Paul the Reluctant Witness. Power and Weakness in Luke.s Portrayal 12+

📘 Description:In this stimulating analysis, Shipp provides the reader with an introduction and critique of literary-rhetorical analysis as well as an in-depth treatment of the triple account of Paul's Damascus Road experience in Acts.""Luke used the repetition of the Damascus narrative as a literary device identifying Pauline disobedience and resistance and the transformation of these characteristics. With the first Damascus narrative, Luke provided the reader with a paradigmatic image of resistance transformed. . . . Luke used the Damascus narratives and these themes to bracket the Paulusbild, fashioning the trial narrative into an extended period of transformation of Pauline resistance. Beginning in 19:21, Paul resisted the leading of the Holy Spirit and his appointed location of witness. He was an intentionally forceful actor resisting God. God bound this intentionally forceful actor in chains. In this opening scene of the Paulusbild Luke included the second Damascus narrative (21:33--22:24a). The themes emphasized in the narrative were those of Saul intentionally resisting gospel expansion and God's subsequent overcoming of Saul. Saul was physically restored through Ananias but not fully transformed. He is not yet an empowered and intentionally forceful witness. At the end of the Paulusbild, as Paul is headed to Rome, Luke included the final Damascus narrative (25:23--26:32). Paul was headed to Rome, but not in the freedom intended by God. He remained in cha...