Craig S. Keener - Acts : an exegetical commentary. Volume 1 (Introduction and 1:1-2:47)

A reader who scans this commentary will quickly perceive that it is more an academic than a popular commentary, although I have tried to make it accessible (e.g., using English rather than Greek where feasible) for less academic readers who are at least proficient enough to know what material to skip or skim. An academic reader would also note that it is, in a less thoroughgoing way, more consistently social-historical than literary (in terms of modern literary approaches),1 although I do regularly (and must inevitably) emphasize literary connections within Luke-Acts.

I offer this observation to define the primary character of this commentary, not to diminish the importance of other audiences or approaches. I have written commentaries and other works on a less detailed level,2 and because of space constraints, a greater proportion of their content was literary-theological than here.3 Because of my years of research on the environment of Luke-Acts—information to which most readers would otherwise not have ready access without duplicating that effort—I have invested more space in conveying this knowledge than in insights that many other readers would arrive at without this commentary.

Frequent readers of book reviews recognize that some reviewers critique commentaries for not adhering to the reviewer’s primary interest (e.g., literary, historical, social-historical) or ideology (e.g., conservative, critical, sacramental, antisacramental), even when commentators specify the limitations of their works. Especially for large publications, some reviewers address only a work’s introduction,4 which can be helpful when an introduction sets a work’s tone but less helpful when (as often in a commentary) the introduction must devote much space to disposing of topics that cannot be treated in detail with each recurrence in the commentary.