The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Study Guide (Taming the Tongues of Fire)

by Shelly Matthews

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2017

Overview

The book of Acts opens with the dramatic story of tongues of flame descending upon believers at Pentecost and the prophecy of an egalitarian dispensation of the Spirit being fulfilled. Yet, as the narrative unfolds, we become aware of a tension between the socially egalitarian promise of the Pentecost story and the author’s underlying concern to provide reassurance for his elite patron Theophilus that Jesus followers do not disturb the existing social order. In this guide, Acts is read as a struggle to tame the tongues of fire. Acts mutes the egalitarian promise of the Spirit through presenting an ‘orderly account’ (as its author calls it) of the Jesus movement that appeals to elite sensibilities. And, at the same time, the narrative contains contradictions, gaps and fissures that suggest the outlines of a more complex, and even subversive, religious movement.

Product Details

• Title: The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Study Guide: Taming the Tongues of Fire
• Author: Shelly Matthews
• Series: T&T Clark Study Guides to the New Testament
• Volume: 5
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. Acts › Commentaries; Bible. N.T. Acts › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9780567671233, 9780567671240, 9780567671257, 9781909697157, 0567671232, 0567671240, 0567671259, 190969715, 190969715X
• Resource ID: LLS:TTCSGNT65AC
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-17T23:56:51Z

About Shelly Matthews

Shelly Matthews, holds a ThD from Harvard Divinity School and is professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. She is the general editor for the SBL Press series Early Christianity and Its Literature and the cofounder and cochair of the SBL Program Unit Racism, Pedagogy and Biblical Studies. Her books includePerfect Martyr: The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Acts of the Apostles: Introduction and Study Guide: Taming the Tongues of Fire (T&T Clark, 2017). She is currently writing a monograph under the working titleA Feminist Guide to Early Christian Resurrection: Justice, Authority, Presence.