The Acts of the Apostles

XXX INTRODUCTION
the task he set himself. What this was is clear
from what we have already said ; it was to show
how the power of the Spirit of Jesus in the Apostks
founded the Primitive Community^ called into being
the mission to the Gentiles, conducted the Gospel
from Jemsalem to Rome, and set the receptive Gentile
world in the place of the Jeivish nation, which hard-
ened its heart more and more against the appeal of
Christianity. From these main lines upon which the
work was planned, and which were abstracted in the
happiest way from the actual situation of events, St.
Luke scarcely ever deviates. If one keeps this fact
well in view, one will no longer wonder that he tells
us so little about the Churches, and that he scarcely
touches upon the inner life of individuals—even of
St. Paul—and of the Christian community.^ When
he conducts the missionaries to a new scene of action
he only asks himself: how it was that they came
there ?—what reception they found among the Jews 't
what among the Gentiles ?—and, if any material was
to hand on this point, how they were received by
the Roman authorities of the place ?—about how
long they stayed there ?—and what was the manner
of their departure ? If in his narrative he gives
anything more than bald answers to these ques-
tions, it must be because of specially important
personages and events in which the power of the
Spirit manifested itself in extraordinary ways. There
is also no justification for charging him with a
distinctly po/i^zco- apologetic bias. The dedication
I We should, however, here remember the limitations of ancient
historical literature.