Acts V2 Master Edit

acts a commentary Volume 2 (acts 15-28) by dr doug mcintosh lilburn, georgia 170 Copyright © 2015 P. Douglas McIntosh. This data file/manuscript is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file/manuscript must contain the above copyright notice. This data file/manuscript may not be copied in part (except for small quotations used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale, or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays, or other products offered for sale without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writing and addressed to Dr. Doug McIntosh, Senior Pastor, Cornerstone Bible Church, 869 Cole Drive, Lilburn, GA 30047. 171 172 introduction to the second half of acts Why did Luke write the Acts? What sources did he use in his composition? The Zondervan Ency- clopedia of the Bible supplies answers to these questions: “(1) Major portions of the second half of the book are the report of an eyewitness and a participant in events. The account of the visit to Philippi in Acts 16 and that of the two voyages in chs. 20–21 and 27–28 read like a personal diary. The use of the first-person pronoun claims this au- thenticity, and the style and detail of the narrative in no way impugn the claim. (2) Events between Acts 21 and 27, where no personal participation is implied or claimed, never- theless took place while Luke was in contact with the situation, and these are recounted with a detail and a sureness of touch that mark them either as the work of an eyewitness or one in im- mediate contact with reliable witnesses. As for the speeches, Paul was a highly educated man and moved in a literate society. It would be quite surprising if he had retained no written outline of his major pronouncements. This applies to earlier speeches as well as the elaborate apologies of the later chapters, and notably the Areopagus address. (3) Events falling between Acts 16 and 20 took place not far outside the orbit of Luke’s personal knowledge. He remained at Philippi when Paul, and later the rest of the party, moved on to Athens and Corinth, which was civilized territory with well-developed roads. There is no reason why a resident of Philippi who crossed to Troas to meet Paul should not have visited him in the course of ministries or sojourns in Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and even Ephesus. Some of the events in these places are described with peculiar vividness. 173 THE CITIES OF ACTS (4) Apart from personal knowledge, there was abundant opportunity to consult with eyewitnesses and participants. There was much coming and going among the apostolic community. Silas, for example, Titus, Timothy, Apollos, and Aristarchus seemed to have traveled extensively. It was not a world of rigid frontiers, and although the footpad haunted the more remote mountain roads and constituted one of the trials of Paul’s arduous journeying (2 Cor. 11:26), travel on the main routes was easy and comparatively safe. Lydia of Thyatira conducted her business in Philippi. Apollos moved from Alexandria to Ephesus and thence to Corinth. Aquila had been born in Pon- tus, traveled to Italy where he met and married Prisca (or Priscilla, to use the diminutive and more familiar form), and then under Claudius’s ban, moved to Corinth. Timothy came from Lystra, and Barnabas from Cyprus. Luke would have had rich opportunity to collect information from reliable and experienced witnesses, whose active memories extended back over two generations. Consider the following inferences: (a) If Luke was an Antiochene, though he may have later moved to Philippi, he could have first met and appraised Paul in his earlier ministry and heard from him personally the story of Stephen, the Damascus road, and its sequel (Acts 7–9). The account of the first missionary journey (chs. 13–14) could have been heard on the same occasion. It may have existed as a written report in the archives of the church. It was a common Greek habit to record details of travel and adventure. Xenophon’s Anabasis was more than four centuries old; biographical material in Herodotus, the historian and traveler, was older still. At Antioch (13:1) 174 Luke could have met Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius, and Manaen, the sources of information recorded and condensed in Acts 4:36–37; 9:26–36; 11:20; 12:20–23; 25:13. (b) He would hear in Philippi the condensed account of the Asian section of the second journey, briefly outlined in Acts 16:1–11, from Paul himself. The continuation of that journey and the stir- ring events of Paul’s ministry and travel up to the reunion at Philippi (20:5) would again find basis in Paul’s personal narrative. He and Luke were frequently together. There were others in the party (20:4) who were also in a position to supply vital information. (c) A vivid account of Philip’s early ministry is interpolated in Acts 8, significantly linked with the story of Stephen. Again the source is personal and firsthand. Philip resided at Caesarea and was Luke’s host (21:8) as the party passed that way on the journey to Jerusalem, and no doubt frequently again during Paul’s two-year incarceration in the garrison city. (d) During this same period, Luke had opportunity for a good deal of travel and interviewing. The early chapters of his gospel reveal his diligence in research and suggest a worthwhile contact with Mary. During the same period he may have met Peter and Peter’s protégé, John Mark. Mark was in Rome at a date a little later than this, and it is not known when he went there, but Luke was with him (Col. 4:10, 14). Peter and Mark could be the authorities for the events of Acts 10 and 12, which Luke vividly recorded. (e) Mnason (Acts 21:16), an original disciple, no doubt possessed valuable information and was conveniently at hand for the historian. It is manifest, therefore, that Luke had full facilities for the collection of material on the two themes of his writing, and that his claim to have carefully sought out firsthand material (Lk. 1:2) is one which the two books appear to justify, and known circum- stances to have amply facilitated. (5) Nor is it impossible that there were written records. Luke, at the beginning of his gospel, speaks of many written accounts of Christ’s ministry, and these narratives are likely to have cov- ered the events of the opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which follow in natural se- quence on the closing chapters of the “former treatise.” A certain episodic character in the first five chapters of the book could be accounted for by the supposition of written accounts. R. B. Rackham (The Acts of the Apostles [1904], xliii) goes so far as to suggest that John was the first historian of the church, and supports his suggestion by an analysis of style and language that is not without effectiveness. Such fragments of narrative as the story of the woman taken in adul- tery, found in Jn. 8… suggest a habit of recording and a disposition to grant authority to such records and to accept them on their merits. Luke may have had access to collections of such memoranda. It is again emphasized that it was a literate age. The Jerusalem council of Acts 15 would not have adjourned without something in the nature of minutes and a record of the debate that preceded the final decision. What were Paul’s treasured “parchments” (2 Tim. 4:13)? The possibility already mentioned that Paul’s speeches, and perhaps Peter’s also, existed in written 175 form, in full text or in précis, is also strong. The early Christians became rapidly aware that they were part of a great movement of history. It is the natural instinct of such people to record. “Every writer has his reasons and his motives, a point of view to urge upon his readers, a message to communicate, and vital information to set down and transmit. He is measured by the power of his persuasion, by the art with which he marshals and balances his facts, by the worth of what he has to say, and by the value of the history that he preserves and records. The writer’s purpose can be multiple, and to compass successfully more ends than one in a piece of historical writing is a heavy demand upon intelligence and conviction. Such success is the mark of Luke’s ability. More than one aim and purpose have been attributed to him by sympathetic commentators. They are not exclusive, and three of them may be considered. A. History. Luke sought, like any historian, to give permanence to extraordinary events and to record the birth of a movement which he sensed would change the course of history, and in which he himself was a privileged participant. His aim, in short, was that of the most austere of the great Greek historians, Thucydides of Athens. The Great War, which determined the future shape of Greece and ended the Golden Age of Athens, had broken out between Thucydides’ Athens and the grim state of Sparta. The young historian, for Thucydides was no more than thirty years of age, set to work, “believing it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any which had preceded it.” Indeed it was, he believed, likely to be “the greatest movement yet known in history.” Luke might have had these words in mind when he penned the prologue to the gospel, of which the Acts of the Apostles is its necessary sequel.

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