Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 40:1 (NA 1989)
Article: The Speeches Of Acts
Author: Colin J. Hemer

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TynBul 40:1 (1989) p. 77

The Speeches Of Acts 1

Colin J. Hemer

I. THE EPHESIAN ELDERS AT MILETUS

This speech in Acts 20:17–382 has often been recognized as standing apart from others in the Book of Acts. It is the only one of the larger speeches addressed to a Christian audience, actually of leaders of a church previously founded by Paul, and so likely to be nearer to the pastoral function of Paul’s writing in the epistles than any other.3 It therefore offers the best prospect of direct comparison between the Paul of Acts and the Paul of the letters. It is also the only speech embedded in a ‘we-passage’ account of a public occasion, with the implication that Luke was present, and also beginning to make an explicit and immediate record of his renewed companionship with Paul.4

TynBul 40:1 (1989) p. 78

Literary Questions

The two evident questions are of genre and of the structure and purpose of the speech. The genre issue assumes a special importance in view of its place in Dibelius’ argument.5 As this is Paul’s last public address before his imprisonment it partakes of the character of a will or testament, comprising retrospect and provision for the future. The speech is thus a ‘biographical encomium’,6 or an Abschiedsrede.7 The abjuration of responsibility, which seems artificial to a modern reader, is thus explained; it ‘obviously belongs’ to the style of the speech.8 This recurring self-justification would be strange if addressed only to the Ephesian elders, but the whole is aimed at a wider audience, and is a carefully planned structure where every paragraph ends with reference to Paul’s example. Yet the only specific parallel which Dibelius offers for the literary form is from Lucian, Peregrinus 32.9 Whatever the merit of Dibelius’ explanation, this parallel will not help us, for the analogy fails at the two crucial points: Peregrinus is a tasteless self-exhibitionist, whose practice is anything but a norm, who delivers a funeral oration upon himself before self- immolation. But the argument requires the critic to show the creation of a speech by a biographer as reflecting a normal practice. No doubt Dibelius’ case could be put be...

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