Promise and Fulfillment in Hellenistic Jewish Narratives and in Luke and Acts

Space permits only a brief recollection of the study of promise and fulfillment in Luke and Acts.The two most obvious levels are, first, the fulfillment of biblical promises and, second, the fulfillment of prophecies and promises made by characters, by Simeon, Jesus, the apostles, and so on.For example, the biblical promises to Abraham are a major theme in the Gospel infancy narratives.Prophecies by Jesus, such as passion predictions, are sometimes fulfilled later in the Gospel, in Acts, beyond Acts, or in the eschatological future. 2 The Lukan version of the Last Supper (Luke 22: 14-38) provides examples of fulfillment of both biblical prophecies and of Jesus' own prophecies. Promises Made in Jewish Scriptures, Fulfilled in Luke and ActsA consensus has emerged that Luke and Acts are thoroughly inspired by biblical motifs, vocabulary, writing styles, models, promises and prophecies, and other devices. 3 The two volumes are grounded in God's saving history from the creation and Adam in Genesis (e.g. , in Luke 1-3) to the eschatological parousia \ of the Son of Man (as in Luke 21).4 Already the preface to the Gospel makes \ a biblical allusion -granted, in nonbiblical Hellenistic idiom -to "events that ~ have been fulfilled among us" (' LCDV n£nA:I1Po<pOPTl~VffiV £V fllltV npaYlla'LffiV, Luke 1: 1).The style switches dramatically after the elegant Hellenistic periodic preface to a "barbaric" biblical style, from verse 5 through the rest of Luke 2, for the account of the announcements, births, and childhoods of John the Baptist 2. See