Leadership and Lifestyle: The Portrait of Paul in the Miletus Speech and 1 Thessalonians

Steve Walton

Aug 2000 · Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series Book 108 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

This study contributes to debate about the portraits of Paul in Acts and his epistles by considering Paul's Miletus speech (Acts 20.18b-35) and identifies and compares major themes in Luke and Paul's views of Christian leadership. Comparisons with Jesus' speeches in Luke show how Lukan the speech is and, with 1 Thessalonians, how Pauline it is. The speech calls the Ephesian elders to service after Paul's departure to Jerusalem, focusing on: faithful fulfilment of leadership responsibility; suffering; attitudes to wealth and work; and the death of Jesus. Paul models Christian leadership for the elders. Parallels in Luke highlight his view of Christian leadership - modelled by Jesus and taught to his disciples, and modelled by Paul and taught to the elders. Study of 1 Thessalonians identifies a remarkably similar portrait of Christian leadership. The Miletus speech is close in thought, presentation and vocabulary to an early, indubitably Pauline letter.

About the author

Steve Walton is a New Testament scholar who is Research Fellow at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, and Hon. Research Fellow at Tyndale House, Cambridge. He previously taught New Testament at London School of Theology and St John's College, Nottingham. He has written widely in New Testament Studies and serves as chair of the Acts seminar of the British NT Conference, and co-chair of the steering committee of the Acts Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.