The Puzzle of Paul in Acts

The Puzzle of Paul in Acts explores the long-standing historical challenge of Luke’s story of Paul through a fresh analysis of its major issues based in contemporary linguistic and historiographical theory.

Luke’s story of Paul has long been subject to debate in New Testament criticism; it is surprisingly similar to, yet unavoidably different from, Paul’s autobiography in his letters. This book provides a new model of historical interpretation built on “linguistic description” and “historical explanation” to reanalyze the central issues in the criticism of Paul in Acts, including the genre and historical content of Luke–Acts, the relation of Acts and Galatians, the “we” material in Acts, and Paul’s fabled Athenian address. It advances a new argument that Luke constructed an independent and reliable account of Paul and that he collaborated with plausibly identifiable eyewitness sources in his narrative.

The Puzzle of Paul in Acts is suitable for students and scholars of Paul and Luke–Acts, as well as those working in early Christianity, early Christian historiography, and ancient Greek language and linguistics.