2.2 Method for Exploring Acts’ Literary Shape and Significance
2.2.5 Method and Acts’ Story
2.2.5.6 Acts’ Character Component
For Aristotle, “plot, then, is the first principle and, as it were, soul of tragedy, while character is secondary”.357 However, the plot and characters are better viewed as
interdependent.358 Acts is similar to Graeco-Roman biographies in their patchy
treatment of characters.359 These often quickly pass over the early years to focus on a
public debut, periods of major virtues, key public speeches and the final days especially with a trial or a hero’s death.360 For this reason the character component
primarily focuses on the character’s appearance and function within Acts’ structure and story.361 The main features of Acts’ character component are: (1)
characterisation; (2) focalisation; (3) the infrequent appearances of Jesus; (4) parallels and transitions between the two main characters of Peter and Paul; (5) the people-groups; (6) the possible autobiographical “we-group”; and (7) the literary size and sequence of characters.
Characterisation is the development of characters within a literary text.362 In
Acts363 they function both as actors or “dramatis personae” in the story or plot364 and
also as dynamic, rather than static, individuals subject to change and progress.365
Characterisation is either direct (“telling”), with specific traits and evaluation explicitly mentioned in the text,366 or indirect (“showing”) as inferred by actions,
357 Aristotle, Poet. 6. 65–66 (1450a.34–35) [Halliwell, LCL]. Cf. 6.37–39 (1450a. 15–17);
8.1 (1451a.16).
358 Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction, 35–36; Tolmie, Narratology, 40–41.
359 Cornelius Bennema, A Theory of Character in the New Testament Narrative
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 99–108.
360 Burridge, “Genre of Acts”, 17. 361 Uspensky, Poetics, 81–83.
362 I follow John A. Darr, “Narrator as Character: Mapping a Reader-Orientated Approach to
Narration in Luke-Acts”, Semeia 65 (1993): 43–60, who whilst arguing that characterisation involves the reader’s subjective interpretation of the text, concedes that that there is a text-specific reader. My present study of literary shape focuses on Acts’ characters as they appear objectively in the text.
363 John T. A. Marlow, “A Narrative Analysis of Acts 1–2” (PhD diss., Gold Gate Baptist
Theological Seminary, Brea, CA, 1988), 74–82; John A. Darr, On Character Building: The Reader and the Rhetoric of Characterization in Luke-Acts (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992).
364 Algirdas J. Greimas, Structural Semantics: An Attempt at Method, trans. Daniele
McDowell, Ronald Schleifer, Alan Velie (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 197–221; Propp, Morphology of the Folk Tale; 25–65; Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 58–59, 62–65. Tolmie, Narratology, 40; Darr, Character Building, 38–39.
365 Resseguie, Narrative Criticism, 125–26; Thomas R. Arp, Perrine’s Story and Structure,
9th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998), 79–80; Chatman, Story and Discourse,
119–31; Forster, Aspects of the Novel, 73–80; Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 59–62; Jonathan Culpeper, Language and Characterisation: People in Plays and Other Texts (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2001), 5–12; Yamasaki, Insights From Filmmaking, 65–69.
366 E.g. Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (6:5), full of God’s grace and
power (6:8). Tolmie, Narratology, 42–44; Resseguie, Narrative Criticism, 127–28; Powell, Narrative Criticism, 54–55.
speech, appearance, or environment.367 John Darr particularly comments on the
narrative sequence and the progressive building of character.368 Literary critiques use
various classification systems for characters in terms of their complexity, development, and penetration into inner life.369 A character can be a
flat/type/background (one trait without development), a round/full- fledged/protagonist (more than one trait, developing with inner thoughts), or an intermediary between the two.370 However, this is really a matter of a continuum371
as shown in Cornelius Bennema’s theory of character for New Testament narrative.372 He helpfully corrects the view of those, like Adams, who see the
characters in Graeco-Roman literature (and Acts) as flat and static.373 My approach is
that the main characters like Peter, Saul/Paul, Barnabas, and James, are actually round/dynamic characters who either progress or regress within the narrative especially in relation to their involvement in the mission instrument.374
Focalisation is the point of view presented by a character or the narrator.375
The focus of narration is either in the first person (by the main character like an
367 Tolmie, Narratology, 44–53; Resseguie, Narrative Criticism, 126–27, 130–32; Alter,
Biblical Narrative, 116–17; Tan, Johannine Community, 57–59; Darr, Character Building, 39–41, 43– 45; Gary Yamasaki, Watching a Biblical Narrative: Point of View in Biblical Exegesis (New York: T & T Clark, 2007), 1–41.
368 Darr, Character Building, 39–41, 43–45.
369 Joseph Ewen, “The Theory of Character in Narrative Fiction”, Hasifrut 3 (1974): 1–30, is
only available in Hebrew. See Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction, 40–42, and Tolmie, Narratology, 56, for discussion and Bennema, Theory of Character, 164–83, for application to Peter, Pilate, Barnabas, and Lydia in Acts.
370 Forster, Aspects of the Novel, 93–106; Tolmie, Narratology, 53–59; Culpeper, Language
and Characterisation, 52–57; W. J. Harvey, Character and The Novel (London: Chatto & Windus, 1965), 58–68, has two types of intermediary characters as either a card who approaches greatness but is not cast in the role of a protagonist, or a ficelles which is more extensive than a background character, but exists only to fulfil certain functions in the narrative.
371 Tan, Johannine Community,
372 Bennema, Theory of Character, 31–112.
373 Adams, Genre, 161–63, 172–205, focusing on Stephen, Philip, Ananias, James, the
brother of Jesus, Barnabas, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira; Simon Magus, and seven sons of Sceva.
374 E.g. Saul as one who opposes the mission instrument (8:3), is dramatically changed and
becomes part of the mission instrument (9:1–30, esp. 9:15–16), has his name changed to Paul as fitting for the Gentile mission (13:9), engages in the mission (13:1–19:20) albeit with a continued focus on the Jews (13:5, 14–43; 14:1; 16:3–4, 13; 17:1–4, 10; 18:4; 19:8), a decision to return to Jerusalem (19:21), rehearsal of his mission during his imprisonment in Jerusalem (22:3–21) and Caesarea (26:2–29), focus on his Roman citizenship ((22:25–29), recovery of the mission (27:1– 28:10), renewed focus on Jews at Rome (28:17–31). See Yamasaki, Insights From Filmmaking, 75– 77; Luke Macnamara, My Chosen Instrument: The Characterisation of Paul in Acts 7:58–15:41 (Rome: Gregorian & Biblical, 2016), for an exploration of how Saul/Paul’s absences in Acts’ narrative contribute to his characterisation.
375 Tolmie, Narratology, 29–38; Abbott, Narrative, 73–74; De Jong, Narratology and
Classics, 47–72; Phelan, Living to Tell, 110–19; Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 72–74; Resseguie, Narrative Criticism of the New Testament, 167–196; Gary Yamasaki, Perspective Criticism: Point of View and Evaluative Guidance in Biblical Narrative (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2012).
autobiography), a first-person observer (a minor character tells the main character’s story), an observer-author (an author tells the story), or an omniscient author (an author who presents the mind, motives, and feelings of one or more characters).376
Norman Friedman presents it as a range from the “complete presence of the author” to a “total absence of the author”.377 Acts has examples of Genette’s internal
focalisation (only what the character knows),378 external focalisation (less than the
character knows),379 and zero focalisation (more than the character knows).380 The
latter type conveys the omniscient narrator who appears in Acts with knowledge (often theological) beyond the characters. This allows for theological diversity and progress. There are also occasions when one of the characters is an internal narrator telling their own story.381 Yideg Alemayehu’s definition of focalisation as the
“selection and presentation of data for a certain purpose”382 links closely to Acts’
literary shape for missional significance. Uspensky breaks the point of view down into the four planes of phraseological (how words and phrase are used), spatial- temporal (where and when events are narrated), psychological (the characters thoughts and behaviours), and ideological (the narrator’s norms, values, and worldview).383 The characters also provide theological insights which interpret the
raw data of experience.384
The infrequent appearances of Jesus after the ascension (1:9) 385 are either an
376 Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Fiction (New York: Appleton-
Century-Crofts, 1943), 588–90.
377 Norman Friedman, “Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a Critical Concept”, in
PMLA 70 (1955): 1160–84. See Yamasaki, Watching, 29.
378 E.g. Acts 12:9. Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 73.
379 E.g. Acts 10:23b. Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 73. Also Saul/Paul’s
conversion-commission as an external focalisation (9:1–18) and an internal focalisation (22:6–16) see Tolmie, Narratology, 36–37; Kurz, Reading Luke-Acts, 129–130.
380 E.g. Acts 3:3. See Genette, Narrative Discourse, 188–89. Cf. Yamasaki, Watching, 34–
36. For a further example of all three types of focalisation in 12:4 see Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 73.
381 E.g. Acts 22:6–16 and 26:12–18 where Paul retells the story of his conversion-
commission.
382 Alemayehu, Modern Narrative Theory, 51.
383 Uspensky, Poetics; Cf. Resseguie, Narrative Criticism, 169–92; Alemayehu, Modern
Narrative Theory, 56–58; Yamasaki, Watching, 30–34; 156–81; Yamasaki, Perspective Criticism, 18– 105.
384 Alexander, “Acts”, 1032.
“absentee Christology”386 or more positively an underlying presence directing the
mission journey at strategic points.387 Titles such as the Son of Man (7:56), the Son
of God (9:20), Lord (one hundred and seven times), and Christ (twenty-five times) reveal various aspects of Jesus’s character and role.388
Parallels and transitional interlacement between Peter and Paul form a significant pattern in Acts,389 but do not necessarily determine structure.390 Acts is
somewhat biographical like Plutarch’s Lives,391 but rather than simple dual
biographies, there is a complex and integrated shift from Peter to Paul in Acts 7– 15.392 Instead of biographical details such as births, lives, and deaths, the emphasis is
on involvement with mission393 and a transition through other characters such as
Stephen394 and Philip.395 Also Paul receives a greater literary emphasis396 by size397
and sequence.398
The people-groups also function like characters within Acts’ structure and story. Some of the more important ones for this study include Jews (seventy-nine times) as the people of God,399 along with their leaders the Pharisees (seven times),
386 Conzelmann, Theology, 170–206; Parsons, Departure, 160–162, cites Martin Kreisworth,
“Centers, Openings and Endings: Some Faulknerian Constants”, American Literature, 56 (1984): 38– 50, citing 39, for the strategy of an “empty center” which uses the absence throughout the whole story of a major character who is also curiously present in the major actions and thoughts of other characters. For discussion on present scholarly impasse over Christ’s presence and absence see Sleeman, Geography, 12–21, citing Andrew Burgess, The Ascension in Karl Barth (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), 150, that the crux of the debate is the exact manner in which Jesus is present. Cf. Steve Walton, “Jesus, Present and/or Absent? The Presence and Presentation of Jesus as a Character in the Book of Acts”, in Dicken and Snyder, Characters, 121–40, esp. 124, for the tension between the physical absence of Jesus and him being active from heaven.
387 Parsons, “Origins”, 404; Gaventa, “Acts” (2006), 42–43.
388 Uspensky, Poetics, 25–27, discusses how different names or titles designate the character
from several points of view.
389 Talbert, Patterns, 23–26; Andrew C. Clark, Parallel Lives: The Relation of Paul to the
Apostles in the Lucan Perspective (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2001), 35–38; 183; 192; 209–260; 321.
390 Gooding, True to the Faith, 387–389, notes that structure and pattern are different things
that do not have to chime together.
391 Clark, Parallel Lives, 81–114.
392 Longenecker, Boundaries, 171–73, 186–92.
393 Lucien Legrand, Unity and Plurality: Mission in the Bible, trans. Robert R. Barr
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 103–105; Clark, Parallel Lives, 337–38, unity of Jewish and Gentile missions; Talbert, Patterns, 99, legitimate line of succession from Jesus, to Peter and the apostles, to Paul.
394 Acts 6:1–8:2.
395 Acts 8:5–13 and 8:26–40. 396 Keener, Acts, 1:570.
397 Morgenthaler, Lukas, 334, with 1,469 words for Peter and 2,023 for Paul. Later footnote
for recalculation of words for sections in which they appear.
398 The emphasis on Paul in literary sequence is: (1) he succeeds Peter; (2) Paul is on centre
stage from Acts 12 on; and (3) Acts’ Ending focuses on Paul.
Sadducees (five times), and priests/chief priests (twenty-five times).400 Reference is
also made to Ἑλληνιστής (Greek speakers) (four times)401 as suitable for Acts’
overall focus on the Jewish Diaspora.402 The Samaritans only appear in Acts 8 as a
stage between Israel and the Gentiles. The religious Gentiles within Israel are variously described as ones who φοβέω God (“God-fearers”) (four times),403 ones
who σέβω (“worshippers”) (six times),404 and προσήλυτοι (“proselytes”) (three
times),405 as either a rising scale of conversion to Judaism406 or as synonymous
terms.407 The Gentiles are referred to in various ways as Ἕλληνας (Greeks) (eleven
times),408 ἔθνοι (Gentiles, but occasionally of a people group) (forty-three times),409
Athenians (17:21–22), βάρβαροι (barbarians or foreigners) (28:2), and Romans (ten times).410 A character component focuses on the description and function of these
people groups within the narrative rather than external historical data.
The four we-group passages411are often debated and considered by the
400 Pharisees, Sadducees and priests are clustered at key moments of Jewish resistance at Acts
4–7; 15:5 (Pharisees) and Acts 23–26.
401 Acts 6:1; 9:29; maybe 11:20 (variant Ἕλλήν); 17:12 (Ἑλληνίς). Peterson, Acts, 353, points
out that Hellenists could be: (1) Greek-speaking Jewish Christians (6:1); (2) Greek-speaking Jews who were not Christians (9:29); or (3) Greek-speaking Gentiles (11:20; 17:12). Cf. BDAG, Ἑλληνιστής, 319.
402 Byerly, “Narrative Legitimation”1–2, 257–69; Stevens, Acts, 21; Holladay, Acts, 151–52. 403 Barrett, Acts, 1:519, of three groups: (1) pious Jews and Gentiles; (2) a synonym for
proselytes; and (3) a group between Gentiles and proselytes. For a social rather than religious connection to Judaism, Cf. Irina Levinskaya, The Book of Acts in Its Diaspora Setting, BAFCS 5 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Carlisle: Paternoster. 1996), 47–49; Judith M. Lieu, “Do God-Fearers Make Good Christians?”, in Crossing the Boundaries: Essays in Biblical Interpretation in Honour of Michael D. Goulder, ed. S. E. Porter, P. Joyce and D. E. Orton, BibInt 8 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 329– 45, citing 332. The “God-fearers” appear only in Acts’ Middle.
404 BDAG, σέβω, 917–18. They appear only in Acts’ Middle.
405 BDAG, προσήλυτος, 880, “one who has come over from polytheism to Judaean religion
and practice, convert”.
406 AD. Martin C. DeBoer, “God-Fearers in Luke-Acts”, in Luke’s Literary Achievement.
Collected Essays, ed. Christopher M. Tuckett, JSNTSup 116 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995), 50–71.
407 Morgan-Wynne, Pisidian Antioch, 69–73.
408 BDAG, Ἕλλήν, 318, as either: (1) persons of Greek language and culture; or (2) broader
sense of those influenced by Greece as distinguished from Israel. They appear predominantly in Acts’ Middle.
409 Samaritans (8:9) and Jews 10:22; 24:2, 10, 17; 26:4; 28:19. BDAG, ἔθνος, 276–77.
Béchard, Outside the Walls, 157–164; James M. Scott, Paul and the Nations. The Old Testament and Jewish Background of Paul’s Mission to the Nations with Special Reference to the Destination of Galatians, WUNT 84 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 57–121.
410 Only the first reference at 16:21 is of a group of Romans (also indirect references in
speeches, 25:16; 28:17). Other references are Paul’s references to his Roman citizenship.
411 Acts 16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16. Some have three sections by merging
middle section to 20:5–21:18 as William Campbell, The “We” Passages in the Acts of the Apostles: The Narrator or Narrative Character, SBLSBL 14 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 1. Others argue for five sections by separating last section into 27:1–29 and 28:1–16 as Stanley E. Porter, The Paul of Acts: Essays in Literary Criticism, Rhetoric and Theology WUNT 115 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), 28–33.
scholars412 to be an “indissoluble riddle”413 having “impenetrable logic”.414
Traditionally the “we-group” is understood as an authorial presence (homodiegetic character-narrator),415 but there are uncertainties over a lack of comparable ancient
usage416 and the author/group’s anonymity.417 Another suggestion is an eyewitness
source document,418 but it remains unproven since the passages are integrated into
Acts’ narrative.419 This study follows the third suggestion of a literary device,420 not
as a fiction, but a motif retaining historical veracity. Suggestions about the literary function of the “we-group” include: (1) a way of retaining the author’s anonymity;421
(2) an ancient historiographical device underlining veracity;422 (3) a connection to
sea voyages suggesting involvement in mission movement;423 (4) a closer
identification with Paul;424 (5) connecting the story-world with the readers;425 (6) an
intervention at strategic moments in Paul’s itinerary;426 (7) an indication of the
412 For a summary of the debate see Pervo, Acts, 392–96; Keener, Acts, 3:2350–237; Adams,
“Relationships”, 135–41.
413 Cadbury, Making of Luke-Acts, 357.
414 Samuel Byrskog, “History or Story in Acts – A Middle Way? The ‘We’ Passages,
Historical Intertexture, and Oral History”, in Penner and Stichele, Contextualizing Acts, 257–283, citing, 262.
415 Colin J. Hemer, “First Person Narrative in Acts 27–28”, TynBul 36 (1985): 79–109;
Hemer, Acts, 312–34; William Neil, The Acts of the Apostles, NCB (London: Oliphants, 1973), 22– 23; Fitzmyer, Acts, 98–103; James D. G. Dunn, Beginning from Jerusalem, Christianity in the Making 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 66.
416 Richard Wallace and Wynne Williams, The Acts of the Apostles: A Companion (London:
Classical Press, 1993), 12–15; Keener, Acts, 3:2361–2373.
417 Byrskog, “History or Story”, 262; Pervo, Acts, 396; Kurz, Reading Luke-Acts, 114–120. 418 Barrett, Acts, 2:xxv; Niels Hyldahl, The History of Early Christianity (Frankfurt: Lang,
1997), 236; Keener, Acts, 3:2356–2361; Byrskog, “History or Story”, 265; A. J. M. Wedderburn, “The ‘We’-Passages in Acts: On the Horns of a Dilemma”, ZNW 93 (2002): 78–98, citing 94–98. Porter, Paul of Acts, 47–66.
419 Susan Marie Praeder, “The Problem of First Person Narration in Acts”, NovT 29 (1987):
193–218.
420 Campbell, The “We” Passages, Robbins, Sea Voyages; Pervo, Profit, 57; Rius-Camps
and Read-Heimerdinger, Acts, 3:7, 259, 282–83, 286–87; 4:8–9, 98–99, 383, 249–251; Rothschild, Rhetoric of History, 264–267; Marguerat, Christian Historian, 24; Smith and Tyson, Acts, 186–87; Dennis R Macdonald, “We-Passages in the Acts of the Apostles”, in Smith and Tyson, Acts Seminar, 191–99; Jacques Dupont, The Sources of Acts: The Present Position, trans. Kathleen Pond (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964), 167; Adams, “Relationships”, 139.
421 Campbell, “We” Passages, 46–47; Witherington, Acts, 481–485. 422 Campbell, “We” Passages, 27–47.
423 Robbins, Sea Voyages, 70–81.
424 Warren S. S. Smith, “We-Passages in Acts as Mission Narrative”, in The Ancient Novel
and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative: Fictional Intersections, ed. Marília P. Futre Pinheiro, Judith Perkins and Richard Pervo, ANS 16 (Groningen: Barkhuis, 2012), 171–188. Keener, Acts, 3:2373.
425 Haenchen, Acts, 491; Tannehill, Luke-Acts, 2:246–47; Foster, “Conclusion”, 86–87.
Byrskog, “History or Story”, 263.
426 In (1) new mission direction to Macedonia (16:10); (2) the return journey to Jerusalem
author’s spatio-temporal and ideological point of view;427 (8) testifying about God’s
will for Paul’s mission direction;428 (9) supporting Paul when he moves towards
Rome;429 and (10) having a rhetorical purpose as yet undiscovered.430 This study
builds on these suggestions by exploring the “we-group” passages as literary shaping devices that reveal significance.
The literary size and sequence of the characters are shown in Diagram VIII (A and B), on the next two pages. The top six characters by a word count of when they are present in the Acts’ story431 are: (1) Paul (9,118);432 (2) Peter (3,890);433 (3)
Barnabas (1,755)434 though most often alongside Paul; (4) the “we-group”435
alongside Paul (1,705); (4) the apostles (1,444)436 alongside Peter; (5) Stephen
(1,317);437 and (6) Festus (1,148).438 In contrast Jesus is relatively infrequent
(438).439 The literary sequence includes: (1) an emphasis on the transitional nature of
Stephen; (2) a focus on Peter in “Acts I and II” and Paul in “Acts III, IV and V”; (3) a transition from Peter to Paul in “Acts II and III”; (4) a greater literary size emphasis on Barnabas and Saul (1,648) than Paul and Silas (960);440 (5) the emergence of the
“we-group” in Act III with an increasing emphasis of literary size in “Acts IV and V”;441 and (6) the surprising absences of Paul (30.7% of Acts 9–28).442
427 Marguerat, Christian Historian, 24–25; Campbell, “We” Passages, 67, suggests the “we-
group” replaces Barnabas’s role as a positive supporter of Paul.
428 Stevens, Acts, 349.
429 Rius-Camps and Read-Heimerdinger, Acts, 4:251. 430 Bale, Genre, 25.
431 Adams, Genre, 129–31, uses more general character divisions to ascertain the allocation
of narrative space resulting in slightly inflated % for (1) Paul 56.4% (I have 49.4 %); (2) Peter 23.4% (I have 21.1%); (3) Barnabas 10.3% (I have 9.5%); and (4) Stephen 7.2% (I have 7.1%).
432 Acts 7:58b (13); 8:1a (7); 8:3 (17); 9:1–9 (144), 17–30 (259); 11:25–30 (97); 12:25–15:4 (1,524); 15:12 (23); 15:35–39 (89); 15:40–17:4 (824), 10–15 (136); 17:16–18:23 (779); 19:1b–12 (212); 19:21–22 (48); 20:1–21:14 (948); 21:15–23:11 (1,325), 16–17 (38), 31–35 (76); 24:2–27 (436); 25:6b–12 (127), 23b–26:29 (644); 27:1–28:31 (1,352). 433 Acts 1:12–26 (290); 2:14–40 (525); 3:1–4:23 (908); 5:1–10 (192) 8:14–25 (199); 9:32–43 (223); 10:9–11:18 (1,018); 12:3–17 (337); 15:7–11 (98). 434 Acts 4:36–37 (31); 11:22b–26 (75); 11:30 (12); 12:25–15:4 (1,525); 15:12 (23); 15:35–39 (89). 435 Acts 16:10–17 (165); 20:5–15 (190); 21:1–18 (304); 27:1–28:16 (1,046). 436 Acts 1:1–2:4 (567); 5:12–42 (566); 11:1–18 (311). 437 Acts 6:5–6 (42); 6:8–7:60, 8:2 (1,263).
438 Acts 24:27–26:32 (1,148). Compare King Herod, 12:1–4, 19–23 (155), Felix, 24:2–27
(436), King Agrippa, 25:13–26:32 (904).
439 Acts 1:1–9 (166); 9:3–6, 10–16 (192); 16:7 (17); 18:9–10 (38); 23:11(25), excluding
22:17–21 which is a literary flashback in a speech.
440 Barnabas and Saul, 11:30 (12); 12:25–15:4 (1,524); 15:12 (23); 15:35–39 (89) and Paul
and Silas, 15:40–17:4 (824), 17:10–15 (136).
441 See previously in this chapter at pp.99–101.
442 A total of 4,002 of 13,051 in Acts (9–28). See 9:10–16 (133), 31–11:24 (1,521); 12:1–24
(944); 15:5–11 (131), 13–-21 (130); 17:5–9 (86); 18:24–28 (103); 19:23–41, except 30–31 (311); 23:12–15 (78), 18–30 (240); 25:1–6a (96), 13–22 (184), 26:30–32 (45).