New Testament Study Helps:
    Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles

1. Characteristics

1. Its Place in the New Testament.
   It is not insignificant that in the canonical order, Acts has been placed between the gospels and the epistles. It serves as a link between the records of Jesus and the apostolic correspondence. In many ways, the epistles are not fully intelligible until they are read against the backdrop of the book of Acts. The book shows effectively the main trends in the development of Christianity. It therefore makes a vital contribution to an understanding of the relationship between the teaching of Jesus and the apostolic doctrine.

2. Its View of History.
   The many references in this book to the Holy Spirit are sufficient indication that the writer regards the development of Christian history as due to a superhuman control. He does not gloss over the difficulties which the Christian mission encountered, but intends to show that God is directing each movement of the history. In short, God was as active in the early Christian communities and in the messengers of the gospel as he had been in the movements and teaching of Jesus.

3. Its Portrait of Primitive Communities.
   Acts makes to consecutive attempt to describe the conditions with the various churches, nor gives much information about early church order or methods of worship. All that can really be said is that Acts gives a valuable general impression of primitive church life. It is necessary to supplements Acts' data with other materials from the epistles. The author of Acts clearly portrayed the spiritual and moral characteristics of the early Christians. The impression of unity is very strong. One of the most characteristic features of the book is the element of joyfulness among these early believers, and this is a striking example of the continuation of a theme which had been stressed in the Gospel of Luke. Without the book of Acts our knowledge of the spiritual outlook of those believers would be immeasurably less.

4. Its Record of Primitive Theology.
   Acts records a substantial view of primitive theology, mainly in the numerous speeches which present examples of apostolic preaching. Acts is a valuable source book for the study of primitive theology. the titles ascribed to the Lord in Acts are a valuable guide to primitive Christology. Jesus is both Lord and Christ, God's Servant and his Son, Prince of Life and Savior, The Righteous One and Lord of All. The importance of the book of Acts is in its preservation of the main doctrinal themes presented in apostolic preaching.

5. Its Focus on Peter and Paul.
   One of the most striking features about Acts is that it says so little about the other apostles and so much about Peter and Paul. This is obviously intentional, but it is not easy to find a reason. In chapters 1-12 the narrative moves from Jerusalem to Antioch and in this section Peter occupies the limelight. He takes the lead both before and after Pentecost. From chapter 13 to the end, the personality of paul is strongly portrayed. He is introduced dramatically at Stephen's death and his ravages against the church are faithfully mentioned. Many little details in the subsequent narrative bring him to life. The intensity of his gaze (13:9; 14:9; 23:1), the beckoning of his hand (13:16; 26:1), his kneeling at Miletus (20:36-38) and his rending his clothes at Miletus (14:14). The narrative at the end of Acts (chap 20 onwards) centers almost wholly on Paul and shows him moving on towards Rome inevitably but with courageous determination.

2. Date

1. Arguments for a Date before 64 AD

   1. The absence of reference to important events which happened between 60 and 70 AD.
      The fall of Jerusalem is nowhere referred to. It would have been difficult for the author to avoid some allusion to it, although it must be recognized that the destiny of Jerusalem would not have appeared so tragic to the Christian church as a whole as it would to the Jewish people. At the same time, it is not without significance the Luke in his gospel centers more attention on Jerusalem than do the other synoptics. Another event of importance was the persecution of the church under Nero. This created so great a crisis that it is difficult to imagine that the earliest Christian historian could have ignored it so completely if he had written after the event. A third event of less widespread importance but might have been of great interest to Luke was the martyrdom of James, the brother of Jesus. Luke mentions two earlier martyrs: James, son of Zebedee, and Stephen.

   2. The absence of reference to the death of Paul.
      The abrupt ending of Acts has for long been a mystery. The author leaves his readers with a description of Paul, a prisoner at Rome, though enjoying considerable liberty to preach and teach. There is no indication of what happened to Paul after this. The silence of Acts regarding the death of Paul (which occurred in 65-66 AD under Nero) may be said to favor the expectation of an early date of writing.

   3. The primitive character of the subject matter.
      It is significant that the major interests of the author of Acts are those prevalent in the earliest period of church history, but which were not too relevant in later times. The Jewish-Gentile controversy is dominant and all other evidence apart from Acts suggests that this was a vital issue only in the period before the fall of Jerusalem. Even by the time of Paul's later letters it has ceased to be a burning issue.

3. Purpose

1. A Narrative of History.
   We may assume that Luke intended his work to be regarded as historical, but not in the sense of a dry chronicle of events. The author is forced to be selective of events due to the broad range of his subject. There is much we would like to know, of which Luke is silent. There is an implication in Luke's preface that others before him had attempted to write the events behind the early Christian movement, which he may have felt unsatisfactory.

2. A Gospel of the Spirit.
   For the author, the important thing is the recognition of a divine activity behind the events, and thus his work places great emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not inappropriate that this book has been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit and it is significant that several times the record of events is described as the continued activity of Jesus (7:55; 9:5). This is but an illustration of what Luke says in his preface that in his former book he wrote what Jesus *began* to do and teach (1:1), which shows that his present purpose is to describe the continuation of that work.

4. Outline

In progress