ACTS OP THE APOSTLES.-The aim of this article is to answer the question. What does the Acts of the Apostles say of Chri.st?; otherwise ex- pressed. How is the Book of Acts related to ' the gospel ? ' or. What is ' the gospel ' of the Acts ? We do not know the name of the author of the book —
iple of St. Paul ;u])plied valuable
M'ith
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for St. Luke or some other dis( did not compose it, but merely materials for its composition— I lu dividuality may be ascertained Ir sufficient clearness to enahle \is to answer tlie ijues- tions just stated. The prolilmi is all tin- mtu'e interesting because the author can hardly have written before the end of the 1st cent., and tlnis cannot reckon himself among the first eye-witnesses and ministers of the word (Lk 1-). What then is the picture of Christ that stamps itself on the heart of a man of the second generation V Has this man anything new, anything unique, to tell us of Him ?
Before we go on to answer this question, we must nuike it clear to ourselves that our author, in what he writes, does not always speak in his own ]}erson. From the Gospel of St. Luke we know to what an extent he is dependenton sources. This may be observed and instances by a close comp.aris (in the case of the di.sccjurses) with St. Matthew. In the Gospel he is almost entirely a mere retailer of older tradition, and the lineaments of his own personality scarcely come into view. There can be no doubt that likewise in the Acts he largely reproduces early tradition, thai lie makes u.se of sources, sometimes copyini^ tliein in full, at other times abbreviating or 'e.Ni.aniliiii; them, grouping them and editing both tlicir language and their contents. Modern criticism, however, has reached the conviction that in this second work more of the author's idiosyncrasy is to be detected than in his Gospel. Hence it will be necessary to make the attempt to distinguish the notions which reveal to us the educated writer of the last decade of the 1st cent, from those passages in which the rOle is played by early popular tradition.
The author's personality undoubtedly shows itself more strongly in the second than in the first part of the book, but most clearly in the way in which the work is ananued in these tw., p.irts, so that the first is .l..n.iuale,l l,y the |iris,,n of IVtcr and the second by Unit of I'aiil. To Ijini tliel 'liureh rests u)ion the foiUHlation of (li.
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|^^.,u,■.^■l( I,.;,.!.'! ~, t ll.' head ^^llo l,v a I li ^ in.' .li-pensa- 1 ,-1 loi-Moii to I h.-G. -utiles, llH-li.alli.-.i world who by I am 111- lia.'k on his own l! lo til.' G.-iitiles. 'Peter urd, till' shiblioleth of the find again in the First
Divine ijni.la,,..' li, people ,'111. 1 li.'lake 1 and Paul ' is the «i Roman Church, a Epistle of Clement. It is especially in the .ipccclicn contained in the ■ ' ■' ' ' " t the author reveals his \X],rn St. Paul dis- (li ill ( liiist Jesus,' the ^.iM'i, ill V. -'•as 'right- Ill. I'jiii. 'lit to come.' I 'iii.ijii'.'iit is also the , ,',l SI I'linl's address a|.|ioiiili'l a day in the mill iu right-eousness,'
second part of the 1 conception of ' " ' courses (Ac 24 subjects of hi;
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
ami immediately thereafter, ' by a man w lioiu lie hath (thereto) ordained, having given him his credentials before all men by having raised him from the dead.' This last is the essentially new point in contradistinction from tlie Jewish preach- ing in the Diaspora. That there is to be a judg- ment of the world had, indeed, been already declared, but that the Judge 'appointed by God over living and dead' (10^=) is already present in heaven (3-'), has already been manifested on earth (13 iQJOi.j^ and accredited by God throii^h an un- precedented miracle— this is the cardinal and sig- nificant message of the Apostles. Now, it is noteworthy how the author of the Acts gives point and practical ajiplication to this generally accepted ido.a. Tlie vesurrretion of Jesus is the main content nf tlie A|i..~tn|ie ]ireaching, so much so that in 1--' the .\|.u-tiis are roundly designated 'witnesses (it ilie resiin-ertieii.' In the eyes of our author it comes to this, that in the gospel of the resurrection of Jesiis is implied the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead in general. What St. Paul (1 Co 15'^"") seeks to prove to his readers, is to our author self-evident : the one special case implies the general. This is plainly declared in Ac 4- ' they proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.' So also in 17'* ' he preached Jesus and the resurrection,' and in v.^^ ' the resur- rection of the dead' is the point in St. Paul's address on which the Athenians fix. Before the Sanhedrin St. Paul declares : ' Touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in ques- tion' (23"); to Felix he says: 'I have the hope that there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust' (24"). The latter passage is specially important because in it the relation of Christianity to Judaism is defined to tlie ett'ect that there is really no essential ditterence between them. St. Paul, like his accusers, serves, although after the new ' Way,' the God of the fathers (v.i^) ; ' for the hope of Israel ' he bears his chain (28-"). All Jews who believe in the resurrection ought really to be Christians. 'Why is it judged in- credible with you if God doth raise the dead?' (26*). Hence also the Pharisees, who believe in the resurrection of the dead, appear as the party favourable to Christianity ; wliereas the Sadducees, who say that 'there is no resurrection,' are its enemies (23*). Resurrection, tlien, is the main theme of the new message, hence the preaching of the Apostles bears the designation ' words of this Life ' (S*). Tlie Risen One is ' the Prince of Life ' (3'=). By His resurrection and exaltation He is proved to be the Saviour {<rurrip, the term best answering our author's purpose, and most intel- ligible to the Greeks of the time, 5*"- 13-^) ; the 'word' is the 'word of salvation' (13'^); and the whole of tlie Acts of the Apostles might have this motto prefixed : ' In none other is there salvation, and neither is there any other name under heaven, tliat is given among men, wherein wc must he saved' (-1'-). Tins religion is proved to he the superior of .-ill e.irlier ones, sn|„ ri.n alik.' to the darkness of heatlieinlonL iJCi'"! and to .[lelai-in, in this, that it tells of a S.iri,,,,,- \\]ii> ^:nr^,i/,ir. The method is descriK.il in lo'- i:;^'- jr.i^ a- the forgive- ness of sins, or, to ii-.- tlie d.-ijnai io,, adopted in oneof St. Paul's a, Mi, ^M~. ■ jie-tili. aiiun ' (13^).