Role and Function of Repentance in Luke-Acts, The

The Role and Function of Repentance in Luke-Acts. By Guy D. Nave, Jr. Academia Biblica 4. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002, viii + 241 pp., $32.95 paper.

Chapter 2 launches into the narrative function of repentance in Luke-Acts by way of studying the intentions of narrative structure in literature in general. With an appropriate nod to the New Criticism, Nave stresses that the what of a narrative (its characters and events) and its way (the discourse by which it is expressed) must serve in discovering the why of the narrative (the author's reasonfs] for writing). While background studies are helpful and important, "it is the narrative itself that reveals the why of the narrative" (p. 11). Nave strives to ascertain the why of the Luke-Acts narrative before addressing how repentance serves that purpose. The specific purpose for Luke-Acts identified by Nave (following many others) is the divine plan of salvation at work in history (pp. 25-29), which is evidenced by Luke's vocabulary (pp. 13-18) and literary devices (pp. 18-24). Repentance plays a key role in God's plan of salvation. "Since in Luke-Acts the universal saving purpose of God is the plan of God, repentance must also be understood as part of that plan. Repentance is commanded of all people because repentance is that which secures the salvation of God in the lives of all people" (p. 36). Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32), to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), so that repentance can be preached to all nations (Luke 24:46-47), and it is God who gives repentance to both Israel (Acts 5:31) and to Gentiles (Acts 11:18); indeed, all are to repent (Acts 17:30).

Finally, in its broader NT usage, Nave summarizes that "repentance entails a change in thinking and behavior by people who realize that their present way of think [sic] and behaving is displeasing to God" (p. 136). The other early Christian literature reflects this same understanding (pp. 119-44). Thus, Nave's earlier complaint that modern scholars find too much unity in the NT regarding repentance is not about its definition per se, but about the usage of repentance in the particular authorial corpuses (p. 145).

Chapter 4 bears the title of the whole volume. In Luke-Acts, repentance functions "to help fulfill God's plan of universal salvation and to help establish a community embracing all people" (p. 145). In the preaching of John the Baptist, of Jesus, and of the disciples, Luke makes clear that repentance is available to all people-Jew and Gentile-and that repentance requires formerly adversarial persons to live in harmonious community with God's people.

Nave also seems to exhibit confusion in some of his theological conclusions. In particular, he says several times that lack of repentance and not sin is the reason for God's condemnation of a person (e.g. pp. 178 and 222). Since he argues that sin is what makes repentance necessary to avoid condemnation, it seems that Nave has constructed a false disjunction to say that sin is not the reason for condemnation. Similarly, he presses for a strained distinction between Jewish and Gentile repentance: Jewish repentance requires a change in thinking about Jesus while Gentile repentance is merely a new belief in Jesus (p. 224). However, is not the Gentile's new belief in Jesus some kind of a change in thinking about Jesus and is not the Jew's change in thinking about Jesus a new belief in Jesus?

Despites these few shortcomings, Nave's book is both a fine work in biblical scholarship (particularly in Luke-Acts studies) and an excellent model of dissertation scholarship. As such, Nave's work is a fitting volume for the Academia Biblica series and for the desks of would-be dissertation writers and scholars of NT studies.

Douglas S. Huffman

Northwestern College, St. Paul, MN

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Sep 2004
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