Recognition and the Resurrection Appearances of Luke 24 by Alexander P. Thompson

Author:Alexander P. Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2023-10-14T09:45:40.107000+00:00

6.2

Luke 24’s Relation to the Plot of Acts

Before this work shows how recognition provides a fitting climax and conclusion to Luke's Gospel, there remains a pressing question that must be addressed. The climatic role of Luke 24 sits uneasily with the growing scholarly consensus that the Gospel of Luke continues its narration in the Acts of the Apostles. How can recognition conclude a narrative that will continue in a second part? While an interesting question, the climactic role of Luke 24 does not exclude the possibility of further narration. Rather, the narrative of Acts seems to presuppose the climactic recognition of Jesus in Luke 24 as the beginning of a new stage of the narrative. Luke 24 resolves a narrative plot while also serving as the foundation for further narration, a possibility supported by the wider recognition tradition.

First, it is obvious that Luke 24 contains several unresolved narrative threads. This is most explicit in the reference to the future gift of the Spirit and the preaching of repentance to the world (24:44 – 49). Both themes will be picked up in Acts and generate narrative suspense as the disciples return to Jerusalem at the end of Luke’s Gospel.52 Despite the climactic role of Luke 24, these promises remain unresolved until the second volume.53 Nevertheless, the Acts of the Apostles insists on the conclusive nature of the recognition in the appearances of Luke 24. The first chapter of Acts rehearses the decisiveness of much of Luke 24 including the proof of Jesus’s resurrection though his appearances (Acts 1:3), the promise of the coming Spirit (Acts 1:4 – 5), the commission to witness to the nations (Acts 1:8), Jesus’s ascension (Acts 1:9), and the disciples' waiting in Jerusalem (Acts 1:12).54 The retelling stresses that the resurrection appearances that culminated in the ascension conclude the period of Jesus’s ministry. Acts 1 presupposes that the narrative trajectory involving the plot of action and identity around Jesus is resolved as the new narrative is taken up. As Parsons summarizes, Luke 24 “is the necessary climax of the one and the starting point of the other. This fact is hardly new, and it creates little problem for the reader of Luke-Acts.”55

Acts also deliberately invokes the evidentiary nature of the resurrection appearances of Luke 24 to ground the disciples' proclamation after their recognition. Acts 1:3 describes Jesus as presenting many convincing proofs (ἐν πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις) of his resurrection to the disciples. The use of τεκμήριον recalls the use of tokens as evidence of one's identity in the recognition tradition.56 There are also additional references to the proof of Jesus’s resurrection in the speeches of Acts.57 Acts presents the appearances of Luke 24 as the convincing and climactic recognition scenes that are foundational for the witnesses in Acts, and presupposes the disciples' climactic recognition of the risen Lord as the conclusion to Luke's Gospel. Acts starts from the new beginning created by the decisive ending of Luke 24.

There are several parallels in the wider recognition tradition that help contextualize how Luke 24 can conclude a narrative while also maintaining openness to further narration.

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