Kindy De Long Explores Repentance in the Gospel of Luke and Acts

In January 2022, Kindalee "Kindy" Pfremmer De Long, professor of religion and associate dean of Seaver College, published “Repentance and Turning as a Unified Motif in Luke-Acts” in the anthology Fountains of Wisdom, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. In the work, De Long argues that “turning” and “repentance” serve as a united motif, a fixed word pair, in the books of Luke and Acts.

“Multiple scholars have investigated the concept of repentance (μετανοέω) in the New Testament and early Christianity, often in comparison with repentance in Hebrew, Hellenistic Jewish, Rabbinic, and Greco-Roman traditions,” De Long writes. “Only a handful of studies have focused specifically on Luke’s understanding of repentance, despite the fact that his two-volume narrative prominently features repentance.”

Through a technical review of the use of two Hebrew words in the Old Testament and the Greek words in the Septuagint and Hellentistic Jewish literature, De Long asserts that previous works have not fully appreciated––or have merely assumed rather than proven––the “the extent to which Luke-Acts unites the two concepts of turning and repentance.”

“Recognizing these two words as a fixed word pair and realizing that turning is part of the picture of repentance helps us understand a more complete picture of what repentance is in Luke and Acts,” De Long shares