Kenneth D. Litwak, «Israel’s Prophets Meet Athens’ Philosophers: Scriptural Echoes in Acts 17,22-31», Vol. 85 (2004) 199-216
Generally, treatments of Paul’s speech note biblical parallels to Paul’s wording but find no further significance to these biblical allusions. This study argues that Luke intends far more through this use of the Scriptures of Israel beyond merely providing sources for Paul’s language. I contend that, through the narrative technique of "framing in discourse", Luke uses the Scriptures of Israel to lead his audience to interpret Paul’s speech as standing in continuity with anti-idol polemic of Israel’s prophets in the past. As such, read as historiography, Luke’s narrative uses this continuity to legitimate Paul’s message and by implication, the faith of Luke’s audience. Luke’s use of the Scriptures here is ecclesiological.
Israel’s Prophets Meet Athens’ Philosophers 207
says that God made a human and set him in the garden of Eden. From
him, all people came, as shown by the genealogy in Genesis 5, which
speaks of individuals, and Genesis 10, which speaks of the beginning
of peoples, “these are the nations of the sons of Noah according to their
generations†(Gen 10,32). Paul’s wording here likely emphasizes the
“universality of humankind’s relationship to God†(21), since Paul
stresses that all nations came from one man who was made by God.
The phrase “face of the earth†(proswvpou th'" gh'") is common in the
Scriptures of Israel (22), though often in a negative sense (cf. Gen 4,14;
6,7). It is used in a neutral sense in Deuteronomy, where God’s election
of Israel is described: “all the nations upon the face of the earth (ejpij
proswvpou th'" gh'")†(Deut 7,6). Paul’s statement that God made
humans to dwell upon the face of the earth (23) is similar to Gen 11,9b:
“and there the Lord God dispersed them upon the face of all the earth
(ejpi; provswpon pavsh" th'" gh'")â€. Paul next says in Acts 17,26b that
God has fixed the times and boundaries of human existence, oJrivsa"
prostetagmevnou" kairou;" kai; ta;" oJroqesivva" th'" katoikiva" aujtw'n.
Their epochs and geographic boundaries are determined by God. In
addition to Genesis 10, which describes the boundaries of nations, the
thought of Acts 17,26 is expressed in Deut 32,8: “For the most high
divided the nations as he separated the sons of Adam; he established
regions for the nations (o{ria ejqnw'n)â€. The wording of Acts 17,26,
then, echoes scriptural traditions regarding God’s creation of humans
from one man and God’s establishing of time periods and boundaries
for nations. Since Luke regarded Moses as a prophet, echoing a theme
from Deuteronomy is also an echo of a prophetic tradition. (Cf. Acts
3,21-24, which connects Moses to the prophet in 3,21, and refers to a
“prophet†like Moses who would arise after Moses).
e) Seek God, and He will be Found: Acts 17,27
Acts 17,27 echoes the common scriptural motif of seeking God
(zhtein to;n qeovn), because he is near to those who seek him (24), and
'
(21) POLHILL, Acts, 374.
(22) Cf. Gen 2,6; Jer 32,12 (LXX). See F.F. BRUCE, The Acts of the Apostles.
The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI 1968)
337.
(23) The opposite is indicated in Zeph 1,3, kai; ejxarw' tou;" ajnqrwvpou" ajpo;
proswvpou th'" gh'" levgei kuvrio".
(24) JERVELL, Apostelgeschichte, 447 argues that 17,26 and 17,27 form one
long statement. God made all people from one man, and set their time epochs and
boundaries so that they might seek him.
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