Part I: Luke and the Spirit in Contemporary Scholarship. 1. The laying of the foundations: the history of religions school and the response to its challenge -- The challenge of the history of religions school -- The response to the history of religions school -- The legacy of the phase of research from Pfleiderer to Von Baer -- 2. Diverging explanations of the essential character of the gift of the Spirit -- A traditional position: the Pentecostal gift as 'the Spirit himself' -- The gift of the Spirit as new covenant life and sonship / J.D.G. Dunn -- The Spirit as the power of confirmation / N. Adler -- the gift of the Spirit emphasized by Luke as the Spirit of prophecy and missionary empowering / G.W.H. Lampe, 1950-70 writings -- The gift of the Spirit exclusively as the Spirit of prophecy: soteriological functions of the gift of the Spirit denied to Luke / E. Schweizer, R. Stronstad and R.P. Menzies -- Luke's Pneumatology as a fusion of the Spirit of prophecy and the soteriological Spirit / J. Kremer, Lamp (1976), J.B. Shelton H.S. Kim and Dunn (1994) -- The Pentecostal gift as a broadened form of the Spirit of prophecy: the 'charismatic Spirit' / G. Haya-Prats -- Conclusion and prospect Part II: The 'Spirit of Prophecy' in Judaism and as a background to Luke-Acts -- Introduction -- 3. The 'Spirit of prophecy' and its prototypical gifts in Judaism -- The Spirit as 'the Spirit of prophecy' in Judaism -- The prototypical gifts of the 'Spirit of prophecy' in the targums and of the Spirit in early Judaism -- Preaching and the 'Spirit of Prophecy' -- conclusion -- 4. The 'Spirit of Prophecy and miraculous power' in Judaism -- The Spirit and the power of Miracle in the LXX and Targums -- The Spirit and miracles in other extrabiblical ITP and rabbinic writings -- The Spirit and power in the 'messianic' tradition -- conclusion -- 5. The 'Spirit of prophecy', ethical influence and 'salvation' in intertestamental Judaism -- The essentials of the case that Judaism envisages the Spirit of prophecy to have only secondary (if any) ethical/religious influence in Judaism -- A case that the Spirit of Prophecy would be expected to have major ethical/religious consequences when restored to Israel -- The Spirit of prophecy and salvation -- Conclusions -- Conclusion to Part II -- Part III: The Messiah of the Spirit 6. The coming of the Messiah of the Spirit in Luke 1-2 -- The annunciation, birth and infancy narratives as 'previews of salvation' -- The Pneumatology of Luke 1-2 and its relation to Luke's theology -- conclusions -- Excursus: References to people as 'filled with' or Full of' the Holy Spiritor other qualities in Luke-Acts -- 7. The Promise of John the Baptismt: He shall baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16) -- The context of the promise -- The form of the baptist's promise in Luke 3:16-17 and its Origin in Q -- Luke's understanding of the Baptist's meaning -- Luke's own interpretation of the promise in Luke 3:16 -- 8. The Empowering of the messianic son -- Jesus' baptismal experience of the Spirit 9Luke 3:21-22) -- The testing of the Messianic son (Luke 4:1-13, 14) -- Jesus' return to Galilee 'in the power of the Spirit' (4:14) -- conclusions 9. Jesus anointed with the Spirit to announce new exodus liberation -- Literary-Critical introduction to Luke 4:16-30 -- The citation of Isaiah 61:1-2in Luke 4:18-19 -- The Spirit-Anointed prophet-liberator of the Pre-Lukan tradition Luke 4:18-27 -- The significance of Jesus' citation of Isaiah for Luke -- Excursus: New exodus hopes and Luke's gospel -- Excursus: the 'great prophet' of 7:16-Elijah or Moses? -- Jesus' Exultation in the Spirit (Luke 10:21) -- Conclusion -- 10. Pentecost: Jesus' enthronement as Israel's Messiah and the Spirit as his executive power in Israel's restoration -- The Pentecost speech -- The Pentecost speech and 'the beginnings' of Jesus' work (Luke 1-Acts 2) -- The Pentecost Speech and the Body of Acts -- Part IV: The Disciples and the Spirit 11. The circle of Jesus' disciples and the Spirit from the beginnings of Jesus' Ministry to his ascension -- Spirit, 'the Kingdom of God' and 'Salvation' in the ministry of Jesus -- The Promise of the Spirit to the Disciples (Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:4-5, 8) -- The Spirit as the means of continuation of Salvation -- 12. The reception of the Pentecostal Gift in the church of Acts -- Does Acts imply that the Spirit given to all Christians is the 'Spirit of prophecy' promised by Joel -- The reception of the promise of the Spirit in Acts -- Excursus: tradition and redaction in the Cornelius narratives -- Conclusions 13. The effects of the Pentecostal gift in the life of the church and salvation -- The Spirit as the empowerment of Mission/Witness to unbelievers -- The Spirit of prophecy as the transforming self-manifesting presence of God in and for the community -- The Spirit of prophecy as the primary means of the restoration/salvation of Israel in Acts -- 14. Conclusions -- Jesus and the Spirit -- The nature of the gift of the spirit to the Disciples -- the spirit and salvation in Luke-Acts -- The Spirit and 'sonship' in Luke-Acts -- The implications of this thesis for the Pentecostal/Charismatic debate -- Select Bibliography -- Index of References -- Index of Authors.