The Acts of the Apostles

186 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
during the first night by an angel. This release
bj an angel (in reference to St. Peter) is in chap. xii.
rightly set at a much later time, and is recounted
with details which show that we have here the more
ancient stage in the development of the legend,
wherein are still preserved some genuinely historical
traits.
Seeing, therefore, that chaps, ii. and v. 17—42 bear
the same relationship to chap. xii. as to chaps, iii.
1—V. 16 it is natural to suppose that chap. xii. belongs
to iii. 1-v. 16. Chap, xii., however, is one of the
passages containing tradition connected with Jeru-
salem and Cajsarea. These passages (vid€ supi'o)
begin with the mission of St. Philip in Samaria, with
which the mission in the cities on the coast is con-
nected. But we notice that the section iii. 1—v. 16
concludes with an outlook towards the iripL^ iroXeig
' lepoucraXrijuL. The missions we have mentioned would
therefore follow in very good connection with this sec-
tion. The source must naturally have contained a short
introductory description of St. Philip and of his ap-
pearance on the scene of action ; but the introduction
which we now read in the Acts— the election of the
Seven, among whom St. Philip is only named, nothing
more being said about him—is quite out of connec-
tion here and belongs (vide supra) to the Antiochean
source which knows St. Philip only as a deacon, and
in which St. Stephen alone appears as an evangelist.
Here, however, St. Philip appears as a missionary.
There is no doubt, therefore, that an hiatus lies
between the mention of St. Philip in vi. 5 and
the narratives concerning him in viii. 5 ff. This