Publisher's Synopsis
In this close study of the Acts narrative, Stevens analyzes Luke's post-ascension story of Jesus and challenges orthodoxies in the interpretation of Acts and Paul. Luke was the first to envision the future of the Jesus story in the Hellenist movement as this movement realized the promise of Pentecost in Israel, preeminently epitomized in the mission of Paul. In Acts Paul is Luke's premier example of the recurring theme of an active and resisted God found most explicitly in the famous speech of Stephen. This theme drives the plot of Acts and illuminates exegesis of Paul's insistence on going to Jerusalem, a journey with a dramatic shipreck conclusion. Luke ends the story in Rome as intended. Stevens provides an impressive, compelling, and thoroughly fresh reading of Acts, and with this second edition he adds an extensive study of church traditions on Paul's death and burial. In his characteristically creative way, Stevens offers an insig
