Acts of the Apostles

General Information

The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament, written between AD 70 and 90 by the author of the Gospel according to Luke. Acts is an account of the early preaching about Jesus Christ, the growth of the primitive Christian community, and the spread of the Christian message. It covers the period from the Ascension of Christ (chapter 1) and the Pentecost, to the visit of St. Paul to Rome, where he was placed under house arrest.

The early chapters of Acts contain an idyllic portrait of the Jerusalem community praying together, practicing common ownership of property, and preaching. The author attributes the vitality and activity of Christianity to the Holy Spirit, which plays a prominent part in Acts. Speeches constitute one - third of the book, and the early sermons of Peter summarize the message as understood by the author of Acts. Three of the key ideas are that Christ fulfills the promises of the Old Testament, that Salvation comes through him, and that the Christian community is the new chosen people.

After chapter 10, the emphasis shifts to the spread of Christianity to the Gentiles through the missionary work of St. Paul. In contrast to earlier New Testament documents such as 1 Thessalonians, written by St. Paul about AD 51, the end of the world is not considered imminent but has receded into the vaguely distant future. The very composition of Acts focuses attention on the present, and on spreading Christianity "to the ends of the earth" (1:8). Thus Acts is a fairly detailed account of early Christianity in its progress from Jerusalem to Rome.

Anthony J Saldarini

Bibliography
D S Crowther, Atlas and Outline of the Acts of the Apostles (1983); E Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles: A Commentary (1971); E F Harrison, Interpreting Acts (1986).

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Acts of the Apostles

General Information

The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament. The second part of a historical work, of which the Gospel According to Luke is the first volume, the Acts is the story of the development of the Christian church under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is such a prominent figure in the Acts that the book is sometimes called the Gospel of the Spirit.

Authorship

Scholars agree that the Acts of the Apostles was written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke. Because the book itself originally carried neither a title nor the name of the author, however, the identity of this person is far from clear. As early as the 2nd century, the work was ascribed to St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul.

Recent research, however, has led to the opinion that the author merely had at his disposal a travel diary kept by someone who was an actual companion of St. Paul. Thus, the author may have been one of numerous early Christians known later solely from the anonymous pieces of literature they penned. For convenience of reference, scholars continue to refer to the author as Luke.

Date of Composition

Some of the text (Acts 16:10-17, 20:5-21:18, 27:1-28:16) refers to the author as one of the "we" who traveled with Paul, but Paul's execution is not mentioned, and no reference to his letters is made. Some scholars have reasoned therefore that the book was written before Paul's death (circa 61) and before the collection of his letters early in the 2nd century. Because the Acts is designed to serve as a second volume, however, the book must be at least slightly later than the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel is almost certainly later than that of Mark. The result is to put Luke's two volumes sometime in the last two decades of the 1st century.

Contents

With a beginning that overlaps the ending of Luke's Gospel, the Acts tells the story of the birth of the church in Jerusalem (chap. 1-5); the martyrdom of Stephen and the conversion of Paul (chap. 6-9); the opening of Peter's eyes to God's intention of including Gentiles in the church (chap. 10-12); Paul's missionary travels (chap. 13-19); Paul's final journey to Jerusalem (chap. 20-21); his arrest, imprisonment, and hearings in Jerusalem and Caesarea (chap. 21-26); and finally his voyage to Italy and his confinement in a Roman prison in which he awaits trial before Caesar (chap. 27-28). Thus, the events described in the book are framed by the expansion of the church from its birth in Jerusalem, through the empire, all the way to Rome.

Covering a period of roughly 30 years, the story gives valuable insights into the Jewish Christian church in Palestine, led by Peter and James; but it finds its major focus in the remarkable growth of the mission to the Gentiles, pursued by Paul, who is thus the primary "hero" on the human level. Particularly notable are the numerous speeches made by the dominant characters. The one given by Paul on the Areopagus in Athens (chap. 17) may have been intended by Luke as a model for the preaching of the gospel to the Gentile world.

J. Louis Martyn

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Acts of the Apostles

Brief Outline

1. The origins of the Church in Jerusalem (1:1-8:3)
2. The transition from the Jewish to the Gentile Ministry, including the preaching in Samaria (chap 8), the conversion of Paul (chap 9), and the beginning of Gentile work in Caesarea (chap 10) and Antioch (chaps 11, 12)
3. The missionary journeys of Paul (chaps 13 through 28)

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Acts of the Apostles

Advanced Information

The Acts of the Apostles is the title now given to the fifth and last of the historical books of the New Testament. The author styles it a "treatise" (1:1). It was early called "The Acts," "The Gospel of the Holy Ghost," and "The Gospel of the Resurrection." It contains properly no account of any of the apostles except Peter and Paul. John is noticed only three times; and all that is recorded of James, the son of Zebedee, is his execution by Herod. It is properly therefore not the history of the "Acts of the Apostles," a title which was given to the book at a later date, but of "Acts of Apostles," or more correctly, of "Some Acts of Certain Apostles." As regards its authorship, it was certainly the work of Luke, the "beloved physician" (comp. Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1). This is the uniform tradition of antiquity, although the writer nowhere makes mention of himself by name. The style and idiom of the Gospel of Luke and of the Acts, and the usage of words and phrases common to both, strengthen this opinion.

The writer first appears in the narrative in 16:11, and then disappears till Paul's return to Philippi two years afterwards, when he and Paul left that place together (20:6), and the two seem henceforth to have been constant companions to the end. He was certainly with Paul at Rome (28; Col. 4:14). Thus he wrote a great portion of that history from personal observation. For what lay beyond his own experience he had the instruction of Paul. If, as is very probable, 2 Tim. was written during Paul's second imprisonment at Rome, Luke was with him then as his faithful companion to the last (2 Tim. 4:11).

Of his subsequent history we have no certain information. The design of Luke's Gospel was to give an exhibition of the character and work of Christ as seen in his history till he was taken up from his disciples into heaven; and of the Acts, as its sequel, to give an illustration of the power and working of the gospel when preached among all nations, "beginning at Jerusalem." The opening sentences of the Acts are just an expansion and an explanation of the closing words of the Gospel. In this book we have just a continuation of the history of the church after Christ's ascension.

Luke here carries on the history in the same spirit in which he had commenced it. It is only a book of beginnings, a history of the founding of churches, the initial steps in the formation of the Christian society in the different places visited by the apostles. It records a cycle of "representative events." All through the narrative we see the ever-present, all-controlling power of the ever-living Saviour. He worketh all and in all in spreading abroad his truth among men by his Spirit and through the instrumentality of his apostles. The time of the writing of this history may be gathered from the fact that the narrative extends down to the close of the second year of Paul's first imprisonment at Rome. It could not therefore have been written earlier than A.D. 61 or 62, nor later than about the end of A.D. 63. Paul was probably put to death during his second imprisonment, about A.D. 64, or, as some think, 66. The place where the book was written was probably Rome, to which Luke accompanied Paul.

The key to the contents of the book is in 1:8, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." After referring to what had been recorded in a "former treatise" of the sayings and doings of Jesus Christ before his ascension, the author proceeds to give an account of the circumstances connected with that event, and then records the leading facts with reference to the spread and triumphs of Christianity over the world during a period of about thirty years. The record begins with Pentecost (A.D. 33) and ends with Paul's first imprisonment (A.D. 63 or 64).

The whole contents of the book may be divided into these three parts: (1.) Chaps. 1-12, describing the first twelve years of the Christian church. This section has been entitled "From Jerusalem to Antioch." It contains the history of the planting and extension of the church among the Jews by the ministry of Peter. (2.) Chaps. 13-21, Paul's missionary journeys, giving the history of the extension and planting of the church among the Gentiles. (3.) Chaps. 21-28, Paul at Rome, and the events which led to this. Chaps. 13-28 have been entitled "From Antioch to Rome."

In this book it is worthy of note that no mention is made of the writing by Paul of any of his epistles. This may be accounted for by the fact that the writer confined himself to a history of the planting of the church, and not to that of its training or edification. The relation, however, between this history and the epistles of Paul is of such a kind, i.e., brings to light so many undesigned coincidences, as to prove the genuineness and authenticity of both, as is so ably shown by Paley in his Horce Paulince. "No ancient work affords so many tests of veracity; for no other has such numerous points of contact in all directions with contemporary history, politics, and topography, whether Jewish, or Greek, or Roman." Lightfoot. (See Paul.)

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

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Apostle

Advanced Information

A person sent by another; a messenger; envoy. This word is once used as a descriptive designation of Jesus Christ, the Sent of the Father (Heb. 3:1; John 20:21). It is, however, generally used as designating the body of disciples to whom he intrusted the organization of his church and the dissemination of his gospel, "the twelve," as they are called (Matt. 10:1-5; Mark 3:14; 6:7; Luke 6:13; 9:1). We have four lists of the apostles, one by each of the synoptic evangelists (Matt. 10: 2-4; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14), and one in the Acts (1:13).

No two of these lists, however, perfectly coincide. Our Lord gave them the "keys of the kingdom," and by the gift of his Spirit fitted them to be the founders and governors of his church (John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-15). To them, as representing his church, he gave the commission to "preach the gospel to every creature" (Matt. 28: 18-20). After his ascension he communicated to them, according to his promise, supernatural gifts to qualify them for the discharge of their duties (Acts 2:4; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2:7, 10, 13; 2 Cor. 5:20; 1 Cor. 11:2).

Judas Iscariot, one of "the twelve," fell by transgression, and Matthias was substituted in his place (Acts 1:21). Saul of Tarsus was afterwards added to their number (Acts 9:3-20; 20: 4; 26:15-18; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). Luke has given some account of Peter, John, and the two Jameses (Acts 12:2, 17; 15:13; 21:18), but beyond this we know nothing from authentic history of the rest of the original twelve. After the martyrdom of James the Greater (Acts 12:2), James the Less usually resided at Jerusalem, while Paul, "the apostle of the uncircumcision," usually travelled as a missionary among the Gentiles (Gal. 2:8).

It was characteristic of the apostles and necessary (1) that they should have seen the Lord, and been able to testify of him and of his resurrection from personal knowledge (John 15:27; Acts 1:21, 22; 1 Cor. 9:1; Acts 22:14, 15). (2.) They must have been immediately called to that office by Christ (Luke 6:13; Gal. 1:1). (3.) It was essential that they should be infallibly inspired, and thus secured against all error and mistake in their public teaching, whether by word or by writing (John 14:26; 16:13; 1 Thess. 2:13). (4.) Another qualification was the power of working miracles (Mark 16:20; Acts 2:43; 1 Cor. 12:8-11). The apostles therefore could have had no successors. They are the only authoritative teachers of the Christian doctrines. The office of an apostle ceased with its first holders. In 2 Cor. 8:23 and Phil. 2:25 the word "messenger" is the rendering of the same Greek word, elsewhere rendered "apostle."

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

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