Introduction

What constitutes a valid parallel? This question has been debated often in biblical scholarship, famously provoking Sandmel's warning that a parallel does not necessarily imply dependence of one upon the other, or of both upon a common source. This chapter will explore issues raised by this exercise and outline our approach.

We shall notice the widely recognised use of parallelism by Luke and discuss what kind of ‘unity’ the Gospel and Acts might have. Then we shall consider criteria for parallels, and outline how we shall seek parallels within the Lukan Doppelwerk, including some consideration of the strategy for listening to the texts which is involved. Finally, we shall consider the application of this method to parallels between Acts and 1 Thessalonians, offering an explanation of our limitation to one letter (rather than a wider Pauline letter-group), and discussing the application of criteria for parallels to this comparison.

Parallelism in Luke-Acts

We shall not repeat the work of a number of competent surveys of the history of research of this topic. Rather, we shall briefly discuss three key approaches to parallels within Luke-Acts – those of Rackham, Goulder and Talbert – to show that parallelism in the Lukan writings is widely recognised.

Rackham

Rackham is not the first to remark on the parallels within Acts, but he works the parallels out in considerable detail and presents them with particular clarity.