Acts and the Isaianic New Exodus

Trinity Journal, Spring 2004 by Beale, G K

David W. Pao. Acis and the Isaianic New Exodus. WUNT 2/130. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000. X 311 pp. DM 98,00. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002. 328 pp. $34.99.)

This monograph is a very good example of an attempt to interpret a NT book in the light of the contextual use of its OT citations, allusions, and echoes. There has been much debate within and outside of evangelical scholarship about whether NT authors are concerned about the wider literary and historical contexts of the OT references that they employ in their writings. Those who render a negative judgment often appeal to rhetorical emphases or to the NT community's alignment with Jewish exegetical methods which were dominantly (purportedly) atomistic, allegorical, or midrashic (in the sense of a concern only for updated application of Scripture). David Pao argues that the foundational story of Israel's Exodus as transformed by Isaiah (especially Isaiah 40-55) is a hermeneutical paradigm by which Luke provides a "meaningful and coherent 'history' in his structuring" of diverse traditions concerning the early development of the Christian movement (p. 249; see pp. 249-50 for a good summary of the entire thesis). Since this is an important book, its contents and argument deserve careful summary.

Chapter 1 surveys various approaches to the study of Acts and past works that focus on the use of the OT (especially Isaiah) in Luke-Acts. While some have emphasized the significance of Isaiah and especially Isaiah's New Exodus in Mark's and Luke's gospel, none have yet attempted to explore the possibility that the Isaianic New Exodus is important for Luke's second book. Indeed, Pao sets out to argue that Isaiah's Second Exodus is the hermeneutical framework for understanding the whole book of Acts. In doing so, he builds especially on the prior work of Mark Strauss (The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts: The Promise and Fulfillment in Lukan Christology [JSNTSup 110; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995]) and, above all, on Rikki Watts (Isaiah's New Exodus in Mark [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000]). He concludes the first chapter by discussing authorship (he opts for the viability of Lukan authorship), the date for Acts ("towards AD 70"), and a proposal that his reconstruction of Luke's employment of Isaiah is plausible within the literary and historical context. Pao offers five considerations to support the last point: (1) the heavy use of Isaiah in Christian works around the same period; (2) the possibility of Luke's audience being "God-fearers" because of his focus on synagogues; (3) the mention in Acts itself of training new Christian converts in OT Scripture; (4) the extensive use of scriptural citations, allusions, and patterns elsewhere in Acts itself; (5) Luke's Isaianic program is understandable granted the assumption that he had a wide audience in mind and that some in that audience would have been able to recognize the use of Isaiah's Exodus allusions.

These points are important, since a number of scholars contend that NT writers would not have been concerned for readers to pick up on their OT references (much less to a contextual use of such references), partly because the educational level of typical Greco-Romans would not have enabled them to read Greek (or Hebrew), much less to appreciate references to the Greek OT in oral form.

Chapter 2 develops the significance of the citation from Isa 40:3-5, which appears at the commencement of Jesus' public ministry (Luke 3:4-6) and which, Pao contends, provides the key interpretative framework within which the remainder of Luke-Acts is to be understood. The best expression of this new Exodus paradigm is the "way-terminology" (derived primarily from Isa 40:3) in Acts as a name for the nascent Christian movement, polemically identifying the church as God's true people in the midst of rejecting Israel. The various motifs found in the prologue (Isa 40:1-11) to Isaiah 41-55 are developed extensively throughout the following chapters of Isaiah and in Acts.

In ch. 3 Pao discusses the use of Isaiah in Luke 4:16-30 (Isa 61:1-2 and 58:6) and 24:44-49 (Isa 49:6). He contends that both passages are programmatic for the Acts narrative. But even within the Book of Acts, Pao finds evidence that Isaiah is used programma tically from the very beginning: in Acts 1:8 there are at least three allusions to Isaiah. Behind "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" stands Isa 32:15 ("a spirit from on high is poured out on us"); "you will be my witnesses" alludes to Isa 43:10, 12 ("you become my witnesses" and "you are my witnesses"); "unto the end of the earth" is inspired by Isa 49:6 ("I will also make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth").

In addition, three apparent geographical references in Acts 1:8 ("Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth") represent theopolitical references, designating the three phases in the New Exodus program of Isaiah (respectively the dawning of salvation upon Jerusalem, the restoration of Israel, and the mission to the nations). The commencement of carrying out the last leg of this redemptive-historical plan is highlighted in Acts 13:47 (a major literary hinge in the book), where the last phrase of Acts 1:8 is picked up again, this time as part of a full quotation of Isa 49:6. Thus, the subtle allusion to this passage found in Luke 24:47 and Acts 1:8 finally appears appropriately in full-blown form. Chapter 3 concludes with an analysis of the quotation of Isa 6:9-10 at the end of Acts. The reference underscores theocratic Israel's rejection of God's prophetic work through Christ and his apostolic prophets. Placing this quotation at the end of Acts creates a literary-theological reversal, since Isaiah begins with the quotation of 6:9-10 and ends with the salvation of Gentiles, and Acts reverses this pattern.