ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
ADAH
35
personal information ; there is no sign of great exactness of knowledge, and the incident recorded 21* will explain how that information was ac- quired. For the earlier history of St. Paul a source is not required ; St. Luke had heard the storj' told at least twice, probably much oftener, and there is just that vagueness couceniing chrono- log>' wliich is almost invariably the characteristic of information dependent upon oral tradition. Of some other sections it is difficult to speak definitely. For the council the author would be able to supplement information gained from St. Paul by information sained in Jerus. It has been hinted that there is probably a written source behind portions of the first five chapters ; we cannot define its limits in these chapters, nor say whether or no, as is possible, it included some later narratives, such as those of St. Peter (9*--ll"* and 12'-*') ; it probably did not include chs. 6-7. No investigations have been made which authorise us to speak more certainly than this ; but it has been suggested (see Blass on 12'^-") that these chapters had some connexion with St. Mark. It is doubtful whether any certain conclusions are possible, although a more scientific and more compreliensive study of the style of the Gospel and Acts may perhaps lead to some result.
xi. CdNcll'^iox. — It now only remains to sum up the concliLsion of what, owing to the variations of opinicm, has necessarily been a somewhat con- troversial article.
1. The Third Go.spel and the Acts of the Apostles are the work of the same person ; and all tradition and argument suggest that the author was St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul.
2. He wrote the Gospel to describe as accurately as he could the life and preaching of Jesus ; he wrote the Acts to describe the growth and spread of the Christian Church.
3. lie had formed a clear idea in his mind of the steps and cour.se of this growth, and arranged his work so as to bring out these points. The object he had in view would influence him in the selection of his materials and the proportional importance he would ascribe to events ; but it would be taking far too artificial a view of his work not to allow some influence to various less prominent ideas, and even to the accidental cause of the existence or non- exi.stence of information on different points. The extent to wliich he caiTied out his purpose would be in some measure dependent on his oppor- tunities.
4. Although he had a definite aim, and con- structed a history with an artistic unity, there is no reason for thinking tliat the history is therefore untrustworthy. He narrated events ius he believed they happened, and he gives a thoroughly consistent history of the period over which it extends.
6. The exact degree of credibility and accuracy we can ascribe to him is dependent on his sources of information. From ch. 12 onwards his source was excellent ; from ch. 20 onwards he was an eye- witness. Fur the previous period he could not in all ca.ses attain the same degree of accuracy, yet he was personally acquainted with eye-witnesses throughout, acid may very probably have had one or more written documents. In any case, his history from the very beginning shows a clear idea of historical per.sjiective, and of the stages in the growth of the community, even if certain charac- teristics of the primitive Church in .Jerusalem have been exaggerated.
LiTHRATCKE. — (1) The Text. — Bosliles tho (jpnoral works of Tlschondorf, Scrivener, and Wostcott and Hort. the followini;. amon^ oiIht. spoclnl works may bo montlontMl :— .1. f). .Miclia*-- lis, Cnriu hi rtr. Syr. Aclor'um AiiohI. !".'>.%: K. A. Iloriif- iniinii. AcUi Apo'l. ml Cod. ('iinUihrigienniKrldtm rfceimiiit, l'<is; Bf>lshclm, />/«" Apoftefffeitrfiicfitf nnd die Ojfenfmrtini; Juhannin in einer alten lattiniichen CthtrMttung, 18J9; 8.
IJerper, La Pttiimmente de FUury, 1SS9 ; esrtr. de la Re rue de thiol, et jthiloM. ; .1. Kt*tnk-1 Harris, Stud'/ of Cod. Seziie TeJ-tn and Studiejt. II.i.lS9I ; P.Corssen.Der Cj/priiini.sche Ttxtder Acta ApoHt. prot^TBin of the tivmnasiuui of Scboenberp at Berlin, 1592; W. Sandav. Guardian, ISth anil 25th May 1S92; K. II. Chase. Old Si/r. Element in the Text of Cod. Beza'e, 1S93 ; F. Blass. .SA', ISlli, p. SC, llermathena, x.xl. p. 121, 1895; 8. Berber. Cn Ancien texte Latin de» Actee d€i< apdtreti retrouri dan'i nn SlanuseritprosenantdePerpignan; Tire des notices et extraitu, 1S95.
(21 Commentaries. — Chrysostom (oh. 407), Beda (o6. 785), Calvin (oh. \iM\. (Irotius (1(544), Bcnpel (1742), Olshausen (1882, ed. Iv. by Kbrard, ls02l, MeycrdSW, ed. vii. by Wendt, 1SS8. V.ng. tr. bv Gloafr and Oicksonl, de Wette (1S;JS, ed. iv. by Overbeck, 18701, Allord (1849, ed. vi. IsCs), Wordsworth (1857, ed. iv. 1SS7I, Ewald, Die 3 ertiten Eranfjflien und die Jpostelgeschichte (l57U, Cook in the Speaker's (?r)m. (Is.. n.Xisgpn (1852), I.uthardt and Zockler in Strack and Zockler's Kom. (l5S6, ed. ii. 1894), T. K. Pixj^e (I*>St»), Holtzniann in Iland-k-ommentarstim Xeuen TeHtament{\^9'ly, Blass, .4f((£ ApOHt.ttire Liicae ad Theophilum Liber alter (1S95); Kendall, Acta of Apostles (IS97).
(3) General Introduetiona. — S. Davidson (ls4s-5i, andapain, from a dirtor. nt point of view, ISIiS. e<l. ill. 1S94>, Heuss (1860), F. Bleek 11^64. Eni;. tr. IMV,"!, Ad. Hilgcnfeld (Ib'.'J), H. .1. Iloltzmann ilss.',, ed. Hi. 1892), G. Salmon (18S5, ed. ^■U. 1S94), B. Weiss (1>M>. Enpr. tr. 188s).