The Hellenistic Historiography Of The Book Of Acts

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

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.

I would agree that the Book of Acts is historically accurate of the early church and its leaders. I think Acts shows great detail about what the early church believed and practiced. Many historians love the book of Acts due to the detailed information that is included in this book. Luke seems to be knowledgeable about culture events that were happening in his era of history that has proven to be accurate. The book of Acts has many different examples that clearly show that Luke was living in this time of history. There is no reason why Acts would not be historically accurate. I would continue to discuss my beliefs about the legitimacy of the Bible. My personal belief is that the Bible is completely historically accurate.

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.

The next sign miracle was another demonstration of his ability to heal. Jesus healed a man born blind. This healing prompted a similar reaction from the Pharisees and the Jews that healing the lame man did; although, in this instance it was not done in violation of the Sabbath day. This was the first time Jesus had admitted openly that illness or affliction have been placed on someone for the sole purpose of revealing God’s glory.

Scholarly evidence supports and opposes the traditional belief that Luke, Paul’s traveling partner, wrote the Gospel connected to his name. To begin, the opposing evidence shows that Luke or Paul was not a witness to the events he tells about, and Luke did not mention Paul, Paul’s letters, or thoughts during his writings of the Book of Acts (Harris, 2014, p.198). In addition, Luke did not reveal himself in the Gospels or in Acts. Therefore, scholars believe that is doubtful that Luke is the author and Luke-Acts is anonymous. In comparison, the supportive evidence that Luke was the author of works bearing his name includes a note in the Muratorian list of New Testament books identifies the author of the Gospel of Luke, who is known as a

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

This book was written to record an accurate account "so that you may know the exact truth" (1:4) of the life of Jesus as the perfect Savior of the world. Luke puts an emphasis on the universal nature of God's dealings with the world. Luke also wrote the Book of Acts, an account of growth and expansion of Christianity after the death of

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.

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!”

Acts is a historically accurate book that a human author wrote in a particular time, in a specific place, and to a certain audience. Although there are people today who believe that the Bible magically arrived and that it is full of fantasy stories, the truth is that God divinely used man to record actual events. In Acts, He used Luke to record worth noting events. There are, according to Thomas L. Constable, primarily two supporting arguments for Lukan’s authorship in Acts: (1) internal evidence, such as certain passages that use the first person plural that can refer to Luke, and (2) external evidence. External evidence refers to the early church fathers that referred to Luke as the author of Acts. God had divinely instilled a purpose for Luke to

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.