That Makes Me Wanna' Dance

This is my 1 minute interview with Dr. Luke at the More Than Cake Cafe. Luke is the author of a two volume history of Jesus and the early Christian Church. In this interview we explore Luke’s use of stories and the purpose of oral tradition.

I based my script on the Ben Witherington’s book, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. His book a must read for every student of Acts. Here is just a bit of what he has to say.

While much more could be made of Luke’s interest in what could be called the mundane social settings and actions of Christians, it is in order to ask here: Why is Luke so interested in such matters as lodging, eating, and hospitality in general? A long time ago D. W. Riddle suggested that these people and places are mentioned not in order to “historicize” an otherwise generic and nondescriptive group of narratives or to provide them with an air of verisimilitude, but to recognize those who helped in the early days in the transmission of the gospel and other early church traditions. Luke’s second volume is about the spread of the word and those who made it possible.⁷ Thus these people (and their places of lodging), who are not significant actors in the story itself (sometimes only their name is mentioned), are referred to as vital supports to the movement. Lodging is important not just because it provided a place where missionaries could rest but also because it provided a venue where Christians could meet, eat, pray, preach, and relate stories about the movement. In short, these residences may well have become places where oral and written Christian traditions were not just passed on but also collected. As various missionaries would pass through, more news would be passed on, not only about the life of Jesus but also about current events involving Christians, and, when prophets spoke, about future events as well. We can see this very process at work in Acts 11:27–30. Thus we may see hospitality not only as the physical support that kept the message going but also as the medium in which the message took hold and was preserved.

All of this has some bearing on evaluating Luke’s use of sources, especially if, as we have already argued, he was following in the tradition of the better Hellenistic historians who believed in research, consulting eyewitnesses, gathering up information, and in general the use of sources (cf. Luke 1:1–4). Luke was necessarily limited by the sources he had, which goes some way to explaining the lopsidedness of Acts, with its heavy concentration on Petrine and Pauline material. Clearly enough there was not time enough to ask everyone about everything, but as he traveled around and benefited from Christian hospitality in various places, what could be more natural than that he asked his hosts or hostesses while breaking bread with them what and whom they had known?

Videos in This Series