Full Description
Preaching's Survey of Bibles and Bible Reference
InterVarsity Press is proud to present The Lightfoot Legacy, a three-volume set of previously unpublished material from J. B. Lightfoot, one of the great biblical scholars of the modern era.
In the spring of 2013, Ben Witherington III discovered hundreds of pages of biblical commentary by Lightfoot in the Durham Cathedral Library. While incomplete, these commentaries represent a goldmine for historians and biblical scholars, as well as for the many people who have found Lightfoot's work both informative and edifying, deeply learned and pastorally sensitive.
Among those many pages were two sets of lecture notes on the Acts of the Apostles. Together they amount to a richly detailed, albeit unfinished, commentary on Acts 1-21. The project of writing a commentary on Acts had long been on Lightfoot's mind, and in the 1880s he wrote an article about the book for the second British edition of William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Thankfully, that is not all he left behind.
Now on display for all to see, these commentary notes reveal a scholar well ahead of his time, one of the great minds of his or any generation. Well over a century later, The Acts of the Apostles remains a relevant and significant resource for the church today.
Contents
Abbreviations
Foreword
Editors? Introduction: J. B. Lightfoot as Biblical Commentator
Part I: Introduction to Commenting in General
Part II: Introduction to Acts—Preliminary Matters
Part III: The Commentary on Acts
The Superscript
The Preface
Ascension, Judas? Demise, the Filling Up of the Twelve (Acts 1)
Excursus: On the Historical Problem of the Varying Accounts of Judas? Demise
Pentecost and Its Aftermath (Acts 2)
The Beginnings and Trials of the Church in Jerusalem
(Acts 3?6)
Excursus: The Sanhedrin and the High Priests
Excursus: The Primacy of Peter
Excursus: The Diaconate
The First Martyr for Christ (Acts 7)
Excursus: The Tabernacle
Excursus: The Authenticity of the Speech of St. Stephen
Simon, the Samaritans, and Philip (Acts 8)
Excursus: Simon Magus
Excursus: Conversion of the Ethiopian
The Conversion of Saul (Acts 9)
The Surprising Story of Cornelius (Acts 10)
Trouble in Zion—Peter Explains (Acts 11)
The Persecuted Church and the Dawn of the Mission of the Persecutor (Acts 12)
The First Missionary Journey (Acts 13?14)
Excursus: St. Paul?s Apostolic Journeys
The Apostolic Council and Its Aftermath (Acts 15)
The Second Missionary Journey (Acts 16)
Macedonia and On to Athens (Acts 17)
Excursus: The History of St. Paul?s Days at Thessalonike
And So to Corinth (Acts 18)
Finally at Ephesus (Acts 19)
The Third Missionary Journey (Acts 19:21?21:39)
Excursus: Timothy and Erastus
Excursus: The Speech of St. Paul at Miletus
Conclusions on the Rest of Acts
Appendix A: Lightfoot?s Article on Acts for Smith?s Dictionary of the Bible
Appendix B: Illustrations of the Acts from Recent Discoveries
Appendix C: St. Paul?s History After the Close of the Acts
Appendix D: The Obituary/Homage to Lightfoot
Author Index
Scripture Index
