Shaping the Past to Define the Present

Uncovering ancient texts and rethinking early Christian identity with the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the ApostlesShaping 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 comprise his new and revised contributions to the field of biblical studies, exploring: the genre of apologetic historiography exemplified by Josephus and Eusebiusthe context of Josephus’s work within a larger tradition of Eastern historiographythe initial composition and circulation of Luke and Actsthe relationship of Luke-Acts to the Septuagintthe interpretation of the Diaspora in Luke-Actsthe structure of salvation history as it is manifested in Luke-Acts Socratic influences on Luke’s portrayal of Jesus’s deaththe early Jerusalem Christian community as depicted in Acts compared with other Hellenized Eastern traditions such as Egyptian priests and Indian sagesthe establishment of Christianity’s “socially 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.