Who are the prophets in Acts and what do they do?
Some have chosen such broad definitions that nearly every primary character in Acts is said to be a prophet. In his commentary on Luke, Luke Timothy Johnson, for example, argues that Luke’s use of “proof from prophecy” is “his most important literary device” in the Luke-Acts narrative.1 Johnson then argues that Luke presents nearly all the major Christian figures in Acts as acting like prophets. In describing his profile of the prophetic figure in Acts, Johnson says that each leading character in Acts is “filled with the Holy Spirit,” is “bold” in proclamation of the “Good News” or “the word of God,” is a “witness,” works “signs and wonders,” and preaches and performs wonders “among the people.”2 He concludes, “Taken together, these characteristics point unmistakingly to one image in the biblical tradition, that of the prophet.”3 Another contemporary work, Roger Stronstad’s The Prophethood of All Believers, commendably recognizes the importance of the prophetic in Acts, but also too br
