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.
8 GIANCARLO BIGUZZI
Luke supplies here the names of the Seven in another, second
list, following that of Acts 1,13: “... they chose Stephen, a man full
of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus,
Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antiochâ€
(6,5). And, surprisingly again, as for the Twelve, so for the Seven,
Luke narrates the performance of only two of them: Stephen and
Philip. Stephen operates in Jerusalem (6,8-8,3), while Philip ope-
rates in the north first, in Samaria, then in the southwest region of
Gaza and Azotus and, finally, again in the north, at Caesarea Mari-
tima (8,5-40), almost as if he were a forerunner to the activity of
Peter there (9,32-10,48), just as he had been in Samaria.
The formula of witnessing “two by two†includes some varia-
tions here. While Peter’s activity quantitatively surpassed that of
John, his shadow, the action and words of Stephen at Jerusalem
(71 verses) and of Philip at a wider territorial range (32 verses),
are less out of balance. In fact, Stephen is protagonist only in
Jerusalem and in one single episode, while Philip works in
two or three regions and is the protagonist in several episodes. In
addition, it is relevant that Philip is the first who takes the
witness beyond Jerusalem and is active only there. The pattern of
witnessing two by two remains, but the scope of the testimony
given by the two differs.
3. Of the Five of Antioch, only Barnabas and Saul
After the witness extends beyond the confines of Jerusalem
through the action of the Seven, the story moves its focus to
S y r i a n Antioch where, among other things, the Gospel is
announced to the Greeks (11,20) and the name “Christian†is
coined (11,26). As if to inaugurate another epoch, Luke sets up a
third group of apostolic persons, the Five. Luke lists the names of
each one of the group here as well: “Now in the Church at
Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who
was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the
court of Herod the ruler, and Saul†(13,1). And here as well, for
the third time, he reports the activity of only two persons, without
any further mention of the other three.
Novelties and variations also appear with regard to this third
couple. While among the Twelve of Acts 1,13 and the Seven of
Acts 6,5 Luke chose the first and the second names of the lists as
FOLLOW US