Bravo, Eric Clouston! A new book on Acts in its literary context

24 February 2020 by Steve Walton
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Eric Clouston, How Ancient Narratives Persuade: Acts in its Literary ContextLanham, MD: Fortress Academic/Rowman & Littlefield, 2020ISBN 978 1 9787 0660 6 I am delighted to receive my copy of my student Dr Eric Clouston’s revised doctoral thesis, How Ancient Narratives Persuade: Acts in its Literary Context. Scholars have long studied the speeches in Acts as persuasive; Eric looks at how the whole book functions as persuasion, by comparing it with other first-century Jewish writers: Philo, Josephus, the author of Joseph and Aseneth, and the Continue reading →

A new book on healing and exorcism in second temple Judaism and the New Testament

5 February 2020 by Steve Walton
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Mikael Tellbe & Tommy Wasserman, eds.Healing and Exorcism in Second Temple Judaism and Early ChristianityWUNT 2/511; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019; ISBN 978-3-16-158936-2 Another month, another new book! Just out from Mohr Siebeck is this collection of essays from an excellent conference hosted by Tommy Wasserman and Mikael Tellbe at the theological college in Örebro, Sweden. I hugely enjoyed participating in the conference (see my report here), and am now delighted to see the revised papers published—with one or two additions, including a very helpful essay Continue reading →

A new book on Luke-Acts and ancient historiography

6 January 2020 by Steve Walton
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Butticaz, Simon, Luc Devillers, James M. Morgan & Steve Walton, eds.Le corpus lucanien (Luc-Actes) et l’historiographie ancienne: Quels rapports?Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2019. ISBN 978-3-643-90954-1. €39.90. I’m delighted to announce the publication of a valuable book which I’ve co-edited on Luke-Acts and historiography. Here’s the brief description: In biblical research, consensus is rare. Formulated by Dibelius at the beginning of the 20th century, the thesis that Luke is “the first Christian historian” is one such. Among the authors of the New Testament, Luke is alone in tracing Continue reading →

Some helpful pieces on planning and study

16 September 2019 by Steve Walton
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I’ve been finding a number of really helpful pieces on different aspects of planning, research and study recently, and here share three of my favourites. Here is a belter of a piece by the wonderful Katherine Firth about ‘Taking a critical distance break’, explaining the very helpful process of stepping back from a project you’re engrossed in, to give yourself time and head space to see what’s really going on, what’s most important, how things fit together, etc. Here is a very helpful piece on Continue reading →

Sharing possessions in Acts

9 September 2019 by Steve Walton
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I recently gave a paper to a joint meeting of the Book of Acts and Use and Influence of the New Testament seminars at the British New Testament Society meeting in Liverpool. My full paper, offering an exegetical discussion of the sharing of possessions in Acts, especially in the early chapters, continues to be available for download for a short time here. It’s strictly work in progress, so please don’t cite it as a published maidthis work. I’d welcome feedback and comments. I’m also now Continue reading →