Introduction

What is Luke seeking to accomplish by the use of the Miletus speech? A key clue is provided by parallel material in his first volume. Because Acts is to be read as the follow-on to the Gospel, a reading strategy which looks for links commends itself over against a strategy which atomises material and isolates individual speeches or incidents, as classical form and redaction criticism sometimes do.

The context in Acts

We have noted that there are significant individual verbal links with Paul's Ephesian ministry (Acts 19), but otherwise our speech seems to form something of an island in the sea of Acts. There are no clusters of parallels with 20.17–38 elsewhere in Acts, which is not greatly surprising, for this is the only recorded address given by Paul to Christians in the book. Conceptual parallels come only as the action develops in the remainder of the journey to Jerusalem in Acts, although even these are sketchy.

Parallels in Luke's Gospel

Three longer passages in the Gospel invite consideration: 22.14–38; 12.1–53; 21.5–31. In particular, 22.14–38 and 21.5–31 represent possible candidates for an Abschiedsrede in Luke. In addition there are four brief passages (7.38, 44; 9.2; 10.3; 13.32f) where interesting verbal parallels occur, often with words found in Luke-Acts only in the relevant passage in Luke and the Miletus speech.

Luke 22.14–38

This is the clearest candidate for a ‘farewell discourse’ in Luke's Gospel, and the parallels with the Miletus speech are rich and suggestive.