Review of: Wittkowsky Vadim. The LukeActs Dilogy: Composition and Synoptic Sources. Moscow: Biblical Theological Institute, 2022. 728 p.

Abstract

The reviewed monograph is dealt with the problem of the origin of two books of the New Testament — the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. According to the original hypothesis of the author of the monograph, both Books as literary works are completely constructed from the texts and images of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. However, as it is shown in the review, the research methodology, the system of argumentation and the conclusions raise serious doubts about their scientific validity. In particular, coincidence in one word or even the presence of one common root of the word in a given passage is obviously not enough to establish the literary dependence of works, as the author of the monograph tries to prove. In addition, his own hypothesis for solving the synoptic problem is based on one of those already existing, namely, the hypothesis of the priority of the Gospel of Mark without the existence of the Q source (the Farrer hypothesis). At the same time, the arguments of the critics of this hypothesis are completely ignored and not considered by the author, which largely undermines his own statements. The same applies to the question of the dependence of the Acts of the Apostles on the works of Flavius Josephus, which is accepted by the author of the monograph as a proven fact. The weakest point of this work is the author`s absolute disregard for the historical context in which early Christian literature appeared and developed.

Keywords

• biblical studies
• new testament
• gospel of luke
• acts of the apostles
• synoptic problem
• literary criticism
• early christianity