Acts pronoun problems

by peacefulpete 9 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  It has long been noticed that the book of Acts shifts from first to third person and back when describing the legendery travels of Paul. The author alternates between "we"/"us" to "they" when describing the same characters and narrative. This is first seen in chapt. 16:10-18. The narrative then returns to third person till chapter 20 were it reappears then disappears, reappearing in 21:1-18. Gone for a while, finally reappearing later at chapt. 27.

  The book was obviously pulled together from multiple sources, some of which were stories written from the perspective of a person traveling with Paul, others were from the perspective a narrator. The real question is why did the compiler of this material retain the irregularities, was this the result of truly sloppy interpolating? or is the book a seaming together of two popular books. Earlier it was posted here that the framework of the tales of Acts were imaged after the Greek epics and Josephus, now we have another interesting evidence of multiple Christian sourcing.
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  Leolaia

  Dennis R. McDonald in his article "The Shipwrecks of Odysseus and Paul" (New Testament Studies, 1999:88-107) gives imho the most satisfying explanation of the we-passages as a stylistic device in imitation of Homer's The Odyssey. In this work, the first person plural is used to indicate voyages to and from the Troad (the cities of Troy):
  

  "Embarking (anabantes) at once, we put out (enekamen) into the broad sea" (Odyssey 12.401)
  

  "Embarking (epibantes) on a ship of Adramyttium that was about to set sail to one of the ports along the coast of Asia, we put to sea (anekhthemen)" (Acts 27:2)

  Cf. also: "We were sailing together on our way from Troy" (Odyssey 3.279). Later works also imitated the Odyssey's use of the first person plural to refer to voyages involving the Troad. Thus Virgil had Aeneas narrate his voyage to Rome: "We put out (prohevimur) from port [at Troy] and lands and towns faded from view" (Aeneid, 3.71-72), and McDonald cites similar examples from Lucian, Chariton, and others. Thus it is significant that the we-passages begin with a voyage from the Troad, specifically the town of Troas, a mere 10 miles from ancient Troy:
  

  "We immediately sought to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi" (Acts 16:10?12a).

  In fact, the route of the voyage described here is precisely that in Odyssey 9.39-40. The second we-voyage in Acts also involved the Troad, in that certain people "were waiting for us in Troas, but we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we joined them in Troas, where we stayed for seven days (Acts 20:5-6). The third and final we-narrative begins in 27:1-2 (quoted above) and it also has a link to the Troad; Adramyttium was a port city in the Troad at the base of Mount Ida, famous in the Iliad as the gods' favorite lookout on Troy. The ship travelled "the ports along the coast of Asia," taking it through the Troad. McDonald shows that the we-passages in Acts, especially that of the third voyage, is heavily dependent on the Odyssey with many parallel passages, common unique vocabulary, and plot motifs; the article gives many examples of these, especially relating to the shipwrecks of Paul and Odysseus. The use of the plural "we" is just one of these literary devices adopted from the Odyssey.
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  observador

  Leolaia once again opening the books. You must have been part of the Christian Encyclopaedia's writers team.

  Thanks again for sharing.
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  peacefulpete

  Leolaia, It's true that a popular suggestion about the "we" insertions is that it was following the nautical epic pattern, and maybe that is a partial answer, but Wells noted that there are other patterns to the pronoun use. Because the "we" is dropped at Phillipi (16:7)and resumed at 20:5 which again is set at Philipi, it is possible the source for this section was from that region. Also noted is that the sections that contain no miraculous acts of Paul are the "we" sections. Which might suggest that the sections that contain the most fantastic works of Paul are from a different source. (note chapt 20, where "we" are at the sermon yet "they" are witnesses to the resurrection of the boy who died is the story: no sailing in the story). Anyway it's interesting and controvertial.
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  Elsewhere

  It has long been noticed that the book of Acts shifts from first to third person and back when describing the legendery travels of Paul. The author alternates between "we"/"us" to "they" when describing the same characters and narrative.

  I don't care what explanations anyone makes up... bottom line is that once, in an English class, I got an F on a paper I turned in for doing the very same thing.
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  ThiChi

  Your arguments have been convincingly refuted by W. L. Knox, The Acts of the Apostles, 1948

  It has been clearly shown, by Hawkins (Horae Synoptical, ed. 2, pp. 182 f.) and Harnack (Luke the Physician (trans. Williamson, 1907), ch.ii.) among others, that the style and vocabulary of Acts are closely similar.
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  Elsewhere

  Here's your book back Mr. Paul... you get an F!!!!
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  Leolaia

  PP.... I don't think Acts is quite like the Pseudo-Clementines, loosely compacting very different narrative and speech materials into a single book. It obviously had various different underlying sources as did the gospel, and Luke 1:1-4 pretty much acknowledges this in the case of the gospel, but from what I read the work as a whole appears to have been a thoroughly Lukan production despite revisions and interpolations. In particular, the we-passages contain much of the same distinctive vocabulary as Luke, so it was probably by the same hand. The nautical usage does not account for all instances of we, but it does a good job explaining most of them and it makes a lot of intuitive sense. I think you would enjoy this article because it goes into a lot of detail in how the nautical sections of Acts are dependent on the Odyssey (in many other ways than just the use of the first person).
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  why144000

  Very simple answer. Luke accompanied Paul for some of the time. When he was present he used 'we' and when he was not present he used 'he' or 'they'.
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  peacefulpete

  Read the book highlighting the pronoun use and you too will see that that is not a reasonable explanation.