Mrs : 325 Authorship, Purpose, And Literary Structure Of Acts

The Gospel of Luke was also written around eighty CE, written somewhere outside of Palestine (Tatum, 1999, p.34). The author may have been Luke the Gentile Christian, writing to another Gentile, Theophilus. Like Matthew, Luke is strongly believed to be written after Mark, with references from him, “Q” and “L” if following the Two (Four)-Document Hypothesis. The authors of Luke and Matthew are believed to be written during the same time without the knowledge of knowing. As mentioned before, Luke is about fifty percent longer than Mark is, making it important source since it contains more information about the historic life of Jesus. There is also a second part to Luke which is the book Acts, but is separate in Bible. Both include the beginnings

The book of Acts is particularly referred as the book of the Spirit. In fact, during the early days, it was referred as The Acts. However, the title was not original since the book of Acts is the second part of the writings of Luke. It is apparent that Luke went along way to point out the presence and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. Further, from the writings of Luke as documented in the Bible, it is evident that he was a historian and a theologian. The book of Acts is a prolongation of the ministry of salvation that was started by Jesus Christ (Shelton & James, 2000). The book of Acts highlights and emphasizes on baptism through the Holy Spirit. Luke identifies that it is through the Holy Spirit that God empowers and fills the people. The Holy Spirit played a vital role on the Apostles lives in preaching and continuing the works that Jesus had started before his death. The Holy Spirit is essential in lives of believers as he speaks to them, and guides them on how to live a consecrated life, preach the word of God, and He manifests through speaking in tongues.

The book of Acts is both a history of the early church and is also a blueprint for the

Although technically anonymous, most biblical scholars agree that the book of Acts was written by the physician, Luke. Luke was a traveling companion of

This is found by comparing Acts 1:1 with Luke 1:3-4. Acts 1:1: "In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen." Luke 1: 3-4: " (3) Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, (4) so that you may know the certainty of things you have been taught." Because Luke's first book was written to Theophilus as was Acts, Luke must be the author of both.

Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile, meaning that he was not of the Jewish faith. He is the author of the third gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke also wrote the story of Jesus and the Christian community for Gentile readers. He would also accompany St. Paul on some of his journeys and share his sufferings. Most believe Luke was a physician and that he pioneered as an early member of the church

In the first part of Dr. Timothy McGrew's discussion on the dependability of Acts and Luke as an author, McGrew shows and proceeds to interact with the opposing view held by Dr. Bart Ehrman. McGrew respectfully goes through each of Ehrman's negative and misguided beliefs on the contradictions and errors Erhman believes there to be in the book of Acts.

I think Saul/Paul is the main character in the book of Acts. I know of no other person, other than Jesus himself, which shaped the history of Christianity like Paul did. Paul was transformed by God from a Pharisee and tent maker, a persecutor of Christians, and prior to his conversion on the road to Damascus, to a preacher for Christ.

60-70. The author of Acts (Luke) leaves off with Paul in Rome waiting to make his appeal to Caesar. Meaning it was written before Paul?s death around AD 68. However, the events near the end of Acts happened around A.D. 64. If Acts is the sequel of Luke, (Acts 1:1-3) then it is only logical that Luke was written prior to Acts. This logic places the writing of Luke around A.D. 58-63. This time table working in reverse ?Markan Priority,? places all three Synoptic Gospels very close in time frame: Mark around A.D. 52-56; Matthew A.D. 57-60; and Luke A.D. 58-62. These dates however, are widely debated and are based on my own research. Some sources and commentaries date Luke much later. This debate focuses on the gospel according to Mark. It is unclear whether Mark was written before the death of Peter or after. Peter died around AD 64, if it was written after his death then that pushes all the gospels back several years from what I have concluded here, (assuming Mark was indeed written first, and used as a source for Luke). Both the Holman Christian Study Bible and the Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible agree with my time frame for Luke. These sources along with my own research and the use of ?Markan Priority? lead me to understand this (A.D. 58-63) as the most likely period for the

There is a lot more in common between the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts than just the authorship of these two works. The two works, separated in the canon by the Fourth Gospel, are two volumes of a single literary project. The prologues themselves describe how the works differ from each other and how they relate to one another as well. The Gospel of Luke covers the ground up until Jesus’s ascension (Lk 24:50-53), and the Book of Acts picks up with the retelling of ascension (Acts 1:1-2). The first volume, being the Gospel of Luke fits well among the other Gospels, where we see a long introduction being narrated similar to the other gospels.

Luke, the writer of both the Lukan Gospel and the book of Acts, commences the book of Acts by revealing that this book will differ from the Gospel: in the Gospel, Jesus personally taught; in Acts, Jesus teaches by His Spirit through His people.

The Acts of the Apostles is a historical and biblical book detailing the activities of the founders of the Christian church, immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is the fifth book of the New Testament and it tells of the founding of Christianity and the spread of its message to the Roman empire. The Acts translates the words, actions, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and it forms the basis of much of Christian beliefs today. The Acts and the Gospel of Luke making up a two-part work known as the Luke- Acts; written by an anonymous author who was believed to be one of the apostles by the name of Luke. Although the Acts talks mainly about two apostles,

WOOSTER — In the New Testament book Acts, two apostles of Jesus put forth a question to religious leaders of the day, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!”

Although scholars seen Acts as the second volume of two-part work by one author, as one single work.1 Luke emphasized the unity between the story of the ministry of Jesus and the story of the ‘beginning’ of Christianity.2 The Book of Acts disregards when attempting to describe and clarify the Christological identity of Jesus Christ. However, all the gospel accounts unfailingly imagine that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, but his Christological identity is hidden in the suffering of the cross.3 The Book of Acts does not distinctively cover the times between the human prophet to a supernatural Messiah. But, ties the element of torture inflicted on the innocent Jesus at his death and showed that he was alive by appearing to his disciple

According to Matera, Luke-Acts is a well-defined set of time periods. The Gospel is considered the time of Jesus and Acts is the time of the Church. The time of Jesus in Luke's Gospel foreshadows the Church (Matera, 7). As stated in Stanton, "Luke set out the story of Jesus as a prelude to the story of the origin and growth of the early Church" (Stanton, 80). John, on the other hand, focuses on Christology and the teachings of Jesus to the community (Matera, 9). Both Gospels contain strong references to discipleship, which form the basis for the Church.