Giancarlo Biguzzi, «Witnessing Two by Two in the Acts of the Apostles.», Vol. 92 (2011) 1-20
The program of Act 1,8 is carried through by the Twelve only in Jerusalem, Samaria and the Mediterranean coast, — but not «till the end of the earth». Their witness, however, is prolonged by the Seven of Jerusalem, the Five of Syrian Antioch, and the Seven companions of Paul of Act 20,4. Surprisingly, for everyone of the four groups of witnesses, the author narrates then the witnessing of only two of them. The narrative lacuna, apparently intentional since it recurs four times, allows Luke to involve the reader in reconstructing the spread of the gospel in all the directions for the remaining ten twelfths.
2 GIANCARLO BIGUZZI
I. The testimonial chain from the Twelve to Paul
1. The book of Acts begins with the list of the Twelve as witnesses
Acts opens with a prologue whose precise length is debated.
According to some commentators it extends only to v. 2, while
according to others, at the opposite extreme, it goes as far as
v. 14 2. In fact it extends to v. 12 3. This conclusion is supported by
the fact that the author connects his second work to the Third
Gospel by means of a broad summary of the latter, which continues
until the return of the Eleven from the Mount of Olives to Jeru-
salem (v. 12 ; cf. Luke 24,52-53), after Jesus’ ascension into heaven
(vv. 9-11; cf. Luke 24,51).
Accordingly, leaving aside the recapitulation of the previous
volume, the actual narration of Acts begins with the list of the
Eleven (1,13) and the cooption of Matthias in place of Judas in
order to restore the integrity of the number “twelve†and pave the
way for the effusion of the Holy Spirit (1,15-26; 2,1-13). The apo-
stolic witnessing of Peter “together with the Eleven†follows on
the very day of Pentecost (2,14.37), with the consequent birth of
the Mother-community of Jerusalem (2,14-41) and its ideal way of
living (2,42-47).
Taking all this into account, the list of the Eleven in Acts 1,13
is the atrium of the book, the page from which all the others pro-
ceed, because it introduces the names of the protagonists in the ac-
count that follows: “... they went to the room upstairs where they
were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and
Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and
Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of Jamesâ€. Some commentators
acknowledge, without taking advantage of the intuition, that this
The prologue extends to v. 2 according to A. Wikenhauser, H. Conzelmann,
2
J. Roloff, G. Rossé, W. Schmithals ; to v. 3 according to K. Kliesch, M.-É. Bois-
mard – A. Lamouille – J. Taylor, J. Zmijewski ; to v. 4 according to R.C. Tanne-
hill ; to v. 5 according to I.H. Marshall, F.F. Bruce, J. Munck ; to v. 8 according to
E. Haenchen ; to v. 11 according to R. Pesch, J. Dupont ; and to v. 14 according to
D. Marguerat.
This is the opinion of S. GUIJARRO OPORTO, “La articulación literaria
3
del libro de los Hechosâ€, EstBÃb 42 (2004) 189.
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