The Acts of the Apostles

THE TREATMENT OF PERSONS 129
accordance with the Divine Will, is passing over
from the Jews to the Gentiles. The book opens
with the missionary discourses delivered by St. Peter
before the Jews (ii. 14/.; iii. 12/.; iv. 7/., 19/.;
V. 29 /.). Parallel to them stand the missionary
discourse of St. Paul to the Jews (xiii. 16 /) and to
the Gentiles (xvii. 22/!), the latter having a sort of
prelude in xiv. 15 /. These are—with one exception
which will be immediately dealt with—all the longer
speeches that are to be found in the book. We see
how completely they are in subordination to the main
purpose of the book, which is to describe the history
of the mission and of the passing over of the Gospel
to the Gentiles. The more remarkable therefore is
the contrast presented by St. PauFs speech at Miletus
(xx. 18/.). Its content is such as to set it somewhat
outside the framework of the book. As is well known
it stands between two we-sections, and it is for this
very reason probable that we have here the report of
words which St. Luke himself had heard, and that
here— just as in his account of the perils of the
voyage to Rome—he goes more into detail than is
consistent with the plan of his work, because he
allowed himself to be led away by the deep impression
that the scene had made upon him. The speech at
Miletus is therefore most probably authentic, in so
far as a short report can be said to be authentic.^ It
has, however, been noticed long ago that in spirit
and in phraseology no passage in the Acts is more
closely allied to the Pauline epistles than this speech.
1 Note also that in it subjects are discussed which are not touched
upon elsewhere in the whole book.
I