The Acts of the Apostles

172 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
ill xi. 19. But instead of continuing : (SitjXOov) em
^oivLKV}^ Ka\ J^virpov Koi ^A.vTioyela^, he confines him-
self, without naming the countries, to the general
phrase : {^ltjKQov) €vayyekLXoiJ.evoL tov XoyoVf so that
it was possible for him to pass over to the story of
St. Philip, to connect therewith other digressions,
and not to take up the thread again until xi. 19.
Hence all that comes between viii. 4 and xi. 19 is
digression, and accordingly vi. 1-8 and xi. l9-xv. 35
(with the exception of xii. 1-24) form one great
homogeneous passage which stands in sharp contrast
to the rest of the context : It is an Antlochean tradi-
tion, distinguished as such by the phrase N^/coAaoy
'TTpoa-ijXvTog 'Ai/rfo^eu? at the very beginning, charac-
terised as such by the fact that the point is through-
out directed towards Antioch, and proved to be such
by the indissoluble connection of the earlier sections
with the concluding sections, which are unquestionably
Antiochean in character. In view of the verbal coincidence
between viii. 4 and xi. 19 the question must
occur whether a written source does not here lie in the
background. The argument in favour of this conclu-
sion is strong, but taken by itself it is not convincing
it is also possible that St. Luke may have repeated
his own words.
But there is yet another consideration which makes
it probable that St. Luke is here dependent on a
written source. In vi. 13 the witnesses who charge
St. Stephen with blasphemy against the Temple and
the Law are described as false witnesses, and then
there follows the long speech of St. Stephen ; this
speech, however, not only breaks off prematurely, but
;