Literary Approaches
Literary Approaches
The last twenty years have witnessed an explosion of studies on literary aspects of the Bible. Scholars have been particularly interested in fitting the biblical books into ancient literary genres and in using contemporary literary techniques to open up new approaches to, and understandings of, the text of Scripture. Luke-Acts has been the focus of many such studies, although more have focused on the gospel than on Acts. Charles H. Talbert, however, has scrutinized Luke-Acts as a whole. 80 He emphasizes the parallels that Luke draws between the gospel on the one hand and Acts on the other and between Acts 1-12 and Acts 13-28. Luke has selected and ordered events in such a way that the history of Jesus parallels the history of the church, while the "acts” of Peter parallel the "acts” of Paul. These patterns bind Luke’s two works together and serve to emphasize the unity of the salvation-historical drama that is at the heart of Luke-Acts. Talbert also suggests that Luke-Acts may be compared with Diogenes Laertius’s Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Comparison of Acts with other ancient literature is not new, but in the past comparison was usually made with historical works. Recent scholarship has emphasized the dramatic and novelistic aspects of the book of Acts, with its travel narratives, stories of miracles, and accounts of dangers on the high seas. Richard Pervo takes these characteristics as indications that Luke was not intending to write history, but a historical novel. 81 While this is certainly going too far, the reminder from such scholars that Luke has written Acts in such a way that it makes for exciting reading is a salutary one.