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75-608: Their names and an account of their appointment are given in chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 6:1–6 ). According to a later tradition they are supposed to have also been among the Seventy Disciples who appear in the Gospel of Luke ( Luke 10:1, 10:17 ). The activities of Stephen and Philip are the only two recorded and their works concern preaching, catechising and baptising. Philip

150-687: A companion of the apostle Paul in three of the letters attributed to Paul himself; this view is still sometimes advanced, but "a critical consensus emphasizes the countless contradictions between the account in Acts and the authentic Pauline letters." (An example can be seen by comparing Acts's accounts of Paul's conversion (Acts 9:1–31, 22:6–21, and 26:9–23) with Paul's own statement that he remained unknown to Christians in Judea after that event (Galatians 1:17–24).) The author "is an admirer of Paul, but does not share Paul's own view of himself as an apostle; his own theology

225-507: A date in the early 2nd century is possible. There are two major textual variants of Acts, the Western text-type and the Alexandrian . The oldest complete Alexandrian manuscripts date from the 4th century and the oldest Western ones from the 6th, with fragments and citations going back to the 3rd. Western texts of Acts are 6.2–8.4% longer than Alexandrian texts, the additions tending to enhance

300-468: A harmonious church is quite at odds with that given by Paul's letters, and it omits important events such as the deaths of both Peter and Paul. The mid-19th-century scholar Ferdinand Baur suggested that the author had re-written history to present a united Peter and Paul and advance a single orthodoxy against the Marcionites (Marcion was a 2nd-century heretic who wished to cut Christianity off entirely from

375-465: A martyr's death, arguing that they do not have sufficient respect for God's gift of life. He is ambivalent whether any believing Christian can become a martyr by virtue of the manner of their death, or whether martyrdom is reserved for those who have lived exceptional lives. Marcionites cannot become martyrs, because they do not believe in the divinity of God the Father – their sufferings are in vain. There

450-575: A member of The Twelve. On Pentecost , the Holy Spirit descends and confers God's power on them, and Peter and John preach to many in Jerusalem and perform healings, casting out of evil spirits , and raising of the dead . The first believers share all property in common , eat in each other's homes, and worship together. At first many Jews follow Christ and are baptized, but the followers of Jesus begin to be increasingly persecuted by other Jews. Stephen

525-444: Is accepted, a trip that has no mention in the letters). There are also major differences between Acts and Paul on Christology (the understanding of Christ's nature), eschatology (the understanding of the "last things"), and apostleship . Stromata The Stromata ( Greek : Στρώματα ), a mistake for Stromateis (Στρωματεῖς, "Patchwork," i.e., Miscellanies ), attributed to Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215),

600-601: Is accused of blasphemy and stoned . Stephen's death marks a major turning point: the Jews have rejected the message, and henceforth it will be taken to the Gentiles. The death of Stephen initiates persecution, and many followers of Jesus leave Jerusalem. The message is taken to the Samaritans, a people rejected by Jews, and to the Gentiles . Saul of Tarsus , one of the Jews who persecuted

675-574: Is around 62 AD, the time of Paul's imprisonment in Rome, but most scholars date the work to 80–90 AD on the grounds that it uses Mark as a source, looks back on the destruction of Jerusalem, and does not show any awareness of the letters of Paul (which began circulating late in the first century); if it does show awareness of the Pauline epistles, and also of the work of the Jewish historian Josephus, as some believe, then

750-441: Is considerably different from Paul's on key points and does not represent Paul's own views accurately." He was educated, a man of means, probably urban, and someone who respected manual work, although not a worker himself; this is significant, because more high-brow writers of the time looked down on the artisans and small business people who made up the early church of Paul and were presumably Luke's audience. The interpretation of

825-460: Is for all mankind. The Gentile church is established in Antioch (north-western Syria, the third-largest city of the empire), and here Christ's followers are first called Christians. The mission to the Gentiles is promoted from Antioch and confirmed at a meeting in Jerusalem between Paul and the leadership of the Jerusalem church. Paul spends the next few years traveling through western Asia Minor and

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900-467: Is intended as a work of "edification", meaning "the empirical demonstration that virtue is superior to vice." The work also engages with the question of a Christian's proper relationship with the Roman Empire, the civil power of the day: could a Christian obey God and also Caesar? The answer is ambiguous. The Romans never move against Jesus or his followers unless provoked by the Jews, in the trial scenes

975-614: Is less systematic and ordered than Clement's other works, and it has been theorized by André Méhat that it was intended for a limited, esoteric readership. The sole authority for the Stromateis is preserved at the Laurentian Library in Florence . How it came to Florence is unknown. The editio princeps was published by Piero Vettori in 1550. In the 19th century, Percy Mordaunt Barnard and Otto Stählin posited that this manuscript

1050-473: Is lowered down the walls in a basket. But details of these same incidents are frequently contradictory: for example, according to Paul it was a pagan king who was trying to arrest him in Damascus, but according to Luke it was the Jews (2 Corinthians 11:33 and Acts 9:24). Acts speaks of "Christians" and "disciples", but Paul never uses either term, and it is striking that Acts never mentions Paul being in conflict with

1125-501: Is not the fault of the copyist, but that an ancestral manuscript had caused the damage, perhaps even a papyrus. The first book written c. 198 AD starts on the topic of Greek philosophy. Consistent with his other writing, Clement affirms that philosophy had a propaedeutic role for the Greek, similar to the function of the law for the Jews . He then embarks on a discussion of the origins of Greek culture and technology, arguing that most of

1200-618: Is referred to as "the evangelist" in Acts 21:8 . Although the Seven are not called 'deacons' in the New Testament , their role is described as 'diaconal' (διακονεῖντραπέζαις in Greek), and they are therefore often regarded as the forerunners of the Christian order of deacons. The Seven Deacons were: According to the narrative in Acts, they were identified and selected by the community of believers on

1275-512: Is reflected in Peter's speech to the Roman centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10:36). Peter states that "this one" [οὗτος], i.e. Jesus, "is lord [κύριος] of all." The title, κύριος, was often ascribed to the Roman emperor in antiquity, rendering its use by Luke as an appellation for Jesus an unsubtle challenge to the emperor's authority. As the second part of the two-part work Luke–Acts, Acts has significant links to

1350-501: Is the geographic movement from Jerusalem, centre of God's Covenantal people, the Jews, to Rome, centre of the Gentile world. This structure reaches back to the author's preceding work, the Gospel of Luke , and is signaled by parallel scenes such as Paul's utterance in Acts 19:21, which echoes Jesus's words in Luke 9:51: Paul has Rome as his destination, as Jesus had Jerusalem. The second key element

1425-464: Is the roles of Peter and Paul, the first representing the Jewish Christian church, the second the mission to the Gentiles. The Gospel of Luke began with a prologue addressed to Theophilus; Acts likewise opens with an address to Theophilus and refers to "my earlier book", almost certainly the gospel. The apostles and other followers of Jesus meet and elect Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot as

1500-483: Is the third of a trilogy of works regarding the Christian life. The oldest extant manuscripts date to the eleventh century. The work is titled Stromateis ("patchwork”) because it deals with such a variety of matters. It goes further than its two predecessors and aims at the perfection of the Christian life by initiation into complete knowledge. It attempts, on the basis of Scripture and tradition, to give such an account of

1575-519: Is then a digression to the subject of theological epistemology . According to Clement, there is no way of empirically testing the existence of God the Father , because the Logos has revelatory, not analysable meaning, although Christ was an object of the senses. God had no beginning, and is the universal first principle. The fifth book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD returns to the subject of faith. Clement argues that truth, justice and goodness can be seen only by

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1650-550: Is treated similarly in the Paedagogus . Clement rejects the Gnostic opposition to marriage, arguing that only men who are uninterested in women should remain celibate, and that sex is a positive good if performed within marriage for the purposes of procreation. However it has not always been so: the Fall occurred because Adam and Eve succumbed to their desire for each other, and copulated before

1725-553: Is used in Acts 10, and Mark's account of the accusation that Jesus has attacked the Temple (Mark 14:58) is used in a story about Stephen (Acts 6:14). There are also points of contacts (meaning suggestive parallels but something less than clear evidence) with 1 Peter , the Letter to the Hebrews , and 1 Clement. Other sources can only be inferred from internal evidence—the traditional explanation of

1800-591: The Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit ), the expulsion of Christians from Jerusalem and the establishment of the church at Antioch . The later chapters narrate the continuation of the message under Paul the Apostle and concludes with his imprisonment in Rome, where he awaits trial . Luke–Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church;

1875-644: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church . Tradition calls Prochorus the nephew of Stephen and a companion of John the Evangelist , who consecrated him bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia (modern-day Turkey ). He was traditionally ascribed the authorship of the apocryphal Acts of John , and was said to have ended his life as a martyr in Antioch in the 1st century. According to Caesar Baronius ' Annales Ecclesiastici , now considered historically inaccurate, Nicanor

1950-563: The Gospel of Luke . Major turning points in the structure of Acts find parallels in Luke: the presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple parallels the opening of Acts in the Temple, Jesus's forty days of testing in the wilderness prior to his mission parallel the forty days prior to his Ascension in Acts, the mission of Jesus in Samaria and the Decapolis (the lands of the Samaritans and Gentiles) parallels

2025-594: The Kingdom of God and teaching freely about "the Lord Jesus Christ". Acts ends abruptly without recording the outcome of Paul's legal troubles. Prior to the 1950s, Luke–Acts was seen as a historical work, written to defend Christianity before the Romans or Paul against his detractors; since then the tendency has been to see the work as primarily theological. Luke's theology is expressed primarily through his overarching plot,

2100-451: The New Testament , the largest contribution attributed to a single author, providing the framework for both the Church's liturgical calendar and the historical outline into which later generations have fitted their idea of the story of Jesus and the early church . The author is not named in either volume. According to Church tradition dating from the 2nd century, the author was Luke , named as

2175-668: The Nicolaitanes , a heretical sect condemned as early as the Book of Revelation , took their name from the deacon. In Philosophumena , Hippolytus writes he inspired the sect through his indifference to life and the pleasures of the flesh; his followers took this as a licence to give in to lust. The Catholic Encyclopedia records a story that after the Apostles reproached Nicholas for mistreating his beautiful wife on account of his jealousy, he left her and consented to anyone else marrying her, saying

2250-453: The followers of Jesus as a sect of the Jews , and therefore entitled to legal protection as a recognised religion; on the other, Luke seems unclear as to the future that God intends for Jews and Christians, celebrating the Jewishness of Jesus and his immediate followers, while also stressing how the Jews had rejected the Messiah. The name "Acts of the Apostles" was first used by Irenaeus in

2325-741: The materialist cannot truly come to know God. Although Christ was God incarnate, it is our spiritual, not physical comprehension of him which is important. In the beginning of the sixth book written c. 203 AD, Clement intends to demonstrate that the works of Greek poets were derived from the prophetic books of the Bible . In order to reinforce his position that the Greeks were inclined towards plagiarism, he cites numerous instances of such inappropriate appropriation by classical Greek writers, reported second-hand from On Plagiarism , an anonymous 3rd century BC work sometimes ascribed to Aretades . Clement then digresses to

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2400-417: The "we" passages as indicative that the writer was a historical eyewitness (whether Luke the evangelist or not), remains the most influential in current biblical studies. Objections to this viewpoint include the above claim that Luke-Acts contains differences in theology and historical narrative which are irreconcilable with the authentic letters of Paul the Apostle . The earliest possible date for Luke-Acts

2475-468: The 9th century, found various texts appended to manuscripts of the seven canonical books, which lead Daniel Heinsius (1580–1655) to suggest that the original eighth book is lost, and he identified the text purported to be from the eighth book as fragments of the Hypopotoses . In any case the "excerpts" and "selections", which, with part of a treatise on logical method, are designated as the eighth book of

2550-527: The Aegean, preaching, converting, and founding new churches. On a visit to Jerusalem he is set on by a Jewish mob. Saved by the Roman commander, he is accused by the Jews of being a revolutionary , the "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes", and imprisoned. Later, Paul asserts his right as a Roman citizen, to be tried in Rome and is sent by sea to Rome, where he spends another two years under house arrest, proclaiming

2625-517: The Apostles ( Koinē Greek : Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων , Práxeis Apostólōn ; Latin : Actūs Apostolōrum ) is the fifth book of the New Testament ; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire . Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-part work, Luke–Acts , by the same anonymous author. Traditionally, the author is believed to be Luke

2700-526: The Apostles" ( Praxeis Apostolon ) would seem to identify it with the genre telling of the deeds and achievements of great men ( praxeis ), but it was not the title given by the author. The anonymous author aligned Luke–Acts to the "narratives" (διήγησις, diēgēsis ) which many others had written, and described his own work as an "orderly account" (ἀκριβῶς καθεξῆς). It lacks exact analogies in Hellenistic or Jewish literature. The author may have taken as his model

2775-529: The Baptist , each time as a sign of God's approval. The Holy Spirit represents God's power (at his ascension, Jesus tells his followers, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you"): through it the disciples are given speech to convert thousands in Jerusalem, forming the first church (the term is used for the first time in Acts 5). One issue debated by scholars is Luke's political vision regarding

2850-494: The Christian faith as shall answer all the demands of learned men, and conduct the student into the innermost realities of his belief. The contents of the Stromateis , as its title suggests, are miscellaneous. Its place in the trilogy is disputed – Clement initially intended to write the Didascalus , a work which would complement the practical guidance of the Paedagogus with a more intellectual schooling in theology. The Stromata

2925-424: The Christian missionaries are always cleared of charges of violating Roman laws, and Acts ends with Paul in Rome proclaiming the Christian message under Roman protection; at the same time, Luke makes clear that the Romans, like all earthly rulers, receive their authority from Satan, while Christ is ruler of the kingdom of God . Acts is divided into 28 chapters . The work has two key structural principles. The first

3000-488: The Earth." They then proceed to do so, in the order outlined: first Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, then the entire (Roman) world. For Luke, the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind the spread of the Christian message, and he places more emphasis on it than do any of the other evangelists. The Spirit is "poured out" at Pentecost on the first Samaritan and Gentile believers and on disciples who had been baptised only by John

3075-578: The Evangelist , a doctor who travelled with Paul the Apostle . It is usually dated to around 80–90 AD, although some scholars suggest 110–120 AD. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world's salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth . Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century , beginning with the ascension of Jesus to Heaven . The early chapters, set in Jerusalem , describe

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3150-493: The Father and the Son. Clement then criticizes the simplistic anthropomorphism of most ancient religions, quoting Xenophanes ' famous description of African, Thracian and Egyptian deities. The Greek gods may also have had their origins in the personification of material objects: Ares representing iron, and Dionysus wine. Prayer, and the relationship between love and knowledge are then discussed. 1 Corinthians 13:8 seems to contradict

3225-505: The Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. This theme is introduced in Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus, rejected in Nazareth, recalls the rejection of prophets. at the end of the gospel he commands his disciples to preach his message to all nations, "beginning from Jerusalem." He repeats the command in Acts, telling them to preach "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of

3300-482: The Greco-Roman world at large. He begins his gospel with a preface addressed to Theophilus ( Luke 1:3 ; cf. Acts 1:1 ), informing him of his intention to provide an "ordered account" of events which will lead his reader to "certainty". He did not write in order to provide Theophilus with historical justification—"did it happen?"—but to encourage faith—"what happened, and what does it all mean?" Acts (or Luke–Acts)

3375-424: The Jerusalem church and places Paul under the authority of the Jerusalem church and its leaders, especially James and Peter (Acts 15 vs. Galatians 2). Acts omits much from the letters, notably Paul's problems with his congregations (internal difficulties are said to be the fault of the Jews instead), and his apparent final rejection by the church leaders in Jerusalem (Acts has Paul and Barnabas deliver an offering that

3450-512: The Jewish rejection of the Messiah and the role of the Holy Spirit, in ways that are stylistically different from the rest of Acts. The majority of scholars prefer the Alexandrian (shorter) text-type over the Western as the more authentic, but this same argument would favour the Western over the Alexandrian for the Gospel of Luke, as in that case the Western version is the shorter. The title "Acts of

3525-566: The Jews); Baur continues to have enormous influence, but today there is less interest in determining the historical accuracy of Acts (although this has never died out) than in understanding the author's theological program. Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus-followers gathered in a house to share the Lord's supper. The author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but directs his attention to specifically Christian concerns rather than to

3600-404: The Logos. Faith is voluntary, and the decision to believe is a crucial fundamental step in becoming closer to God. It is never irrational, as it is founded on the knowledge of the truth of the Logos, but all knowledge proceeds from faith, as first principles are unprovable outside a systematic structure. The third book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD covers asceticism . He discusses marriage, which

3675-615: The Messianic kingdom by Israel, and God's sovereign establishment of the church for both Jews and Gentiles. Acts agrees with Paul's letters on the major outline of Paul's career: he is converted and becomes a Christian missionary and apostle, establishing new churches in Asia Minor and the Aegean and struggling to free Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law . There are also agreements on many incidents, such as Paul's escape from Damascus, where he

3750-463: The allotted time. He argues against the idea that Christians should reject their family for an ascetic life, which stems from Luke 14:25–27 , contending that Jesus would not have contradicted the precept to "Honour thy Father and thy Mother" ( Exodus 20:12 ), one of the Ten Commandments . Clement concludes that asceticism will only be rewarded if the motivation is Christian in nature, and thus

3825-540: The answer it provides is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it . Luke–Acts can also be seen as a defense of the Jesus movement addressed to the Jews: the bulk of the speeches and sermons in Acts are addressed to Jewish audiences, with the Romans serving as external arbiters on disputes concerning Jewish customs and law. On the one hand, Luke portrays

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3900-425: The asceticism of non-Christians such as the gymnosophists is pointless. Clement begins the fourth book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD with a belated explanation of the disorganized nature of the work, and gives a brief description of his aims for the remaining three or four books. The fourth book focuses on martyrdom . While all good Christians should be unafraid of death, Clement condemns those who actively seek out

3975-589: The basis of their reputation and wisdom, being 'full of the Holy Spirit ', and their appointment was confirmed by the Apostles. Only Stephen and Philip are discussed in much detail in Acts; tradition provides nothing further about Nicanor or Parmenas. Stephen became the first martyr of the church when he was killed by a mob, and whose death was agreed to by Saul of Tarsus , the future Apostle Paul ( Acts 8:1 ). Philip evangelized in Samaria , where he converted Simon Magus and an Ethiopian eunuch , traditionally beginning

4050-517: The characterization of the true Christian as one who knows; but to Clement, knowledge vanishes only in that it is subsumed by the universal love expressed by the Christian in his reverence for his Creator. Following Socrates , he argues that vice arises from a state of ignorance, not from intention. The Christian is a "laborer in God's vineyard", responsible both for his own path to salvation and that of his neighbor. The work ends with an extended passage against

4125-572: The contemporary divisions and heresies within the church. Clement intended to make but one book of this; at least seven grew out of it, without his having treated all the subjects proposed. The absence of certain things definitely promised has led scholars to ask whether he wrote an eighth book, as would appear from Eusebius (VI. xiii. 1) and the Florilegia , and various attempts have been made to identify short or fragmentary treatises of his work that may have been part of this book. Photius , writing in

4200-571: The flesh should be maltreated. In the Stromata , Clement of Alexandria says the sect corrupted Nicholas' words, originally designed to check the pleasures of the body, to justify licentiousness. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the historicity of the story is debatable, though the Nicolaitanes themselves may have considered Nicholas their founder. Acts of the Apostles The Acts of

4275-506: The followers of Jesus, is converted by a vision to become a follower of Christ (an event which Luke regards as so important that he relates it three times). Peter, directed by a series of visions, preaches to Cornelius the Centurion , a Gentile God-fearer, who becomes a follower of Christ. The Holy Spirit descends on Cornelius and his guests, thus confirming that the message of eternal life in Christ

4350-416: The illegal practice of magic (Acts 19:17–19) as well as the amicability of his rapport with Roman officials such as Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:6–12) and Festus (Acts 26:30–32). Furthermore, Acts does not include any account of a struggle between Christians and the Roman government as a result of the latter's imperial cult. Thus Paul is depicted as a moderating presence between the church and the Roman Empire. On

4425-421: The important figures in the Greek world were foreigners, and (erroneously) that Jewish culture was the most significant influence on Greece. In an attempt to demonstrate the primacy of Moses , Clement gives an extended chronology of the world, wherein he dates the birth of Christ to 25 April or May, 4-2 B.C., and the creation of the world to 5592 B.C. The book ends with a discussion on the origin of languages and

4500-459: The late 2nd century. It is not known whether this was an existing name for the book or one invented by Irenaeus; it does seem clear that it was not given by the author, as the word práxeis (deeds, acts) only appears once in the text ( Acts 19 :18) and there it refers not to the apostles but to deeds confessed by their followers. The Gospel of Luke and Acts make up a two-volume work which scholars call Luke–Acts . Together they account for 27.5% of

4575-408: The mind, not the eye; faith is a way of accessing the unseeable. He stresses that knowledge of God can only be achieved through faith once one's moral faults have been corrected. This parallels Clement's earlier insistence that martyrdom can only be achieved by those who practice their faith in Christ through good deeds, not those who simply profess their faith. God transcends matter entirely, and thus

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4650-592: The missions of the Apostles in Samaria and the Gentile lands, and so on (see Gospel of Luke ). These parallels continue through both books, contributing to the narrative unity of the work. However, scholars have noted differences between Luke and Acts, including some apparent contradictions. For example, the gospel seems to place the Ascension on Easter Sunday , shortly after the Resurrection , while Acts 1 puts it forty days later. Such differences have led to debates over

4725-414: The nature of the unity between the two books. While not seriously questioning the single authorship of Luke–Acts, these variations suggest a complex literary structure that balances thematic continuity with narrative development across two volumes. Literary studies have explored how Luke sets the stage in his gospel for key themes that recur and develop throughout Acts, including the offer to and rejection of

4800-417: The other hand, events such as the imprisonment of Paul at the hands of the empire (Acts 22–28) as well as several encounters that reflect negatively on Roman officials (for instance, Felix's desire for a bribe from Paul in Acts 24:26) function as concrete points of conflict between Rome and the early church. Perhaps the most significant point of tension between Roman imperial ideology and Luke's political vision

4875-416: The possibility of a Jewish influence on Plato. The second book written c. 199 AD-c.201 AD is largely devoted to the respective roles of faith and philosophical argument . Clement contends that while both are important, the fear of God is foremost, because through faith one receives divine wisdom. To Clement, scripture is an innately true primitive philosophy which is complemented by human reason through

4950-674: The relationship between the early church and the Roman Empire. On the one hand, Luke generally does not portray this interaction as one of direct conflict. Rather, there are ways in which each may have considered having a relationship with the other rather advantageous to its own cause. For example, early Christians may have appreciated hearing about the protection Paul received from Roman officials against Gentile rioters in Philippi (Acts 16:16–40) and Ephesus (Acts 19:23–41), and against Jewish rioters on two occasions (Acts 17:1–17; Acts 18:12–17). Meanwhile, Roman readers may have approved of Paul's censure of

5025-432: The sources for Acts can only be guessed at, but the author would have had access to the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures), the Gospel of Mark , and either the hypothetical collection of "sayings of Jesus" called the Q source or the Gospel of Matthew . He transposed a few incidents from Mark's gospel to the time of the Apostles—for example, the material about "clean" and "unclean" foods in Mark 7

5100-436: The subject of sin and hell , arguing that Adam was not perfect when created, but given the potential to achieve perfection. He espouses broadly universalist doctrine, holding that Christ's promise of salvation is available to all, even those condemned to hell. The final extant book written c. 203 AD begins with a description of the nature of Christ, and that of the true Christian, who aims to be as similar as possible to both

5175-410: The three "we" passages, for example, is that they represent eyewitness accounts. The search for such inferred sources was popular in the 19th century, but by the mid-20th it had largely been abandoned. Acts was read as a reliable history of the early church well into the post-Reformation era, but by the 17th century biblical scholars began to notice that it was incomplete and tendentious—its picture of

5250-404: The way scenes, themes and characters combine to construct his specific worldview. His "salvation history" stretches from the Creation to the present time of his readers, in three ages: first, the time of "the Law and the Prophets" (Luke 16:16), the period beginning with Genesis and ending with the appearance of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5–3:1); second, the epoch of Jesus, in which the Kingdom of God

5325-444: The works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus , who wrote a well-known history of Rome, or the Jewish historian Josephus , author of a history of the Jews . Like them, he anchors his history by dating the birth of the founder (Romulus for Dionysius, Moses for Josephus, Jesus for Luke) and like them he tells how the founder is born from God, taught authoritatively, and appeared to witnesses after death before ascending to heaven. By and large

5400-566: Was a Cypriot Jew who returned to his native island and died a martyr in 76. Other accounts say he was martyred in "Berj," an unidentified place possibly confused with Botrys . Timon was said to have been a Hellenized Jew who became a bishop in Greece or in Bosra , Syria ; in the latter account, his preaching brought the ire of the local governor, who martyred him with fire. After preaching for years in Asia Minor, where Hippolytus of Rome claimed he

5475-530: Was bishop of Soli (Pompeiopolis; though he may have been referring to Soli, Cyprus ), Parmenas was said to have settled down in Macedonia , where he died at Philippi in 98 during Trajan 's persecutions. Alternatively, Orthodox tradition says he died after being afflicted with an illness. Nicholas, who came from Antioch, was described in Acts as a convert to Judaism. He was not remembered fondly by some early writers. According to Irenaeus ' Adversus Haereses ,

5550-516: Was copied out in the 910s for Arethas of Caesarea , the remainder of whose extant library is held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France . Their theory is generally accepted today. As with the library of Arethas held at Paris, the Laurentian manuscript contains numerous misspellings, omitted words and sentences and even marginalia integrated into the text. However, Frederic G. Kenyon argued that this

5625-410: Was preached (Luke 3:2–24:51); and finally the period of the Church, which began when the risen Christ was taken into Heaven, and would end with his second coming . Luke–Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah, promised to the Jews, came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to

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