18 Introduction

himself have been there, and from whom the Evangelist may at all events have learnt much of the information about other members of the Herodian family which comes to us from him only (Plumptre, Zahn, Belser, Feine). It may no doubt be contended, with con- siderable plausibility, that St. Luke must have had at his command written documents as well, e.g., in his account of the speeches of St. Peter and St. Stephen, and it is quite possible that he might have obtained such documents from the Church at Jeru- salem. One thing is quite certain, that these addresses like all others throughout the book are in striking harmony with the circumstances and crises to which they relate (see further below) : ‘quo intentius has orationes inspexeris,’’ writes Blass, “eo plura in eis reperies, que cum sint temporibus personisque egregie accommodata, ad rhetoricam licentiam scriptoris referri se vetent” (Proleg., p. 11). But at the same time it requires no great stretch of imagination to conclude with Zahn (ii., p. 412) that such a man as Luke required no other sources of information for the composition of Acts, or at least for a great portion of that work, than his own recollections, partly of the narratives of St. Paul, partly of the events in which he himself had shared, cf. vi. 8-viii. 3, ix. 1-30, xili.-xxviti, There is abundant proof in St. Paul’s Epigtles that the Apostle must have constantly referred to his earlier experiences in way of conversation, or in the delivery of his discourses, cf. 2 Cor. i. 8-10, xi. 22, xii. 9, Gal. 1. 11- ii. 14, Phil. iii. 3-7, Rom. xv. 16-32, xvi. 7, and during periods of enforced inactivity, while Luke was with him at Czsarea, or during the winter months at Malta, or later in Rome, nothing was more natural, as Zahn urges, than that the great missionary should com- municate to his beloved friend the records of his work and experience in great heathen centres of commercial or intellectual life, like Corinth, Ephesus, Athens. After his return from his travels, and on many other occasions, Zahn points out that it was St. Paul’s habit to relate minutely καθ ἓν ἕκαστον, xxi. 19, what God had wrought by him, xiv. 27, xv. 3, 12, 26, Gal. ii. 2, 7-9, and there is no reason whatever to suppose that such recitals were withheld from St. Luke. No doubt it may be urged that the style in the second part of the book is less Hebraistic than in chaps. i.-xii., but this may be fairly accounted for if we remember that St. Luke would often obtain his information for the earlier events from Jewish Christians, and on the soil of Palestine, and that he may have purposely retained the Hebraistic colouring in his embodiment of these narratives, cf. Plummer, St. Luke, p. xlix.; Zahn, 1. s., ii.,