Using features of the narrative-critical method, this book offers an innovative approach to a notable phenomenon in the book of Acts: the conversion of entire households to the Christian faith. When viewed against the household mission of the seventy(-two) messengers in Luke, the stories of Cornelius, Lydia, the Roman jailer and Crispus comprise a pattern of evangelistic activity that provides a common framework for their interpretation. Repetition and variation of the pattern offer important clues for the way each story functions within the wider context of Acts, opening up new lines of interpretation as well as new levels of unity/disunity between the Lukan writings.
David L. Matson is Senior Minister, Westwood Hills Christian Church, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Chris Keith is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway. He is the author of The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John and the Literacy of Jesus, a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. He is also the co-editor of Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.