Acts 28,28 — Why? 179 The salvation of which Paul speaks is from God, but is also “this” salvation. “This” salvation most likely refers back to the day-long Theological and Christological discussion when Paul witnessed to Jesus from the Law of Moses and the prophets (v. 23) (13). This demonstrative adjective has v. 23 as its closest referent. It is a salvation that has to do with Jesus that has been sent to the Gentiles, and it is this salvation that Paul’s audience, in view of its attitude, must be made to know. From all that has been said, it is clear enough who are the recipients of this salvation that God has sent. All of Acts keeps us keenly aware of these recipients, as well as the struggle to bring salvation to them. Given the affirmation of v. 28, and earlier statements of Jesus and of Acts, there is no doubt of the divine intention that salvation be offered both to Jew and Gentile, with no suggestion, in the phrasing of v. 28, that salvation has been sent to the Gentiles only after it was refused by Israel (14). As is clear from Luke’s presentation in limited, chosen sections of Acts, salvation came “first to the Jew”. But generally the Gospel and much of Acts presents the divine intention of swthvrion in what we might call simple parallel fashion: “…Your salvation which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,… to the Gentiles and… to your people Israel” (Luke 2,30-32); “my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1,8). Actually, it is only with the narration of Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, beginning in Acts 13, that “to the Jew first, then to the Gentile” becomes a literary and theological principle (15). Acts (13) However, “Das Demonstrativum zeigt, das an ijavsomai (V 27)… ange- knüpft ist… Dies übersieht Hauser …, der an einen Rückverweis auf 28,23b denkt. Eher könnte man auf alles verweisen, was das Lukanische Werk über sw/vzw, swthvr, swthvria ktl bisher gesagt hat”, G. SCHNEIDER, Die Apostel- geschichte (HTkZNT 5.2; Freiburg 1982) II, 419, n. 87. (14) “J. Dupont ha messo in luce che la missione presso i gentili non dev’essere intesa come una conseguenza del rifiuto dei giudei. Questo rifiuto come pure l’entrata dei pagani nella chiesa sono visti come compimento delle Scritture: ‘I due fatti non si spiegano dunque l’uno mediante l’altro, ma l’uno e l’altro a partire dal disegno di Dio manifestato dai profeti’ [“La conclusion des Actes…”, Les Actes des Apôtres, a cura di J. Kremer (Gembloux 1979) 403]”, G. ROSSÉ, Atti degli Apostoli (Roma 1998) 887. (15) It is clear that the plan of God, executed in the first instance by Jesus and then by his witnesses, moves from Israel to ‘the end of the earth’, but this pattern is never, until Paul’s time, expressed in terms of “to the Jew first, then to the Gentile”, or better, “to the Gentile only after refusal from the Jew”. Luke 14,23, “Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in”, may seem to