reference to “the Christian message,”9 (i.e., the preaching about Jesus), Kodell raises the issue of the three summary texts that are at the center of our questions: But there are other texts, such as the summaries at 6:7; 12:24; 19:20, in which Luke insinuates a materialization of lo,goj (cf. 13:48; 20:32). In these texts, it is not immediately evident whether o` lo,goj means the Christian message, “the whole Christian enterprise,” the living community of believers, or the person of Christ himself, or whether all these realities somehow coalesce in one concept.10 To reach greater clarity with respect to Luke’s language, Kodell next examines his use of the verb auvxa,nw, which we also will do now, though we will not follow Kodell’s organization of the material. The verb auvxa,nw appears in Acts in four verses: the three summary texts we’ve been discussing and in 7:17. This last passage occurs in the middle of Stephen’s speech and is a reference to the growth of the people of Israel in Egypt: “the people increased and multiplied in Egypt.” Stephen does not here quote Exodus 1:7, but he borrows the language of Exodus 1 in its Greek translation. And it is worth noting here that in (LXX) Exodus 1:7 the whole trio of “summary verbs” occurs: “But the descendants of Israel increased (huvxh,qhsan = auvxa,nw) and multiplied (evplhqu,nqhsan = plhqu,nw) and became numerous and grew strong (kati,scuon = katiscu,w, an intensified form of ivscu,w), exceedingly much (sfo,dra sfo,dra), and the land was filled with them.”11 When one adds to this Luke’s use of auvxa,nw in his Gospel to describe the growth of the mustard seed (Lk 13:19), it becomes easy to see why Kodell would choose to speak of the “ecclesial tendency” of lo,goj in Acts. When Luke couples auvxa,nw and plhqu,nw in Acts 12:24, he is applying to the word of God the Old Testament formula “be fruitful and multiply” in its Septuagintal form. We may associate this formula primarily with the creation account of Genesis 1, but Kodell notes fourteen occurrences of this formula in the Old Testament, ten of which are “used in connection with the promise of the growth and expansion of the covenant People of God.”12 From this material, Kodell concludes that “Luke implies that lo,goj here means more than the usual ‘Christian message,’ that somehow the meaning ‘community’ or ‘People of God’ is involved.”13 Kodell spends the remaining eight pages of his article explaining that “somehow.” His closing lines show us how far he can take us and why we need to explore further. Luke sees the word so bound up with community life and witness that he can say “The word of God grew” when the church adds new members. This is not Luke’s principal meaning for o` lo,goj tou/ Qeou/ and he does not intend by his usage here to obscure the more traditional senses of the term. But in the carefully constructed
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Concordia Journal Winter 2018