Images of Judaism in Luke-Acts » (Reprint)

Tyson addresses the various ways in which Jewish religious life and Jewish people are presented in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. These texts present a wealth of material about Jewish institutions and religious practices and display a deep concern for the Jewish people. But the images of Jews and Judaism contained in them have been shaped by theological and historical concerns of communities that increasingly saw themselves in separation from Jewish synagogues. Serious questions have recently been raised about the roots of modern anti-Semitism and its relationship to themes found in various books of the New Testament, including Luke and Acts. With these questions in mind, Tyson studies the verbal images, characterizations, and descriptions of Judaism and Jewish people that are embedded in the texts of Luke and Acts. He concludes that there is a deep and complex ambivalence in these documents and shows that Luke-Acts is both profoundly pro-Jewish and anti-Jewish. He maintains that an appreciation of this fact is essential for understanding these texts and in assessing their role in the development of Christian attitudes toward Jews.