A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1: Preliminary Introduction and Commentary on Acts I-XIV

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 1998 by Larkin, William J Jr

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on The Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1: Preliminary Introduction and Commentary on Acts I-XIV. By C. K. Barrett. ICC. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994, xxv 693 pp., $69.95.

This magisterial volume on the first half of Acts crowns a life of erudition. It reveals a breadth of learning from ancient and modern sources and a depth of exegetical insight that we have come to expect from this consummate practitioner of the historical-critical method. As the first volume in this series, Cranfield's Romans, immediately established itself as the standard of reference in the English-speaking world for the exegesis of Romans, so this work is destined to do for Acts. After a 25-page section filled with abbreviation lists for bibliography consistently cited throughout the text and climaxed with a map of the eastern Mediterranean world listing all the provinces with boundaries, ethnic regions and places relevant to the events in Acts, Barrett presents a 58-page "Preliminary Introduction." The writer immediately tells the reader he intends to deal with traditional introductory matters after he has dealt exegetically with Acts. What he does evaluate in detail is the manuscript evidence for the text of Acts and the external evidence for authorship. He asserts that Acts' internal evidence calls into question the traditional identification: Luke, the physician, the traveling companion of Paul. His positive conclusion is that Acts was probably known in the first half of the second century.

Returning to Acts itself, Barrett discusses the author's sources and plan in writing. He asserts that because of narrative inconsistencies and historical inaccuracies the writer was not an eyewitness to any of the events of Acts 1-14, but received them second- or third-hand. He did use sources and always tried to rely on information to write up his account. Any composing he did should not be viewed as a production of fiction, but rather a filling in of details necessitated by the nature of his sources. Chapters 1-7 and 13-28 present one strand of narrative, while chaps. 8-12 give us four. The "Preliminary Introduction" concludes with an outline of Acts 1-14, which has nine major sections containing a total of 37 continuously numbered subsections. The former are repeated in the body of the commentary only as headings, while the latter are the commentary units.

Each commentary unit contains the writer's English translation; a list of bibliography, mainly periodical articles and essays, keyed by abbreviation either to the master list or to other commentary sections; an introduction to the unit as a whole and then a verse-by-verse, even word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase, commentary on the text. Following his longstanding practice, inspired by his Durham forebear, J. B. Lightfoot, Barrett's verse-by-verse commentary uses not footnotes but incorporates all primary and secondary references into the text itself.

Barrett's translation stands midway between the freedom of the idiomatic translation (e.g. NIV) and the discipline of a formal correspondence rendering (e.g. NKJV). He footnotes other major ecumenical and Roman Catholic English translations, though not versions commonly used by North American evangelicals: NIV or NASB.

The introduction to each commentary unit discusses matters of literary structure and analysis, then considers sources, the historicity of the content and finally Luke's theological purposes. The commentator s assessment of the evidence stands squarely in the mainstream of the historical-critical method, building on its "assured results." The ample space allotment means that the verse-by-verse commentary sections give consistent attention to the full range of exegetical concerns: text-critical, grammatical and literary, historical and lexical, theological and sometimes applicational via the history of interpretation. No issue of even minor importance for a full and precise understanding of Acts escapes Barrett's exacting hold on things ancient and modern.

The commentary s strengths and weakness should be discussed in three areas: preliminary introduction, documentation and methodology/results. The commentator is to be commended both for the comprehensive way the external evidence is presented and for the desire to develop the conclusions to introductory matters inductively from the exegesis. What mars the approach, however, is the basically skeptical stance adopted concerning the author's connection with or access to detailed information about events (pp. 50-51). This grows out of the discovery of a nest of historical difficulties that the Acts narrative allegedly generates. Many of these difficulties show themselves to be more apparent than real, if a "hermeneutics of goodwill" and a legitimate practice of harmonization is pursued.

The commentary contains ancient source documentation with text when discussing background parallels and historical problems. The reader has what he needs for assessing the commentator's analysis of such material. The only drawback is the consistent rendering of the sources in their original language, especially Latin, which is not very serviceable for North American readers, who generally lack a classical education. Secondary source documentation is also ample. What other commentary contains a listing of eleven explanations of the significance of the Son of Man's position: "standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:59; pp. 384-385)? Both the twentieth-century scholarship on Acts up to the 1980s, as well as key figures in the history of interpretation (Augustine, Bede, Calvin) are consistently and appropriately cited. Again the purposeful retention of quotes in Latin, German or French means that they are lost on many North American readers. British evangelicals such as F. F. Bruce and I. H. Marshall are consistently referenced. The commentary, however, enters into less dialogue with North American evangelical scholars, e.g. Richard Longenecker. There is little or no interaction with North American Lukan studies, particularly volumes produced over the years by the SBL Luke-Acts Seminar and its members.