Marshall - Acts: an introduction and commentary

At a time when there are almost innumerable commentaries on the books of the New Testament, anybody who dares to add to their number is under some obligation to justify producing yet another. In the present case it is not enough to claim that the demands of a series had to be fulfilled, since the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries already contained a volume on Acts by the distinguished Classical scholar, Professor E. M. Blaiklock. A number of factors, however, made a replacement of this work desirable.

In the first place, Professor Blaiklock deliberately set himself the limited task of writing an historical commentary, in the sense that he concentrated on illustrating and expounding the book of Acts against its historical background in the Graeco-Roman period. The course of study since his commentary was published has emphasized the theological importance of Acts, and it has become desirable that some account should be taken of this interest. It is significant that F. Bovons excellent survey of recent scholarship on the works of Luke is entitled Luc le thologien.

The historical problems cannot be set aside in favour of a purely theological approach, however, and this leads to a second reason for attempting a fresh study. Shortly before the appearance of Professor Blaiklocks work there appeared another commentary in German from the pen of Professor E. Haenchen; with much learning and great attention to detail the author made Luke out to be something more like a writer of historical fiction than a serious historian. Haenchens case needs to be taken seriously and evaluated. If, therefore, the present work appears at times to be overpolemical and one-sided in its concentration on historical questions, this may be explained by the fact that so far commentators (with the notable exception of R.P.C Hanson) have made little attempt to come to terms with Haenchens approach. It should perhaps be emphasized that although this commentary is frequently critical of what I consider to be Haenchens unjustified scepticism regarding the historicity of Acts, his work is an outstanding piece of scholarship which has done much to rekindle interest in the study of Acts.

In keeping with the expressed aim of the series, the commentary is primarily exegetical, although it is hoped that sufficient pointers have been given to the expository value of the text. While the commentary is intended to serve a wide range of readers, I have also tried to make it useful for the theological student, and to this end I have attempted to give some reference to the literature on Acts which has appeared subsequently to the publication of Haenchens commentary and is not listed in his bibliographies.

I should like to express my warm thanks to Dr Leon Morris, the general editor of the series, and to Dr Colin J. Hemer for their helpful comments on the manuscript, and also to Miss T. Clark and Mrs P. Henderson for help with the typing.

The commentary has been written in the University of Aberdeen where Sir William Ramsay was a professor and Professor F.F. Bruce a student. It will be obvious how much I have been influenced by these distinguished writers on the book of Acts, and it gives me the greatest of pleasure to express something of my gratitude to the latter for his friendship and encouragement in many ways by dedicating this book to him.