Luke/Acts and the End of History

For the past three-quarters of a century, Lukan scholarship has been beholden to questionable assumptions about the relationship between Luke’s historical project and earliest Christian eschatology. Luke is supposedly a theologian of glory, a witness to early Catholicism, and has replaced an imminent eschatological hope with a periodized salvation history. His creative contribution to early Christianity (albeit one that is usually evaluated negatively from a theological standpoint) is that he has historicized the eschatological kerygma. From the beginning (e.g., Oscar Cullmann) there has been plenty of pushback to these problematic claims, but Kylie Crabbe’s monograph presents a critical examination of the Lukan relationship between history and eschatology and successfully argues that Luke’s eschatology is central to his project and that one can only separate history from eschatology with damaging results.In chapter 2, Crabbe argues that a study of the relationship between history and eschatology should be open to looking at ancient texts of a variety of ancient genres. Discussions of the end of history, the relationship between divine and human agency, and historical reviews/schemas transcend genre. Thus, Crabbe’s study argues for a comparative approach between Luke–Acts and a variety of relevant ancient texts, such as Polybius’s Histories, Didorus’s, Library of History, Virgil’s Aeneid, Valerius’s Memorable Doings and Sayings, Tacitus’s Histories, 2 Maccabees, Qumran’s War Scroll, Josephus’s Jewish War, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch.Crabbe, then, in chapter 3, turns to examine how these ancient texts interpret significant events and expectations for the future through their created historical schemas. Many different authors interpret the significance of current events through a periodization of history, some (not all) of which reflect interest in drawing conclusions about the end of history. The schemas of history allow the authors to draw some type of continuity between past and present as well as anticipate claims or hopes about the end of history. Crabbe argues that “Luke’s teleological schema of history demonstrates a similar interest in the past as it also confirms continuity with, and assurance of, the events of the end” (p. 114). Luke uses a variety of temporal markers, often reflective of Jewish apocalyptic texts, to communicate both his schematic view of history and its relationship to the eschatological end of history.In chapter 4, Crabbe examines the role of the divine in influencing history. Crabbe shows how numerous Greco-Roman texts speak of how the concepts of fortune, providence, fate, and necessity impinge on significant events in world history. But, surprisingly, Luke does not employ many of these specific terms. Luke allows for a dynamic relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Prophetic interpreters of history are able to foretell future events, despite the fact that God has not planned them to occur. In fact, God often works to mitigate the tragic effects of human opposition to his plan (Acts 2:22–24; 13:23–27). There are, however, certain promises regarding the future that “remain absolutely certain” (p. 185).Chapter 5, then, explores the theme of human agency and responsibility. Despite differences in the specifics, almost all of the ancient texts speak of a noncompetitive relationship between divine and human agency. Luke emphasizes human freedom and frequently speaks of negative events as due to the tragic and sinful choices of humans who “fight against God” (e.g., Acts 5:38–39; 12:20–23). The “will of God” is something that is malleable and can adapt to the sinful decisions of humans, even as he consistently emphasizes the call to repentance and faith in light of impending eschatological events.Chapter 6 is the final major chapter that examines the relationship between the present and the eschatological end. The major argument here is that Luke is similar to other ancient writers in that he sees a significant relationship between current history and the end of history and in his drawing out significant ethical and political consequences for the present. For Luke, the climactic events of history are, indeed, the resurrection and enthronement of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit. These events provide testimony to the unfolding of history that will result in the return of the Son of Man and function to call humans to respond with faith and repentance to what God has done. Questions within Luke–Acts about the timing of the end do not relegate the parousia to some distant and unrelated part of world history (e.g., Luke 19:11–27; Acts 1:6–11; 17:30–31), but rather provide confidence and hope that “the promise divine action remains imminently anticipated” (p. 326).Crabbe’s monograph convincingly demonstrates that readings of Luke–Acts cannot take their point of departure from some presumed “delay of the Parousia” hypothesis. While many would agree that Lukan scholarship has advanced since the days of Bultmann, Käsemann, and (especially) Conzelmann, too many are still beholden to outdated hypotheses of Luke–Acts, which fail to make sense of the relationship between history and eschatology. A short review such as this is not able to do justice to her careful comparative work of Luke–Acts and a variety of ancient texts on the theme of history and eschatology. This book should serve as the point of departure for future studies on Lukan eschatology

Art · Early Christianity · Eschatology · Glory · Josephus · Judaism · Literature · Messiah · New Testament · Theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Philosophy