Biblical Theme Map

Biblical Theme Map — Acts 1–28 (English → French)

Purpose

This document executes the second half of PRD Phase 1 Step 3: mapping the theme structure of Acts and showing how each theme connects across the whole of Scripture — Old Testament roots, Gospel fulfillment, Acts’s own narrative development, and Pauline-epistle (especially Romans) doctrinal exposition. It is the theological companion to 09_cross_reference_analysis.md’s citation matrix and should be read alongside it.

1. Macro-Structure: The Book’s Geographic and Thematic Movement

Acts is structured around the programmatic commissioning verse Acts 1:8: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The entire book traces this movement outward in four broad phases:

Phase	Chapters	Geographic Center	Dominant Theme(s)
I. Jerusalem	1–7	Jerusalem	Holy Spirit and Pentecost; Repentance and Baptism; Church as Community; first Persecution
II. Judea and Samaria	8–12	Samaria, coastal Judea, Antioch	Gospel to Jews and Gentiles (Samaritans, eunuch, Cornelius); Conversion of Paul begins
III. To the Nations	13–20	Asia Minor, Greece	Justification apart from the Law; Great Commission expansion; sustained Persecution and Bold Witness
IV. To Rome	21–28	Jerusalem → Caesarea → Rome	Apostolic Authority tested before civil power; Great Commission Fulfilled

The book closes with Acts 28:31 — “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” — forming a deliberate inclusio with 1:3, 1:6, and 1:8. This structural bookend must govern consistent French rendering of “Royaume de Dieu,” “Seigneur,” and the boldness/hindrance vocabulary at both ends of the book (see 09_cross_reference_analysis.md Section A, chapters 1 and 28).

2. Theme Cluster Map

Each of the nine curriculum doctrines is mapped below across four horizons: OT Root (where the theme begins in the Hebrew Scriptures), Gospel Anchor (how the Gospels prepare it, referenced for context though outside this curriculum), Acts Development (how Acts narrates its fulfillment/outworking), and Pauline/Romans Exposition (how the epistles, chiefly Romans, doctrinally unpack it).

2.1 The Holy Spirit and Pentecost

OT Root: Joel 2:28-32 (Spirit poured on all flesh); Ezekiel 36:26-27 (new heart, indwelling Spirit); Exodus 19 (Sinai theophany — fire, sound); Numbers 11:29 (Moses’ wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets).
Acts Development: Acts 2:1-21 (the fulfillment event itself); recurs at Acts 4:31, 8:17, 10:44-46 (“Gentile Pentecost”), 19:6 — establishing that the Spirit’s gift is the normative mark of gospel reception, not a private mystical extra.
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 8:9-16 (the indwelling Spirit as the mark of belonging to Christ, giving assurance and adoption); baseline’s “holy_spirit” term (elevated to Critical for this curriculum, per 08_core_glossary.md).
French rendering summary: “Esprit Saint” [BASELINE REUSE]; “Pentecôte” [NEW]. Chief risk: French charismatic-Catholic (Renouveau) and Pentecostal-evangelical readers bring divergent expectations to “être remplis de l’Esprit”; Acts 2’s tongues are known human languages (xenolalia), not the later ecstatic-glossolalia debate.

2.2 The Gospel to Jews and Gentiles

OT Root: Genesis 12:3 (blessing to all nations through Abraham); Isaiah 49:6, 56:3-8 (light to the nations; eunuchs and foreigners welcomed); Amos 9:11-12 (restored Davidic tent embracing the nations).
Acts Development: Samaritans (ch.8), the Ethiopian eunuch (ch.8), Cornelius and the Gentile Pentecost (ch.10-11), the Jerusalem Council’s ratification (ch.15), Paul’s synagogue-then-Gentile pattern (ch.13-19), climaxing in Rome (ch.28).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 1:16 (“to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”); Romans 3:29-30, 9-11 (Israel and the nations); Romans 15:8-12 (Christ’s ministry confirms the promises to the patriarchs and brings Gentiles to glorify God).
French rendering summary: “païens” [BASELINE REUSE] used cautiously, preferring “les nations”/“non-Juifs” in mission-emphasis passages; “Samaritains,” “eunuque,” “craignant Dieu,” “prosélyte” [NEW]. Chief risk: France’s colonial-missionary history and significant contemporary Jewish community both require careful, non-triumphalist framing.

2.3 Repentance and Baptism

OT Root: Ezekiel 18:30-32 (turn and live); Joel 2:12-13 (return to the Lord); the Levitical washing/immersion rites prefiguring cleansing (Leviticus 14-15) and John’s own baptism of repentance (background, Gospels).
Acts Development: Acts 2:38 (the programmatic formula: repent, be baptized, forgiveness, gift of the Spirit); reiterated in every conversion account (8:12, 8:36-38, 9:18, 10:47-48, 16:15, 16:33, 18:8, 19:5, 22:16); distinguished explicitly from John’s baptism (19:1-6).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 6:3-4 (baptism as union with Christ’s death and resurrection); Romans 2:4 (God’s kindness leading to repentance); Romans 10:9-13 (calling on the Lord’s name as the moment of salvation, paralleling Acts 2:21/22:16).
French rendering summary: “repentance/se repentir,” “baptême/baptiser” [NEW, both Critical]. Chief risk: French Catholic sacramental tradition (Pénitence/Réconciliation; baptismal regeneration) versus Reformed/evangelical symbol-and-seal readings — the Greek εἰς-clause ambiguity in Acts 2:38 must not be resolved by translation choice in either direction.

2.4 The Church as Community

OT Root: Exodus 19:5-6 (Israel as a covenant assembly, a “kingdom of priests”); Deuteronomy 6 (communal life shaped around shared worship and instruction); Psalm 133 (unity as a blessing).
Acts Development: Acts 2:42-47 (the four marks: apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer; radical shared generosity); Acts 4:32-35 (renewed emphasis); Acts 6 (structural care for the vulnerable — widows); Acts 20:17-38 (elder/overseer care of the flock); Acts 11:26 (the “Christian” identity emerges at Antioch).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 12:3-13 (one body, many members, mutual love and service); Romans 15:26-27 (the collection for Jerusalem as concrete cross-congregational fellowship).
French rendering summary: “Église” [BASELINE REUSE, High risk]; “communion fraternelle” [BASELINE REUSE]; “tout en commun,” “anciens,” “chrétien” [NEW]. Chief risk: bare “l’Église” defaults to the institutional Catholic Church in ordinary French usage; “tout en commun” risks a French political-economic (communisme) misreading rather than voluntary Spirit-generated generosity.

2.5 Apostolic Authority and Miracles

OT Root: Exodus 4:1-9, 7:3 (Moses’ signs authenticating his commission); Deuteronomy 18:15-22 (a true prophet’s word is validated); 1 Kings 17-18 (Elijah’s authenticating miracles against false prophets).
Acts Development: Acts 2:43, 3:1-10, 4:30, 5:12-16, 9:32-42, 14:3, 19:11-12 (“signs and wonders” as the recurring authentication vocabulary); contrast with counterfeit power (Simon Magus, ch.8; the sons of Sceva, ch.19; the Pythian spirit, ch.16); Paul’s Roman-citizenship and appeal-to-Caesar narrative (ch.16, 22-28) as authority operating within, not against, civil order.
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 15:18-19 (Paul’s ministry “by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit”); Romans 1:1, 1:5, 11:13 (apostleship as a distinct, authoritative commission).
French rendering summary: “signes et prodiges” [NEW] preferred consistently over “miracles” (avoiding Catholic hagiographic/Lourdes connotations); “apôtre” [BASELINE REUSE].

2.6 Persecution and Bold Witness

OT Root: Jeremiah 20:7-9, 26; 2 Chronicles 24:20-22 (the persecuted-prophet pattern); Daniel 3, 6 (faithful defiance under threat of death).
Acts Development: Acts 4-5 (Sanhedrin opposition); Acts 7 (Stephen, the first Christian martyr); Acts 8:1-3 (Saul’s persecution, ironic setup for ch.9); Acts 12 (Herod’s state-sponsored violence); Acts 14:19, 16:19-24, 21-28 (escalating persecution of Paul); recurring “boldness” (παρρησία) vocabulary (4:13, 4:29, 4:31, 9:27-28, 28:31).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 8:35-39 (nothing — including persecution — can separate believers from God’s love in Christ); Romans 5:3-5 (suffering producing endurance and hope).
French rendering summary: “témoin/témoignage” [NEW, High]; “assurance/hardiesse” [NEW]; “persécution” [NEW]. Chief risk: “témoin” defaults to a flat courtroom sense in secular French; the etymological link to French “martyre” is a genuine pedagogical asset given Stephen’s and James’s literal martyrdoms.

2.7 Conversion of Paul

OT Root: Isaiah 6 (a prophetic commissioning vision); Jeremiah 1:4-10 (called and set apart before birth for a specific mission); Jonah (a resistant messenger transformed into an obedient one — thematic parallel, not direct type).
Acts Development: Acts 9:1-19 (the Damascus road event); retold at 22:1-21 and 26:9-23 (three tellings, textbook example of doctrinally significant narrative repetition); Acts 13:9 (Saul renamed Paul, marking the Gentile-mission phase).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 1:1, 1:5 (Paul’s own self-understanding as “called to be an apostle… to bring about the obedience of faith”); Galatians 1:15-16 (outside this curriculum, but the same event referenced by Paul himself).
French rendering summary: “conversion/se convertir,” “la Voie,” “instrument choisi,” “vision céleste” [NEW]. Chief risk: secular French “conversion” (generic religious-switching) must retain the Spirit-wrought, once-for-all reorientation Acts describes; “la Voie” must not collapse into the contemporary spiritual marketplace’s “voie spirituelle.”

2.8 Justification apart from the Law

OT Root: Genesis 15:6 (Abraham’s faith counted as righteousness — the direct root of the baseline’s “imputed_righteousness” doctrine); Habakkuk 2:4 (“the righteous shall live by his faith,” Romans 1:17’s thesis text, not directly quoted in Acts but doctrinally identical ground); Amos 9:11-12 (Gentile inclusion without ethnic absorption).
Acts Development: Acts 10 (the clean/unclean vision dismantling the Law’s ceremonial boundary-markers); Acts 13:38-39 (Paul’s clearest justification statement in Acts: “everyone who believes is justified” from what the Law could not accomplish); Acts 15 (the Jerusalem Council’s formal, authoritative settlement: salvation “through the grace of the Lord Jesus,” not circumcision/Law-keeping); Acts 21:20-26 (Paul’s continued personal, voluntary, non-salvation-conditioned observance of Jewish custom, carefully distinguished from ch.15’s settled question).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 3:20-28 (no one justified by the works of the Law; justified by faith apart from the Law); Romans 4:1-25 (Abraham as the paradigm — faith credited as righteousness, prior to and apart from circumcision); Romans 11:5-6 (grace excludes works, “otherwise grace would no longer be grace”).
French rendering summary: “justification,” “grâce,” “loi,” “foi,” “justice imputée” [ALL BASELINE REUSE, Critical/High]. This is the doctrinal spine connecting Acts most directly to the Romans curriculum; every occurrence requires mandatory theologian review and verbatim term consistency across both curricula.

2.9 The Great Commission Fulfilled

OT Root: Genesis 12:3, 22:18 (blessing to all nations through Abraham’s offspring); Isaiah 49:6 (a light to the nations, salvation to the ends of the earth); Psalm 2:8, Psalm 22:27 (the nations given to the Messiah, worshipping him); Daniel 7:14 (dominion over all peoples given to the Son of Man).
Acts Development: Acts 1:8 (the programmatic commission); Acts 13:47, 26:23 (Isaiah 49:6 explicitly cited as the mandate for Paul’s Gentile mission); Acts 17 (Athens — proclamation to a purely Gentile philosophical audience); Acts 28:16-31 (the gospel reaches Rome, the imperial capital, “without hindrance,” fulfilling the geographic and theological trajectory begun at 1:8).
Pauline/Romans Exposition: Romans 1:5 (“the obedience of faith… among all the nations”); Romans 10:14-18 (the necessity of sent preachers for the nations to hear and believe); Romans 15:19-24 (Paul’s own missionary strategy and ambition to preach “where Christ has not been named”).
French rendering summary: “Royaume de Dieu,” “mission” [BASELINE REUSE]; “lumière pour les nations,” “Aréopage,” “sans empêchement” [NEW]. Chief risk: France’s colonial-missionary history requires framing “mission” as gospel proclamation and invitation, never cultural conquest.

3. Theme Flow Diagram (Textual)

Acts 1:8 (COMMISSION: Jerusalem → Judea/Samaria → ends of the earth)
    │
    ├─ Acts 2 (PENTECOST: Spirit poured out; Peter's sermon;
    │           repentance + baptism + forgiveness + Spirit-gift;
    │           church begins as a Spirit-formed community)
    │
    ├─ Acts 3–7 (JERUSALEM WITNESS: healing, preaching, growing opposition;
    │            Stephen's OT-saturated speech and martyrdom
    │            — the first blood of Bold Witness)
    │
    ├─ Acts 8–12 (BOUNDARY-CROSSING: Samaritans, the eunuch, Saul's conversion,
    │             Cornelius's household — the Gospel to Jews AND Gentiles
    │             on identical terms, apart from the Law)
    │
    ├─ Acts 13–14 (FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY: synagogue-then-Gentile pattern;
    │              Acts 13:38-39's justification thesis parallels Romans directly)
    │
    ├─ Acts 15 (JERUSALEM COUNCIL: the theological hinge — grace through faith,
    │           not circumcision/Law, settled for the whole church, Jew and Gentile)
    │
    ├─ Acts 16–20 (SECOND & THIRD JOURNEYS: expanding Bold Witness under
    │              persecution across Asia Minor and Greece; elders appointed
    │              to shepherd the growing communities)
    │
    ├─ Acts 21–26 (ARREST AND TRIALS: Apostolic Authority tested before
    │              Jewish and Roman power; three retellings of Paul's conversion
    │              reinforce the repentance/baptism/calling-on-the-name pattern)
    │
    └─ Acts 27–28 (TO ROME: providence through shipwreck; the gospel reaches
                   the imperial capital "without hindrance" — Acts 1:8 fulfilled)

4. Structural Inclusio: Acts 1 and Acts 28

Element	Acts 1	Acts 28	Consistency Requirement
Kingdom of God	1:3, 1:6	28:23, 28:31	”Royaume de Dieu” identical both ends
Witness/proclamation	1:8 (“you will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth”)	28:31 (“proclaiming… teaching… with all boldness and without hindrance”)	“témoins,” “hardiesse,” “sans empêchement” rendered with full theological weight at both bookends
Lord Jesus Christ	1:6 (implicit), 1:21	28:31	”Seigneur Jésus-Christ” [BASELINE REUSE]
Geographic horizon	Jerusalem (starting point)	Rome (the “ends of the earth” of the Roman world, narratively)	Teaching material should make the geographic fulfillment explicit for readers with low classical/geographic literacy

5. Explicit Alignment with the Romans Curriculum

Because Acts and Romans share this French Language Package, the following alignments must govern all Acts teaching and translation material:

Romans 1:16-17 (the curriculum’s thesis statement: gospel, salvation, righteousness by faith) is narratively enacted in Acts 13:38-39 and Acts 15:10-11 — the same doctrinal vocabulary (Évangile, salut, justice, justification, foi, grâce, loi) must appear with identical French renderings in both curricula.
Romans 8:28 (providence) shares its conceptual field with Acts 2:23 (“definite plan and foreknowledge of God”) and Acts 20:27 (“the whole counsel of God”) — render “dessein,” “prescience,” and “providence” consistently.
Romans 10:9-13 (the Lordship/salvation confession) is the verbatim-shared text of Acts 2:21 (Joel 2:32) and the confessional climax of Acts 2:36 — the highest-priority cross-curriculum consistency rule in this Language Package (see 09_cross_reference_analysis.md Section D.1).
Romans 9–11 (Israel, election, the olive tree, partial hardening) shares its theological terrain with Acts 13:44-48, 15:1-21, 28:23-28 — both curricula must handle Jewish/Gentile relations with the same historically aware, non-triumphalist care given France’s Jewish community and colonial-missionary history.
Romans 12 (the body of Christ, mutual love) shares its vocabulary with Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35, 20:17-38 — “communion fraternelle,” “Église,” and the shared-life vocabulary must be rendered consistently.

This document, together with 09_cross_reference_analysis.md, completes PRD Phase 1 Step 3 for Acts. Both documents must be loaded alongside translation_memory.json, bible_term_registry.json, and doctrine_risk_registry.json before any Phase 2 segment translation involving the passages catalogued above.

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