Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Baker Academic for welcoming and fully supporting this manuscript when Hendrickson Publishers sold most of its academic titles. I am grateful to both of them for believing in this manuscript when it was orphaned the first time. Those who are aware that the manuscript was originally planned with yet a different publisher, which felt unable to produce the manuscript when it realized the length, may recognize that my gratitude goes particularly deep. At more than 2.5 million words when Hendrickson accepted it (and still more when Baker Academic accepted it), this commentary is at least three times the size of my two-volume John commentary. Had I put this material instead into 350 nonoverlapping twenty-page articles or 35 two-hundred-page monographs (with at least one on each chapter of Acts), this research might have sold more copies but cost readers many times more. The way much scholarship works today, some might have cited the 35 monographs (and certainly 350 articles) far more often than citing this single work. But I have preferred to provide this material as thoroughly as possible as a single work, and I owe my publisher an immense debt of gratitude for accepting this work at its full length.
I wish to express particular gratitude to those who have worked hard on this manuscript. At Baker, this includes Tim West, Brian Bolger, and Jim Kinney, all of whom have given the work their full support. Tim, the immediate project editor, is one of the most diligent, accurate, and patient editors I have worked with. Likewise, Bobbi Jo Heyboer and all those involved in marketing, design, and other divisions have impressed me with their effectiveness and support. At an earlier stage, I am grateful to my supportive team at Hendrickson, especially Shirley Decker-Lucke and Allan Emery, with also help from Mark House, Phil Frank, and Sara Scott.
Last but not least, I must thank the editor who spent more time on the manuscript besides anyone except myself, namely, Joseph Carey, who copyedited this massive work. Because of problems with the compatibility with Greek fonts, this job included reentering all the Greek, and the same compatibility problems required the deletion of some of the Hebrew. He clearly spent much time conforming the bibliography to a standardized style as well. Although I usually do not request a specific copyeditor, my experience with Joe’s detailed work led me to request his services for this, my most significant academic work.
I am grateful to Palmer Theological Seminary (formerly known as Eastern Seminary) of Eastern University for a sabbatical leave in the spring of 2005, which allowed me time to update research for the earlier draft of this manuscript, and for subsequent support of my labor to finish a work that took much longer than expected. I am also thankful to the libraries that assisted me, especially to Palmer’s library staff for securing for me virtually every source I requested. I also wish to thank the institutions that have allowed me to teach Acts: Palmer; the Center for Urban Theological Studies in Philadelphia; and Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, North Carolina; and Palmer also for allowing me to teach the Gospel of Luke for several years (without which Acts cannot be properly understood) and a course in the life of Paul.
I am grateful to colleagues and friends for their encouragements to continue when the magnitude of the task began to feel overwhelming. These include pastor John Piippo, fellow scholar Michael Brown, novelist Anne Rice, many of my students, and too many other dear scholar friends and prayer supporters to name individually. I also want to thank my many patient and helpful colleagues at Palmer, among them administrators (including Elouise Renich Fraser, Christopher Hall, Colleen DiRaddo, and Willette Burgie-Bryant) who were sensitive to my need for significant blocks of time.
I am grateful to those who helped with the Scripture index.
I am grateful to my wife Médine for her often unexpected insights from a different (African) cultural location, and for trying to keep our apartment usually relatively quiet so that I could work undistracted. Finally, I wish to thank our son, David, for enduring my need for quiet and the temporary reduction in bedtime stories at the project’s height.
Craig S. Keener
Pentecost 2008
I originally closed these acknowledgments with “Pentecost 2007”; the shift in publishers accounts for the new date of (almost) Pentecost 2008. The publisher kindly allowed me to continue to update the work where I could as the subsequent process progressed.