The Acts of the Apostles

286 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
alone,^ but for the Jews this doctrine was only neces-
sary in so far as they fell short of the fulfilment of
the Law, and therefore, beside and apart from the Law,
still required the forgiveness of sins in order to be
quite righteous (xiii. 38, 39). On the whole St. Luke,
though himself a Gentile, stands nearer than St. Paul
to the Law—we may therefore also call his attitude
more primitive ; for it is certainly not to be regarded
as reactionary, but as the reflexion of the historical
conditions of a time when the Jewish Christians still
played a very important part, and when the Gentile
Christians had not yet lost their reverence for the
religio a7itiqua, and had not yet arrived at a distinct
self-consciousness of their own in the face of Judaism.
Though St. Luke may even give an allegorical interpretation
of a passage in the Law, he still regards Law,
Temple, and Vow as what they really were, and he values
them as such veiy highly.
This position of his becomes still more clear as we
consider his attitude towards the Jexcish natron. He
took over from St. Paul the theory of the predetermined
hardening of the heart of the Jewish nation,
and he seems here to have gone further than St.
Paul, since he does not repeat the Pauline thought
that still at last iraq 'la-parjk arcoOrja-erai. But upon
closer consideration it will be seen that his judgment
of the Jewish people is not sterner than that of
St. Paul. In the first place, the disparaging « ol
^lovSaioi " of " St. John '"*
is found very rarely in his
writings, though it is already coming into use with
1 Yet also this may be disputed with reference to x. 35 {iv iravrl
idyei