The Acts of the Apostles

INTRODUCTION
The magnitude and difficulty of the task which St.
Luke set himself in his " Acts of the Apostles,"' and
the ability and skill with which he has mastered this
task, cannot be easily overrated. In order to esti-
mate what he has performed, let us transport our-
selves into the situation in which he composed his
work. It was the time of the Flavian Caesars, and
he—a physician probably already well stricken in
years—after many long travels, which had led him
as far as Jerusalem in the East and Rome in the
West, had now taken up his abode either in Ephesus
or in Achaia, or in some other province lying on the
shores of the Grecian Sea. The Christian movement
had been in progress in these lands for at least thirty
to forty years. He himself had taken an active part
in its propagation, and had stood in personal rela-
tions not only with St. Paul, but also with distinguished
members of the Primitive Community.
He had received the details of the Gospel history
from those who could be described as «< from the
beginning eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word."
An overwhelming flood of impressions stormed in
upon the Hellenic mind of the writer—overwhelm-
ing where these concentrated themselves into one
single impression, overwhelming in their variety and
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