The First Cycle of Acts

Since the tent of Moses was an image of God’s chariot, Luke describes Jesus’ ascension in terms of the Tabernacle.

The problem with modern theology is that even when it is aware of repeated or reprised symbols it is blind to recapitulated sequences. It has all the furniture but fails to unpack it and put it in its place. Without an awareness of biblical covenant-literary structure, the reader does not have the bandwidth to perceive the full breadth of the significance of crucial events, and their necessity in the plan of God.

The ascension of Christ is a perfect example. As the third step of the biblical event matrix, Christ’s fulfillment of this stage of the pattern of transformation can only be understood when the theme is traced back to the taking of Enoch and the ascensions offered by Noah. The rise of fragrant smoke from earth to heaven at the hand of a Son of God (that is, a qualified mediator) reconciled heaven and earth, maintained peace, and mitigated judgment.

Having covered that subject elsewhere, the purpose here is simply to encourage a sensitivity to the pattern as we read the Scriptures. The first cycle of Acts is connected to previous Scriptures by Luke through his use of the covenant-literary structure. As with all Scripture, his choice of subject matter is “stepped” like a ziggurat as a holy ladder to heaven.

The seven sections of the first cycle work through the covenant-literary pattern. Internally, each of these sections is also a cycle governed by the same pattern, but since English translations change the order of the Greek words and phrases to suit our ears, we need to go to the Greek text to work those out. We will not do that here.

The Transcendence stanza is all about the legal authority of God (as signified in the Ark of the Testimony). This is reflected in the implication of the authority of Luke, the explicit divine authority of Jesus, and the authority of Jesus delegated by the Spirit to His apostles. There are various theories concerning the identity of Theophilus, and whether this was the man’s actual name or an honorary title, but the import here is typological. The name means “friend of God,” and in biblical terms implies the role of an advisor or confidant, somebody who is in on God’s plans and eats at Jesus’ “round table” as a holy knight. By the Spirit, that number of legal representatives is no longer a select few (as in Exodus 24) but now includes all the saints.

The Hierarchy stanza is about delegated authority, as signified in the Veil, hence the combination of Jesus’ presenting Himself to the apostles (since His tomb fulfilled the angel-flanked Most Holy Place). The idea is that Christ was the removal of the Mosaic veil. This step corresponds to Passover in the festival pattern and the cutting of the sacrifice in the sacrificial pattern, and these are represented here by the mention of His sufferings. Jesus Himself was the torn veil (Hebrews 10:20).

Ethics: Priesthood pictures the disciples gathered at the base of the Bronze Altar, or Israel gathered under Moses before the conquest of the Land. This step often concerns an earnest or downpayment of the promises to be fulfilled in the future. In the Old Testament, the promises concerned fruitfulness in the natural realm (so the “earnest” of Canaan was a haul of the abundant grapes). Here it is a promise of spiritual fruitfulness. This step corresponds to the book of Leviticus, so, just as it is with Matthew 3, the mention of John’s baptism is an allusion to the Levitical rite of priestly investiture, a washing for voluntary sacrificial service.

Reaching the Ethics: Kingdom step explains the mention of the apostles’ question concerning the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Commentators wrongly assume that Israel’s primary problem in the first century was Roman oppression, but that was the effect not the the cause. The Jews did in fact have a kingly dynasty, the Herods, whose power came from the hand of Rome instead of the hand of God. Jesus came to save the Jews from the Jews, and that is why the New Testament is the presentation of a covenant lawsuit against the Jewish rulers—the priestly and the kingly. The question concerns the theft of the throne of David by the sons of Esau (the Herods were Edomites) which is why Jesus says that He would come like a thief and remove Jerusalem’s Lampstand. Esau had hijacked the birthright and the blessing and Jesus would steal it back for His people. This also explains why Jesus says that only the Father knew the time that this would occur, a statement that accords with His words in Matthew 24:36. So the meaning of “Israel” here is most likely corporate “Jacob,” as it is in Romans 11:26 (citing Isaiah 59:20).

The key word in the Ethics: Prophecy stanza is “witnesses,” a word that speaks of legal testimony and martyrdom, that is, the job of God’s prophets. Notice that this corresponds in the chiasm with the mention of the Holy Spirit at step 3. The fourfold formula, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the land, places the four-pointed architectural grid of the Tabernacle upon the oikoumene (Roman empire)—the Ark (Temple – God), the Jewish households (Table – Priesthood), the Jew-Gentile households (Lampstand – Priest-Kingdom), and the boundaries of the Jew-Gentile household (the four-cornered Altar – the Inheritance). This puts the apostles as the prophetic elders in the center (Incense), with their ministry of baptism (Laver).

Oath/Sanctions is the glorification of the true High Priest, a better Adam (Day 6). Just as the High Priest “ascended” to the Most Holy Place in a cloud of fragrant incense, so Jesus was taken up in the “mobile Tabernacle” of God, the glory-cloud that served as His chariot. This was the “vehicle” that visited Adam in Eden, was seen in detail by Ezekiel, and would soon visit the house of the saints on the Day of Pentecost. What is interesting is that although this stanza mentions Jesus words (Oath) the actual words are those of the “two legal witnesses,” most likely Moses and Elijah, who appeared at Jesus’ transfiguration. Their authority had been given to Jesus and that legal testimony would be given to the apostles. When two or three were gathered together, to bless or to curse, Jesus would be there among them. Jerusalem would be “executed” upon their corroborated testimony (Sanctions).

Succession speaks of the future, and thus the mention of Christ’s soon return “in the clouds” against Jerusalem makes Him, not the Herods, the true heir of the kingdom of God. Galilee is mentioned as a nod to the Feast of Booths, the “waters” of the nations. This final stanza completes the chiasm with a repeated mention of Jesus being “taken up” as in stanza 1. He is the beginning and the end.