Anders - Acts

L uke held a high view of women, and I share that position. Particularly, the three women who helped in the preparation of this manuscript. Dividing transcription and typing chores equally were my former administrative assistant, Virginia Murray, and my present administrative assistant, Karen Grassmick. Checking each text and reference for accuracy fell to my loving wife Betty. Readers who profit from this work will want to remember their efforts as well as my own.

Kenneth O. Gangel

October 1996

Today's church hungers for Bible teaching and Bible teachers hunger for resources to guide them in teaching God's Word. The Holman New Testament Commentary provides the church with the food to feed the spiritually hungry in an easily digestible format. The result: new spiritual vitality that the church can readily use.

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Introduction to

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F rom Pentecostal fire in Jerusalem to unhindered gospel proclamation in a Roman prison, Acts unfolds the exciting story of God working to take the gospel message of salvation to the ends of the earth. A scholarly, exegetical commentary on Acts would spend thirty or forty pages introducing the book and the intricate scholarly theories about it and is beyond the scope and purpose of this work. The excellent commentary of Richard Longenecker deals sufficiently with all the intricacies of Acts introduction. We will spend a few paragraphs outlining the basicsauthorship, date of writing, purpose, and style. This provides all you need for a user-friendly, teacher's companion commentary.

AUTHORSHIP

Luke seems almost unchallenged as the author of Acts. Common style and vocabulary unite Acts with Luke's Gospel. The Gospel's conclusion virtually forms an introduction to the Book of Acts. The connection of the ascension narratives and the internal evidence of the we sections (16:1017; 20:521; 27:128:16) strongly suggest that one of Paul's traveling companions wrote much of the narrative. Luke was with Paul at Rome (Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11). Thus common style, common vocabulary, and common dedication to Theophilus give credence to the Lucan authorship of both books.

External evidence is strong as well. Putting it simply, Longenecker says,

What we can say positively is that the tradition that Luke wrote the third Gospel and Acts goes back at least to the early second century, that it was unanimously accepted within the church, and that it would be very strange were it not true . Consequently, there are no compelling reasons to reject the tradition that Luke, Paul's physician friend, who appears to have been a Gentile (Col. 4:1015), was the writer of Acts (Longenecker, 240).

Who was Luke? His name appears only three times in the New Testament (Col. 4:14; Phlm. 24; 2 Tim. 4:1011), but we know clearly he was a member of the missionary team who traveled extensively with the apostle and served as his companion during the Roman confinement. The conclusion he was a Gentile comes largely from his Greek style and cultural perspectives. His occupation is well attested in Colossians 4:14. The best conclusion is to place little weight on external tradition (though some have made elaborate arguments) and to base our knowledge of Luke solely upon the books of Luke and Acts.

DATE OF WRITING

Essentially, scholars offer three options for dating: before A.D. 64, explaining the abrupt ending; between 70 and 90, assuming Luke's Gospel knows the fall of Jerusalem in 70 as a past event; between 95 and 100, assuming Luke depends on Josephus. Most evangelical scholars support an early date. One can hardly imagine Luke not including the death of Paul (about A.D. 67) or the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) in a book so committed to historical pattern. Polhill's willingness to accept a date sometime after 70 (but no convincing reason for dating it later than sometime during that decade, Polhill, 31) seems an unnecessary yielding to critics of an early date. Dogmatism is hardly essential on this issue. A date not later than A.D. 64 seems most likely since Luke does not mention Paul's release (about A.D. 61), the Neronian fire in Rome with its ensuing persecution of Christians in A.D. 64, nor the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Such a view allows space for portions of Luke to be dependent on Mark but also views Luke's treatment of Jerusalem in his Gospel as prophetic rather than historic, a traditional evangelical position.