The Acts of the Apostles

144 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
telligible why he should have refrained from doing
the same thing in the second half, except, or almost
only except, where he himself was an eye-witness.
That the parts of his narrative where the colour-
ing is most sober are not the we-sections, but the
accounts of St. PauFs visits to Thessalonica, Beroea,
Athens, Corinth, Jerusalem (the last visit), Caesarea,
and Rome, is a convincing proof that his narrative
here is kept in close accordance with sources. Either
the records given in these sources contained nothing
of a supernatural character, or what they contained
of this character seemed to him incredible ; naturally,
however, the latter alternative is altogether improb-
able when we take into account St. Luke's peculiar
temperament. We reach no solution of the problem
by supposing that the economy of the book pre-
vented him from relating supernatural events in these
passages; for his we-sections are full of the super-
natural, and the account of the ministry in Ephesus
shows that even for the second half of his work,
in those passages where he was not an eye-witness,
anything of a supernatural character was most welcome
to him.
The circumstance that in chaps, i.—xv. the super-
natural element is so abundant, indeed is wanting in
no single chapter, is accordingly a proof that we have
here a body of tradition, homogeneous in its treatment
of the supernatural, which had been transmitted
to the author in a form and with a colouring that
were congenial to his temperament. That this form
and colouring belonged to the source itself-—the question
whether it was oral or written may be left open
—