“The Way” in Acts 9:2

It has long been recognised by scholars that “the Way” is a term of reference for the early Christian community:

…and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:2 (NASB) cf. Acts 19:9, 23, 22:4, 24:14, 22

That early Christians should think of their teaching and practice as a “way of life” is unexceptionable. However, “the Way” is not functioning as a description of a way of life. As such, it would be an inane metaphor. Rather, the usage of the phrase here indicates a social term of identity. Thus, Felix is reported as,

…having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, ‘When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case’. Acts 24:22 (RSV)

In a recent book, J. Blenkinsopp has documented the use of the book of Isaiah in Second Temple Jewish writings.[1] In this work he traces Qumran usage of “the Way” for their community and he makes conventional connections with early Christian usage in Acts.

And when these have become a community in Israel in compliance with these arrangements they are to be segregated from within the dwelling of the men of sin to walk in the desert in order to open there his path. As it is written: “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord, straighten in the steppe a roadway for our God”. This is the study of the Law wh[i]ch he commanded through the hand of Moses, in order to act in compliance with all that has been revealed from age to age, and according to what the prophets have revealed through his holy spirit. 1QS 8, 12-16,[2] cf. 1QS 9, 19-20

The Qumran community physically relocated to the desert of Judea in order to practise “the way” based on a true interpretation of the Law and the Prophets. The early Christian community was likewise “the Way”, but in the land and in the Diaspora.

[1] J. Blenkinsopp, Opening the Sealed Book (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006).

[2] Other recensions of 1QS with this passage are 4Q258 6, 6-7 and 4Q259 3, 2-6. 4Q176 cites Isa 40:1-5 without comment.