Monday, April 17, 2023

David E. Aune on Acts 23:11 as an “Oracle of Assurance”

  

Acts 23:11.

 

While the oracle reported in Acts 18:9 was communicated to Paul through a vision trance, the following oracle was probably mediated through a dream:

 

Narrative Setting: The following night the Lord stood y him [epistas auto] and said,

 

Admonition: “Take courage [tharsei];

 

Reason: for [gar] as you have testified [diemartyrō] about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness [martyrēsai] also at Rome.”

 

Again the basic constituent elements of the oracle of assurance are present: the admonition (here tharsei is virtually synonymous with the more frequent mē phobou) followed by the reason. The reason links the past activity of Paul to his future activity, thus providing assurance that the present perilous circumstances in which he finds himself cannot thwart the divine will. The literary function of this oracle, which takes the revelation of Agabus in Acts 21:11 one step further, is to reveal to the reader that Paul’s journey to Rome is fully in line with the will of God. (David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983], 267)