The Acts of the Apostles

THE SOURCES AND THEIR VALUE 175
the centurion, an event only inferior in importance to
that of chap. xi. 19 ^., has its scene in Caesarea
further the express, yet seamingly superfluous, in-
formation is given that the brethren who conducted
St. Paul from Jerusalem to Tarsus came with him to
Caesarea (ix. 30)
; and lastly, there is the record of the
punishment of Herod by death in Caesarea (xii. 19 ff.)
—a piece of supplementary information which lies
quite outside the economy of the book. We must,
therefore, describe the sections viii. 5—40 ; ix. 29—xi.
18; xii. 1—24 as Caesarean tradition, or rather as
tradition connected with both Jerusalem and Caesarea.
There is also a piece of personal tradition (the Con-
version of St. Paul, ix. 1—28). It has, however, been
shown in the previous chapter that all these tradi-
tions are strictly homogeneous in their attitude to
the supernatural, and that this character cannot have
been first impressed upon them by St. Luke; for
otherwise it must have appeared in those parts of
the second half of the book where the «we" does
not occur; here, however, this character is almost
entirely wanting.
The passages i.-v. ; viii. 5-40 ; ix. 29-xi. 18 ; and
xii. 1—24, do not give an impression of literary homo-
geneity such as would lead us to conclude that they
are derived from a single source ; but we cannot come
to close quarters with this question until we have
investigated the content of these passages with special
reference to the chief personalities with which they
are concerned.
The Antiochean traditions, as read in St. Luke,
begin with St. Stejrhen, whom they extol—while St.
;