Session 1
(1) Ἄγνοια in Hellenistic Philosophy: Illuminating the Paradoxes of Athenian Ignorance (Acts 17:30)
Monique Cuany | University of Cambridge
The present paper seeks to shed light on the issue by examining the way the concept of ἄγνοια would have been perceived by Paul’s philosophical audience. Indeed, Acts 17 specifically identifies Epicurean and Stoic philosophers among Paul’s listeners. While it is not uncommon to find allusions to the meaning the word had in Graeco-Roman philosophical context in the scholarly literature, little study has been done to examine this philosophical concept in depth, and how it relates to the content of Paul’s discourse. This paper seeks to fill that gap. It shall be argued that an understanding of the concept in philosophical context sheds significant light on its meaning in Paul’s discourse.
(2) Luke’s Understanding of oikoumene in Acts 17
Deok Hee Jung | University of Sheffield
Session 2: Panel discussion of the dating and social location of Acts
- Prof. Loveday Alexander | University of Chester
- Dr Andrew Gregory | University of Oxford
- Dr Dennis E. Smith | Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, OK
Joint session: Book of Acts and Early Christianity seminar groups
Session 3
(1) What’s so special about Jesus-followers in Acts?
Julia Snyder | Eberhard‑Karls-Universität Tübingen
(2) The Next Greatest Story Ever Told: Recapturing the Impact of Paul’s Conversion through a Chiasm in Acts 6–12
Peter Mansell | St Mary’s University, Twickenham
The paper examines why structure matters to the narrator and reader before evaluating the main structural options proposed for Acts: the simple Peter/Paul divide, the three components of the programmatic Acts 1:8, Bruce Longenecker’s four part chain-link proposal, and C. H. Turner’s six panels. This analysis suggests that the area of most conflict is Acts 6–12.
The paper proposes that Acts 6–12 is organised around the structural pattern of a chiasm. Although widely accepted in the analysis of OT ‘writings’, the paper will argue that such structural patterns are used in NT narrative works, as proposed by Lund and others, and that these patterns are designed to provide focus on the central element and comparison and contrast between the paired elements.
Finally, the paper proposes that the chiasm in Acts 6–12 is used by Luke to focus the reader on the dramatic conversion of Saul and to emphasise the contrasting reactions to God’s initiatives in spreading the gospel to the Samaritans and the Hellenists of Antioch, and to the Ethiopian Eunuch and the household of Cornelius. This in turn, explains and justifies the startling choice of Saul, the ‘destroyer of the church’ (Acts 8:3), as the missionary ‘to the end of the earth’—the most amazing event in Acts.
(3) Accepting Prophecy: Paul’s Response to Agabus in Light of Insights from Valerius Maximus and Josephus
Kylie Crabbe | University of Oxford
Commentaries on both passages are dominated by source critical questions, and as far back as Haenchen the apparent conflict in the Spirit’s role leads to an aside that, nonetheless, ‘most readers do not hit upon such questions’ (1971, 602 n. 1). But thorny issues remain: how does the text present the Spirit directing the mission? When Paul chooses to continue to Jerusalem and embrace suffering despite the Spirit’s instruction, does he alter the will of God, or fulfil what was always planned?
This paper argues that these questions can be illuminated through comparison with two other texts that deal with prophecy and its inevitable fulfilment. Valerius Maximus’s ‘middlebrow’ text, Memorable Doings and Sayings, provides an insight into popular views through his anecdotes of characters whose extravagant attempts to escape their fate lead to its inevitable (if ironic) fulfilment. While Josephus’s use of prophecy in the Jewish War introduces the Stoic understanding of human freedom as an ability to assent to fate, evident also in his presentation of the philosophical schools. These approaches provide a lens through which the paper explores how human freedom and prophetic certainty coexist in Paul’s mission. Moreover, given the parallels with Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, it raises potential questions about what this might mean for Jesus’ role in accepting his fate in Luke.