The Acts of the Apostles

174 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
vi. 9
; xi. 19, 20 ; and xiii. 1 are almost without
analogy elsewhere in the first half of the book.
But is all the rest of the first half of the book,
namely, chaps, i.-v. ; viii. 5-xi. 18 ; xii. 1-24, really
tradition connected with Jerusalem and also homo-
geneous ? As a matter of fact the whole narrative
of chaps, i.—V. is connected with Jerusalem, and we
may say that all the rest has Jerusalem for its
setting; but two considerations demand further ex-
amination. In the first place, the narrative concern-
ing St. Paul in ix. 1-28 ^ (to which vii. 58^ and viii.
1% 3 also belong) has Jerusalem indeed for its
setting, but the fact that parallel accounts exist in
xxii. 3-16 and xxvi. 9—18, of itself shows that we
have here tradition of a distinctive character, and
the possibility that St. Luke may have derived his in-
formation from St. Paul himself, compels us to treat
this passage separately. It is also deficient in con-
nection with the rest of the narratives. In the second
place, the stories of St. Philip, though their scene of
action lies outside Jerusalem, and also the records of
the mission of St. Peter in Palestine, are certainly
closely dependent upon Jerusalem ; and yet there is
another city to which they give special prominence,
namely, Caesarea. We read first at the conclusion
of the stories of St. Philip : ^IXitttto^ evpeO)] eig
"A^toTOi/, KOI ofeo^o/xej/09 evtjyyeXi^eTO Ta^ TroXeig
Trao-a? ecog tov eXOelv avrov eh H^aKraplav (viii. 40).
It is thus expressly noted that St. Philip took up his
lasting abode in Caesarea, and in this way we are
prepared for xxi. 8, 9. Secondly, the conversion of
1 The limits here are uncertain.