Acts 4:12 and its First Century Setting

Article Sidebar

PDF
Keywords:
Bible, New Testament, Peter, Luke, Acts, Acts 4, 12, Luke-Acts, biblical interpretation, salvation, Jews, Judaism, Gentiles, Christianity, first century

Main Article Content

Helen K. Bond
Lecturer in New Testament, New College, University of Edinburgh

Abstract

This paper, given at the Edinburgh Christology Conference, 2002, seeks to better understand the theology of salvation presented in Acts 4:12 by considering the verse in appropriate contexts. It is viewed (1) as part of the genre of Lucan literature: apologetic in nature, subject to first century rhetorical conventions, and concerned with the identity of God’s chosen people; (2) in the context of the Gentile mission: seeking to make converts at a time when exclusivist religion was not the norm, Luke had to be clear that adherence to the Christian faith meant rejection of Graeco-Roman religion. It asserted as a result that the verse should be understood in the context of the late first century, and that it must be accepted that it does not speak to many of our modern concerns about exclusivism.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 10 No. 1 (2003)
Section
Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish in the journal grant to Theology in Scotland, St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews (“the Publisher”), the following:

1. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to reproduce, republish, transmit, sell, distribute, and otherwise use the Work in electronic and print editions of the Journal and in derivative works throughout the world, in all languages, and in all media now known or later developed.

2. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to create and store electronic archival copies of the Work, including the right to deposit the Work in open access digital repositories.

3. An irrevocable non-exclusive right to license others to reproduce, republish, transmit, and distribute the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial [CC-BY-NC] 4.0 licence.

Copyright in the Work remains with the author and the author retains the right to reuse the article (e.g., in institutional repositories, on their website or published in a book).

Warranties

The Author represents and warrants that the Work is the Author’s original work and that it does not violate or infringe the law or the rights of any third party and, specifically, that the Work contains no matter that is defamatory or that infringes any literary or proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, or any rights of privacy. It is the author's responsibility to obtain written permission to reproduce copyright-protected material in her/his article.

The Author also warrants that he or she has the full power to make this agreement, and if the Work was prepared jointly, the Author agrees to inform the co-Authors of the terms of this Agreement and to obtain their signature to this Agreement or their written permission to sign on their behalf. The Author indemnifies the Publisher against any losses and other expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees, after final judgment of any claim or action against any or all of these warranties.