke’s use of recurring words, patterns of repetition and contrast, irony, pathos, and many other features of this narrative contribute to the total fabric of Luke’s masterpiece.

Tannehill’s main objective . . . is to show how narrative parts contribute to the impact of Luke’s literary whole . . . His study shows how [Luke’s use of recurring words, patterns of repetition and contrast, irony, pathos, and many other features of his narrative] contribute to the total fabric of Luke’s masterpiece.

—Concordia Theological Monthly

The author demonstrates how the repetitions of ideas and formal structures function both to reinforce concepts and to achieve narrative and ideological progression. . . . Tannehill’s approach is quite fruitful. His style is unconvoluted, and the parallels and links he suggests almost never seem contrived or forced.

—Virginia Seminary Journal

Tannehill’s book is of a genre that should . . . challenge the reader, not necessarily to see altogether new things in Luke’s Gospel, but certainly to see old things differently. . . . What is new is the new way in which Tannehill leads the reader into a conversation with different methods, questions, and perspectives. These challenge and provoke the reader to ‘come clean’ with his or her own questions and perspectives.

—Circuit Reader

Tannehill does a fine analysis of narrative plot and characters, in close dialogue and continuity with previous Lucan scholarship. . . . His book is very readable, for he avoids technically literary terms not in wide use by biblical scholars and explains those he does use . . . He stresses not Lucan theology, but how the narrative rhetoric tries to influence readers, so modern readers can have ‘their eyes open to the narrator’s purposes and to the crucial life issues involved.’ His narrative approach brings new insights to old debates.

—The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Robert C. Tannehill is Fred Gealy Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio.

The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A Literary Interpretation, vol. 2: The Acts of the Apostles

• Author: Robert C. Tannehill
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 1994
• Pages: 408

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

This volume demonstrates how the repetitions of ideas and formal structures function both to reinforce concepts and to achieve ideological progression.

In this ‘new kind of commentary,’ Tannehill eschews discussion of the historical questions that interpreters of Acts have regarded as central. . . . Acts is studied as a story that uses particular literary techniques to influence its readers. . . . The work will stand alongside more traditional commentaries on Acts for many years to come. It will be of great value to scholars, pastors, and students alike.

—Journal of Biblical Literature

This volume follows plot order with attention to a wide range of narrative dynamics . . . These different perspectives provide some fresh views of Acts not readily available in standard historical-critical commentaries. . . . With its companion first volume, it must be consulted for any serious narrative study of Luke-Acts.

—Catholic Biblical Quarterly

[This] is a successful study of Luke-Acts that will stimulate imaginative readings to a greater degree than ordinary commentaries, and a suggestive example of how future commentaries might be written. . . . The breadth of his reading, the clarity of his prose, and the depth of his insight mark this new commentary as a singular contribution.

—Theological Studies

Deciphering the Lukan narrative rhetoric, Robert Tannehill has achieved a quantum leap beyond traditional exposition on Luke-Acts. . . . His two volumes deserve to be read start to finish. . . . This is a commentary for serious scholar, serious pastor, and serious seminarian.

—Theology Today

Robert C. Tannehill is Fred Gealy Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio.

The Past as Legacy: Luke-Acts and Ancient Epic

• Author: Marianne Palmer Bonz
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Pages: 240

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

This study addresses the genre and interpretation of Luke-Acts in the light of its contemporary social, literary, and ideological milieu, particularly as these elements are reflected in the Latin epics contemporary with Luke-Acts and in their famous Augustan prototype, Virgil’s Aeneid. Literary evidence indicating that Virgil’s works had been translated into Greek prose by the middle of the first century makes this line of inquiry especially promising. Interpreting Luke-Acts as a prose adaptation of heroic or historical epic provides a hermeneutical model that is both universal in its theological message and essentially popular in its narrative presentation.

Beginning with the question of literary occasion, Bonz introduces the particular configuration of historical circumstances that produced the great foundational epics of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the Aeneid, and suggests that the historical situation for the composition of Luke-Acts was closely analogous in key respects, for example: literary structure, epic journey, divine mission, prophecy, and reversal of destiny.

This significant book by Marianne Palmer Bonz seeks to answer the scholarly debate regarding the literary genre of Luke-Acts. . . . Bonz’s study is convincing. . . . Careful readers can gain valuable insights into Luke-Acts by focusing on Chapter 4, ‘The Dramatic Unfolding of Prophecy and History in Luke-Acts,’ and Chapter 5, ‘Luke-Acts Reconsidered,’ in which she surveys the major sections of both volumes for their stylistic features and dramatic movement. Pastors have much to learn from Bonz regarding the character and scope of Luke’s historical and theological vision.

—James L. Bailey, emeritus professor of New Testament, Wartburg Theological Seminary

Bonz has shown that, whatever Luke’s own intentions may have been, his first readers and hearers would have been well prepared to receive his words as those of an epic with cosmic significance. Beyond this, she has argued plausibly and with great detail that being read and understood as ‘epic’ was precisely Luke’s intention. I found myself convinced by Bonz’s description of the role played by such features as extensive use of repetitions and parallelism—along with ambiguity and reversal—in the epic tradition that Luke intentionally adapted as the genre for his rhetorical strategy. Bonz synthesizes a convincing rhetorical and social setting for reading Luke-Acts. I am strongly persuaded by her evidence and arguments.

—S. Scott Bartchy, professor of Christian origins and the history of religion, University of California

Marianne Palmer Bonz is the managing editor of Harvard Theological Review and holds a doctorate in New Testament from Harvard Divinity School.