The Acts of the Apostles

LANDS, NATIONS, CITIES, AND HOUSES 111
the Tres Tabernae (XXViii. 15) are mentioned. The
author presupposes in his readers a knowledge of the
two last places, though they were not important.
Nor is the Acts wanting in references to Egypt and
Gyrene. These are already mentioned in the list of
nations (ii. 10) with the precise description : AHyvirTOfi
Kou TO. juLcptj Tfj9 A.i/3vr]^ T?9 KUTCi K.vpr]ut]v. Egypt
occurs elsewhere only in quotations from the Old
Testament, and in xxi. 38 an Egyptian is mentioned
who had stirred up a revolt, as is also told us by
Josephus. In vi. 9 we hear of Alexandrian Jews
who had settled in Jerusalem, and in xviii, 24 of an
Alexandrian Jew, Apollos, who comes to Ej)hesus. As
this man had already learned to know the Gospel
—even though imperfectly—in his own country, it
follows that the Acts contains an indirect notice of the
beginnings of the mission in Alexandria.^ Concerning
the Jews of Cyrene in Jerusalem (vi. 9), St. Luke
has not forgotten that some of these, in conjunction
with Jews of Cyprus, were the first missionaries to
the Gentiles (xi. 20), and he notes among the pro-
phets and teachers of the Church in Antioch Lucius
of Cyrene (xiii. 1). By an accident a reference even
to Ethiopia is not wanting in this book (viii. 27)
iSov avtjp Af0iO\|/- evvov-^og Svuda-rrjg J^avSaKt]^ ^a(ri\i(r'
crr]g AlOlottcov, Thus the glance of the author surveys
the greater part of the known world (xi. 28 ; xvii. 6,
31 ; xix. 27; xxi v. 5) from the Parthians and Medes
to Rome, and from the Ethiopians to Bithynia. In
no instance does he lay himself open to an attack
upon his accuracy, and in no place does his descrip-
1 Alexandrian ships in xzvii. 6 and xxviii. IL
: