The language and value of Acts—a podcast

2 Responses

• Comments 2
• Pingbacks 0

1. Thanks for posting this interview, Steve. The we passages start when Luke sails. Doesn’t this show that Luke was with Paul on land before the we passages, as well as during the we passages? Surely he is part of the “they” before he switches to “we”. He allows first person self-reference for his participation in events only when he can do so in a very non-egotistical way. This means he restricts it to the plural form and he switches to it only when they sail because a passenger on a boat does not take any credit for the progress made. There are also strong detailed arguments that he was with Paul before each of the we passages. In my view Luke started in Antioch and remained in Philippi. He was likely the famous brother of 2 Cor 8:18 and travelled to Corinth and from there with Paul to Jerusalem and Rome. The ancients did not understand Acts to mean that Luke joined Paul at the start of the we passages. They do not suppose that Luke was from Troas. We who live in individualistic societies tend to assume that Luke would brag about his presence at every opportunity, but the author of Acts was reluctant to refer to himself as participant or as narrator.

   Reply

2. Thanks for your interesting thoughts, Richard. I shall need to think further about this.

   Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.