Book Review: Acts (CSC), Patrick Schreiner

What happened after Jesus ascended? Why wasn’t the kingdom fulfilled in Israel right away? How were God’s people supposed to live now that the Messiah died and rose again? The temple was still standing, sacrifices were still being made, and the law was still being kept. How were Messianic Jews meant to relate to these things? How were gentiles meant to relate to these things? Who would bring the gospel to them? The book of Acts is more than pure history. It is a theological work that shows us how God’s people began life in the new covenant under the reign of the ascended Messiah. 

An Eye to the Church

Patrick Schreiner—Associate Professor of NT and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—has written a new commentary on Acts that focuses on the movement of the narrative and its theological content, as well as how this should shape our ecclesiology (church life). For a commentary with an eye toward the historical, see my upcoming review of Craig Keener’s shorter Acts volume. Schreiner doesn’t shy away from grammar, history, or background information so long as they enlighten his exegesis. But these things aren’t his man focus. He also attempts to read Acts with the whole church (catholica regula). He wants to “awaken the imagination of the preacher,” those who stand up in front of congregations to declare the word of the Lord (xiv). This is meant to be useful to the pastor (as well as teachers and even laypeople). 

Canonical Theology 

Aside from Beverly Gaventa and Willie Jennings’ recent commentaries, there are not many “self-consciously theological and canonical commentaries on Acts” (xiv). This is a lacuna Schreiner aims to fill. Doing so requires biblical-theological connections from the entire canon, not merely making connections with Luke alone. Schreiner also takes a more symbolic/figural approach to Acts. This doesn’t mean he eschews history but that, as he quotes from Johannes Brenz, “even the most minute and unessential thing” in Scripture has a purpose because it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

God is the beginning and the end, both in history and in the Bible. Even in a commentary, Schreiner begins with theology. The triune God pervades the book of Acts. Acts is a Mosaic of themes and characters. Who is the main “character”? Is it the Spirit or the Word? The church, Peter, or Paul? All these characters relate to each other and have their own place in the text to make the overall picture. 

Se7en Themes

Schreiner summarizes Luke’s theological aims with seven themes: 

1. God the Father orchestrates; 
2. Christ, the risen and enthroned One, rules; 
3. through the empowering Spirit, 
4. causing the Word to progress, 
5. bringing salvation to all flesh, and 
6. forming the church, 
7. who continues to witness about the triune God to the ends of the earth. (6)

God’s agency empowers his people. 

Schreiner uses the next 27 pages to cover how these seven themes fill the pages of Acts. Five of these pages cover two excursuses on (1) Christ’s ascension (which Schreiner has written about elsewhere) and (2) the law in Acts. Many Jews still kept the law but ran it through the sieve of Jesus, asking how each command related to him. Gentiles on the other hand were not commanded to keep the law. Because the Spirit was poured out by the ascended Messiah, “Gentiles are welcome in their Gentileness” (30). 

• Genre: Somewhat fluid, a (good) Frankenstein of Hellenistic history, ancient biography, Jewish writing, and a wisdom text (just like all of Scripture on this last point).  
• Author: Likely Luke the Gentile, but the evidence is inconclusive. 
• Date: Either AD 60–63 or AD 75. Neither are conclusive, and “original writers come up with things not local to their times” (60). Did Luke write before Paul died, or did he know nothing about Paul’s death? That really tells us nothing about when Acts was written. Mark doesn’t include Jesus’ resurrection at the end of his Gospel. Does that mean he didn’t know Jesus rose again? 
• Structure: 

1. 1. The triune God establishes his church (1:1–2:47).
   2. God empowers his witnesses in Jerusalem (3:1–8:3).
   3. God propels his witnesses to Judea and Samaria (8:4–12:25).
   4. God sends his witnesses on three journeys (13:1–21:14).
   5. God delivers his witness to Jerusalem and Rome (21:15–28:31).

Numerous Tables

Schreiner offers tables throughout his whole commentary to highlight some of Acts details and canonical connections. Placed within a paragraph as normal, they would have seemed like passing details. The tables bring clarity to some of the important details and themes of Acts. Just a few of these tables are:

• Whole book parallels between Luke and Acts;
• parallels between Peter and Paul in Acts;
• events in Acts 1–2 correlated with Isaiah;
• Old Testament texts in the Pentecost;
• Acts 2 and the Fulfillment of Ezekiel;
• biblical echoes to Ananias and Sapphira;
• parallels between the temple narrative (Acts 5:12–42) and the exodus;
• Paul and prophetic echoes on the Damascus road;
• the use of time in Acts 17:30–31;
• the emphasis on “all” in Athens;
• double-speak in Athens;
• Paul’s trials and the responses;
• Paul’s innocence across Acts;
• and many more.

Snapshots*

• Acts 1:6–8—The disciples question about the kingdom of Israel was not completely wrong, but they still have some misconceptions about the coming kingdom. Jesus does answer their question about timing. What he rejects is their attempt to calculate when the kingdom will be restored. Renewal will happen “in light of the promised Spirit and the birth of the church in v. 8” (87). In fact, the timing is not something they can know. Luke is more concerned to show to whom the kingdom is given than when it appears. With the pouring out of the promised Spirit (Isa 35:15–20), the disciples will be witnesses of the “speaking and living God” to the ends of the earth (Isa 43:10) (p. 89).
• Acts 1:12—Matthias needed to be chosen to make symbolic Israel whole again (Isa 49:6; Isa 11:13). Judas’ sin did not at all disrupt God’s kingdom plan but actually fulfilled it. No one who stands outside of the kingdom can ultimately disrupt it. Matthias is admitted into the Twelve because he had been an eye witness from John’s baptism to Jesus’ resurrection. After this, no apostles are replaced (such as after James is executed in 12:2).
• Acts 2:1–3—One example of Schreiner’s symbolic/figural/canonical reading can be found here when he writes “The people are now God’s prophetic voice as they speak in different tongues. The Spirit’s work is cross-cultural. The fire cleanses their lips, as it does with Isaiah (6:6-7) and Jeremiah (5:14), and ignites their tongues so they can bear testimony to the risen Christ (Rev 11:5) in diverse “languages” (glössais). As Charles Taylor states, human beings are ‘inducted into personhood… by being initiated into a language’” (115). As well, rather than pentecost being a reversal of Babel, it redeems the events of Babel.
• Acts 8:3—Luke tells us three times that Paul persecuted both men and women, highlighting “the inclusion of faithful women who suffered for the name of Christ as well as the savage nature of Paul, who troubled even the female sex” (262).
• Acts 8:24—Did Simon the Magician actually repent? While Schreiner leans toward the negative view that Simon was not really repentant, he admits that Luke is silent about the state of Simon’s heart. It first causes us to find the main point elsewhere, that being how the word of God spreads. Even Simon, a celebrity magician, recognizes its power. Also, similar to Mark’s mysteriously abrupt ending, the lack of an answer here should lead us to examine our own hearts. Conversations are complex. Where are we now? What is the current state of our hearts?
• Acts 9:3–4—The blinding Christophany that Paul experiences is one of grace alone. Paul was in no way seeking to experience Jesus. The blinding light points to new creation and resurrection, as well as theophany and temple visions. In Ezekiel’s first vision he saw one like a human on the throne, but it was too bright for him to see more than that. Paul now beholds the Lord of glory. He sees the resurrected and ascended figure who sat on the throne the OT prophets saw (John 12:41).
• Acts 9:8–9—Schreiner observes, “Light also figures prominently in the rest of Acts as an image for Saul bringing the good news to Gentiles (13:47; 26:17-18; 26:23). Jesus is a light to the Gentles (Luke 2:32). Paul’s blindness is thus a symbol for his lack of covenantal fidelity. Now the fire of the Lord has been revealed as on the day of Pentecost. Paul’s mission… will be to open eyes (Isa 35:3; 42:7)” (301).
• Acts 15:10–11—The Gentiles were cleansed by the Spirit and didn’t need the law thrust upon them. OT Israel couldn’t keep the law, and physical circumcision didn’t fix their sin. There is no need to circumcise the flesh of Gentile men when their hearts are already circumcised by the Spirit. Gentiles enter the messianic community in the same way as Jews, by the act of the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 15:15–18—James quotes from Amos 9:11-12, and frames his quotation with allusions from Hos 3:5; Jer 12:15; and Isa 45:21. The context is about temple restoration, and with the inclusion of the Gentiles the temple will spread across the whole world. This fact couldn’t have been made more clear from any other text.
• Acts 16:15—The second of four household baptisms, we don’t know if any of these households had babies, small children, or slaves in them, but Luke’s point is that a household church has been planted in Philippi, a very Roman and Caesar-loyal city. Schreiner notes, “The household was viewed as the empire in miniature, thus foreshadowing a conflict” (447).
• Acts 21:26–27—While some think Paul did not want to subject himself to Jewish law or that it was wrong for him to do so, Luke says nothing negative about it. Schreiner writes, “The Scripture shows those who are born Jews may continue observe some of their ethnic customs. Paul affirms the right of Jews to observe the laws; he simply will not force Gentiles to do likewise” (576).
  

*Many snapshots actually. It was a long plane ride.

Recommended?

Perhaps you can see into the future and you know already what I will write. Yes, this is an excellent commentary. This is the kind of commentary I want to read. Many commentaries are pedantic, but this was enjoyable. Schreiner does not give us a commentary on other Acts commentaries. He did not feel the need to rehearse what everyone else has said only to repeat their conclusions. He charts a new, different path in this volume, one for your theological and personal benefit. Acts is a living book, and the more we plumb its depths the more we will get out of it.

Schreiner clearly, enjoyably, and with nuance shows how Acts fits into the story of the Bible. This commentary is one that could be enjoyed by laypeople (although it isn’t “devotional”) and should be used by teachers and pastors. Highly recommended. 

Lagniappe

• Series: Christian Standard Commentary
• Author: Patrick Schreiner
• Paperback: 700 pages
• Publisher: B&H Academic (September 1, 2022)

Other CSC Reviews

• 2 Corinthians — David Garland
• 2 Peter and Jude — Tom Schreiner

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