Shaping the Past to Define the Present

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.