Using Jaroslav Pelikan’s commentary on Acts in the Brazos Theological Commentary set, this series of short posts will explore some of the 84 significant theological issues raised by Luke in Acts and identified by Pelikan.
The first theological issue Pelikan raises is introduced in Acts 1:2-3: 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (NIV)
Pelikan calls this text “The Gospel of the Forty Days.” For forty days Jesus spoke to the apostles about the kingdom of God. Just as there was believed to be an oral Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai alongside the written Torah, so Jesus now gives verbal instruction and teaching for a period of 40 days. The word “instructions” or “commandments” and time period of 40 days makes the comparison between Moses and Jesus a strong one in early Christian literature. Moses received commandments from God for 40 days and Jesus gave commandments about the kingdom of God for 40 days.
What did this Gospel of the Forty Days include? Luke includes the saying of Jesus in Acts 20:35 which is found nowhere in the three canonical Gospels, including Luke’s: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Perhaps this saying was part of this 40 day teaching. But most importantly, the Gospel of the Forty Days is made up of “the fragmentary concluding sections of the Gospels together with this (also fragmentary) introductory section Acts.” In other words, if we take the teachings of Jesus found in the Gospels after the resurrection and combine them with the teaching of Jesus found in Acts 1 prior to the ascension, we have this Gospel of the Forty Days. What we find there is a message of salvation to all nations, a call to make disciples, and the sending of the apostles. “The narrative of Acts, indeed the history of the early church in the following centuries, can be read as the process of making explicit what was implicit in this ‘gospel of the forty days,’…”
Read the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts 1 in between the resurrection and ascension. What do you see/hear of significance?
