The Use of Lukan Hyperbole in the Acts of the Apostles

Introduction

This article explores Lukan hyperbole in terms of a mental image of the world created in the Acts of the Apostles—an image of the world as he wants it to be—a world reigned over by God. This study begins with the discovery that hyperbole appears repeatedly in descriptions of the expansion of the sphere of the gospel. Such hyperbole appears mainly in summary statements (e.g., Acts 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20; 28:31), and for this reason not many scholars discuss Lukan hyperbole directly. Yet, besides these statements, hyperbole appears in various forms throughout the entire Acts narrative. ¹ It is especially noteworthy that Luke employs hyperbole in passages portraying the expansion of the gospel and the behavior of the apostles who carry out Jesus’ final commandment.

One can assume that Luke does not employ hyperbole without good reason. Hyperbolic rhetoric has purpose and implications in its own right and its different forms and functions have been discussed in various ways in biblical scholarship. ² This study sheds light on the relation between hyperbole and the ancient people's mental image of the world. In the first century CE, pictorial maps were not widely in use, and textual geographic accounts functioned instead as the dominant method for portraying the world. In this setting, hyperbolic statements played a decisive role in creating a more vivid picture of the world. They provided a spatial image of the world to audiences through a text. This trend appears first in Roman society before the Acts of the Apostles. Accordingly, this study explores Lukan hyperbole in relation to the mental images of the world in antiquity. Luke's mental maps open up a way to conduct advanced research into his worldview. ³ In in this article I thus explore the implications of hyperbole in Acts, and to this end, first explore the correlations between hyperbole and mental images of the world in antiquity; and second, examine Luke's image of the world through an exploration of his take on this literary device.

Mental Image of the World

Human beings have produced maps of the world they inhabit since the sixth century bce. Ancient people were challenged to draw the features of the specific world in which they lived. This challenge led explorers to travel to unknown places of the inhabited world and obtain geographic information there, which they then used in attempts to picture the shape of the world on paper. Geographers sought to produce a world map based on this collected information and also wrote geographic texts. In the era of imperial Rome, geographers and historians provided a range of maps and textual accounts, aimed at enabling ancient people to perceive the features of the world they inhabited. Despite the scanty survival of cartographic artifacts from Roman antiquity, there is nevertheless evidence of the existence and display of such cartographic visualization of the world. ⁴

The majority of Romans did not have access to the cartographic map, however. Pictorial maps were not widely circulated in Roman society and were accessible only by a limited and learned group. There was a lack of durable material for reproducing maps and few had the skills to copy an elaborate map. ⁵ Maps were thus not widely seen by the Roman public, to the point where several classical scholars point to a general absence of a “map consciousness” among the Romans. ⁶

Ordinary Roman citizens imagined the world through more accessible written accounts, rather than pictorial maps. From these descriptions, the majority of lettered Romans could form a schematic image of the world. While textual descriptions do not provide a visual image of the world, they do stimulate readers to create schematic impressions through their imaginations. The process was one of “mapping the world” in some sense. ⁷ What is noteworthy is that people drew the shape of the world in their minds, ⁸ for those early geographic accounts were assimilated through the mind in an intuitive way. The resulting images were thus strongly affected by mental cognition and can be characterized as mental images of the world. ⁹ To use Cicero's expression, the image is formed in the mentis oculi, or the “mind's eye” (De or. 3.41.163). While a mental map is based upon actual geographical information it is elaborated upon further by the imagination of the individual and becomes a way to abstractly conceive the world. ¹⁰

The most important feature of the mental map is that people perceive the world subjectively. ¹¹ The map is not fixed but is fluid and modifiable. The mental image is also vulnerable to external factors, such as personal desires or wishes, and can easily be modified by those factors. Unlike the image of the world on a scaled two-dimensional map, a mental map can be distorted by political ideologies and ambition. As Guido Schepens points out, a “mental map sometimes bears little relationship to scientifically measured geographical space, but it is all the more revealing for the political, social, cultural, and other ideals of a given society.” ¹²

This custom of ancient people—familiar as they were with mental images—became a beneficial means for the Roman rulers to manipulate the worldview of the people. Rulers could instill into the minds of their citizens the image that the Roman authorities desired, that is, that the Roman Empire had conquered the world. The Roman authorities provided geographic accounts filled with details of Roman supremacy over the Mediterranean world. Educated Romans, who had considerable geographic knowledge gained from scientific investigation, were aware of the elementary concept of the inhabited world (οἰκουμένη) which comprised three continents—Asia, Europe, and Africa—surrounded by an outer ocean. Yet it was possible for the Roman rulers to distort the detailed shape or layout of the world. As seen in the Peutinger Map produced in the fourth century ce, the Romans produced a map in which the city of Rome was literally the center of the world. They zoomed in Rome, and zoomed out Athens and non-Roman territory. This map is a representative image that stands for the worldview of the ancient Romans. Such a subjectively manipulated image gave the Romans an illusion about the inhabited world that was filled with distortion and socio-political prejudices to consolidate Roman political ideology. ¹³ Consequently, Roman geographers and historians provided a desirable image of the world—a world entirely conquered by the Roman Empire—for the Roman citizenry's mental mapping. In particular, for such propaganda purposes, they employed various rhetorical devices. The most noticeable device for the purpose was hyperbole.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole, ὑπερβολή in Greek, ¹⁴ or superlatio in Latin, was an important rhetorical device in Graeco-Roman antiquity. ¹⁵ As the Greek term ὑπερβολή literally means “throw beyond,” hyperbole served the purpose of a deliberately exaggerated or excessive expression. ¹⁶ It was used for bold overstatement for rhetorical effect. Cicero provides helpful definitions for the understanding of hyperbole, calling it “exaggeration and overstatement of the truth for the sake of amplification or diminution” (De or. 3.203; cf. Rhet. Her. 4.44). Cicero also considers hyperbole as a simile, conparatio (Rhet. Her. 4.46), ¹⁷ or a means of emphasis, significatio (Rhet. Her. 4.67). The most characteristic uses of hyperbole were superlatio and significatio.

Hyperbole was an attractive rhetorical device for those who sought to exaggerate facts. Hyperbolic phrases were neither accurate nor objective but were prevalent in the Roman world among both the unlearned and the learned because all people have a tendency to magnify something (cf. Quintilian, Inst. 8.6.74). People were not satisfied with the precise truth, which they sought to exaggerate. Hyperbole distorts the truth for the purpose of amplification or denigration. ¹⁸ Excessive expression through hyperbole can distort the truth and lead to immoderation. Of course, it is true that tropes, including hyperbole, in essence tend to magnify or expand upon an original meaning, but hyperbole is more blatant in this function than other tropes. ¹⁹ Accordingly, Quintilian states that hyperbole goes beyond what can be believed (Inst. 8.4.29). ²⁰ Hyperbole can be risky because it exaggerates too much. ²¹ Nevertheless, hyperbole was accepted as an important trope by many Roman rhetoricians. Hyperbole was considered a device for elaborating and expounding upon the truth and its meaning. As Seneca notes, “The purpose of all exaggeration is to arrive at the truth by falsehood … Exaggeration never hopes all its daring flights to be believed, but affirms what is incredible, that thereby it may convey what is credible” (Ben. 7.23). This statement supports the paradoxical function of hyperbole. ²² In this light, it seems clear that even though hyperbole may issue in falsehood, its primary concern is not to deceive audiences, but to deliver another aspect of a truth that otherwise might be disregarded. In other words, hyperbole invites audiences to perceive anew a truth that has been neglected. It helps audiences recognize the author's primary intention and emphasis. Language is sometimes used more effectively when it goes beyond objective description of the facts or an exact illustration of the facts. ²³ Hyperbole is more impressionistic or propagandistic than an accurate description. Thus the rhetoricians emphasized something or expressed something excessively to serve their own desires. Through hyperbole, the rhetorician hopes for the desired effect. ²⁴ To sum up, hyperbole reflects an ardent desire, and for this reason was a useful method for Roman rhetoricians who sought to offer an image of the world as they wanted it to be.

The Roman Republic had emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean region by the third century bce. The Romans boasted of their military achievement and then highlighted their supreme reign over the Mediterranean world. In particular, they wanted to make a solid statement that they had conquered the entire world. Even though they had only partially conquered areas around the Mediterranean Sea, they wanted to circulate a mental picture that contained the strong message that the whole world had been conquered. For this purpose, they used hyperbole, not so much as an intentional falsehood as an effective expression of desire.

Roman Hyperbole

Various historiographies suggest that the Romans conquered all the world, by using the hyperbolic adjective πᾶς (e.g. Polybius 1.2.7; 3.3.9; Plutarch, Pomp. 45.5; Strabo, Geogr. 1.1.16; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Ant. rom. 1.3.3; Josephus, B.J. 1.426; 2.372; 6.442). The Romans took advantage of hyperbole to amplify their own supremacy, proclaiming that the inhabited world was identical to the Roman world (orbis Romanus) (cf. Cicero, Rep. 3.15.24). Cicero claimed that the Romans stretched their power over the whole world (orbis terrarum omnium) (Rhet. Her. IV 13). The Romans identified the Latin term orbis terrarum, “the inhabited world,” with the term orbis Romanus, or “Roman world.” In so doing, they constructed a statement that they had conquered all the world. ²⁵ Strictly speaking, the Romans did not conquer the entire known world, but nevertheless, they rhetorically identified Roman territory with the orbis terrarum for propaganda purposes. This is relevant to the Romans’ illusionary image of the world in their minds. The Romans fabricated the borderline of the known world into that of their own empire to highlight their achievements and magnify their conquest across the western Mediterranean. In so doing, the Roman Empire encouraged citizens to perceive the world from the belief that the emperor was Lord of the entire world. Such hyperbolic propaganda was fairly commonplace in Roman imperial ideology.

Roman hyperbole often culminated in statements about “the ends of the earth.” In celebrating their achievements, it was natural for the Roman rulers to use the phrase, “the ends of the world,” because the edges of the inhabited world literally signified completion or fulfillment (cf. Diodorus Siculus 40.4). Cicero wrote that Rome's power reached people in the most distant parts of the world (Verr. 2.5.64.166), ²⁶ and the Romans identified the limits of the Empire with those of the inhabited world (cf. Ovid, Fast. 2.684).

By the first century ce, there was a general consensus by Graeco-Roman geographers that the ends of the world were Spain in the west, Scythia in the north, India in the east, and Ethiopia in the south (cf. Strabo, Geog. 1.1.13; Ptolemy, Tetra. 2.2.2; 2.3.6–7). Strictly speaking, the Roman Empire did not have hegemony over all those four limits. Nevertheless, the Romans made propagandistic statements that the limits of the Roman Empire were identical to the limits of the known world (e.g. Pliny, Nat. 7.98). Regarding this claim, the text of Res Gestae Divi Augusti by Augustus is noteworthy, for it encourages readers to think that the Emperor Augustus indeed reigned over the whole of the inhabited world. What is interesting is that this text explicitly refers to the four edges of India, Scythia, Ethiopia, and Spain (Res gest. 26, 31), thereby reinforcing the illusion that the power of Augustus reached to the farthest limits of the world. In Augustus’ mental image, the imperium had expanded its supremacy to the edges of the world. These hyperbolic references represent the Emperor's ambition and political desire to conquer to the ends of the world in the future and to circulate that image among all the citizens in the Empire.

Hyperbole of the Roman worldview appears in the New Testament too, especially in Luke-Acts. ²⁷ Luke uses hyperbole to describe the Roman Empire in Luke 2:1, where he associates the provincial census (ἀπογράφω) with an empire-wide edict by Augustus. Luke indicates that the scope of the census corresponds to the entire world, “all the world,” by adding the hyperbolic adjective, πᾶς. ²⁸ Luke's depiction of Augustus performing a world-wide census remains problematic in terms of its authenticity due to chronological errors. ²⁹ Far from being historically accurate, this expression reveals Luke's awareness of the widely-circulated Roman rhetoric exaggerating the extent of the Empire. Luke also employs hyperbole when referring to the name of the emperor, Augustus, and in so doing, he employs Roman hyperbole. This passage reflects how Roman hyperbolic rhetoric was prevalent among the conquered people of the time.

To sum up, the geographical texts, which are full of hyperbole and exaggeration, invited their audiences to project an image of the world, more specifically a distorted image, in their minds. In so doing, the Romans instilled an image of a world wholly conquered by the Roman Emperor. Hyperbole goes beyond objective descriptions of the facts and reveals a prospective desire for future conquest. Hyperbole is not intended to deceive audiences, but instead promotes a shared vision and ambition for the future. It is a mirror that reflects this desire and from which we can discover the prevailing mental image of the world. The mental image formulated by hyperbole produces an imaginative space in the mind. That is to say, it provides an imaginary landscape. This rhetorically exaggerated image challenged and reshaped the empirical worldview of the Romans, and it produced an imaginative space for the world they propose. What is remarkable is that this is not only a feature of the Roman worldview but also occurred in the early churches. Just as the Romans created a mental image of the world using hyperbole, so did the early Christians.

Lukan Hyperbole in Acts

The Acts narrative portrays the expansion of Christianity. Luke describes the process of enlarging Christianity through the Spirit-saturated apostles of the first century ce. He uses hyperbole to portray their ministry in various ways. At that time, the territory encroached upon by Christ-followers was very scant. The expansion of Christianity was only in progress around the Mediterranean Sea. Nevertheless, Luke seeks to provide a hyperbolic image as if the Way had already conquered nearly all the world. This can be characterized as an image of Luke's vision of the world he expects and wants to share with his audience, through the textual description in the Acts narrative. To achieve an effective presentation, he makes use of hyperbole in each passage in which he seeks to highlight his worldview. Luke's desires are actualized by hyperbole in his expansionary narrative of early Christianity. Just as the Romans established their own image of the world, so too Luke seeks to establish a mental image of the world through hyperbole.

In the prologue of Acts, Luke narrates Jesus’ final commandment to the disciples and makes repeated use of the hyperbolic adjective πᾶς (1:1, 8). ³⁰ In particular, the phrase, “the ends of the earth,” appears in a hyperbolic mission statement. ³¹ As seen in the discussion of Roman hyperbole, this phrase regularly appears in accounts of world missions (cf. 1 Macc. 1:1–3). ³² This programmatic phrase, signifying completion or fulfillment, represents Luke's literary hyperbole for superlatio and significatio. ³³ Hyperbole in 1:8 signifies Luke's intention that his audience imagine the world fully transformed into the world of the gospel. It is thus a prospective image of the world.

Lukan hyperbole continues with the Pentecost event in Acts 2. In terms of the expansionary rhetoric, this Pentecost episode can be understood as a sequel to Jesus’ commandment in 1:8. The account displays Luke's universal vision for salvation, specifically, his hyperbolic vision. ³⁴ The image of the Pentecost festival is Luke's proleptic vision of the world. In this account, Luke repeatedly employs the adjectives πᾶς and ὅλος which connote universal openness (2:1, 2, 4, 5, 7). ³⁵ First of all, Luke writes, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place” (ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό) (2:1). Again, Luke employs ὅλος to highlight spatial entireness (2:2). Luke then emphasizes that all of the disciples were saturated with the Holy Spirit (2:4). He successively expands this episode to the Diaspora Jews who gather in an outside space. The hyperbole used for the scene in the house (2:1) echoes the scene in the outside place, the city of Jerusalem (2:5–11). Through the Pentecost event, Luke introduces an image of the historic event of the Holy Spirit as a prospective event for the whole world. This is because of Luke's description of the Diaspora Jews coming from “every nation under heaven” (ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν) (2:5). Here Luke employs the hyperbolic adjective πᾶς to highlight that the whole of the world gathers in Jerusalem, thereby displaying universality. ³⁶ Furthermore, by adding “under heaven,” Luke inspires his audience to imagine people from the entire inhabited world gathering together in Jerusalem. Again, Luke uses ἅπας in v. 7 to strengthen the mental image that every nation inhabits Jerusalem. This scene presents a picture of all the nations gathered in the city of Jerusalem through centripetal movements. In this way, Luke construes the city of Jerusalem as synonymous with the entire inhabited world. The city represents or sums up the world through a metonymy standing for its totality. ³⁷ Such a portrayal echoes the Romans’ hyperbolic impressionistic overstatement of the city of Rome, and can be seen as the Lukan response to Roman hyperbolic propaganda. ³⁸

The hyperbolic statement “every nation” echoes the phrase “the ends of the earth.” These consecutive exaggerations in Acts 1 and 2 offer audiences an alternative image of the world. In Luke's mind, the world is, or should be, a place controlled by God, even though this is not how things seem at that moment. Such descriptions allow Luke's informed audiences to anticipate the universal supremacy of God.

Luke's hyperbole in proleptic expectations appears through various ensuing passages in the Acts narrative. He retains the hyperbolic description of the process of enlarging the ministry of the gospel to the edges of the world through Jesus’ apostolic agents. After Peter's inaugural sermon in Jerusalem (2:14–36), those who welcome his sermon are baptized and an enormous number of persons are added to the community (2:41). In particular, Luke's description of the apostolic community represents hyperbole. Awe comes upon everyone (2:43) and they have the goodwill of all the people (2:47). Many wonders and signs are performed by the central figures of the Pentecost event, resulting in the reverence of every Jewish person present.

Use of hyperbole in the expansionary rhetoric goes beyond the boundaries of the Jewish community and appears in descriptions of the houses of Gentiles as well. In particular, Luke's portrayal in Cornelius’ conversion is noteworthy (10:33–43). Here the hyperbolic adjective πᾶς appears repeatedly (10:33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44). Cornelius says that “now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say” (10:33). Responding to Cornelius, Peter emphasizes that in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to the impartial God (10:35). Subsequently, the Holy Spirit falls upon all who hear the word (10:44). Just as the Spirit saturates all people in the house (2:4), so too the Spirit falls upon all the hearers in the Gentile house (10:44). Luke thus expands the realm of the gospel toward the world beyond the Jewish arena. He tends to be more impressionistic in describing the spread of the Word in the non-Jewish space. In so doing, he provides mental imagery that the Word spreads toward the ends of the earth, as foretold in Acts 1 and 2. These accounts present Luke's aspiration that the new world will replace the existing Roman world. For the purpose, Luke sets up a hero, Paul.

Luke's desire for the expansion of Christianity is strengthened by Paul's ministry, which is described in chapters 13 to 28, and in which Luke highlights Paul's encroachment on Roman territory. In the illustration of the commandment of the Lord to Paul, Luke again inserts the hyperbolic phrase, “the ends of the earth” (13:47; cf. 1:8). Luke reports that a large number of Gentiles believed, and the word of the Lord spread (13:48–49). Luke says, “Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region” (διεφέρετο δὲ ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου δι᾽ ὅλης τῆς χώρας) (13:49). Here Luke employs the Greek term ὅλος, which is a literary hyperbole. ³⁹ According to Luke's description, the scope of the spread covered the whole region. Considering that the term χώρας has the technical sense of a subdivision of a Roman province, ⁴⁰ one can assume that this expression implies that Paul will spread the Word throughout the Roman world.

Luke sees Paul as an important apostolic agent of the Lord. He is a symbolic character who accomplishes Jesus’ hyperbolic commandment. Luke portrays Paul as a more competent apostle than his own letters claim (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1–4; 2 Cor. 10:10). ⁴¹ For Luke, Paul is a hero and should also be a role model for his audiences. ⁴² Furthermore, since the apostle Paul is the man who will accomplish the completion of the mission, Luke embellishes his character with hyperbolic flourishes.

Luke's portrayal of Paul is filled with various kinds of hyperbole, and this is clearly apparent in the description of Paul's second missionary journey. Here Luke employs hyperbole to highlight Luke's subversive activities, depicting him as an agitator in Philippi (16:20). ⁴³ The Philippians exaggeratedly accuse Paul of his behaviors of baptism (16:16) and exorcism (16:18). Considering Paul's activities in Philippi (16:11–19), the charge “agitator” would be an exaggerated rather than a factual accusation. ⁴⁴ Of course, this accusation reflects the accusers’ malicious intention to magnify Paul's seditious activity, but ironically, the statement also reflects Paul's tremendous achievement in Roman territory. That is to say, it reveals how powerful Paul's impact on the province is. The Philippians exclaim that Paul is disturbing the city, namely, a Roman colony (κολωνία) (16:12). In other words, from the perspective of the Philippians, Paul is turning the Roman space upside down.

Paul's exaggerated charge in the Roman imperium appears again in Acts 17:1–9. ⁴⁵ This passage portrays the outrage and violent resistance of the Thessalonian Jews to the preaching of Paul and Silas. The Jews accuse Paul with a charge of “turning the world upside down … acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus” (17:6–7). The Jews accuse Paul of social disturbance, but, like the episode in Philippi, this is exaggerated. What is remarkable is that Luke intends Paul's disturbance of the city, Philippi, to extend to the entire inhabited world. In particular, Luke uses the Greek term οἰκουμένη to denote the inhabited world. Given that the term οἰκουμένη was identified with the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean world in the first century, ⁴⁶ it is plausible that Luke overstates Paul's achievement in the Roman Empire. Luke's description that the Roman Empire is turned upside down by an apostle should thus be understood as literary hyperbole to indicate that the message that the world anticipated in the Pentecost event is being fulfilled through Paul's work in Roman territory.

Paul's great work continues in Ephesus in Acts 19, where he proclaims the Way (19:9, 23). Luke combines the spreading of the Way with hyperbolic statements (19:10, 17). Paul's message is expanded to all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, who then hear the Word of the Lord (19:10). Furthermore, Luke states, “everyone was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised” (19:17). The Way proclaimed by Luke's hero encroaches on the claims of Artemis that all Asia and the world should worship her (19:27). Paul's proclamation again leads to considerable disturbance (19:23), as occurred in Philippi and Thessalonica, and is again exaggerated as a riot here (19:40). Luke's repeated use of hyperbole in this scene prompts his audiences to imagine the Roman world disturbed by the Way. What is remarkable is that this scene in Ephesus is intertwined with Paul's resolution to go to Rome (19:21). That is to say, this scene represents a conflict between the world that Luke's Paul purposes and the existing Roman world. In this way, Luke's intention through his use of an hyperbolic portrayal is represented clearly—Paul is disturbing the Roman Empire to the point where the existing world will be restored by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit-impelled apostles, as anticipated in Acts 2.

The world Luke envisages appears clearly in the final scene of Acts. Luke emphasizes and expresses the spread of the Word, and in particular, his exaggerated portrayal of Paul reflects the author's ardent desire for a newly constructed world over and against the existing Roman Empire. It also represents an implied message of hope and encouragement. The character Paul embodies the rapidly increasing church. Accordingly, Luke delineates Paul's activities through hyperbole in order to emphasize the expansion of Christianity. In such a way, he finalizes the book of Acts with Paul's daring march toward Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire, with these closing hyperbolic statements: “He … welcomed all who came to him” (28:30); “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (28:31). ⁴⁷ In particular, Luke finalizes Acts with the assertion that Jesus Christ, about whom Paul proclaims in Rome, is the κύριος who overpowers another Roman κύριος (28:31). ⁴⁸ In so doing, the heavenly Jesus, who is presented in absence ⁴⁹ throughout the Acts narrative, fulfills the creation of a divine space in Rome.

Considering the discussion thus far, one can summarize Luke's desire in using hyperbole as follows: Luke is aware of the dominant world image of his audience, that is, the world wholly conquered by the Roman Empire. Luke thus intends to implant an alternative image, as suggested in the early part of Acts. He invites his audience to read the entire Acts narrative in light of this image. Luke presents an alternative view of the world, rather than the “real world” straightforwardly. ⁵⁰ To do so, he takes elaborate advantage of hyperbole.

A hyperbolic portrayal can be understood as creative spatial imagining in the minds of the audience. Through this process readers perceive the imaginary landscape of the world that the author intends. Even though they live in a Roman space, they can imagine a newly constructed space, that is, a world reigned over by God. To use Henri Lefebvre's classification, firstly, Luke's audiences are living in the “perceived space” of the Roman world; and secondly, they are in the “conceived space,” or “conceptualized space,” formulated by the Romans’ hyperbolic illusion. ⁵¹ And yet thirdly, Luke's portrayal of the world throughout the Acts narrative invites his audience into the “lived space,” which they actively experience in everyday life. Luke suggests his audiences live with this hyperbolic vision in their own lived space, dreaming of the triumphant reversal of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the Empire of God. This vision invites Christ-followers to a stage beyond that of a mental mapping of the Kingdom of God. Through this alternative worldview created by hyperbolic vision, Luke conveys his own message for the triumphant reversal. In this way, Luke imagines a new structure and new spatial practices when he speaks of the world. ⁵²

Concluding Remarks

This article explored the implications of hyperbole in Acts, providing a way to read the Acts narrative in light of this rhetorical device. Certainly, the mental images based upon Roman hyperbole and the Lukan hyperbole resemble each other in certain ways, but in other ways are in conflict. The Acts narrative thus presents a conceptual encounter between two worldviews. Luke superimposes two conflicting conceived spaces on the “real world,” while still offering hope of triumph to his readers. The power dynamic between the Kingdom of God and the Roman Empire is reversed in the last scene of the Luke-Acts narrative. While the Roman Empire crucifies Jesus in Jerusalem at the end of Luke's Gospel, the crucified Jesus is proclaimed as κύριος, the one who overpowers the Roman dominus at the end of Acts. In this way, Lukan hyperbole offers a significant message: the existing world will be restored to the world reigned over by God and Christ-followers; therefore the believer should live with the boldness Paul exhibited in Rome. The narrator thus presents an implicit hope for the triumph of Christianity over Rome. The Roman Empire becomes the site for a triumphant reversal in which Christianity is enlarged, because the Kingdom of God forces its way into Roman space.