The Book of Acts Essay

Luke was a medical doctor, a missionary, and evangelist, a historian, a researcher, and the writer of the third Gospel. The book of Luke was written in a formal literacy introduction noting his purpose in writing, his methodology, and the attempts others had made in such writing. Luke is the author of the book and it was written in AD 60 in Caesarea. According to Hindson and Elmer Luke’s purpose is to give “an orderly sequence” of the events about Christ’s birth, life, and sacrificial death followed by his resurrection and ascension back to heaven. The occasion calling for Luke to write his Gospel was that Theophilus, and other new believers like him, needed a clear account of the life and ministry of Jesus as an aid to confirm his faith

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

Luke the Evangelist was born in Antioch, Syria and died near Boeotia, Greece in AD 84. Luke the Evangelist was one of the four Evangelists. Luke wrote the book of Acts of the Apostles and Gospel according of Luke, both are referred as Luke-Acts.

As the article concludes, “Luke knew what he was talking about in recording the riot in the theater. His claim at the outset of the two-part work (Luke and Acts) to have ‘investigated everything accurately and reported them orderly’ is substantiated in Acts

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 reading Howard I. Marshall, “Acts”, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. He implied, the most significant for studying and interpreting the book of Acts is how a reader gets out of what he is reading and how he approaches it (Marshall, 17). He states that, “an average reader studies the books of Acts as a history book of the early church” (Marshall, 17). Readers should use critical thinking to seek a deeper revelation. For example: recognizing the authorship to the Gospel of Luke. And seek for what the author’s purpose of writing Luke-Acts (Marshall, 19). Accurate information gives better understanding. In fact, if a reader did not know the culture or customs of the first-century Christian writers of the early church. They would not know the first-century Christian writers were only known to write Letters and Gospels, and not large history literature, as the author did in the book of Acts (Marshall, 18). Who was the author addressing with his literature (Marshall, 18)? With these considerations, it is most significant to have accurate information to be able to study and interpret the true of the book of Acts.

Paul, formerly known as Saul, is first introduced in Acts 7-8 as a persecutor of Christians, and one compliant during Stephen’s stoning. In Acts 9, Saul has an encounter with the risen Christ that changes his life forever. Throughout Paul’s ministry, whether preaching to Jews or Gentiles, he will always proclaim the resurrection. Paul is extremely important to the book of Acts as he picks up Peter’s ministry and continues to take the gospel further and further into the Gentile world. While Luke is recording Paul’s ministry in the book of Acts, Paul is also writing letters (also known as the Pauline epistles) which now make up a majority of the New Testament. It is in these letters that Paul goes into detail defending his apostleship, but Luke will also defend him by describing him as a man filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:9), an apostle (Acts 14:14), and showing the parallels between the miracles both he and Peter performed.

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

These letters had already been written when Luke wrote the Book of Acts, but a close reading indicates that they are independent of one another. Paul wrote letters to

The warning signs spoken of in Lk 21:8-19 are echoed in the arrest of Stephen (Lk 21:15; Acts 6:10) as well as the future arrests and persecutions of the apostles. Furthermore, in the speech of Stephen, the longest discourse in Acts, we see an elaboration of what is narrated in Lk 24:27, where Christ began with Moses and all the prophets, interpreting scripture that was pointing to him. In Acts 7, we hear the same defense, or exposition, in detail as Stephen refers to Moses prefiguring Christ. In addition to that, the journey of Paul for trial at Rome in Acts continues the overarching theme and story of salvation that begins in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke we see the ministry of Jesus ending as he marches to Jerusalem, “on the way” to his trial.

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 authorship of the Gospel of Luke is a debated topic, while certain scholars believe that it was Luke, Paul’s physician, others believe that the writer is anonymous (Harris, 2014; Wilcox, 2014). There are two different bases of logic regarding this topic that will allow the reader to arrive at their own conclusion. First, a memo in the Muratorian canon names the physician Paul traveled with as the writer of the Gospel of Luke (Harris, 2014). Also, church leader Irenaeus refers to Paul’s physician and writer, Luke, as the author of the Gospel of Luke. Consequently, since scholars believe the same author wrote both Luke and Acts, the phrasing in certain books of Acts implies inclusion in certain narratives or first-hand accounts, thereby again

On the other hand, the New Testaments also passes the Internal Evidence Test. This test proves to us whether the original written record is credible and trustworthy. Louis Gottschalk points out that the ability of the writer or the witness to tell the truth is helpful to historians in determining credibility. Men who had wrote the New Testaments had been the eyewitness seeing the life of Jesus and knowing his teachings. “During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God” (ACTS 1:3). Luke who is an eyewitness that had seen all these incidents happening wrote the book of ACTS. Eyewitness became

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.