Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 33:3 (Sep 1990)
Article: Suffering And The Purpose Of Acts
Author: Paul R. House

JETS 33:3 (September 1990) p. 317

Suffering And The Purpose Of Acts

Paul R. House*

I. Introduction And Methodology

All literature must be interpreted with its underlying purpose or purposes in mind. Without some grasp of this literary aspect, misinterpretation of texts is inevitable. The book of Acts is no exception to this rule. What Luke intends to convey develops from his core concerns. A brief survey of approaches to the purpose of Acts will help identify a few major motifs.

Various and sometimes quite divergent explanations of the purpose of Acts have been offered. Evangelicals tend to argue that Acts focuses on the spread of the gospel, or that the book serves to legitimate Christianity in the eyes of the Roman empire, or that it demonstrates the soundness of Christianity’s foundations. Everett Harrison typifies the first approach:

With reference to Acts alone, the primary objective is doubtless to relate the story of the rise and progress of the early church—its dramatic origin in Jerusalem, the city that rejected and crucified Jesus of Nazareth; its gradual spread into Judaea, impelled in part by persecution; its bold invasion of Samaria with the gospel; and its steady expansion into the Gentile world climaxed by the bringing of the message to Rome, the heart of the Empire.1

Certainly Luke recounts the spread of the gospel, but how does he indicate that the expansion occurred? What was the catalyst for this missionary activity? How were these new areas breached? These and other questions are left unanswered by the common view of Acts’ purpose.

F. F. Bruce believes that Acts legitimates both Christianity and the ministry of Paul. Thus the book offers a two-pronged apologetic. Bruce posits that

Luke may have availed himself of this opportunity to rebut in the Imperial City itself the popular charges brought against Christianity by insisting on its complete and acknowledged innocence before the law of the Empire.2

This position resonates with those who contend that Acts attempts to show Rome that Christians are not revolutionaries.3 By Luke’s work the

* Paul House is assistant professor of religion at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.

JETS 33:3 (September 1990) p. 318

ruling authorities would thereby no longer view Christianity with suspicion. In this way the book becomes an evangelistic document that seeks to convince intelligent Romans to accept Christ.

Bruce’s second point, that Luke defends Paul’s memory, is based on Biblica...