(5) Acknowledged Genuine. At the same time, whilst this book was acknowledged as genuine, where it was known, it does not appear to have been at first so extensively circulated as the other hiszor ical books of the New Testament ; for we find Chrysostom complaining that by many in his day it was not so much as known (Mom. i. in Act. sub init.). Perhaps, however, there is some rhetor ical exaggeration in this statement ; or, it may be, as Kuinoel (Proleg. in Acts App. Comment. tom. iv. p. 5) suggests, that Chrysostom's complaint refers rather to a prevalent omission of the Acts from the number of books publicly read in the churches, which would, of course, lead to its being comparatively little known among the peo ple attending those churches.
(6) The Former and Latter Treatise. :\lany critics are inclined to regard the Gospel by Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as having formed originally only one work, consisting of two parts. For this opinion, however, there does not appear to be any satisfactory authority: and it is hardly accordant with Luke's own description of the re lation of these two writings to each other: be ing called by him, the one the former and the other the latter treatise ( X67os ), a term which would not be appropriate had he intended to des ignate by it the first and second parts of the same treatise. It would be difficult, also, on this hy pothesis to account for the two, invariably and from the earliest times, appearing with distinct titles.
(7) An Eye Witness. Of the greater part of the events recorded in the Acts the writer him self appears to have Lecn witness. Ile is for the first time introduced into the narrative in Cli. xvi :t t, where he speaks of accompanying Paul to Philippi. I le then disappears from the narra tive until Paul's return to Philippi, more than two years afterwards, when it is stated that they left that place in company (xx :6) ; from which it may be justly inferred that Luke spent the intorval in that town. From this time to the close of the period embraced by his narrative he appears as the companion of the apostle. For the materials, therefore, of all he has recorded from ch. xvi:t t to xxviii :31 he may be regarded as having drawn upon his own recollection or cm that of the apostle. To the latter source. also, may be confidently traced all he has recorded concerning the earlier events of the apostle's Ca reer; and as respects the circumstances recorded in the first twelve chapters of the Acts, and which relate chiefly to the church at Jerusalem and the labors of the apostle Peter, we may read ily suppose that they were so much matter of general notoriety among the Christians with whom Luke associated, that he needed no as sistance from any other merely human source in recording them.
Some of the German critics have labored hard to show that he must have had recourse to writ ten documents in order to compose those parts of his history which record what did not pass under his own observation, and they have gone the length of supposing the existence of a work in the language of Palestine, of which the Apocry phal book Pra.reis Petron or Kcrugma Pctron, Ilpd ets. lUrpou or lihineyya Ilirpou, Acts of Peter or Discourses of Peter, mentioned by Clement of Alexandria and Origen, was an interpolated edition (Heinrichs, Proleg. in Acta App., p. 21; Kuinoel, Proleg., p. 14). All this, however, is mere un grounded supposition.
There is not the shadow of evidence that any written documents were extant from which Luke could have drawn his materials, and with regard to the alleged impossibility of his learning from traditionary report the minute particulars he has recorded (which is what these critics chiefly in sist on), it is to be remembered that, in common with all the sacred writers, he enjoyed the su perintending and inspiring influence of the Divine Spirit, whose office it was to preserve him from all error and to guide him into all truth.
(8) Design. An important inquiry respects the design of the evangelist in writing this book. A prevalent popular opinion on this head is, that Luke, having in his Gospel given a history of the life of Christ, intended to follow that up by giving in the Acts a narrative of the establishment and early progress of his religion in the world. That this, however, could not have been his design is obvious from the very partial and limited view which his narrative gives of the state of things in the church generally during the period through which it extends. As little can we regard this book as designed to record the official history of the apostles Peter and Paul, for we find many particulars concerning both these apostles men tioned incidentally elsewhere, of which Luke takes no notice (Comp. 2 Cor. xi; Gal. i :17; ii :1 ; I Pet. v :13). Much more deserving of notice is the opinion of llaenlein, with which that of Michaelis substantially accords, that 'the gen eral design of the author of this book was, by means of his narratives, to set forth the tion of God in the diffusion of Christianity, and along with that, to prove, by remarkable facts, the dignity of the apostles and the perfectly equal right of the Gentiles with the Jews to a participation in the blessings of that religion' (Einleitung, th. iii. s. 156. Comp. Michaelis, Introduction, vol. iii, p. 330). Perhaps we should come still closer to the truth if we were to say that the design of Luke in writing tha Acts was to supply, by select and suitable instances, an illustration of the power and working of that religion which Jesus had died to establish. In his gospel he had presented to his readers an exhibi tion of Christianity as embodied in the person, character, and works of its great founder ; and having followed him in his narration until he was taken up out of the sight of his disciples into heaven, this second work was written to show how his religion operated when committed to the hands of those by whom it was to be announced 'to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem' (Luke xxiv :47). In this point of view the recitals in this book present a theme that is practically interesting to Christians in all ages of the church and all places of the world. They exhibit to us what influences guided the actions of those who laid the foundations of the church, and to whose authority all its members must defer—what courses they adopted for the extension of the church—what ordinances they appointed to be observed by those Christians who, under their auspices, associated together for mutual edifica tion—and what difficulties, privations, and trials were to be expected by those who should zealously exert themselves for the triumph of Christianity. We are thus taught not by dogmatical statement, but by instructive narrative, under what sanctions Christianity appears in our world, what blessings she offers to men, and by what means her influ ence is most extensively to be promoted and the blessings she offers to be most widely and most fully enjoyed.