210 Kenneth D. Litwak These psalms all state that God will judge the world in righteousness. Paul’s words stand firmly within this biblical tradition. In each of the verses examined above, scriptural intertexts or traditions are echoed. These range from the creation account in Genesis to the anti-idol polemic of Isaiah. The pervasiveness of the scriptural traditions, which reverberate throughout Paul’s speech, are too ubiquitous to be merely stylistic or simply “parallel” to the Scriptures of Israel. If these echoes are intentional, what are they used for, besides being part of Paul’s argument? Before attempting to answer this question, let me stress the significance of the question. I am arguing that the Scriptures of Israel was not simply a source for intertextual echoes in Paul’s speech or used merely to give it a biblical flavor. There is much more going on in Luke’s narrative strategy that goes well beyond simply using Genesis or Isaiah or the Psalms for sources. What is this larger strategy? 3. The Function of the Scriptures of Israel in Paul’s Areopagus Speech The answer lies, I believe, in viewing these intertextual echoes through the narrative concept of “framing in discourse”. The concept of framing in discourse, discussed by Deborah Tannen (32), is the notion that the way a narrative is introduced and presented provides clues as to how to understand the narrative or creates expectations on the part of the audience regarding the ensuing narrative. For example, the familiar words, “it was a dark and stormy night”, prepare the audience for a detective murder mystery or the like. The phrase “once upon a time”, when read by a “competent reader”, i.e., someone with the necessary background assumed by the author, would lead the reader to expect a fairy tale. These two introductory phrases have a very different effect, and create very different expectations for an audience than, say, a news report that begins with the words, “Here are our top stories”. The first example leads an audience to expect a specific genre of fiction. The last phrase leads an audience to expect the reporting of actual events that have just happened. Since framing in discourse is a basic part of how narration, including dialogue, is structured, it is only natural to look for framing in discourse in Paul’s Areopagus speech. So how does Luke frame his discourse about Paul’s experience at Athens? In Acts 17,16, we read that as Paul walked around Athens, he (32) “What Is a Frame? Surface Evidence for Underlying Expectations”, Framing in Discourse (ed. D. TANNEN) (Oxford 1993) 15-56.