Acts

Notes on the Acts of the Apostles.

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NOTES ON THE ACTS OF THE

APOSTLES.

THIS book, in which St. Luke records the actions of the apostles, particularly of St. Peter and St. Paul, (whose companion in travel he was,) is as it were the centre between the Gospel and the Epistles. It contains, after a very brief re-capitulation of the evangelical history, a continuation of the history of Christ, the event of his predictions, and a kind of supplement to what he had before spoken to his disciples, by the Holy Ghost now given unto them. It contains also the seeds, and first stamina of all those things, which are enlarged upon in the epistles. The Gospels treat of Christ the head. The Acts show that the same things befell his body; which is animated by his Spirit, persecuted by the world, defended and exalted by God.

In this book is shown the Christian doctrine, and the method of applying it to Jews, heathens, and believers; that is, to those who are to be converted, and those who are converted: the hinderances of it in particular men, in several kinds of men, in different ranks and nations: the propagation of the Gospel, and that grand revolution among both Jews and heathens: the victory thereof, in Spite of all opposition, from all the power, malice, and wisdom of the whole world, spreading from one chamber into temples, houses, streets, markets, fields, inns, prisons, camps, courts, chariots, ships, villages, cities, islands: to Jews, heathens, magistrates, generals, soldiers, eunuchs, captives, slaves, women, children, sailors: to Athens, and at length to Rome.

THE PARTS OF IT ARE SEVEN

1. Pentecost, with its antecedents Chap. 1-2

2. Transactions with the Jews, in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in Samaria 3-9

3. Transactions at Cesarea, and the reception of the Gentiles 10-11

4. The first course of Barnabas and Paul among the Gentiles 12-14

5. The embassy to, and council at Jerusalem, concerning the liberty of the Gentiles 15

6. The second course of St. Paul 16-19

7. His third, as far as Rome 19-28

Preface to the Acts of the Apostles.

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PREFACE TO THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

THE book of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES forms the fifth, and last, of the historical books of the New Testament. And on this account it has been generally placed at the end of the four Gospels; though in several MSS. and versions it is found at the end of St. Paul’s Epistles, as many circumstances in them are referred to by the narrative contained in this book, which is carried down almost to the apostle’s death. This book has had a variety of names: Πραξεις των Αποστολων, the Res Gestæ, Acts or Transactions of the Apostles, is the title it bears in the Codex Bezae. πραξεις των ἁγιων αποστολων, The Acts of the Holy Apostles, is its title in the Codex Alexandrinus, and several others, as well as in several of the ancient versions, and in the Greek and Latin fathers. One or other form of the above title is followed by almost all the editors of the Greek Testament, and translators and commentators in general. By some it has been reckoned a fifth Gospel; and by Œcumenius it is termed, The Gospel of the Holy Spirit; and by St. Chrysostom, το βιβλιον, αποδειξις αναστασεως, The Book, The Demonstration of the

Resurrection. These two last characters are peculiarly descriptive of its contents. All the promises which Christ gave of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are shown here to have been fulfilled in the most eminent manner; and, by the effusion of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection of our blessed Lord has been fully demonstrated. The calling of the Gentiles is another grand point which is here revealed and illustrated. This miracle of miracles, as one terms it, which had been so frequently foretold by the prophets and by Christ himself, is here exhibited; and by this grand act of the power and goodness of God the Christian Church has been founded and thus the tabernacle and kingdom of God have been immutably established among men. It is truly a fifth Gospel, as it contains the glad tidings of peace and salvation to the whole Gentile world. All antiquity is unanimous in ascribing this book to St. Luke as the author; and, from the commencement of it, we see plainly that it can be attributed to no other; and it seems plain that St. Luke intended it as a continuation of his Gospel, being dedicated to Theophilus, to whom he had dedicated the former; and to which, in the introduction to this, he expressly refers: indeed he has taken up the narrative, in this book precisely in the place where he had dropped it in the other. The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, &c.; and from this we may form a safe conjecture, that the two books were written at no greater a distance from each other than the time of the last occurrence recorded in this book. Some have supposed that this book was written from Alexandria; but this does not appear to be probable. The conjecture of Michaelis is much more likely, viz. that it was written from Rome, at which place St. Luke mentions his arrival, in company with St. Paul, shortly before the close of the book. See Acts 28:16.

Though the time in which the book of the Acts was written is not recorded, yet the same writer observes that, as it is continued to the end of the second year of St. Paul’s imprisonment, it could not have been written before the year 63; and, had it been written after that year, it is reasonable to conclude that it would have related some farther particulars relative to St. Paul; or would at least have mentioned the event of his imprisonment, in which the reader is so much interested. This argument seems conclusive, in reference to the date of this book.

St. Luke’s long attendance upon St. Paul, and his having been himself eye-witness to many of the facts which he has recorded, independently of his Divine inspiration, render him a most respectable and credible historian. His medical knowledge, for he is allowed to have been a physician, enabled him, as Professor Michaelis has properly observed, both to form a proper judgment of the miraculous cures which were performed by St. Paul, and to give an account and authentic detail of them. It is worthy also of observation that St. Luke himself does not appear to have possessed the gift of miraculous healing. Though there can be no doubt that he was with St. Paul when shipwrecked at Malta, yet he was not concerned in healing the father of Publius the governor; nor of the other sick persons mentioned Acts 28:8, 9. These were all healed by the prayers of St. Paul, and the imposition of his hands, and consequently miraculously; nor do we find any evidence that St. Luke was ever employed in this way. This is another proof of the wisdom of God: had the physician been employed to work miracles of healing, the excellence of the power would have been attributed to the skill of the man, and not to the power of his Maker. The Acts of the Apostles have been generally considered in the light of a Church History, and, consequently, the first ecclesiastical history on record; but Professor Michaelis very properly contends that it cannot have been intended as a general history of the Christian Church, even for the period of time it embraces, as it passes by all the transactions of the Church at Jerusalem, after the conversion of St. Paul; the propagation of Christianity in Egypt; Paul’s journey into Arabia; the state of Christianity at Babylon; (1 Peter 5:13;) the foundation of the Christian Church at Rome; several of St. Paul’s voyages; his thrice suffering shipwreck, &c., &c. See more particulars in Lardner and Michaelis.

The object of St. Luke appears to have been twofold: 1. To relate in what manner the gifts of the Holy Spirit were communicated on the day of pentecost, and the subsequent miracles performed by the apostles, by which the truth of Christianity was confirmed. 2. To deliver such accounts as proved the claim of the Gentiles to admission into the Church of Christ; a claim disputed by the Jews, especially at the time when the Acts of the Apostles were written. Hence we see the reason why he relates, Acts 8:1-25, the conversion of the Samaritans; and Acts 10:1-11:-18, the story of Cornelius, and the determination of the council in Jerusalem relative to the Levitical law; and for the same reason he is more diffuse in his account of St. Paul’s conversion, and his preaching to the Gentiles, than he is on any other subject. In such a restricted manner has St. Luke compiled his history, that Michaelis is of opinion that it was the intention of this apostle to record only those facts which he had either seen himself, or heard from eye witnesses. Introduct. vol. v. p. 326, &c.

The book of the Acts has been uniformly and universally received by the Christian Church in all places and ages: it is mentioned and quoted by almost every Christian writer, and its authenticity and importance universally admitted. Arator, a subdeacon in the Church at Rome, in the sixth century, turned it into verse. In ancient times, personal history and important transactions, in most nations, were generally thus preserved; as the facts, through the medium of verse, could be the more easily committed to memory.

St. Luke’s narration bears every evidence of truth and authenticity. It is not a made up history. The language and manner of every speaker are different; and the same speaker is different in his manner, according to the audience he addresses. The speeches of Stephen, Peter, Cornelius, Tertullus, and Paul, are all different, and such as we might naturally expect from the characters in question, and the circumstances in which they were at the time of speaking. St. Paul’s speeches are also suited to the occasion, and to the persons before whom he spoke. When his audience was heathen, though he kept the same end steadily in view, yet how different is his mode of address from that used when before a Jewish audience! Several of these peculiarities, which constitute a strong evidence of the authenticity of the work, shall be pointed out in the notes. See dome good remarks on this head, in Michaelis’ Introduction, ubi supra.

As St. Luke has not annexed any date to the transactions he records, it is not a very easy matter to adjust the chronology of the Acts; but, as in some places he refers to political facts, the exact times of which are well known, the dates of several transactions in his narrative may be settled with considerable accuracy. It is well known, for instance that the famine mentioned Acts 11:29, 30, happened in the fourth year of the Emperor Claudius, which answers to the forty-fourth of the Christian aura. From facts of this nature, dates may be derived with considerable accuracy: all such dates are carefully noted at the top of the column, as in the preceding parts of this Commentary; and the chronology is adjusted in the best manner possible. In some cases, conjecture and probability are the only lights by which this obscure passage can be illuminated. The dates of the commencement and the end of the book are tolerably certain; as the work certainly begins with the twenty-ninth year of the Christian aera, Acts 1:1 and ends probably with the sixty-third, Acts 28:30. In the book of the Acts we see how the Church of Christ was formed and settled. The apostles simply proclaim the truth of God relative to the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; and God accompanies their testimony with the demonstration of his Spirit. What was the consequence? Thousands acknowledge the truth, embrace Christianity, and openly profess it at the most imminent risk of their lives. The change is not a change of merely one religious sentiment or mode of worship for another; but a change of tempers, passions, prospects, and moral conduct. All before was earthly, or animal, or devilish; or all these together; but now all is holy, spiritual, and Divine: the heavenly influence becomes extended, and nations are born unto God. And how was all this brought about? Not by might nor power: not by the sword, nor by secular authority; not through worldly motives and prospects; not by pious frauds or cunning craftiness; not by the force of persuasive eloquence: in a word, by nothing but the sole influence of truth itself, attested to the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherever religious frauds and secular influence have been used to found or support a Church; professing itself to be Christian, there, we may rest assured, is the fullest evidence that that Church is wholly antichristian; and where such a Church, possessing secular power, has endeavoured to support itself by persecution, and persecution unto privation of goods, of liberty, and of life, it not only shows itself to be antichristian, but also diabolic. The religion of Christ stands in no need either of human cunning or power. It is the religion of God, and is to be propagated by his power: this the book of the Acts fully shows; and in it we find the true model, after which every Christian Church should be builded. As far as any Church can show that it has followed this model, so far it is holy and apostolic. And when all Churches or congregations of people professing Christianity, shall be founded and regulated according to the doctrines and discipline laid down in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, then the aggregate body may be justly called, The Holy, Apostolic, and Catholic Church.

The simplicity of the primitive Christian worship, as laid down in the book of the Acts, is worthy of particular notice and admiration. Here are no expensive ceremonies: no apparatus calculated merely to impress the senses, and produce emotions in the animal system, “to help,” as has been foolishly said, “the spirit of devotion.” The heart is the subject in which this spirit of devotion is kindled; and the Spirit of GOD alone is the agent that communicates and maintains the celestial fire; and God, who knows and searches that heart, is the object of its adoration, and the only source whence it expects the grace that pardons, sanctifies, and renders it happy. No strange fire can be brought to this altar: for the God of the Christians can be worshipped only in spirit and truth; the truth revealed, directing the worship; and the Spirit given, applying that truth, and giving life and energy to every faculty and power. Thus God was worshipped in his own way, and through his own power; every religious act, thus performed, was acceptable to him; the praises of his followers rose up as incense before the throne, and their prayers were heard and answered. As they had but one God, so they had but one Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. They received him as the gift of God’s eternal love; sought and found redemption in his blood; and, in a holy and useful life, showed forth the virtues of Him who had called them from darkness into his marvellous light; for no profession of faith was then considered of any worth that was not supported by that love to God and man which is the fulfilling of the law, which is the life and soul of obedience to the Divine testimonies, and the ceaseless spring of benevolence and humanity. This is the religion of Jesus Christ, as laid down and exemplified in this blessed book. “Ye different sects, who all declare,

LO! CHRIST is here, and CHRIST is there,

Your stronger proofs divinely give,

And show me where the Christians live.”

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

-Usherian year of the world, 4033.

-Alexandrian æra of the world, 5531.

-Antiochian year of the world, 5521.

-Constantinopolitan year of the world, 5537.

-Year of the æra of the Seleucidæ, 341.

-Year of the Spanish æra, 67.

-Year of the Christian æra, 29.

-Year of the Paschal Cycle, 30.

-Year of the Jewish Cycle, 11.

-Golden Number, 8.

-Solar Cycle, 10.

-Dominical Letter, B.

-Jewish Passover, April 15.

-Epact, 20.

-Year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius Cæsar, 18.

-Year of the CCII. Olympiad, 1.

-Year of Rome, 782.

-Consuls, from Jan. 1, to July 1, L. Rubellius Geminus, and C. Rufius Geminus; and, for the remainder of the year, Aulus Plautius and L. Nonius Asprenas.

For an explanation of these æras, see the Advertisement prefixed to the Comment on the Gospel of St Matthew.

Preface

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ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

PREFACE

THIS book, containing a history of Christ’s infant church, and connecting the gospels and the epistles, according to the testimony of the most ancient Christian writers, was composed by the Evangelist Luke: indeed, it is a second part of, or supplement to, his gospel, as appears from the beginning of it, being addressed to his friend Theophilus, as his former work had been. The exact time when it was written cannot be fully ascertained: but, as the narrative is continued to the end of the second year of Paul’s imprisonment at Rome, at whatever time it was begun, it could not have been finished earlier than A.D. 63; and, if it had been written much later, it is probable it would have carried the story further, and have recorded events subsequent to that period, and in particular would have informed us of the issue of Paul’s imprisonment, a subject in which every Christian reader cannot but find himself greatly interested. But though this history comprehends only a period of about thirty years, it contains satisfactory information concerning a variety of most important matters. After a brief recapitulation of the evangelical history, and a continuation of the history of Christ, it shows us the event of his predictions, and gives us a kind of supplement to what he had before spoken to his disciples. We here see the accomplishment of several of the promises which he had made them; his ascension; the descent of the Holy Ghost in his miraculous gifts; the first preaching of the apostles, and the miracles whereby their doctrines were confirmed; an admirable picture of the manners of the primitive Christians; and, in short, every thing that passed in the church till the dispersion of the apostles, who separated themselves in order to propagate the gospel throughout the world. It contains also the seeds and first stamina of all those things which are enlarged upon in the epistles. The gospels treat of Christ the Head; and delineate his doctrine and example, attest his miracles, and describe his labours and sufferings: — this book exhibits the faith and practice, the labours and sufferings, of the members of his mystical body, animated by his Spirit, persecuted by the world, as he was, but defended and exalted by God.

It must not be supposed, however, that Luke intended this to be a complete history of the Christian Church, even during that short period of time comprehended in his narrative. For, though it is entitled THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, it gives no further account of the acts of most of them than what preceded or immediately followed the day of pentecost. It is almost wholly confined to the acts, or rather the labours and sufferings, of two of them, namely, of Peter and Paul. And the history of the former, even of these, is pursued no further than the time of his imprisonment by Herod, his miraculous deliverance out of prison, and the death of that monarch. The apostles having about that time departed from Judea, and gone forth to carry the gospel into different countries, Luke quits their history, even that of Peter, who was then at too great a distance from him, and confines himself more particularly to that of Paul, of the extraordinary circumstances attending whose conversion he has given a most striking and interesting account. He records, however, some particulars of the history of Stephen, the first martyr, of Philip, Barnabas, Silas, and some other apostolic men, who, though not of the twelve, yet were endued with the same spirit, and successfully employed in the same work, of evangelizing the world. But the history of Paul is pursued at a much greater length than that of any other servant of Christ mentioned in this narrative; the author being his fellow-traveller and attendant in most of his missions, journeys, and voyages, having even accompanied him when he carried the collections, made in various places, to the saints in Judea, where he abode during the apostle’s two years’ imprisonment at Jerusalem and Cesarea, and no doubt was present at his trials before Felix and Festus, and heard the speeches which he has recorded in this history. And when the apostle was sent a prisoner to Italy, Luke accompanied him in the voyage, and remained with him in Rome till he was released. Lastly, he was with the apostle also during his second imprisonment in the same city; and, when his other assistants deserted him through fear, this excellent person abode with him and ministered to him, 2 Timothy 4:11; during which time it is probable he composed this narrative. See the preface to Luke’s gospel. As a further proof that Luke did not intend this to be a complete history of the Christian Church, we may observe, that he is silent concerning all the transactions of the church at Jerusalem, after the dispersion of the apostles and the conversion of St. Paul; that he omits to record some of that apostle’s journeys, as for instance that into Arabia, mentioned Galatians 1:17; several of his voyages; his suffering shipwreck thrice, as mentioned in the second epistle to the Corinthians; and many of his other sufferings, spoken of in his epistles. Nor does he give us any account of the propagation of the gospel and establishment of Christianity in Egypt, Babylonia, Parthia, or in any other country where the Greek or Latin language was not spoken.

In this invaluable book, however, the gospel is fully confirmed, the true Christian doctrine set forth, and the proper method of applying it to Jews, heathen, and believers, that is, to those who are to be converted, and those who are converted, is shown: the hinderances of it in particular men, in several kinds of men, in different ranks and nations, are manifested: the propagation of the gospel, and the grand revolution consequent thereon, among both Jews and heathen, are attested and displayed; as also the victory thereof, in spite of all opposition from all the power, malice, and wisdom of the whole world; spreading from one chamber into temples, houses, streets, markets, fields, inns, prisons, camps, courts, chariots, ships, villages, cities, islands; to Jews, heathen, magistrates, generals, soldiers, eunuchs, captives, slaves, women, children, sailors; to Athens, and at length to Rome.

It appears from all this, that, setting aside the consideration of its divine inspiration, this history of the Acts of the Apostles, as a history of the first planting of the Christian religion in the world, is a most valuable work, were it only on account of the variety and importance of the transactions recorded in it, and its certain authenticity; — the effect of the perfect integrity of the author, and the thorough knowledge which he had of the facts that he relates, as being an eye-witness of at least the greater part of them. But it is valuable, also, on account of the manner in which they are related: “For the circumstances of each transaction are selected with judgment, and told in a simplicity and elegance of language truly admirable. And the whole is comprised in a short, but perspicuous narration, which cannot fail to give pleasure to every reader who is a judge of elegant writing. Further, the Acts being a history of persons who travelled through the most civilized and best-known provinces of the Roman empire, for the purpose of preaching the gospel, the historian was naturally led to mention a variety of particulars relating to the geography of those countries, to their political state at that time, to the persons who governed them, and to the manners of their inhabitants. The learned, therefore, from the time of the publication of this history, have had an opportunity of examining all these particulars; and, on the most accurate investigation, they have found them confirmed by the contemporary heathen writers of the best credit, whose writings still remain. Nor is this all. In the Acts there are speeches recorded, said to have been pronounced by persons of the highest character and rank; which are not, like the speeches in most other ancient histories, the production of the historian’s own imagination, but the real speeches of the persons to whom they are attributed; such as the speeches delivered by the Apostle Peter on different occasions; by Gamaliel, an eminent Jewish doctor; by the protomartyr, Stephen, when arraigned before the sanhedrim; by the Apostle Paul, in the synagogue of Antioch, and to the Lystrians, and to the senate of the Areopagus at Athens, and to the sanhedrim: also, a letter of Claudius Lysias to the governor Felix, and a speech of the orator Tertullus, in accusation of Paul before the same Felix; Paul’s answer to that accusation; Festus the governor’s speech to King Agrippa, the chief captains, and the principal men of Cesarea, assembled to hear Paul; Paul’s defence, pronounced in the hearing of that august assembly: in all which, the characters, and sentiments, and style of the different speakers are so distinctly marked, that no one who reads them, and is capable to judge of such matters, can doubt of their being genuine. These circumstances united form a convincing proof that the history of the Acts was written, as it professeth to be, by a person who was present at most of the transactions which he hath recorded. And with respect to such of the speeches as he had not an opportunity of hearing, they may have been made known to him by those who heard them, or by inspiration. However, not to insist on this, Luke’s history of the Acts of the Apostles contains more internal marks of authenticity than any ancient heathen history extant. So that, considering it merely as a human composition, it is by far the most valuable ancient monument of the kind which the world is at present in possession of.” — Macknight.

As to the style of this work, which was originally composed in Greek, it is much purer than that of the other canonical writers; and it is observable that Luke, who was much better acquainted with the Greek than the Hebrew language, always, in his quotations from the Old Testament, makes use of the Septuagint version. “Luke,” says Mr. Blackwall, in his Sacred Classics, “is pure, copious, and flowing in his language, and has a wonderful and most entertaining variety of select circumstances in his narration. Both in his gospel and apostolical acts he is accurate and neat, clear and flowing, with a natural and easy grace; his style is admirably accommodated to the design of history. The narrative of the Acts is perspicuous and noble; the discourses inserted emphatical, eloquent, and sublime. He is justly applauded for his politeness and elegance by some critics, who seem to magnify him in order to depreciate the rest of the evangelists, when yet it is plain he has as many Hebraisms and peculiarities as any one of them.”

The Acts of the Apostles.

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THEACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

THE English title of this book is too assuming, because it does not contain the Acts of the Apostles, but only the commencement in Jerusalem; such as the local labours of St. Peter, and the travels and sufferings of St. Paul. And through the sufferings of the church, the lives and labours of the other ten are lost in much obscurity. EUSEBIUS, in his Chronicum of the apostles, has left us the best digest of their labours and travels that he could. The churches they planted are the real historians of their labours and success. In this book we have a beautiful portrait of the infant church in Jerusalem, the family of God consecrated to be heirs of the world. We see here the accomplishment of that luminous prediction in Isaiah 2:3. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” We see the holy sons of Zion flying across the seas, the isles, and the continents, to carry the news of man’s redemption to nations that sat in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death. — Of Paul’s labours in Roman Asia we have but a brief account. He was driven from Antioch in the forty fifth year of Christ; and according to bishop Usher, entered on his new sphere of labours in Greece, and came to Philippi in the year fifty three. A book, entitled the travels of Paul and Thecla, has been named in the introduction to St. Luke’s gospel; a book undoubtedly genuine, being the production of a priest of Asia, and widely circulated under the name of Luke; for transcribers, before the invention of printing, were apt to put the name of some father to their manuscripts, the better to procure a sale. When St. John reproved the priest for doing this, he said that he had composed the book because of the great love he had for St. Paul; and that the book by some means had escaped out of his hands. So Tertullian affirms in his book, De baptismo, caput 17. It must therefore have been the transcribers who put the name of Luke to the above production. Du Pin, the most laborious of all ecclesiastical historians, has therefore put this work among the spurious books, without the least doubt of its truth in the relation of historic facts.

In the remains of Cyprian of Carthage, who flourished in the third century, we find a prayer written during the severe persecution of Dioclesian. “Stand by us, oh Lord, as thou didst stand by the apostles in bonds, by Thecla in the fire, by Paul in persecution, and by Peter in the waves. The above history is honourably named by many of the fathers, as Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssæ, Chrysostom, and others. This history was rescued from long oblivion, and published by the learned Professor Dr. Grabe, while he resided in England, editor of the Septuagint, and who wrote short notes in Latin to bishop Bull’s defence of the Nicene fathers. The substance of the history is, that when the jews drove away Paul from Antioch, as related by Luke in Acts 13:50, he travelled to Iconium, the capital of Lycaönia, and preached in the house of Onesiphorus. Onesiphorus, having been informed by Titus of Paul’s coming, went out to meet him, accompanied by Lectra his wife, and their two children, Simmia and Zeno, that they might receive him into their house; for Titus had informed them of the person of Paul, seeing they had not yet known him in the flesh. Walking therefore on the king’s road leading to Lystra, they waited, expecting to receive him. Not long after they saw Paul coming towards them, a man of small stature — bald — his legs distorted — his eyebrows knit together — his nose aquiline, but his whole exterior manifestly full of the grace of God. His countenance was sometimes like that of a man, and sometimes like that of an angel.

While Paul was discoursing in the house of Onesiphorus, Thecla, daughter of Theoclia, a virgin espoused to Tamyris, a prince of the city, standing at the adjacent window of her house night and day, heard Paul preach. And seeing many women and virgins go in to hear Paul, she accompanied them, for as yet she had only heard his voice. As Thecla continued to do this, Theoclia her mother sent for Tamyris, and informed him that Thecla had not risen up from her place for three days, nor taken any food, but had wholly given herself up to that stranger.

Tamyris, fearing some distraction of mind, spake to her with tenderness. “Why, Thecla, dost thou sit dejected thus with thine eyes fixed on the ground? What new passion has turned thee, and attached thee to this stranger? Turn to thy Tamyris, and be ashamed. Thecla, answering nothing, turned from them, and continued intent on hearing Paul. Tamyris, filled with despair, left the house, and watched the people that went to hear Paul. And seeing two men contending sharply in the street, asked, who is this man that seduces the minds of men, forbidding to marry? For I am in great anguish about Thecla, on account of her attachment to this stranger. On this, Demas and Hermogenes with one voice exclaimed, deliver him to the governor, and let him be put to death; and we will persuade Thecla that the resurrection which he preaches is past, whenever we come to the knowledge of God.

Tamyris, on hearing this, went early next morning with a guard of officers, and a multitude of people to the house of Onesiphorus, and dragged away Paul, amidst the shouts of the crowd, “away with the sorcerer, and deliver him to the governor.” Tamyris, standing before the judgment seat, impeached Paul. The governor, after hearing Paul’s reply, committed him to prison, till he could more fully hear him. But Thecla, finding that Paul was committed, arose by night; and pulling off her ear-rings gave them to the porter, and her silver mirror to the keeper, to gain admission to Paul. Then placing herself, like Mary, at his feet, she continued to hear him preach the wonderful things of God. And perceiving that Paul disregarded what he suffered, and held fast his confidence in God, she was exceedingly confirmed in the faith.

Next morning there was a great alarm in the family for Thecla, and by Tamyris, for they feared some evil had befallen her. Hearing she had gone to the prison, they stirred up the people, and again led Paul to the judgment seat. Thecla, however, still continued to attend, and prostrated herself in prayer on the identical spot where she had heard Paul deliver his instructions. At length, the governor commanded her to be brought. Thecla, hearing this, went forth with joy, while the people still cried, “he is a sorcerer, let him be put to death.” Notwithstanding all this, the governor willingly heard Paul: and having taken counsel, he said to Thecla, Why art thou not given in marriage to Tamyris, according to the laws of Iconium? Thecla, fastening her eyes on Paul, answered nothing. Then her mother vehemently cried out, Let her be burned, that others may fear. The governor being now exceedingly irritated, condemned Paul to be scourged, and Thecla to be burned. He then in person attended at the theatre to see this cruel spectacle. Then as a lamb, hunted in the desert, looks round for a shepherd, so Thecla’s eyes looked for the venerable Paul. After looking through the crowd she saw the Lord standing near her, in the likeness of Paul, and inwardly exclaimed, “Paul is come to see me, as though I should not suffer patiently.” Still fastening her eyes upon him, she saw him ascend up into heaven. Then she understood it was the Lord, seen in the person of Paul.

Her robes were then taken off; and by the populace she was compelled to ascend the pile. The governor himself was much affected with a sight of her beauty, her patience, and her fortitude. The faggots and the wood being placed in order, she stretched forth her hands in prayer, and ascended the pile. The fire was applied on different sides, and the flames spread round about, but had no power to scorch her. God had compassion on her youth. A loud noise was heard in the heavens, a dark cloud overspread the amphitheatre, accompanied with such torrents of rain and hail as extinguished the fire. Thus was Thecla delivered.

This illustrious virgin, after being a confessor in her own city, and forsaken of her friends, became a public character in Roman Asia; and after having escaped the wild beasts at Antioch, and laboured much in the Lord, she received the crown of martyrdom at Seleucia in the province of Isauria. The emperor Zeno built and endowed a church to her memory.

Fragments Added to the Acts of the Apostles

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FRAGMENTS ADDED TO THE

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

All men ask for more than Luke has recorded. There are many chasms in his history, where he seems to have been separated from Paul, and he would not write what he had not seen. The demand for more is great, but the notices of the fathers are few.

The beloved Clement, whose name is in the book of life, Philippians 4:3, says in his epistle to the Corinthians, section 5., “Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. Peter by the unrighteous envy [of the jews] sustained not one or two, but many scenes of suffering, till at length being martyred, he entered the abode of glory prepared for him.” “For the same cause did Paul receive the reward of his patience. Seven times he was in bonds. Five times he was whipped, and once was he stoned. He preached both in the east and the west, leaving behind him the glorious report of his faith. And having in this way preached righteousness to the whole Roman world, and with this design, [after his liberation] travelled even to the utmost boundaries of the west. Επι το τερμα τες δυσεως ελθοντι. He at last suffered martyrdom by the command of his governors, and departed out of this world to his holy place, leaving the most exalted pattern of patience to every future age.”

The holy and blessed Dorotheus, bishop of the city of Byzantium, now Constantinople, and martyr in that city, has left us short notes of the twelve apostles.

1. Peter, who after departing from Antioch, travelled into the principal places of Galatia, and of the Mediterranean sea, and in all Cappadocia, and Bithynia, preaching the gospel; and lastly in all Italy and Rome. 1 Peter 1:1.

2. Andrew, his brother, travelled through all Bithynia, Thracia, and Scythia, preaching the gospel of the Lord. He afterwards went to the great city of Sebasteia, where Apsarius formed his camp, and preached on the river Phasis; and in the interior of Ethiopia. He was crucified at Patras in Achaia. [See Sebaste in the map of Paul’s travels.]

3. But James, the son of Zebedee, went after the twelve tribes of Israel, preaching Christ, and was beheaded with the sword by Herod the tetrarch, or viceroy to the Romans in Cæsarea of Palestine.

4. John, his brother, who wrote the gospel, and who having preached Christ in Ephesus, was banished by the emperor Trajan to the isle of Patmos for the confession of the christian faith; and being released, he obtained the favour, as many think, to live in the flesh together with Enoch and Elijah. [This conjecture rose from the words of Christ to Peter: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee.” John 21:22, 23.]

5. Philip, the apostle, preached the gospel in Phrygia, and was buried with his daughters in Hierapolis, who are mentioned by Luke in the Acts of the apostles.

6. Bartholomew, the apostle, who after having successfully preached the gospel to the Indians, translated for them the gospel according to St. Matthew. He slept at Corbanopolis, a city of Upper Armenia.*

7. Thomas, the apostle, after having preached Christ to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Bactrians, the Germans, finally received the crown of martyrdom in a city of India called Calamitâ.

8. Matthew, the evangelist, after writing his gospel in Hebrew, and delivering it to the church in Jerusalem, and having preached Christ in the east, received the crown of martyrdom at Hierapolis, a city of Syria.

9. Jude, the brother of James, after having preached the gospel throughout the whole region of Mesopotamia, departed by martyrdom at Edessa, where he was interred.

10. Simon, who is surnamed Judas, having preached Christ in Eleutheropolis, the regions of Gaza, and as far as Egypt, was buried at Ostracinâ, a city of Egypt, being affixed to a cross by the command of Trajan.

11. Matthias, who was numbered with the eleven apostles in the place of Judas Iscariot, having first preached the gospel in Ethiopia, and received the palm of martyrdom, was buried in the place he had fertilized with his blood.

12. Simon Zelotes, after travelling through the region of Mauritania, [literally the country of the blacks] and Africa, [say Carthage] went everywhere preaching Christ. Last of all he came to Britain, where he was crucified and buried.

* To the above account of Bartholomew we may add the opinion of many, that he and Nathaniel are the same person, because Bartholomew is not a proper name, but merely an appellative, the son of Ptolemy. This seems the more probable, as no distinct notice is taken of his call to the office; and John seems to rank Nathaniel among the apostles, when he says that Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the two sons of Zebedee, with two other disciples being gone out a fishing, Jesus showed himself to them on the shore. John 21:2. GENERAL REFLECTIONS.

In this book we have glanced on the first planting of christianity, and turned our views to the labours, the sufferings, and success of St. Paul. This chosen vessel, designated of God to the sanctuary, received a considerable education in Tarsus, a city celebrated for literature. He came to Jerusalem to finish his theological course, and to qualify himself for preferment. But God had better views in store. We see him coming into the church with a soul and with an education every way qualified to do the will of God. In his call and mission he was so clear, that neither poverty, nor hardships, nor sufferings could move him; for the Lord was with him, according to all his promises. If his poor body wore away daily, his inward man was renewed day by day with the consolations of Christ. The churches he planted were almost as numerous as the cities he visited, and his rising progeny in the Lord, seemed, according to the promise, as the stars of heaven for multitude, and as the sands upon the sea shore, innumerable. Satan had a most inveterate malice against the special apostle of the gentiles. Often he drew him into perils and jeopardy; but he lived among deaths. Five times he was whipped by the malicious jews. Thrice he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned, and probably left for dead. Yet he still went on serving the best of Masters, who had made him a debtor of service to all men, and laid a necessity upon him to preach the gospel. God, who had never ceased to protect his ambassadors, abandoned him at last, but with a limited commission, to the enmity of Satan, and the long festering fury of the jews. This most holy man was bound with a chain, impeached by his country, dragged from prison to prison, and from one tribunal to another. Oh how dark are the ways of the Lord; how profound and mysterious the work of his counsel. But his wisdom is perfect, and his righteousness without a spot. Let me learn of his servant to trust in him amidst all the dark and beclouded reverses of life.

God sits in the heavens all composed, and laughs at the craft of Satan, and the malice of men. His apostles had now been preaching for near thirty years, chiefly to the poor. The great, the Roman world, knew little of Christ. St. Paul was the happiest man to tell them of the glory and kingdom of the Lord. He was now qualified with an immensity of learning, wisdom, and experience. He spake with tongues more than any other minister, and perhaps with more than any other man in the empire. He was endowed also with every divine excellence of spiritual gifts, and natural fortitude for the arduous mission. Therefore, if I may so speak, heaven stooped for once to the pride of senators and kings; they would not stoop to hear the gospel of a poor apostle, and God sent it to them in the mouth of a state prisoner, whose case is always interesting in the political circles. When the jews in the temple were about to tear Paul to pieces, Lysias rescued him by a mistake, thinking he had been the seditious Egyptian who had escaped the carnage of Felix. On the steps of the castle, Paul raised his chained hands, and addressed the furious bigots of his country. And as he spake in the Hebrew tongue, they listened to him silent as the night, till he spake of going to the gentiles. Next day, Paul addressed the jewish council, left them without excuse, and threw the pharisees and sadducees into confusion by showing his hope of the resurrection from the dead. At Cæsarea he preached twice before the court; the latter time before three princes, Felix, Festus, and Agrippa; for Festus providentially was come to succeed Felix. On board the ship, to two hundred and seventy six seamen and passengers, from all nations, he taught the whole truth, and showed the wonders of revelation in the name of Christ. And surely those men could never forget what they then both heard and saw.

In Rome, whether through recommendation of the kings of Asia, as is most probable, or whether through some other providential cause, Paul was singularly favoured to live in his own hired house. Here for two years he taught daily all that came to him. He held religious assemblies in his house every day. There was not any part of the mystery of godliness or glory of Christ he did not publish. He was Nero’s prisoner; and neither pagan priest, nor jewish scribe durst forbid him. Many in Cæsar’s household received the faith of Christ. He consoles the tears of Timothy by saying, that his bonds had turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Yea, after two years, Nero himself heard Paul, and set him at liberty, if Velesius be correct. See Euseb. Eccles. Hist. book 2. chap. 22. When Paul made his first defence, no man stood with him, and he prayed that it might not be laid to their charge. But God delivered him, to use his own words, out of the mouth of (Nero) the lion. — Now, Satan, where is thy craft? Now, oh jews, where is your malice? Come and see what good you have done to the cause of righteousness and truth. Never had the gospel reached the ears of so many illustrious potentates, and their courts, had it not been for your dire wisdom, which is folly with God.

God had also a work of writing to be done for his church: and when St. Paul was full of wisdom, and full of days, the Lord gave him a little leisure to write those plenary epistles to the churches which convey to the christian world all knowledge requisite for salvation. And whoever will calmly examine the whole of his fourteen epistles, many of which were written when he was full of labours, he must own that no human wisdom and accomplishments could possibly compose epistles with the like propriety of address, depth of thought, and elevation of piety. Thus we see in the life and labours of this holy man, extended to a public course of thirty five years, the never-ceasing goodness of the Lord, and the care of providence over the church. To Him be glory for ever and for ever. Amen.

Introduction.

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INTRODUCTION.

ACCURACY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT GREEK TEXT.

How the wide circulation of the copies of the New Testament documents served as a check upon corruptions and forgeries we have illustrated in our note upon Matthew 1:1. No ancient documents were ever so securely guarded.

FIRST. The public reading, weekly, of them was universally practiced in the Christian Churches. Thirty-five years after the death of St. John, Justin Martyr says: “On the day called Sunday there is a meeting of all those residing in cities and the country, and then are read the memoirs απομνευματα, reminiscences, records) of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, as long as suitable. Then, when the reader has finished his part, the president (προεστως) delivers all exhortation to encourage the audience in imitation of these noble examples.” This, of course, presupposes that every Church customarily had a copy deposited in its place for use. The anagnostes, or reader, was a regular official, superior to the deacon. Private Christians, by the mere hearing, sometimes committed the sacred books to memory. So St. John, Revelation 1:8, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy;” where the reader is in the singular and the audience in the plural. In the very first written book of the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 5:27, Paul says, “I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.” So, also, he required an exchange of epistles (in Colossians 4:16) between Churches. Circular epistles, like Ephesians, were written to a circuit of Churches. John addressed the seven Churches of Asia. Authoritative documents thus coming from apostles, men of confessed inspiration, superior to the prophets of old, immediately assumed the rank of Scripture. So that 2 Peter 3:16 gives the name of Scriptures to the writings of Paul. And thus the sacred canon arose, with a marked boundary line enclosing the apostolic documents and excluding all others. Isolated Churches, or sections of country, now and then might add the productions of some eminent character, as of Clement of Rome or Ignatius the martyr, but the great body of the Church omitted them. So that the canon of the New Testament had neither editors nor council decrees to select its books; they selected themselves, as we may say, and took their place spontaneously.

SECOND. The great apostolic Churches became safe custodians for the New Testament books. They were safeguards against corrupters, heretics, and apocryphal writers. Thus could Tertullian challenge all cavillers: “Run through the apostolic Churches, in which the chairs of the apostles still preside, in which the authentic letters of the apostles are read, uttering the voice and representing the face of each. Is Achaia nearest you? you have Corinth; if you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have Thessalonica; if in Asia, you have Ephesus; if in Italy, Rome.” THIRD. The succession of pastors and bishops was a trustworthy conductor of a safe transmission of the true books. So against the heretic Marcion, who attempted to corrupt the Gospel of Luke: “We have also the Churches fostered by John. For though Marcion reject his Revelation, yet the series of bishops in those Churches, reckoned back to their beginning, will rest upon John as the author. In the same manner, also, the original of other Churches is known. I say, therefore, that the Gospel of Luke which we defend has been approved and established in those Churches from the time it was first published, and not in the apostolic Churches alone, but in all those which are joined in communion with them. But the Gospel of Marcion is unknown to most of them, and known to none who do not condemn it… The same authority of the apostolic Churches will also sustain the other Gospels, which are equally conveyed down to us by them; I mean those of John, Matthew, and Mark.”

FOURTH. The great multitude of Churches in Europe, Asia, and Africa was a security against collusion of any one set of Churches. Andrews Norton reckons that at a moderate calculation the number of Christians at the close of the second century would be three millions; and supposing, as we safely may, one copy of the Gospels to every fifty Christians, there would be sixty thousand copies scattered over Europe, Asia, and Africa in different languages. From these and other passages that might be quoted it is plain:

1. That the authenticity and purity of the sacred documents were held by the early Church as a life-and-death matter. 2. That apostolic Churches and bishops who first received the documents were the true conservators and historical conductors of them down to the next generation. 3. That by that generation, the era of the great writers, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Clemens, and others in various quarters of the globe, they were received as historically transmitted, universally received, and possessed of an exclusive Divine authority as the sole rule of faith. By all these checks the possibility of the acceptance of forgeries, apocryphal documents, and corrupted copies, was shut out from the proper historical Churches of the apostles, and so from the genuine Catholic Church.*

[* This historical transmission must be distinguished from ecclesiastical tradition. The latter seeks to inculcate unwritten and unauthenticated dogmas upon the authority of a successional series of men. The former simply uses the succession as an historical witness to the identity of an original written document; and this proof from succession has to be confirmed by the agreement of numerous and widely distant copies.]

But in process of time another great danger arose, namely, errors, and corruptions arising from the carelessness of transcribers. Before the art of printing the art of the copyist formed a great profession. But the thousands of copies made by hand had no inspired transcribers. Hence in the progress of centuries a great abundance of variations have arisen, against which the only remedy is an extensive comparison of copies.

When the art of printing made the multiplication of thousands of copies from a single impression possible, it was unfortunately the fact that the first copies printed from were far from being correct. This was true of Erasmus’ editions, from which our authorized English translation was essentially derived. The business of comparing copies and attaining a pure text has become a biblical science, in which the names of Griesbach, Bengel, Wetstein, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles have become eminent. This purification of the original does affect some important texts that touch upon both doctrines and morals, but not so as to disturb the foundations of our evangelical faith. These modifications are one of the foundations of the argument for, not a new translation, but a revision of our existing version. In such a revision, no doubt, all the great religious bodies that speak the English language could and should unite. It is a matter of solemn interest to look with our own eyes upon a Codex or manuscript copy of the sacred text fourteen centuries old. Such a copy is the Codex Sinaiticus, discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 in the Convent of St. Catharine, on Mount Sinai. Nearly as old is the Codex Alexandrinus, which was presented by Cyril Lascar, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Charles I., and deposited in the British Museum. The Codex Vaticanus is, perhaps, as old as either; it is in the Vatican Library at Rome, guarded by Papal jealousy to a great degree, from the examination of scholars. These are the oldest three in existence, being severally in the possession of the Greek, the Protestant, and the Romish Church. The entire number of manuscripts in existence is about fifteen hundred. Of these a number, and those the earliest, are written, according to ancient custom, entirely in capital letters, and are thence called uncials. The large majority are written in a small or running hand, and are thence called cursives. More important even than the various manuscripts are the early versions of the New Testament. “From the first century to the fifth,” says Professor Stowe, “there are not less than ten translations, and they are certainly a much better authority than the manuscripts which had no existence until early in the fourth century.” Again, great aid is derived, especially in important texts, from their quotation by early Christian writers from the first to the fifth centuries. “There are,” says Professor Stowe, “some seventy-five of these writers, and their quotations are so numerous, that if every manuscript of the New Testament were lost, the substance of it could be reproduced from their writings.” From these three sources, the manuscripts, the early versions, and the quotations of the early writers, we find ourselves assured that we have the text essentially pure as it came from the pens of the original authors. In our Commentary we have noted those few passages only in which the sense is materially varied. The most important early versions are: 1. The Italic, being a Latin translation made in North Africa about fifty years after the death of St. John. It seems singular that the first Latin should have been not made at Rome; but this fact arose from the prevalence of Greek in that metropolis. The Italic version was revised by Jerome about the year 381; and Jerome’s version, called the Vulgate, was not only the standard version for Christendom for a thousand years, but was most absurdly declared by the Romish Council of Trent of equal authority with the original! The Vulgate is a version of great value, and all modern translations have been aided and influenced by its renderings. 2. The Peshito, or Syriac version, made about the same time with the Italic, in the language vernacular in Palestine at the time. It is in some respects the most valuable of versions, not only aiding to verify the meaning of the original, but serving to demonstrate the authenticity of the Sacred Canon itself.

ITS AUTHORSHIP AND AUTHENTICITY.

1. The first verse of the book claims it to be by the author of the Gospel of Luke. 2. It was undoubtedly in the canon of Scriptures of the apostolic Church, growing as we have above described. The Syriac translation of the New Testament, called the Peshito, made probably, or at least commenced, before the canon was complete, contains Luke in its present position. 3. Eusebius places it as Luke’s among those books that were never disputed in the Church. It is quoted by the earliest Christian writers, as Polycarp, the Clementine Recognitions, and the Churches of Lyons and Vienna. 4. It is expressly attributed to Luke by Irenaeus, who was the hearer of Polycarp, the hearer of St. John the Apostle. 5. It is connected with Paul’s Epistles (as was amply and ingeniously shown by Paley in his Horae Paulinae) by the most striking and obviously undesigned coincidences, showing with a most convincing power to the patient student the authenticity and genuineness of both. 6. In its immense amount of connections with contemporaneous geography and history it is forcibly confirmed as accurate by history, coins, and medals. 7. The narrative of Paul’s shipwreck has been minutely examined by modern science, and all its details have been found completely true to nature and to the seamanship of the Mediterranean of Paul’s day. 8. The internal style has been closely analyzed by scholars, and found to confirm the sameness of the authorship of the Gospel and the Acts. And though there is an appearance of documents being used, and though the traits of Paul’s style appear in places, showing Paul to have furnished some matter, yet there is every appearance that the hand of Luke modelled the whole into one historical piece. No unhistorical work would have the slightest chance of standing such varied tests.

The Book of Acts might be shown to be so bound by occult ties, such as no unhistorical books could exhibit, with both the Gospel of Luke and the Epistles of Paul, as to prove beyond any fair refutation even the truth of Christianity. Not only the authenticity of the documents, but the truth of the history, would appear in a light very difficult for the candid mind to resist. What is true of the Gospel history is true of the Acts of the Apostles, the historical and miraculous texture of the narrative is so interwoven; that it cannot be separated. Professor Fisher says, in his Supernatural Origin of Christianity, p. 24, that “Holtzman shows that those individual touches in the evangelists’ portrait of Christ, the marvellous conjunction of which produces the highest grade of historical evidence, have come to us in the closest, most indissoluble connection with the narratives of miracles.” This argument, which requires detail to show its force, and is most convincing to the scholarly mind, not only proves the authenticity of the document, but disproves the charge of dishonesty upon the writer.

ITS PURPOSE AND PLAN.

Luke’s professed object is to present to Theophilus, as a representative of the class of sincere inquirers into the origines of Christianity, a counterpart, a second volume to his Gospel. As the Gospel shows how Christianity was presented to the world in the person of Christ, so the Acts must show how it was founded in the world through the instrumentality of his chosen apostles and preachers. The book presents to the first view some irregularity of form. But as it is studied it seems to shape itself, as it were, into a half unconscious plan. Why some things are expanded and unfolded in all their particulars, and others are slightly touched or not touched at all; why particular individuals, as Paul, are minutely traced, and others, as the main body of the apostles, are but named, seems at first difficult to be explained. Luke’s propose being to give an idea how Christianity grew and expanded after the ascension, he seems governed partly by his amount of knowledge of facts—yet not so as to be said to tell us all he knows—and partly by the importance of his topic—yet not so but that he omits many a point that we seem to ourselves to need to know. The commencing and terminal points of Luke’s picture of the apostolic founding of Christianity are Jerusalem and Rome, the spiritual capital and the secular capital of the world. How Jerusalem was left and Judaism was rejected; how Christianity spread from Jewish limits toward world-wide dimensions; how in its regular progressive expansion the Roman capital was apostolically possessed and quietly held by Paul, and thus the heathen world mastered in its representative capital; and now, even here in Rome itself, the taking of Gentilism is preceded by a rejection by and of Judaism, Luke tells in a narrative inflexibly progressive and symmetrical. The moment we catch this fair view we see that every paragraph of the book is in its right place. We see that the book has a single author. And when the story is told, it ends with a sudden silence which admonishes every preacher who reads it promptly to stop when he is done.

Two apostles are made to predominate, Peter in the former, and Paul in the latter part. The former part is far more Jewish, more emotionally spiritual, more miraculous. It is as if the full miraculous power of the Pentecostal outpouring gradually waned. The Divine seems purposely to recede, and leave the human more and more to its own free work. The extraordinary, as in the providence of God, gradually subsides toward the ordinary. The publication of Renan’s Life of St. Paul in our country has presented in a popular form the theory of the learned German sceptic, Baur, in regard to this book. It claims that the early Christians were divided into two hostile camps on the subject of Judaism and Gentilism, with the flags of Peter and Paul at their opposite heads. The Acts is, then, claimed to be a semi-historical narrative written as late as the middle of the second century, with the purpose of conciliating the two parties by presenting the two apostles in a harmonizing position. James of Jerusalem, it is said, was bitterly hostile to Paul, and the Epistle of Jude is an invective against Paul’s followers, who are the Nicolaitans denounced in the Apocalypse. But, 1. This late date of the Acts of the Apostles is contradicted by the positive proof of its earlier existence above indicated. 2. Renan has no authentic proof, from any other source than Acts itself, that any great party strife existed between Judaism and Gentilism. He assumes, then, an attempt at reconciliation without any valid independent proof of any thing to reconcile. 3. Paul’s own account of the degree and measure of the strife and reconciliation, as by him given in Galatians, (admitted by Renan to be genuine,) while adding new points, entirely accords with Luke’s. 4. Renan’s entire treatment of the character of James the Just is less extendedly, but even more intensely, a caricature than his treatment of St. Paul. 5. The absurd interpretations by which St. Jude and the Apocalyptist are made to write denunciations of the followers of Paul have no claim to respect, or even refutation, from biblical scholars. They do not present the prima facie plausibility justifying a serious extended notice. 6. If the Acts of the Apostles was an attempt to reconcile the followers of Peter and Paul, it is on the face of it more absurdly done than can be imputed to a writer of half Luke’s ability. If the book were so late a production, why were not Peter and Paul described as working heartily and extendedly together, as did Barnabas and Paul? Why are Peter and Paul so little brought into full association, as little, in fact, as Paul’s own Galatians would suggest? 7. No fierce partisan of Peter’s would be greatly conciliated by Luke’s cavalier abandonment of Peter at Acts 12:17, while Paul takes entire possession, as Dr. Schaff says, like the ascending sun before the receding moon. Luke’s narrative was quite as likely to offend as to conciliate. On the whole, we affirm that Luke’s purpose was simply and purely historical, and that Baur’s theory is entirely imaginary.

Plan of the Book.

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Editorial note: The supplied edition prints “Acts 15:36-31” here (WHD_CO12.PDF, physical PDF page 14). The surrounding discussion of the dispute about Mark followed by travel through Syria and Cilicia corresponds to Acts 15:36–41 in the King James Version. The origin of the printed numbering is not established here; the historical wording is retained. WHD_CO12.PDF, PDF page 14.

Renan’s work, we may add, was amply refuted, before it was published in America, by Professor Fisher’s Essays on the Origin of Christianity. ITS CHRONOLOGY.

The twenty-eight chapters of Acts cover a period, from the ascension to the close of Paul’s two years’ imprisonment at Rome, of about thirty years. As Luke, though giving internal measurements of time, does not mark his narrative with the dates of public chronology, only an approximation can be made to the real time-periods of the book. By the connexion of his narrative with known history we are able to fix with an approach to accuracy four leading points: 1. The death of Herod Agrippa, Acts 12:23; 2. The famine under Claudius, 11:28; 3. The expulsion of the Jews from Rome, 18:2; 4. The entry of Festus upon his office. These furnish as respective dates the years 44, 45, 52, and 60. For the intervening events in Acts we can only estimate the probable times. We have given the apparent chronology in a series of Historical Notes in the course of our work. PLAN OF THE BOOK.

BAUMGARTEN considered it a discredit to biblical science that it had fully confessed itself unable, down to his time, to discover any proper Plan of this Book, and so himself disclosed one which we consider the best outline that can be made, based upon our Lord’s words, Acts 1:8. We might divide the work into two parts: the Local, Acts 1:1-8:3, and the Itinerant, Acts 8:3-28:31. To the former part belongs the Jerusalem or Pentecostal Church; and to the second, the expanding or Missionary Church. In the former, we have the Church engaged in self-concentration and self-intensification; in the latter, unfolding herself in energetic diffusion of Divine truth through the world.

Another division is nearly that of the Rhemish (Romanistic) Testament into the Petrine Part, Acts 1:1-12:17, and the Pauline the remainder. Under the first is included the acts of the deacons, as being but subordinate to the Petrine predominance. And this is in many respects a suggestive division. We adopt Baumgarten’s threefold outline only; the entire filling up is our own.

I. THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH; OR, CHRISTIANITY WITHIN THE JEWS, TYPICAL CHARACTER—Peter; TYPICAL CITY—Jerusalem.

INTRODUCTION Acts 1:1-3

1. Preparation for the Pentecost 4-26

1) Waiting at Jerusalem 4-14

2) Gift of power 4-14

3) The Ascension 4-14

4) Recompletion apostolic number. Peter’s First Speech 15-26

2. Event of the Pentecost Acts 2:1-47

1) Effusion of the Pentecostal Spirit 1-13

2) Peter’s Second Speech 14-40

3) Pentecostal Church—First Repose Period, with community of goods 41-47

3. Pentecostal Church unfolding in miracle and endurance of persecution Acts 3:1-4:37

1) The temple miracle—healing lame-born Acts 3:1-11 2) Peter’s Third Speech 12-26

3) Arraignment before Sanhedrin. Peter’s Fourth Speech Acts 4:1-22

4) Church prayer strengthened and firm 23-31

5) Second Repose Period—Community of goods 32-37

4. Pentecostal Church unfolding in penal power Acts 5:1-16 1) Ananias and Sapphira 1-11

2) Third Repose Period. 12-16

5. Pentecostal Church in second Persecution Acts 5:17-42 1) Imprisonment of apostles and arraignment 17-33

2) Speech of Gamaliel—Peaceful results 34-42

6. Pentecostal Church forming its economy—Seven deacons chosen Acts 6:1-8

7. Pentecostal Church in last struggle and dispersion Acts 6:8-8:4 1) Zeal and arraignment of Stephen Acts 6:9-15 2) His defence and martyrdom Acts 7:1-60

3) The funeral; the dispersion of the Pentecostal Church Acts 8:1-4

II. THE TRANSITION CHURCH—FROM JEWS TO GENTILES.

TYPICAL CHARACTER—Philip; TYPICAL CITY—Antioch.

1. The deacon Philip evangelizes Samaria Acts 8:5-25 1) Simon Magus—Gift by laying on of hands—Peter and Simon 5-25

2) Philip gathers the first-fruit of Africa, the Ethiopian Eunuch 26-40

2. The new Apostle of the Gentiles called Acts 9:1-30 1) The persecuting Saul, on his way to Damascus, converted 1-9 2) Ananias baptizes and authenticates Saul 10-18

3) Saul at Damascus—Jerusalem—Tarsus 19-30

4) Fourth Repose Period—Peter at Lydda and at Joppa 39-43

3. Gentile induction; new Christian center, Gentile ANTIOCH, Acts 10:1-11:30

1) Gentile Cornelius’s vision—Mission to Peter Acts 10:1-30 2) Uncircumcised Christianity sanctioned by Holy Ghost and baptism 36-48

3) Peter’s defence for baptizing the uncircumcised Acts 11:1-18 4) The new (Gentile) Christian center formed—Antioch 19-26 5) Antioch sends a relief deputation to Jerusalem 27-30

4. Desolation of Jerusalem Church by Herod; its avenging Acts 12:1-25

1) James slain; Peter imprisoned, released; he abandons Jerusalem 1-19

2) Herod’s judicial death 20-23

3) Return of relief deputies from Jerusalem to Antioch 24, 25 III. CHURCH AMONG THE GENTILES.

TYPICAL CHARACTER—Paul; TYPICAL CITY—Rome.

1. Paul’s FIRST MISSION from Antioch, through Cyprus into as far as Lystra and Derbe, thence back to Antioch, Acts 13:1-14:28 1) Spirit-commissioned mission from Antioch—Paul and Barnabas Acts 13:1-3

2) At Cyprus—Elymas, Sergius Paulus at Perga 4-13

3) At Pisidian Antioch synagogue address; results 14-43 4) Second Sabbath at Pisidian Antioch; Jewish unbelief and Gentile faith 44-52

5) At Iconium; at Lystra, revered as gods, then expelled the city Acts 14:1-20

6) From Derbe return by same route to Antioch 20-28

2. Jerusalem Council on Circumcision Acts 15:1-34 1) Paul and Barnabas, Peter and James, and elders, all in council 1-12

2) James’s opinion; circular letter issued; reception and stay at Antioch 12-34

3. Paul’s SECOND MISSION from Antioch, through Syria and Asia Minor, into Europe: namely, in Northern Greece; Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea; in Southern Greece; Athens and Corinth; thence back by sea, touching Ephesus, Cesarea, and Jerusalem, to Antioch Acts 15:35-18:23

1) Leaves Antioch; strife about Mark; through Syria and Cilicia Acts 15:36-31

2) At Derbe and Lystra; Timothy called; through Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia to Troas Acts 16:1-6

3) Man of Macedonia; at Philippi, Lydia, jailer, First European Church 7-40

4) Second European Church, Thessalonica; Third, Berea; Athens Acts 17:1-34

5) Fourth great European Church, Corinth; return by sea to Antioch Acts Acts 18:1-22

4. Paul’s THIRD MISSION, from Antioch, to and from Ephesus, through Greece to Corinth, back by sea past Asian and Syrian coasts to Jerusalem Acts 18:23-21:17

1) Leaving Antioch—Apollos Acts 18:23-28

2) At Ephesus—Twelve John’s disciples—Diana, and her Temple Acts 19:1-41

3) Into Southern Greece; thence back, through Macedonia and Troas Acts 20:1-12

4) Ship to Miletus; charge to Ephesian Elders 13-38 5) From Miletus to Cesarea Acts 21:1-8

6) Philip and daughters at Cesarea; Agabus; to Jerusalem 8-17

5. Paul in council with James—Arrest—Sent to Cesarea Acts 21:18-23:35

1) Paul in council with James and elders Acts 21:18-25 2) Paul’s arrest; his rescue by the Romans 26-40

3) Paul’s First Defence—to his Jerusalemite assailants Acts 22:1-23

4) Paul and the Chiliarch 24-30

5) Paul before Sanhedrin—his Second Defence Acts 23:1-9 6) Rescued by Chiliarch and sent to Cesarea 10-35

6. Paul two years at Cesarea Acts 24:1-26:32 1) Paul before Felix; Third Defence; results Acts 24:1-27 2) Jews, Festus, and Paul—the appeal to Cesar Acts 25:1-12 3) Agreement and preparation for speech before Agrippa 13-27 4) Paul’s Fourth Defence—that before Agrippa Acts 26:1-32

7. Paul in route for Rome, at Rome Acts 27:1-28:31 1) By Adramyttine ship, with adverse winds, to Myra Acts 27:1-5

2) Alexandrine ship, by storm and wreck, to Malta 6-44 3) At Malta; from Malta, by Syracuse and Puteoli, to Rome Acts 28:1-16

4) Interview and discussion with Jews at Rome—results 17-29 5) Roman two-year residence 30, 31

The Acts—The doings of the Apostles. This title, though older than any existing manuscript, and too early for any trace of its origin, was probably not given by Luke himself. It apparently expresses more than the real amount of the book, since little is said of more than two apostles, namely, Peter, who is the principal figure in the first twelve chapters, and Paul, who is the main subject of the remainder. Two chapters are more strictly the acts of the deacons rather than of the apostles. But as the Gospels could only give the do and teach (v. 1) of Jesus by parts and specimens, (John 21:25,) so this book can give but partial samples of the apostolic acts, of which the doings of the deacons, being under their administration, are in some sense a part. Finally, some good manuscripts, omitting both definite articles, read “Acts of Apostles,” which well fits the book.