Description

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Rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles 
 
Shaping the Past to Define the Present comprises both new and revised essays by esteemed New Testament scholar Gregory E. Sterling on Jewish and early Christian historiography. A sequel to his seminal work, Historiography and Self-Definition, this volume expands on Sterling's reading of Luke-Acts in the context of contemporary Jewish and Greek historiography. These systematically arranged essays encompass his new and revised contributions to the field of biblical studies, exploring:  
 
- the genre of apologetic historiography exemplified by Josephus and Eusebius 
- the context of Josephus's work within a larger tradition of Eastern historiography 
- the initial composition and circulation of Luke and Acts 
- the relationship of Luke-Acts to the Septuagint 
- the interpretation of the diaspora in Luke-Acts 
- the structure of salvation history as it is manifested in Luke-Acts  
- Socratic influences on Luke's portrayal of Jesus's death 
- the early Jerusalem Christian community as depicted in Acts compared with other Hellenized Eastern traditions such as Egyptian priests and Indian sages 
- the establishment of Christianity's "social respectability" as a guiding purpose in Luke-Acts  
 
Engaging with current critical frameworks, Sterling offers readers a comprehensive analysis of early Christian self-definition through Judeo-Christian historiography.

About the Author

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Gregory E. Sterling is the Rev. Henry L. Slack Dean and the Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. A specialist in Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity, he is the author or coeditor of eight books and more than 100 articles in learned journals or scholarly collections. Sterling also serves on the editorial boards of multiple book series and preeminent journals within the field of Judaism and early Christianity. He is perhaps best known for his monograph Historiography and Self-Definition (Brill, 1992; Society of Biblical Literature, 2006).