Acts’ Literary-Spatial Component

Many literary and biblical scholars discuss this component.281 _{It shows how Acts is}

more than a mere map or travel log, since places and journeys act as narrative devices282 _{which thematically}283 _{reveal missional significance.}284 _{The literary-spatial}

component relates to: (1) Acts’ key locations; (2) Acts’ topographical details; (3) the literary structural size element of locations; (4) Acts’ journey sequence; and (5) the significance of Acts’ geography.

The key locations in Acts are within the eastern Mediterranean part of the Roman Empire285 _{confirming the story’s selectivity in not developing the mission to}

the south and east.286 _{Scholars use historical and archaeological details to illuminate}

279 _{Matthew Sleeman, Geography and the Ascension Narrative in Acts, SNTSMS 146}

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 8. Parsons, Acts, 158; Bauer and Traina, Inductive, 85–86.

280 _{The only exception being Isa 53:7–8 in the narrative at 8:32b–33.}

281 _{E.g. Robert T. Tally Jr., “Introduction: The Word, The Text, and the Geocentric”, in The}

Geocritical Legacies of Edward W. Said: Spatiality, Critical Humanism and Comparative Literature, ed. Robert T. Tally Jr. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 1–16. De Jong, Narratology, 105– 134; Marguerat and Bourquin, Bible Stories, 80–82; Francois Tolmie, Narratology and Biblical Narratives: A Practical Guide (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1999), 105–114; Resseguie, Narrative Criticism of the New Testament, 87–120; Roland Barthes, “The Structural Analysis of a Narrative from Acts X–XI”, in Structuralism and Biblical Hermeneutics: A Collection of Essays, ed. and trans. Alfred M. Johnson, Jr. PTMS 22 (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 1979), 109–143, citing 124.

282 _{E.g. Keener, Acts, 1:582–596; Matthew L. Skinner, Locating Paul. Places of Custody as}

Narrative Settings in Acts 21–28, AcBib 13 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 2–3, 8; Dean P. Béchard, Paul outside the Walls: A Study of Luke’s Socio-Geographical Universalism in Acts 14:8–20, AnBib 143 (Rome: Editrice Pontifico Istituto Biblico, 2000), 171–231; Scott, “Luke’s Geographical Horizon”, 483–544; Marguerat, Christian Historian, 231–56; Loveday C. A. Alexander, “In Journeyings Often: Voyaging in the Acts of the Apostles and in Greek Romance”, in Ancient Literary Context, 69–96; Alexander, “Narrative Maps: Reflections on the Toponomy of Acts”, in Ancient Literary Context, 97–132; Patrick Grant, Reading the New Testament (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989), 36–59; Vernon K. Robbins, Sea Voyages and Beyond: Emerging Strategies in Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation (Blandford Forum: Deo, 2010); Eisen, Poetik, 161–168.

283 _{Wallis, “Thematic Parallelism”, 2–6.}

284 _{Peterson, Acts, 46–47; Floyd V. Filson, “The Journey Motif in Luke-Acts”, in Gasque and}

Martin, Apostolic History, 68–77, citing 75.

285 _{Scott, “Luke’s Geographical Horizon”, 483–544.}

286 _{Richard Bauckham, “What if Paul had Travelled East Rather Than West?”, BibInt 8}

(2000): 171–84, hypothesises that Paul intended to travel east since: (1) Jerusalem at centre of east and west; (2) from Damascus no Jew would travel west; (3) the direction of his Nabatean mission until the opposition of 2 Cor 11:32–33; (4) Paul’s role in west should not be exaggerated; (5) Acts is a pars pro toto story.

the function of key locations within Acts.287 _{However, Acts gives very few}

geographical details of the locations. Instead a literary-spatial component focuses on the particular emphases of the story as suggesting a possible symbolic representation for the location.288 _{For example Jerusalem is portrayed as the continuing centre of}

Judaism,289 _{Lystra as a centre of pagan worship}290 _{and Rome as the political centre of}

Roman authority with Caesar.291 _{Chapters Three to Five explore these and other}

locations further.

The topography of Acts allows a micro-approach to the literary-spatial component. Literary details like mountains, deserts, islands, rivers, upper rooms, prisons, etc., possibly have a figurative significance.292 _{The temple is an important}

topographical detail in Acts (27 times).293

The structural size identifies the proportional literary attention of locations as providing significance rather than just being typical episodes or available source material.294 _{Morgenthaler documents a literary size approach to the locations,}295 _but

287 _{E.g. William M. Ramsay, The Cities of St Paul: Their Influence on His Life and Thought}

(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1907); Eckhard. J. Schnabel, Early Christian Mission, 2 vols. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press; Leicester: Apollos, 2004).

288 _{Sleeman, Geography, 9. Cf. Roland Barthes, The Semiotic Challenge, trans. Richard}

Howard (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988), 233, suggests the Structuralist idea of a topographic code for Caesarea in Acts 10–11.

289 _{Two different Greek forms of Jerusalem appear in Acts. Read-Heimerdinger, Bezan Text,}

311–344, suggests that the transliterated Hebrew form Ἰερουσαλήμ (LXX) refers to the Jewish political and religious centre and the Hellenistic Greek form Ἱεροσόλυμα is used to portray the secular Jerusalem as a more neutral geographical location. However, other scholars dispute this distinction. E.g. Harnack, Acts, 76–-82; Dennis D. Sylva, “Ierousalēm and Hierosolyma in Luke-Acts”, ZNW 74 (1983): 207–209; J. M. Ross, “The Spelling of Jerusalem in Acts”, NTS 38 (1992), 474–76; Bruce, Acts (1990), 101; Keener, Acts, 1:698.

290 _{Acts 14:8–20a.}

291 _{Keener, Acts, 1:701. This study explores the literary importance of Rome and Caesar (see}

Ch 3, §3.3.4, p.162).

292 _{Kris Brown, “How Acts Means”, HBT 38 (2016): 74–87, citing 79. Cf. Barthes,}

“Structural Analysis”, 125, for the topographical, actional and symbolic codes of a housetop.

293 _{Most references are ἱερόν (temple courts) and only two ναός (temple). There is a}

concentration of references, including those to priests, in Acts 2–5 and 21–26. Keener, Acts, 1:698– 702; J. Bradley Chance, Jerusalem, the Temple and the New Age in Luke-Acts (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1988); Steve Walton, “A Tale of Two Perspectives? The Place of the Temple in Acts”, in Heaven on Earth: The Temple in Biblical Theology, ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Simon Gathercole (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2004), 135–150; N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, vol. 4 of Christian Origins and the Question of God, 2 vols. (London: SPCK, 2013), 355–58; Wright, “Reading the New Testament Missionally”, in Reading the Bible Missionally, ed. Michael W. Goheen (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 175–93, citing 181–85.

this requires an interpretation of the relative significance.

The journeys of Acts convey the movement of an overall narrative journey from Jerusalem to Rome.296 _{There are concentric circles from Acts 1:8}297 _together

with Paul’s actual missionary journeys in Galatia (Acts 13–14) and the Roman province of Asia (Acts 16–19).298 _{The symbol of a journey or movement is important}

in the Graeco-Roman world,299 _{e.g. sea-voyages can symbolise a trip into the}

unknown300 _{and the travel motif the journey of the soul.}301 _{In a similar way Acts}

possibly uses the journey motif for the reader’s personal journey of spiritual discovery302 _{from the security of their own “Jerusalem” to a mission in their present-}

day “Rome”. Some differentiate between a centripetal (inwards towards Jerusalem/Israel) and a centrifugal (outwards towards the world) movement,303 _but

Richard Bauckham is right to see them as two aspects of the same mission.304

The theological journey from Jerusalem’s Jewish particularism to Rome’s universalism305 _{progresses from heritage to mission.}306 _{In addition there is an}

expansion or conquest of territory including Samaria, Cyprus, Galatia,307 _Greece308

295 _{Morgenthaler, Lukas, 329–331, compares by counting sentences in 13:1–14:28 (Pisidian}

Antioch, 88; Iconium, 18; and Lystra, 31) and by counting words in 15:1–21:26 (Jerusalem, 533; Antioch, 128; Philippi, 801; Thessalonica, 167; Beroea, 136; Athens, 371; Corinth, 311; Ephesus, 850; Miletus, 373; and Jerusalem 272) and in 21:27–28:31 (Jerusalem, 1511; Caesarea, 1585; and Rome, including the journey to it, 1363). Cf. Keener, Acts, 1:584, gives example of Corinth, Ephesus and then Athens as receiving more literary attention than Paul’s ministry in (Syrian) Antioch (emphasis mine), since (Syrian) Antioch itself actually receives more literary attention than Athens.

296 _{Alexander, “Journeyings”, 73. Cf. Floyd V. Filson, “Journey Motif”.}

297 _{Liefeld, Acts, 36, but notes Samaria (Acts 8) does not fit the concentric pattern.} 298 _{Miesner, “Missionary Journeys”, 199–214; Alexander, “Narrative Maps”, 109, 111.} 299 _{Marguerat, Christian Historian, 240–246; Alexander, “Journeyings”, 69–70.}

300 _{Alexander, “Journeyings”, 75, 81; Robbins, Sea Voyages, 53, 56; Holladay, Acts, 488. See}

Acts 13:4, 13; 14:26; 16:11; 18:18, 21; 20:6, 13; 21:1–3, 6, 7; 27:1–44; 28:11–13.

301 _{Marguerat, Christian Historian, 241.}

302 _{Cornelia Cook, “Travellers’ Tales and After-Dinner Speeches: The Shape of Acts of the}

Apostles”, New Blackfriars 74 (1993), 442–457, citing 444; Alexander, Acts, 11–13; Tom (N. T) Wright, Acts for Everyone, 2 vols. (London: SPCK, 2008), 2.124–127; Navone, Theology of Story, 53–104; Baban, “Reasons for Luke-Acts”, 34–38, notes the connection with “the Way” motif in Acts 9:2; (18:25, 26); 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22; Baban, On the Road, 195–272.

303 _{E.g. Peter Mallen, The Reading and Transformation of Isaiah in Luke-Acts, LNTS 367}

(London: T&T Clark, 2008), 112; Scobie, Ways, 530–31; Andreas J. Kӧstenberger and Peter T. O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2001), 136.

304 _{Richard Bauckham, “Mission as Hermeneutic for Scriptural Interpretation”, in Goheen,}

Reading Missionally, 28–44, citing 34–36.

305 _{Marguerat, Christian Historian, 79.} 306 _{Keener, Acts, 1:697.}

307 _{This includes Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. G. Walter Hansen, “Galatia”, in}

Gill and Gempf, Graeco-Roman Setting, 377–395.

308 _{Alexander, “Narrative Maps”, 111, notes that Acts uses older names such as Lycia,}

(Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia), and Rome as significant regions.309 _{The conquest is}

by “the Word of God/Lord”310 _{or the kingdom of God.}311

Diagram VI (A–C) on the next three pages expands Alexander’s outline of the recurring nature of Acts’ journeys312 _{by adding more locations and the structural}

size element.313 _{This presents the sequence and emphasis of Acts’ literary-spatial}

component.

By total words the top six locations are: (1) Jerusalem, by a big margin (7,494);314 _{(2) Caesarea (2,454);}315 _{(3) Ephesus (875);}316 _{(4) Pisidian Antioch}

(682);317 _{(5) (Syrian) Antioch (548);}318 _{and (6) Philippi (530).}319 _{Jerusalem not only}

receives the most literary attention (over half of the text), but is also a location that is repeatedly returned to. Other locations reappear at strategic points, e.g. Caesarea features both in Acts 10 and Acts 23–26, and Troas book-ends Paul’s mission in Greece (Acts 16:8–10 and 20:7–12).

309 _{The idea of Acts’ focusing on mission to surrounding regions rather than individual cities}

was suggested in conversation by John Proctor (Cambridge, November, 2013).

310 _{Acts 8:14 (Samaria); 13:5,7 (Cyprus); 13:44, 48, 49 (Galatia); 16:32 (Macedonia/Greece)}

18:11 (Achaia/Greece); 19:10, 20 (Asia/Greece) Marguerat, Christian Historian, 254; Rosner, “Progress”, 215–233; Skinner, “Acts”, 360, 362–63; Alan J. Thompson, One Lord, One People: The Unity of the Church in Acts in its Literary Setting, LNTS 359 (London: T&T Clark, 2008), 135–170; David W. Pao, Acts and the Isaianic New Exodus, WUNT 2.130 (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2000), 147–80.

311 _{Acts 1:3, 6 (outside Jerusalem); 8:12 (Samaria); 14:22 (Galatia); 19:8 (Asia/Greece);}

28:23, 31 (Rome). The kingdom of God as a spatial mission expansion is explored in Ch.6.

312 _{Alexander, “Journeyings”, 74.}

313 _{The calculations underlying Diagram V (A–C) are shown for the larger literary size}

locations represented by boxes with a scale of one square mm per word as Jerusalem (1:1–8:3), 4,606; Samaria (8:5–25), 345; Desert (8:26–39), 262; Damascus (9:1–25), 447; Joppa (10:9–23), 255; Caesarea (10:24–48), 452; Jerusalem (11:2–18), 290; (Syrian) Antioch (11:19–30), 217; Jerusalem (12:1–19a), 388; Pisidian Antioch (13:14b–52), 682; Lystra (14:6–20a), 248; Jerusalem (15:4–29), 453; Philippi (16:12–40), 530; Athens (17:15–34), 396; Corinth (18:1–18a), 321; Ephesus (18:24–27a, 19:1–41), 836; Miletus (20:17–38), 384; Jerusalem (21:15–23:30), 1,681; Caesarea (23:33–26:32), 1,631; Sea Voyage (27:1–44), 755; and Rome (28:16–31), 322. Locations not in boxes have less than 200 words. 314 _{Acts 1:1–8:3 (4,606); 9:26–29 (76); 11:2–18 (290); 12:1–19a (388); 15:4–29 (453);} 21:15–23:30 (1,681). 315 _{Acts 9:30a (8); 10:1–8 (132); 10:24–48 (452); 12:19b–24 (91); 21:8–14 (140); 23:33–} 26:32 (1,631). 316 _{Acts 18:19–21 (40); 18:24–19:41 less 18:27b, 28 (835).}

317 _{Acts 13:14–51 (682). Byerly, “Narrative Legitimation”, 170, wrongly has 714.}

318 _{Acts 11:19–30 (217); 12:25–13:3 (81); 14:26–15:2 (99); 15:30–40 (151). This Antioch}

does not have a regional appellation in Acts 6:5; 11:19, 20, 22, 26, 27; 13:1; 14:26; 15:22, 23, 30, 35; 18:22; but is given (Syrian) in this study to avoid confusion with Pisidian Antioch at 13:14 (with appellation); and 14:19, 21 (unspecified, but Pisidian is made clear by story development).

The significance of Acts’ geography is largely neglected by scholars,320

although Matthew Sleeman’s work begins to correct this.321 _{He is an excellent}

conversation partner using the philosophical concept of thirdspace, which combines both physical and conceptual elements of geography,322 _{to suggest significance for}

Acts’ literary-spatial component. However, further study is required beyond Sleeman since he only focuses on Acts 1–11323 _{in relation to the ascension’s narrative}

meaning for other story events. His emphasis on a heavenly perspective is open to debate since the descent of the Holy Spirit locates Acts’ literary-spatial component primarily on earth. Sleeman concedes that “the task of reading for space within Acts is only just begun”.324