Paul’s Death and Resurrection in Acts 27–28? A Literary Comparison with the Gospel of Luke

Vadim Wittkowsky

Humboldt University Berlin , Germany


Abstract

It was claimed more than once that the journey of Paul and his landing on the shore of Malta in the last two chapters of the Book of Acts can be interpreted as a theological parallel to the account of death and resurrection of Jesus. There are, to be sure, some reasonable arguments in favor of that, such as close relationship between death and death risk or similarities to the journey of Jonah. But can it be convincingly argued that Luke really did intend a parallelism of this kind in Acts 27-28? The paper deals with literary elements of Luke 23-24 in order to make this hypothesis more conclusive.

Keywords:

Luke 23-24, Acts 27-28, Book of Jonah, Biblical Rewriting, Literary Comparison



Barrett, C.K., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles (Edinburgh: Clark 1998) II.

Brodie, Th.L., The Birthing of the New Testament: The Intertextual Development of the New Testament Writings (Sheffield: Phoenix 2004).

Christopher, D., The Appropriation of Passover in Luke-Acts (WUNT 2.476; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2018).

Clabeaux, J., „The Story of the Maltese Viper and Luke’s Apology for Paul”, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 67 (2005) 604-610.

Goulder, M.D., Luke: A New Paradigm (JSNTSup 20; Sheffield: Academic Press 1989) II.

Haenchen, E., Die Apostelgeschichte, 12th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck 1959).

Holladay, C.R., Acts: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox 2016).

Müller, M., „Acts as Biblical Rewriting of the Gospels and Paul’s Letters”, Luke’s Literary Creativity (ed. J.T. Nielsen – M. Müller) (LNTS 550; London – New York: Bloomsbury – T&T Clark 2016) 96-117.

Omerzu, H., Der Prozeß des Paulus: Eine exegetische und rechtshistorische Untersuchung der Apostelgeschichte (BZNW 115; Berlin – New York: De Gruyter 2002).

Pervo, R.I., Acts: A Commentary (Hermeneia; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress 2009).

Radl, W., Paulus und Jesus im lukanischen Doppelwerk: Untersuchungen zu Parallelmotiven im Lukasevangelium und in der Apostelgeschichte (Europäische Hochschulschriften 23/49; Bern: Herbert Lang – Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 1975).

Wittkowsky, V., „Der Stoff der ‘großen Auslassung’ in Lukas 24 und Apostelgeschichte 27–28”, Reading the Gospel of Mark in the Twenty-First Century (ed. G. van Oyen) (BETL 301; Leuven: Peeters 2019) 847-866.

Download

Published
2019-03-21


Wittkowsky, V. (2019). Paul’s Death and Resurrection in Acts 27–28? A Literary Comparison with the Gospel of Luke. The Biblical Annals, 10(1), 93–101. https://doi.org/10.31743/biban.4084

Vadim Wittkowsky  wittkovx@cms.hu-berlin.de
Humboldt University Berlin



License

  1. Pursuant to the Act on Copyright and Related Rights of February 4, 1994, the Author of the publication grants to the Publisher of the journal „The Biblical Annals” e a non-exclusive and royalty-free license to use the Work submitted for publication, without time and territorial restrictions in the following fields of use:
    a) record the Work and copy it by means of any technique (including printing and electronic recording) on all known data carriers (including IT, electronic and polygraphic), and in all IT systems (in particular those available online);
    b) enter the Work into computer memory, disseminate the Work and its copies, as well as market the Work and its copies;
    c) publicly perform, replay, display and screen the Work, as well as lend, rent and lease the Work and its copies;
    d) make available, market and disseminate the Work and its copies via IT networks, and in particular via the Internet, including the promotion or advertising of the Work, the journal or the Publisher.
  2. The Author shall further grant his/her consent for the Publisher to use and dispose of derivative works.
  3. The Publisher may sublicense the work.
  4. Third parties may use the articles and other materials containing the Works, or developed on the basis of the Works in line with the model Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (also referred to as CC BY 4.0).