There has been consistent apathy in recent years with regard to the long-standing debate surrounding the date of Acts. While the so-called majority of scholars over the past century have been lulled into thinking that Acts was written between 70 and 90 CE, the vast majority of recent scholarship is unanimously adamant that this middle-range date is a convenient, political compromise. Karl Armstrong argues that a large part of the problem relates to a remarkable neglect of historical, textual, and source-critical matters. Compounding the problem further are the methodological flaws among the approaches to the middle and late date of Acts. Armstrong thus demonstrates that a historiographical approach to the debate offers a strong framework for evaluating primary and secondary sources relating to the book of Acts. By using a historiographical approach, along with the support of modern principles of textual criticism and linguistics, the historical context of Acts is determined to be concurrent with a date of 62-63 CE.

This book re-examines the major theories on the date of Acts while presenting a comprehensive defence for an early, pre-70 CE date of Acts.

About the Author
Karl L. Armstrong received his PhD (Christian Theology) from McMaster Divinity College, Canada.

Reviews
Armstrong has written a major work of scholarship defending the early date for Acts, and he has given weight to seeing the terminus of the events described in the text as representing the limits of the author's knowledge of events that had transpired. * Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies *
Armstrong's work takes seriously the historical content of Acts and persistently pursues the difficult problems that are too often dismissed as intractable. * ARYS: Antiguedad: Religiones y Sociedades *



Book Information
ISBN 9780567698582
Author Dr. Karl Leslie Armstrong
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint T.& T.Clark Ltd
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC