1.02.02.03 The Acts of the Apostles

III. THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. This book stands by itself, without rival or parallel, as a history of the early church, or, more particularly, an account first of St. Peter and then of St. Paul. In form it might be compared with the Book of Nehemiah, since it is written partly in the third person and partly in the first. Composed by St. Luke, the book is like a supplementary volume to the third Gospel. Its historical form suggests the desirability of collecting all available information on the condition of the world at the time to which it relates. The stage is the Roman empire in the first century, and some knowledge of the history of the empire and its provinces will help to explain the narrative. This is to a large extent an account of missionary travels, and therefore a map with explanatory notes will enable us to trace them out the more clearly. Where St. Paul’s epistles cover the same ground these will throw light on the narrative, as that in turn illumines the epistles. “We must compare the two accounts of the apostle’s visits to Jerusalem— that in the Acts and that in the Epistle to the Galatians. As we set the other epistles in their places in the history they will come in at point after point to illustrate it. Where it is difficult to reconcile the two sources of information it is only reasonable to give the preference to the epistles, as coming direct from the hand of the chief person in the history.

See “Commentary for Schools”; ’’The Cambridge Bible’’; Hackett, ’’ Commentary on Acts ’’; Conybeare and Howson, “ Life and Epistles of St. Paul ’’; Ramsay, “ Pan! the Roman Citizen/’ etc.