The Acts of the Apostles

INTRODUCTION xix
connotation. The facts themselves, indeed, protested
against such a restriction. Of the great majority of
the Twelve St. Luke knew nothing, or there was
nothing for him to tell about them that passed beyond
the limits of a simple uneventful ministry. Hence
the term " apostle " must receive a somewhat wider
connotation, and this would be allowed by the mean-
ing which was at that time still generally attached
to the word. The ministry of Philip, Barnabas,
Apollos, but above all of St. Paul, was to be described.
And now, under the shadow of the general theme
and in subordination thereto, the two great heroes
of primitive Christian history, St. Peter and St. Paul,
could also come into their full rights. The Acts of the
Apostles is a parte potiori a description of the ministry
of St. Peter and St. Paul. In its first part St. Peter
rules almost exclusively, in its second part St. Paul
is absolutely supreme. Yet no one can describe this
book as the combination of two apostolic biographies.
On the contrary, with extraordinary skill, care is taken
that the biographical element never passes a certain
limit. Biographical curiosity is not fully satisfied,
indeed it is compelled to content itself with little or
no information on very important points.
St. Peter and St. Paul—this combination which in
the memory of the Church occupies the highest place
of honour after the Founder Himself—was certainly
not created by St. Luke, but by History herself. Yet
we may well question whether this combination would
have impressed itself so exclusively and so firmly upon
the memory of posterity without the Acts of the
Apostles. Had the Great Unknown, who at a little