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Title: The Speeches in Acts in Relation to Other Pertinent Ancient Literature
Author(s): SOARDS, M.L.
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 70    Issue: 1   Date: April 1994   
Pages: 65-90
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.70.1.542195

Abstract :
Since at least the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries schol-
ars have viewed the speeches in Acts in relation to the speeches occurring in other ancient literature. This study attempts to survey, critique, and build on earlier comparative studies in order to appreciate more fully the character of the speeches in Acts. This work will consider the speeches in Acts in relation to three somewhat artificially distinguished bodies of literature. First, it will reflect upon the relationship of Acts to a selected body of Greco-Roman historiography. Second, it will relate Acts to selected portions of the LXX. And, third, it will relate Acts to selected pieces of literature from Hellenistic Judaism. The artificiality of this division is that certain of the writings of Hellenistic Judaism are found in the LXX. The study, however, distinguishes original Hebrew and Aramaic texts that have been translated into Greek from those documents in the LXX that were originally composed in Greek. Thus, the analysis considers the original Greek texts of the LXX in conjunction with non-biblical writings of the Hellenistic era.

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