The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God Book 1)

by N.T. Wright

In Griemasian terms, Luke presents his gospel as the vital Topical Sequence of a larger drama, and Acts as inaugurating the Final Sequence. He presupposes, as the Initial Sequence, the story of the world and Israel to date: This story has reached an impasse: Israel is herself unredeemed, and cannot bring the divinely planned salvation to the world. Luke then tells the story of Jesus as the Topical Sequence: The result is that he can at last set out, in Acts, the story of how the Final Sequence achieves what the Initial Sequence could not: The narrative analysis of Luke’s whole work, therefore, demonstrates that he, like Josephus in the War, intends his complex story to be seen as the completion of a larger one. The story of Israel has reached its basic fulfilment in the story of Jesus, in order that its long-term further goal may be attained through the mission of Jesus’ spirit in the church.