Patrick Cole

Proposed Title

“Acts 11:19 - 13:3: how the infant Christian church in Syrian Antioch discovered Jesus’ command to systematic and intentional global mission”

Supervisors

Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Dr David Neville, St Mark’s National Theological Centre, Canberra
Co-Supervisor: Prof Peter Bolt, Australian University College of Divinity, Sydney

Research

Applying a narrative/critical approach to the Greek text of Acts 11:19 – 13:3, the project will seek to identify a distinct interlude here in the broadly chronological narrative sequence of the Book of Acts. It will then proceed to argue that this interlude subtly but directly reflects the infant Christian church in Syrian Antioch applying Jesus’s Temple Discourse (Matthew 24//Mark 13//Luke 21) to their lived first century experience.  It will be argued that the non-sequential narrative reflects a lived process in the Syrian Antioch church whereby they over time “discovered”, and quickly went on to give (then novel and radical) effect to, Jesus’s command in the Temple Discourse for his disciples to engage in systematic intentional global evangelism “to the ends of the earth” in the “end times”.

Why I chose Charles Sturt

This area of research emerged as one I wanted to pursue when undertaking Grad Dip and MTh studies at St Marks in 2009-2010.

Engagement and Memberships

Member, Centre for Gospels and Acts Research, Australian University College of Divinity, Sydney (202502026)

Publications

Patrick Cole, “Global evangelism in Jesus’ Temple destruction/last times discourse in Luke-Acts and synoptic tradition: confluence, congruence, intertextual linkages, and connective shaping”, Journal of Gospels and Acts Research 8 (October 2024), 57-92.