The Acts of the Apostles

276 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
We must read as far as verse 8, where we already
find ourselves in the narrative itself, in order to learn
St. Luke''s aim in his second book. But that this
verse gives the programme of the book is only to be
discovered from the book itself, and not from the
form of the verse. It is the same with the con-
clusion : the gospel comes to a solemn close, after
which one expects nothing more. But it is not at
once clear that the conclusion of the Acts is really
a conclusion—indeed, judging from i. 8 (em e^yuTov
Trj9 7^9)> one might expect a further continuation.
From this difference between the two books we are
scarcely justified in concluding that St. Luke did not
give the finishing touches to the Acts—this is indeed
probable on other grounds—, but we must rather recog-
nise that the theme which St. Luke set himself in the
Acts was of a kind that it was difficult to summarise
in a short argument. In the Introduction we have
already defined this theme as follows : " The power
of the Spirit of Jesus in the Apostles, manifested in
expansion of the mission even to Rome, in the Con-
version of the Gentile world, and in the hardening of
the heart of the Jewish nation." We at once see
that this theme was too unwieldly to be framed
within a short argument. It was probably for this
reason that St. Luke abstained from giving such an
argument, though the theme of the book was quite
distinctly formed in his mind and kept well in view
throughout the work.