The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Acts
By William J. Larkin, Jr.
IVP. 422 pages. £9.99
ISBN 0 85111 690 9
It is a brave publisher who produces anything on Acts currently, with definitive new work from Paternoster emerging. And one might ask whether the standard texts already on IVP's list, Stott's fine exposition in the Bible Speaks Today series, and Marshall's Tyndale Commentary, do not make a new expository commentary superfluous.
First impressions of the book do it no favours. A sentence like: 'The church will be awakened by Acts, which declares that being on the move with the gospel witness across cultural thresholds is the church's number one job.' (p. 14) signals an uneasy compromise between the extremes of popular relevance and scholarly commentary. Early on, Larkin's quotations from other scholars tend towards the banal; he overuses cliches such as 'salvation blessings' and 'cultural thresholds' throughout; sometimes the material in parentheses is longer than the sentence containing it.
It is important to air this dissatisfaction, because the reader who scans the first few pages of the book to get the flavour of it might well be put off, and miss what is, in the end, a rewarding and thoughtful commentary. At least one of my initial niggles, could in fact turn out to be a bonus to the hard-pressed preacher: all those references in parentheses locate passages in biblical, classical and inter-testamental books which illustrate and open up the background of thought and culture in Acts economically and effectively.
The commentary itself is based on the NIV, and the linguistic notes discuss that text succinctly and incisively. Those 'handkerchiefs and aprons' of Acts 19.11 turn out to be sweatbands and belts (p. 276), used and made by Paul as he laboured at his trade of leatherworking (though he may have made tents as well). Luke is more historian than hagiographer, not so much because his dates and distances are correct, but because his Peter and his Paul are real.
Overall, Larkin comments with insight and relevance. He examines the medical detail that Luke gives (the scales that fall from Paul's eyes, p.140; the worms that kill Herod, p.188; the fever that Publius's father suffered from, p.381). He draws parallels (Stephen and Joseph, p. 109; Paul and the Lord Jesus, p. 307). He discusses contemporary issues (the relation of signs and wonders and preaching, p. 151 et passim; missiological matters, like the 'homogeneous unit principle', p. 177). Every so often, a truism is given fresh impact ('[The Jews] never thought that the people of God would comprise both Jew and Gentile but not be Jewish', p. 223). In practically every case these comments are fascinating in themselves, eirenical, and express such godly common sense that the reader is refreshed and redirected to God and his Word. So IVP is a brave publisher. But this is a brave book. I recommend it.
Paul Cavil
English Lecturer, Nottingham University
