Investigations concerning the Holy Spirit have been a central feature of Luke-Acts scholarship throughout the last century and Luke-Acts has long served as the central battleground for a biblical pneumatology. Just as there was confusion... more
Investigations concerning the Holy Spirit have been a central feature of Luke-Acts scholarship throughout the last century and Luke-Acts has long served as the central battleground for a biblical pneumatology. Just as there was confusion among the crowds in interpreting the events of Pentecost in Acts 2, there has long been confusion on how we understand what people have long called the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ or Spirit reception. People have long asked “What is this thing?” — “Are these people drunk?”
Claims to normativity or exceptionality of any particular account in Acts riddle biblical scholarship, and this is particularly problematic in Acts 8, dubbed the “Riddle in Samaria” by J.D.G. Dunn. This investigation will use social-scientific comparative methodology in order to untangle Dunn’s Samaritan riddle. Through comparison with four historically analogous revival events, the range of reported experience, phenomenon and praxis of the Acts accounts will be shown to be representative of the internal ranges of continuity and diversity found within analogous historical events. Thus, rather than the delay of the Spirit being a key to interpretation in Acts 8 as Dunn and so many others assert, it will be shown that Dunn’s riddle is in fact no riddle at all.
