Acts of the Apostles
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Hardback
£39.99
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814681695
Number of Pages: 472
Published: 27/11/2022
Width: 15.2 cm
Height: 22.9 cm
2023 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Scripture – Academic Studies
The Acts of the Apostles, the earliest work of its kind to have survived from Christian antiquity, is not “history” in the modern sense, nor is it about what we call “the church.” Written at least half a century after the time it describes, it is a portrait of the Movement of Jesus’ followers as it developed between 30 and 70 CE. More important, it is a depiction of the Movement of what Jesus wanted: the inbreaking of the reign of God. In this commentary, Linda Maloney, Ivoni Richter Reimer, and a host of other contributing voices look at what the text does and does not say about the roles of the original members of the Movement in bringing it toward fruition, with a special focus on those marginalized by society, many of them women. The author of Acts wrote for followers of Jesus in the second century and beyond, contending against those who wanted to break from the community of Israel and offering hope against hope, like Israel’s prophets before him.
The Acts of the Apostles, the earliest work of its kind to have survived from Christian antiquity, is not “history” in the modern sense, nor is it about what we call “the church.” Written at least half a century after the time it describes, it is a portrait of the Movement of Jesus’ followers as it developed between 30 and 70 CE. More important, it is a depiction of the Movement of what Jesus wanted: the inbreaking of the reign of God. In this commentary, Linda Maloney, Ivoni Richter Reimer, and a host of other contributing voices look at what the text does and does not say about the roles of the original members of the Movement in bringing it toward fruition, with a special focus on those marginalized by society, many of them women. The author of Acts wrote for followers of Jesus in the second century and beyond, contending against those who wanted to break from the community of Israel and offering hope against hope, like Israel’s prophets before him.
Contents
List of Abbreviations xi
List of Contributors xv
Foreword: “Come Eat of My Bread . . . and Walk in the Ways of
Wisdom” xix
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Editor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary:
“She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25) xxiii
Barbara E. Reid, OP
Authors’ Acknowledgments xliii
Author’s Introduction: Translating Worlds xlv
Acts 1:1-4a Preface 1
Acts 1:4b-14 Ascension 7
Acts 1:15-26 Making Up the Twelve (Male) Apostles 19
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost: The Spirit Falls on the Whole Company
of Women and Men 25
Acts 2:14-40 Peter’s Pentecost Speech 31
Acts 2:41-47 The Jerusalem Community: First Summary 39
Acts 3:1–4:4 Peter and John in the Temple with a Man
Who Cannot Walk 43
Acts 4:5-22 The Apostles on Trial 51
Acts 4:23-37 The Movement Gathered in Harmony 57
Acts 5:1-11 A Counter-Example: Ananias and Sapphira 61
Acts 5:12-42 Peter and the Apostles Confront the Authorities
for the Last Time 67
Acts 6:1-7 The Widows’ Crisis and the Choosing of the Seven 73
Acts 6:8-15 Stephen’s Ministry 83
Acts 7:1–8:1a Stephen’s Defense and Martyrdom 91
Acts 8:1b-25 The Mission Begins 103
Acts 8:26-40 The Ethiopian 111
Acts 9:1-31 The Calling of Saul 123
Acts 9:32-43 Peter on Mission: Tabitha Is Raised 133
Acts 10:1–11:18 God Shows No Partiality 143
Acts 11:19-30 Peace and Growth 155
Acts 12:1-25 Exit Peter, and Also Agrippa; Rhoda Remains 163
Acts 13:1–14:28 Barnabas and Paul on Mission 175
Acts 15:1-35 The Great Council 189
Acts 15:36–16:5 Paul on His Own; Eunice and Timothy 203
Acts 16:6-34 A Drama in Three Acts Featuring Lydia and a Woman Prophet 215
Acts 16:35-40 Denouement 235
Acts 17:1-34 Ascending through Macedonia to the Areopagus 241
Acts 18:1-28 Prisca and Aquila, Corinth and Ephesus 255
Acts 19:1-20 Paul’s Work in Ephesus 265
Acts 19:21-41 Artemis of the Ephesians 271
Acts 20:1-38 Paul Completes His Mission 279
Acts 21:1-17 Going up to Jerusalem 289
Acts 21:18-36 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the City That Kills
the Prophets . . .” 295
Acts 21:37–23:11 Jerusalem Attempts to Kill Another Prophet 299
Acts 23:12-35 The Plot against Paul 307
Acts 24:1-27 Paul before Felix 311
Acts 25:1–26:32 Paul before Festus, Agrippa, and Berenice 319
Acts 27:1–28:10 Paul at Sea 331
Acts 28:11-31 “And So We Came to Rome” 341
Afterword: Liquid God 355
Willie James Jennings
Works Cited 363
Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings 385
Index of Names and Subjects 393
List of Abbreviations xi
List of Contributors xv
Foreword: “Come Eat of My Bread . . . and Walk in the Ways of
Wisdom” xix
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
Editor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary:
“She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25) xxiii
Barbara E. Reid, OP
Authors’ Acknowledgments xliii
Author’s Introduction: Translating Worlds xlv
Acts 1:1-4a Preface 1
Acts 1:4b-14 Ascension 7
Acts 1:15-26 Making Up the Twelve (Male) Apostles 19
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost: The Spirit Falls on the Whole Company
of Women and Men 25
Acts 2:14-40 Peter’s Pentecost Speech 31
Acts 2:41-47 The Jerusalem Community: First Summary 39
Acts 3:1–4:4 Peter and John in the Temple with a Man
Who Cannot Walk 43
Acts 4:5-22 The Apostles on Trial 51
Acts 4:23-37 The Movement Gathered in Harmony 57
Acts 5:1-11 A Counter-Example: Ananias and Sapphira 61
Acts 5:12-42 Peter and the Apostles Confront the Authorities
for the Last Time 67
Acts 6:1-7 The Widows’ Crisis and the Choosing of the Seven 73
Acts 6:8-15 Stephen’s Ministry 83
Acts 7:1–8:1a Stephen’s Defense and Martyrdom 91
Acts 8:1b-25 The Mission Begins 103
Acts 8:26-40 The Ethiopian 111
Acts 9:1-31 The Calling of Saul 123
Acts 9:32-43 Peter on Mission: Tabitha Is Raised 133
Acts 10:1–11:18 God Shows No Partiality 143
Acts 11:19-30 Peace and Growth 155
Acts 12:1-25 Exit Peter, and Also Agrippa; Rhoda Remains 163
Acts 13:1–14:28 Barnabas and Paul on Mission 175
Acts 15:1-35 The Great Council 189
Acts 15:36–16:5 Paul on His Own; Eunice and Timothy 203
Acts 16:6-34 A Drama in Three Acts Featuring Lydia and a Woman Prophet 215
Acts 16:35-40 Denouement 235
Acts 17:1-34 Ascending through Macedonia to the Areopagus 241
Acts 18:1-28 Prisca and Aquila, Corinth and Ephesus 255
Acts 19:1-20 Paul’s Work in Ephesus 265
Acts 19:21-41 Artemis of the Ephesians 271
Acts 20:1-38 Paul Completes His Mission 279
Acts 21:1-17 Going up to Jerusalem 289
Acts 21:18-36 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the City That Kills
the Prophets . . .” 295
Acts 21:37–23:11 Jerusalem Attempts to Kill Another Prophet 299
Acts 23:12-35 The Plot against Paul 307
Acts 24:1-27 Paul before Felix 311
Acts 25:1–26:32 Paul before Festus, Agrippa, and Berenice 319
Acts 27:1–28:10 Paul at Sea 331
Acts 28:11-31 “And So We Came to Rome” 341
Afterword: Liquid God 355
Willie James Jennings
Works Cited 363
Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings 385
Index of Names and Subjects 393
"Linda Maloney writes on Acts with energy, accessibility, and a wonderfully wide horizon for the scholarship of the past and of the twenty-first century. She asks: 'What if it did not happen as we thought it did?' Then she brings conventional, feminist, post-colonial, queer, and Jewish perspectives to a lively, contemporary reading of Acts."
The Reverend Dr. Elizabeth J Smith AM, Mission Priest, Anglican Parish of The Goldfields, Diocese of Perth, Australia "This commentary is commendable for several reasons. It is rigorous and detailed in historical-critical method but also sensitive to other interpretive orientations. It presents the materials in ways that are very responsible ethically, theologically, and historically."
Dr. Ronald Charles, Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Canada "It is a bracing, refreshing, effective feminist work."
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