may have in mind the leaders of his own and other largely Gentile commu-
nities who accept Jesus as the messiah. This acceptance may not imply the
rejection of Israel as a whole, but it would exclude most of ethnic Israel.
Luke-Acts was composed around 80-90c.e.using Mark, Q, and other
sources. Its place of composition is unknown; Antioch is often suggested
on the basis of tradition, but almost any major city around the Mediterra-
nean is possible. The two-volume work stresses the salvation-historical
continuity between Israel and the Christian movement more explicitly and
extensively than any other New Testament writing. Luke alone among the
evangelists has a positive attitude toward the Temple: his gospel both be-
gins and ends there (Luke 1:5-23; 24:52-53); Jesus does not abandon it after
cleansing it but teaches in it (19:47; 20:1; 22:53); in Acts the apostles con-
tinue to worship and teach within its precincts (Acts 3:1-8; 5:21, 25). His at-
titude toward Jerusalem is more ambivalent. On the one hand, it symbol-
izes positively God’s relationship with the people of Israel. On the other, it
is the place of Israel’s rejection of its Prophet-Messiah. Like Joseph and
Moses, Jesus is at first rejected by his brethren but eventually vindicated by
God (in the resurrection and outpouring of the Spirit on his followers) in
a way that empowers him to save the very ones who rejected him. In Acts,
the apostles are the new leaders of Israel, but God has not written off the
Jewish people. The history and story of Israel are continued and fulfilled in
the work of Jesus and the community he formed, which is not a renegade
sect but the authentic form of the restored people of God. In Luke’s view,
membership in the people of God is no longer limited to those who are
Jews by birth but open to “anyone in every nation who fears him and does
what is right” by “believing in Jesus and receiving forgiveness of sins
through his name” (Acts 10:34, 43). To be a part of the “people”(laos)of
God, Gentiles do not have to convert to the “nation”(ethnos)of the Jews
by following their “custom”(ethos)of circumcision. Yet the inclusion of
Gentiles in the restored people of God does not mean the replacement of
Israel but its expansion. And the exemption of Gentiles from circumcision
does not trumpet the dismissal of the Torah but the fulfillment of its true,
prophetic intention “made known from long ago.”
The most negative portrait of Jews in Luke-Acts comes in the account
of Paul’s missionary journeys in Asia Minor and around the Aegean rim.
Jews in synagogues of the Diaspora treat him to the ancient equivalent of
tar and feathering, sometimes stalking him from city to city. When he gets
to Jerusalem, a number of Jews from Asia accuse him of defiling the Tem-
ple and almost beat him to death before he is taken into Roman custody410daniel c. harlowEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:18 PM