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{"id":8436,"date":"2015-07-26T01:40:33","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T05:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=8436"},"modified":"2015-07-27T02:51:12","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T06:51:12","slug":"book-notice-j-b-lightfoot-on-acts-of-the-apostles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2015\/07\/book-notice-j-b-lightfoot-on-acts-of-the-apostles\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Notice: J.B. Lightfoot on Acts of the Apostles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>J.B. Lightfoot<\/strong><\/span>
\nEds. Ben Witherington & Todd Still<\/strong><\/span>
\nT<\/span><\/strong>he<\/strong><\/em> Acts of the Apostles: A Newly Discovered Commentary: The Lightfoot Legacy Set: Volume 1<\/span><\/strong><\/em>
\nDowners Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2014,
\nAvailable at Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

J.B. Lightfoot (1828-89) was one of the preeminent biblical and patristic commentators of his day. Many had\u00a0known about the collection of Lightfoot\u2019s notes kept in\u00a0\u00a0the Durham Cathedral library, but no one has analysed them or\u00a0interrogated them. Then in 2013, Ben Witherington (channeling the investigative skills of his fictional character Art West), decided to rummage through a tall book case in the Monk\u2019s dormitory, happened upon three brown notebooks containing Lightfoot\u2019s detailed exegetical lectures on Acts and a blue box full of other exegetical studies on the Gospel of John, lectures on 2 Corinthians, two notebooks on 1 Peter, and a notebook of reflections on early Judaism. \u00a0Ben Witherington and his colleagues have arranged for the publication of these antique commentaries through InterVarsity.<\/p>\n

The commentary itself includes an introduction to criticism of Acts where Lightfoot seeks a via media between rationalism and fideism, a position he says is \u201cin accordance with the highest reason and the fullest faith\u201d (p. 42). The commentary proceeds with an introduction for every chapter and then provides a verse by verse description, noting textual and grammatical notes for comment, up to chapter 21. There are a dozen of excursuses like \u201cPrimacy of Peter,\u201d \u201cDiaconate,\u201d \u201cAuthenticity of Speech of St. Stephen,\u201d and \u201cSt. Paul\u2019s Apostolic Journeys.\u201d Among the appendices are an article on Acts that Lightfoot wrote for Smith\u2019s\u00a0Dictionary of the Bible<\/em> plus notes on the general historicity of Acts, and then an obituary about Lightfoot.<\/p>\n

I did not find anything particularly ground-breaking here in terms of exegesis or historical criticism, however, the volume is a goldmine for the reception-history of Acts in the nineteenth century, and it showcases the formidable historical insights and sobriety of thought that Lightfoot had as a historian. A must have for anyone who is a Lukan\u00a0aficionado!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"