The Spirit as Gift in Acts

The Spirit’s Empowerment of the Early Jesus Community

John D. Griffiths (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

268 Seiten

2022
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-50442-4 (ISBN)

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The Holy Spirit, being given as a gift in the opening chapters of Acts, initiates and sustains the early Jesus community, empowering their teaching, unity, meals, sharing of possessions and worship.

What does Luke mean when he describes the Spirit as gift (Acts 2:38)? This study explores the social implications of gift-giving in the Greco-Roman world, arguing that gifts initiate and sustain relationships. Therefore, the description of the Spirit as gift is inherently social, which is shown in the Spirit’s empowerment of the teaching, unity, meals, sharing of possessions and worship of the early Jesus community. The Spirit as gift then leads us to see that the early Jesus community is “the community of the Holy Spirit.”

John D. Griffiths, Ph.D. (2020), Flinders University, is a Lecturer of Biblical Studies at Alphacrucis College. He has published articles on the Holy Spirit and ecology, including “Wonders in the Heavens Above, Signs on the Earth Below: Pacific Islands Pentecostalism, Climate Change and Acts 2,” (Springer, 2020).

Introduction

1The Spirit as Gift in the Previous Research

1.1Gonzalo Haya-Prats

1.2William H. Shepherd

1.3Max Turner

1.4Craig Keener

1.5Summary

2A Fresh Approach to the Spirit as Gift

2.1The Spirit and the Greco-Roman World

2.2The Spirit and Sociological Models

3Reading Acts

1 Methodology

1Sociological Approaches to the New Testament

1.1An Outline of the Social-Scientific Approach

1.2Comparison with Socio-Historical Criticism

1.3Critiques of Sociological Approaches

1.4Implications for this Study

2Sociological Approaches to Gift-Giving in the New Testament

2.1The Context Group and the Taxonomy of Reciprocity

2.2John M. G. Barclay’s Reconfigured Gift Theory

3Conclusion

2 Sociological Approaches to Gift-Giving

1Marcel Mauss and Gift-Giving

2The Exchangist-Structuralist Gift

3The Economistic Gift

4The Impossible Gift

5The Sociability of Gift-Giving

6Conclusion

3 Gifts in the Greco-Roman World

1Gifts and Sociability in the Greek Literature

1.1Δωρεά in the General-Soldier Relationship

1.2Plutarch and Gift-Giving

1.3Josephus and Gift-Giving

1.4Appian and Gift-Giving

1.5Summary

2Gifts and Sociability in Latin Literature

2.1Livy, Valerius Maximus and Gift-Giving

2.2Cicero and Gift-Giving

2.3Seneca and Gift-Giving

2.4Summary

3Conclusion

4 The Summary Statements

1The Translation and Difficult Phrases

1.1The Translation of Acts 2:42–47, 4:32–35, 5:12–16

1.2Issues with Translation

2Approaching the Summary Statements

3The Spirit and the Summary Statements

4Conclusion

5 Witnessing, Teaching, Wonders and Joy

1The Testimony of the Apostles

2The Teaching of the Apostles

2.1Teaching and Social Space

2.2Teaching in Complementary Couplets

2.3Teaching and the Reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible

2.4Summary

3Signs and Wonders

4The Great Joy

5Conclusion

6 The Gift of the Spirit and Prayer, Praise and Gratitude

1Prayer

1.1Prayer in the Summary Statements

1.2Prayer and Gratitude

1.3Prayer, Gift-Giving and the Spirit

1.4Summary

2Praising God

2.1Praise and Gratitude

2.2Praise and the Spirit in Acts

2.3Summary

3Conclusion

7 Gift-Giving and the Lukan Jesus

1The Sermon on the Plain

1.1The Golden Rule

1.2Credit and Reward

1.3Divine Repayment

1.4Summary

2Gift-Giving and the Sharing of Meals

3Conclusion

8 The Communal Sharing and Sharing of Meals

1The Descriptions of the Communal Sharing

1.1Shared Property or Shared Access

1.2Communal Sharing as Distribution

1.3Wealth in Acts 3–5

1.4Summary

2The Various Allusions in the Communal Sharing

2.1The Hebrew Bible

2.2The Friendship Tradition and Utopian Ideals

2.3Ancient Associations

2.4Kinship Sharing

2.5Summary

3Shared Meals

4Conclusion

9 The Gift of the Spirit and Communal Sharing

1The Gift of the Spirit and the Communal Sharing

2The Great Grace upon the Community

3The Gift of the Spirit and the Promise of Reward

4Imitation in the Communal Sharing

5The Gift of the Spirit and the Sharing of Meals

6Conclusion

10 The Unity of the Community

1The Gift of the Spirit as Transcending Status

1.1The Joel Quotation in Relation to Gender, Class and Age

1.2The Gift of the Spirit and Regional Identities

1.3The Gift of the Spirit and Ethnic Identities

1.4Summary

2The Unity of the Early Jesus Community

3Sharing all Things

3.1κοινὰ τὰ φίλων in the Primary Sources

3.2The Gift of the Spirit and

3.3Summary

4Conclusion

Conclusion

1Areas of Further Research

2Implications for Pentecostal Pneumatology

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	09.03.2022
Reihe/Serie	Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series ; 47
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	459 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	90-04-50442-7 / 9004504427
ISBN-13	978-90-04-50442-4 / 9789004504424
Zustand	Neuware