1. 1, ΤΟΝ μὲν πρῶτον λόγον ἐποιησάμην περὶ πάντων, ὦ Θεόφιλε, ὧν ἠρξατο ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς ποιεῖν τε καὶ διδάσκειν, 2. ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας
1B and also the subscription of ΝΔ; so Lach., W.H., Wendt. D has πραξις αποστολων. S merely πραξεις, so Tisch. πραξεις των αποστολων 31, 615; so Griesb., Meyer, whilst των αγιων before αποστολων is found in subscription ot EGH. Clem. Alex., Stvom., v., 12, Ἡβς πραξεις των αποστ. Tertullian, Adv. Marc.,
v., 1, 2, has Acta Apostolorum. Cf. Iren., Adv. Ηώγ., ili., 13, 3, and also lat. title as in Clem. Alex., Adumbr., 1 Pet., v., 13, Actus Apostolorum ; sometimes simply Acta
or Actus; see further Zahn, Einleitung in das N. Τ., ii., 334, 388 (1899).
26 SAE, Orig. and Blass in B, so also Weiss.
Grammatik, p. 148).
CHAPTER I.—Ver. 1. τὸν μὲν πρῶτον λόγον, a reference beyond all reasonable doubt to St. Luke’s Gospel. Not merely the dedication of both writings to Theo- philus, but their unity of language and style is regarded by critics of all schools as convincing proof of the identity of authorship of Acts and the third Gospel ; see Introd. and Zéckler, Greifswalder Studien, p. 128 (1895). In the expres- sion πρῶτος λόγος Ramsay finds an intimation from St. Luke’s own hand that he contemplated a third book at least, otherwise we should have had πρότερος λόγος, St. Paul the Traveller, Ppp. 23, 27, 28; see to the same effect Zahn, Einleitung in das N. Τ., Π., 371 (1899), Rendall, Acts of the Apostles, in loco, and cf. comment. on Acts xxviii. 31. So, too, primus is used in Latin not simply as former but as first in a series, Cicero, De Invent., ii., 3. On the other hand, Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 34, Acta Apost., p. 16, and more recently Philology of the Gospels, p. 38, maintains that πρῶτος simply = πρότερος (so also Holtzmann and Feiten). But Ramsay, whilst pointing out instances in which St. Luke apparently uses πρῶτος differently from this, p. 28 (cf. also Zahn, wu. s., Ῥ. 389), admits that we cannot attain to any absolute certainty in the passage before us, since no instance occurs of the use of