The Blind, the Lame and the Poor: Character Types in Luke-Acts

The virtual disappearance of the captive, the shattered, the blind, the deaf mute, the lame, lepers, the maimed, the dead and the poor from Acts poses a problem for Lukan studies. It creates a tension between two firmly held convictions about Luke's writing: that the Gospel and Acts are a unified work; and that Luke has a special concern for the poor. A fresh solution lies in tracing the intertextual links between Luke and the Septuagint. In the Septuagint, these character types are standard, conventional recipients of God's favour. In Luke's gospel, the primary function of these types is christological, in that Jesus' actions toward them reveal him to be God's unique eschatological agent of salvation. In Acts, however, there is a different Christological situation: Jesus is now the risen and ascended Lord, and so Luke has no need to foreground those, such as the poor, who in the Septuagint are especially destined for salvation.