Excerpt from
The Canonical Function of Acts
A Comparative Analysis
David E. Smith
© The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced by any means, without the written permission of The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321.

Content

Abstract

Illustrations

Introduction

Definitions

The Place of Acts in the Canon

The Development of the New Testament Canon

The Transverse Axis of Canon

The Canonical Critical Method

Chapter 1: The Patristic Use of Acts: Late Second/Early Third Centuries

    Historical and Polemical Context

    Internal Evidence

    The Use of Acts in the Polemics of Irenaeus

    The Use of Acts in the Polemics of Tertullian

    Conclusion

Chapter 2: The Patristic Use of Acts: Fourth Century

    The Use of Acts in the Catechism of Cyril

    John Chrysostom’s Commentary on Acts

Chapter 3: The Patristic Use of Acts: The Works of Bede as Synthesis and Development

Chapter 4: A Comparative Analysis of the Apocryphal Acts

    The Acts of Peter

    The Acts of John

    The Acts of Paul

    Conclusion

Conclusion: Acts and Contemporary Issues

    Presuppositions

    The Christian Use of the Old Testament

    Ecclesiastical Authority

    Unity and Diversity

    Contemporary Canon Studies

Appendix: References to the Holy Spirit in Acts

Bibliography

Illustrations

    Illustration 1: The Transverse Axis of Canon

    Illustration 2: The Structure of the Catholic Canon

Abstract

The New Testament book of Acts was recognized as canonical throughout most of the catholic Christian world by the early third century of the common era. Although the association of its author with the apostle Paul gave the text a priori authority, it was the content of Acts that finally caused it to achieve canonical status. By linking the Old Testament with the ministries of Jesus, the Jerusalem apostles, Paul, and the “bishops” of Ephesus by means of its pneumatology, Acts could function both as a unifier of the developing canon and as a justification for the hermeneutical authority of the catholic bishops. This is the twofold canonical function of Acts.

The function of Acts as unifier of the developing biblical canon was established in the late second and early third centuries in the context of the catholic-Gnostic disputes over Scripture, and it became a part of the Church’s perpetual understanding of Acts. By the late fourth century, the use of Acts to legitimize the hermeneutical claims of the catholic bishops began to rival its use as a canonical unifier. In this way Acts aided the developing catholic network of churches in their appropriation of the entire biblical canon as a collection of witnesses to trinitarian theology.

An analysis of the apocryphal Acts demonstrates an alternative understanding of religious authority on the part of their authors, one which seemed to undermine the catholic approach to Scripture. The canonization of the Lukan Acts precluded the canonization of other Acts and partially explains how a collection of diverse texts was accepted and promoted in the Church as a unified corpus.