Introduction

The previous chapter has argued that Acts 1:6–11 presents a comprehensive spatial vision which underpins the whole of Acts and which is developed by its wider narrative. This vision has been proposed as the key to understanding the production, presentation and evaluation of space within Acts. The present chapter now examines 2:1–6:7 for evidence of this ‘ascension geography’. The chapter has two aims. First, it elucidates a spatially sensitive reading of this section of Acts. Second, it demonstrates the abiding and governing importance of the ascended Christ for understanding these spaces. As such, it begins to test the spatial veracity and range of the claim that ‘from Acts 1 everything moves out from the ascension’. Such spatiality would cast Christ's ascension as ‘an expanding symbol’ within Acts which ‘has a persuasive effect’ which acts as ‘a powerful enticement [for auditors] to explore a new perspective on life’. Expanding symbols are thirdspatial, in that they provide ‘an area which can be glimpsed, never surveyed’, which hides ‘residues of meaning which call for further exploration’.

In Acts 1 the believers remained in a private sphere. Now, in Acts 2, the group emerges with its (dis)orienting view of space, into other more public spaces, as the descending Spirit – sent by Jesus – creates a new space within Jerusalem, one which Peter's speech helps call into being.

This chapter's six central sections examine the resultant narrative spaces in 2:1–6:7.