Shaping the Past to Define the Present: Luke-Acts and Apologetic Historiography

Uncovering ancient texts and rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles Shaping the Past to Define the Present comprises both new and revised essays by esteemed New Testament scholar Gregory E. Sterling on Jewish and early Christian historiography. A sequel to his seminal work, Historiography and Self-Definition, this volume expands on Sterling’s reading of Luke-Acts in the context of contemporary Jewish and Greek historiography. These systematically arranged essays comprise his new and revised contributions to the field of biblical studies, exploring: the genre of apologetic historiography exemplified by Josephus and Eusebius the context of Josephus’s work within a larger tradition of Eastern historiography the initial composition and circulation of Luke and Acts the relationship of Luke-Acts to the Septuagint the interpretation of the Diaspora in Luke-Acts the structure of salvation history as it is manifested in Luke-Acts Socratic influences on Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’s death the early Jerusalem Christian community as depicted in Acts compared with other Hellenized Eastern traditions such as Egyptian priests and Indian sages the establishment of Christianity’s “socially respectability” as a guiding purpose in Luke-Acts Engaging with current critical frameworks, Sterling offers readers a comprehensive analysis of early Christian self-definition through Judeo-Christian historiography.

About the Author :
Gregory E. Sterling is the Rev. Henry L. Slack Dean and the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. A specialist in Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity, he is the author or coeditor of eight books and more than 100 articles in learned journals or scholarly collections. Sterling also serves on the editorial boards of multiple book series and preeminent journals within the field of Judaism and early Christianity. He is perhaps best known for his monograph Historiography and Self-Definition (Brill, 1992; Society of Biblical Literature, 2006).

Review :
The Expository Times "The ground covered is very great: Sterling is clearly at home in covering a vast range of material by writers of historiography . . . All this is masterfully employed to shed light on the Lukan writings. . . . The book will be read with profit by NT scholars and students at every level." Interpretation "Highly informed, cohesively argued, and persuasively presented. . . . Demonstrates clear awareness of and appreciation for scholarly dialogue over the last three decades." Theology "A varied and highly readable collection of fascinating new perspectives on Luke's Gospel and Acts." Review of Biblical Literature "[Shaping the Past to Define the Present] is well worth reading, and Lukan scholars will doubtless find much food for thought and many points on which to build in future work." Religious Studies Review "Sterling's work exhibits keen methodological tact and would be a worthy addition to the libraries of scholars, clergy, and students of early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism." "For the past three decades, Greg Sterling has illuminated many aspects of Luke-Acts and helped modern readers appreciate it as an example of ancient apologetic historiography, in which a member of a societal subgroup deliberately Hellenizes its traditions so as to redefine itself within the context of the larger world in which the group now lives. All nine of the essays that comprise this new book--six revised and three new essays--usefully continue Sterling's project of helping us see how the author of Luke-Acts has shaped the past to speak to the present by defining Christian identity in ways both new and fascinating. Highly recommended." --John T. Fitzgerald University of Notre Dame "Combining several previously published but substantially revised essays with some new essays, Sterling has produced a tightly argued, exegetically rich monograph that further strengthens his argument for locating Luke-Acts within the tradition of apologetic historiography that had been honed in the East as an alternative to Greek traditions of history-writing. Clear, methodical argumentation, command of the ancient sources, energetic engagement of recent classical and biblical scholarship, and intimate familiarity with key interpretive questions relating to Luke-Acts ensure that Shaping the Past will take its place alongside other field-defining works (Dibelius, Dupont et al.)." --Carl Holladay Emory University "Professor Sterling provides both scholars and general readers with a clear and careful case to upend the division between a 'Gospel of Luke' and 'Acts' as a founding story of how the apostles spread Christianity from Jerusalem into the cities of the Roman world. Instead both 'scrolls' belong to a single literary work, an 'apologetic history' that shows despised believers how to identify themselves as heirs to a lineage from ancient Israel to Jesus and the Church. Combining examples from comparable Jewish and Graeco-Roman historians and careful literary analyses of Luke and Acts, this book makes important contributions to both classics and biblical studies." --Pheme Perkins Boston College "Not every age produces a Mommsen or Momigliano--writers who laid new groundwork for research on ancient history. Gregory E. Sterling's monumental 1992 Historiography and Self-Definition is just such a work, identifying, for the first time, 'apologetic historiography' and illuminating, with respect to a range of important texts, its distinctive traits and aims. This indispensable sequel--now including treatment of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History--updates and develops the thesis with fresh insights, illustrating how reconstructions of past events respond to various debates in the lives of their authors. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the early church." --Clare K. Rothschild Lewis University / Stellenbosch University "Building on his earlier study Historiography and Self-Definition, Gregory Sterling develops a model for interpreting Luke-Acts as 'apologetic historiography.' By comparing Luke's work with Josephus's Antiquities and Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, Sterling shows that they shared a concern for antiquity, but at the same time differed in the ways they presented history to their readers. Focusing on specific sections of Acts, Sterling shows that Luke wrote a continuation of the Septuagint and understood God's action in history through Jesus and the church as a period of fulfillment. This is an important study on Luke-Acts and ancient historiography by a world-leading scholar that will be read with great profit by scholars and students." --Jens Schröter Humboldt University