Page "Acts of the Apostles" Paragraph 20

This view mainly says that Luke is writing to the church in order to legitimate their Christian beliefs and to show that faith in Christ is compatible with allegiance to the Roman Empire.

Scholars think that Luke attempts to legitimate Christianity by rooting it in Israelite tradition as evidenced by Luke constantly relating Christianity to Jewish religion.

( Acts 3: 13 ; 5: 30 ; 15: 10 ; 22: 14 ; 26: 6 ; 28: 5 ) Those who agree with this claim often reject that Luke is writing an apology.

Esler, who advanced this legitimation view, has suggested that in Luke ’ s community there were Roman officials who were recent converts and they wanted to make sure that their new found faith could successfully coexist with their allegiance to the empire.

Esler believes that this specific point is supported through Luke ’ s emphasis on citing examples of Romans who come to believe in Christ ( Acts 10: 1-11: 18 ; 13: 12 ; 18: 7 ).

Also, Paul is even proclaims that he is a Roman citizen ( Acts 16: 37-40 ; 22: 25-9 ).

While his views on legitimation are different from Esler, Pervo agrees that Luke ’ s work can be seen as one of legitimation.

Pervo sees Luke ’ s work as a “ legitimizing narrative ” because it makes “ a case by telling a story ( or stories )” and serves to legitimate either “ Pauline Christianity ( possibly in rivalry to other interpretations ) or generally as the claim of the Jesus-movement to possess the Israelite heritage .” On the other hand, some scholars greatly disagree with the view of legitimation because they believe that it “ mirror-reads ” Luke ’ s work attempting to uncover the circumstances surrounding Luke ’ s work by over-arguing something that may not be that valid.