TO

APOSTLES.

I. The Author.-The opening words of the Acts, addressed, like the Gospel of St. Luke, to Theophilus, and referring to a former book, as containing a history of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus, such as we find in that Gospel, are, at least, prima facie evidence of identity of authorship. The internal evidence of style, yet more, perhaps, that of character and tendency as shown in the contents of the book, confirm this conclusion. A tradition, going back to the second century, falls in with what has thus been inferred from the book itself. The words of Stephen, "Lay not this sin to their charge," are quoted in the Epistle of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne to those of Asia and Phrygia (A.D. 177), given by Eusebius (Hist. v. 2). Irenæus and Clement of Alexandria quote from it, the latter citing St. Paul's speech at Athens (Strom. v. 2); as also does Tertullian (De Jejun. c. 10). The Muratorian Fragment (see Vol. I., p. xiii.) dwells on its being largely the work of an eye-witness, as seen in its omission of the martyrdom of St. Peter, and St. Paul's journey to Spain. Eusebius (Hist. iii. 4) ascribes both books to him, in the same terms; and Jerome (De Vir. Illust. c. viii.) almost repeats the words of the Fragment: "Luke wrote his Gospel from what he had heard, but the Acts of the Apostles from what he

saw."

It will be enough, therefore, as far as the authorship of this book is concerned, to refer for all that is known or conjectured as to the writer to the Introduction to St. Luke. There also will be found all that it is necessary to say as to Theophilus as representing the first readers of the Acts.

II. The Title.—It does not follow that the present title was prefixed to the book by the writer himself. For him, probably, it would only present itself as the "second treatise," or "book," which came as a natural sequel to the first. It was not strange, however, especially when the books of the New Testament came to be collected together in a volume, and the " former treatise" took its place side by side with the other Gospels, and was thus parted from its companion, that a distinct title should be given to it. In the title itself the Greek MSS. present considerable variations-" Acts of the Apostles," "Acts of all the Apostles," "Acts of the Holy Apostles," sometimes with the addition of the author's name, Written by Luke the Evangelist," "Written by the Holy and Illustrious Luke, Apostle and Evangelist." The word "Acts seems to have been in common use in the first and second centuries after Christ for what we should call "Memoirs" or "Biographies," and appears conspicuously in the apocryphal literature of the New Testament, as in the Acts

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Not fewer than fifty words are common to the two books, and are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. Many of these are noticed in the Notes.

of Pilate, the Acts of Peter and Paul, of Philip, of Matthew, of Bartholomew.

III. The Scope of the Book.-It is obvious that the title, whether by the author or by a transcriber, does but imperfectly describe its real nature. It is in no sense a history of the Apostles as a body. The names of the Eleven meet us but once (chap. i. 13). They are mentioned collectively in chaps. ii. 37, 42, 43; iv. 33-37; v. 2, 12, 18, 29; vi. 6; viii. 1, 14, 18; ix. 27; xi. 1; xv. 2, 4, 6, 22, 23, 33. St. John appears only in chap. iii. 1; iv. 13; viii. 14. Nothing is told us of the individual work of any other. Looking to the contents of the book, it would be better described, if we were to retain the present form at all, as the "Acts of Peter and of Paul," the former Apostle occupying a prominent place in chaps. i.-v., x.-xii., xv., the latter being the central figure in chaps. vii. 58, ix., xi. 25-30, xiii.-xxvii. From another point of view a yet more appropriate title would be (using the term in its familiar literary sense) that of the Origines Ecclesia-the history of the growth and development of the Church of Christ, and of the mission work of that Church among the Gentiles. The starting-point and the close of the book are in this respect significant. It begins at Jerusalem; it ends at Rome. When it opens, circumcision is required, as well as baptism, of every disciple; the Church of Christ is outwardly but a Jewish sect of some hundred and twenty persons (chap. i. 15). When it ends, every barrier between Jew and Gentile has been broken down, and the Church has become catholic and all-embracing. To trace the stages of that expansion both locally and as affecting the teaching of the Church is the dominant purpose of the book. The "acts" of those who were not concerned in it at all, or played but a subordinate part in it, are, we may venture to say, deliberately passed over. Some principle of selection is clearly involved in the structure of such a book as that now before us, and even without going beyond the four corners of the book itself, we may safely affirm that the main purpose of the writer was to inform a Gentile convert of Rome how the gospel had been brought to him, and how it had gained the width and freedom with which it was actually presented.

IV. Its Relation to the Gospel of St. Luke.The view thus taken is strengthened by the fact that it presents the Acts of the Apostles as the natural sequel to the Gospel which we have seen sufficient reason to assign to the same writer. For there also, as it has been shown (Vol. I., p. 241), we trace the same principle of selection. It is more than any of the other three a Gospel for the Gentiles, bringing out the universality of the kingdom of God, recording parables