Leadership And Lifestyle: The Portrait Of Paul In The Miletus Speech And 1 Thessalonians (society For New Testament Studies Monograph Series)

Leadership and Lifestyle: The portrait of Paul in the Miletus speech and 1 Thessalonians STEVE WALTON CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS This study contributes to debate about the portraits of Paul in Acts and his epistles by considering Paul's Miletus speech (Acts 20.18b±35) and identi®es and compares major themes in Luke and Paul's views of Christian leadership. Comparisons with Jesus' speeches in Luke show how Lukan the speech is and, with 1 Thessalonians, how Pauline it is. The speech calls the Ephesian elders to service after Paul's departure to Jerusalem, focusing on: faithful ful®lment of leadership responsibility; suffering; attitudes to wealth and work; and the death of Jesus. Paul models Christian leadership for the elders. Parallels in Luke highlight his view of Christian leadership ± modelled by Jesus and taught to his disciples, and modelled by Paul and taught to the elders. Study of 1 Thessalonians identi®es a remarkably similar portrait of Christian leadership. The Miletus speech is close in thought, presentation and vocabulary to an early, indubitably Pauline letter. An ordained priest and former chaplain to the Bishop of St Albans, Steve Walton is Lecturer in Greek and New Testament Studies at the London Bible College. Author of A Call to Live: Vocation for Everyone (1994) and numerous articles, he is a member of the British New Testament Society, the Society for Biblical Literature, and the Tyndale Fellowship for Biblical and Theological Research. This page intentionally left blank SOCIETY FOR NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES MONOGRAPH SERIES General Editor: Richard Bauckham 108 LEADERSHIP AND LIFESTYLE This page intentionally left blank Leadership and Lifestyle The portrait of Paul in the Miletus speech and 1 Thessalonians STEVE WALTON London Bible College PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING) FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2000 This edition © Cambridge University Press (Virtual Publishing) 2003 First published in printed format 2000 A catalogue record for the original printed book is available from the British Library and from the Library of Congress Original ISBN 0 521 78006 3 hardback ISBN 0 511 00973 9 virtual (netLibrary Edition) In memory of Ruby Walton and Colin Hemer This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abbreviations page xi xiii 1 Why study the Miletus speech? 1.1 The Paul of Acts / Paul of the epistles debate 1.2 Luke's knowledge of the Pauline epistles 1.3 Review of previous work on the speech 1.4 Orientation of this study 1 2 14 17 32 2 Are parallels in the eye of the beholder? 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Parallelism in Luke-Acts 2.3 What kind of unity have Luke and Acts? 2.4 A hierarchy of connections 2.5 Acts and the Pauline parallels 2.6 Conclusion 34 34 34 40 44 47 51 3 The Miletus speech in context 3.1 Immediate context 3.2 Literary genre 3.3 Structure 3.4 Ove