The Acts of the Apostles

XX INTRODUCTION
later period worked in Asia, and there gathered round
him a circle of presbyters—had he found such a bio-
grapher as St. Luke, it is probable that the dual
monarchy of the two chief apostles in the memory
of the Church would have been shaken ; and had
James, the Lord's brother, won to his side an Hellenic
author, in the Jerusalem of the future this James
might easily have been regarded as the chief personality
of the Apostolic epoch. Attempts were made
on behalf of both these personalities, but at too late
a date and by unqualified persons. Hence, estab-
lished and protected by the Acts of the Apostles, the
twin apostles St. Peter and St. Paul abide unques-
tioned on their lofty pedestal, whence they can never
be thrown down. Of the change which in later days
came over the ChurcVs appreciation of the relative
importance of these apostles it is not here the place
to speak. Only let it be said that St. Luke does not
set either above the other. His narrative of St. Paul
is of one personally known to himself, while for what
he says of St. Peter he depends upon information
from outside—this naturally constitutes an important
difference ; but apart from this insuperable difference
he speaks of both with equal veneration ; and ques-
tions of rivalry between the two do not lie at all
within his horizon. If he allows the orbit of St.
Peter to intersect that of St. Paul once only—at the
climax of his narrative (chap, xv.)—while, as we
learn from Acts ix. 27, Gal. i. 18, 1 Cor. i. 12, these
orbits often touched one another, this is bound up
with a definite conception and treatment of his theme
on the part of the author, a circumstance which, in