The Acts of the Apostles

EXCURSUS V 291
Acts, but to warn critics against a too hasty closing
of the chronological question. It is well known how
quickly hypotheses that are questionable and bur-
dened with the greatest difficulties—such, for example,
as the hypothesis that Rom. xvi. is an epistle, or part
of an epistle, to Ephesus—have arrived at even un-
questioned recognition.
In my Chronologie der altchristl. Lift., I. (1897),
s. 246-250, 718, 1 have produced the reasons in favour
of the hypothesis that the Acts was not composed
before the year a.d. 78. They reduce themselves to
three in number—all the rest are not of great weight,
to say nothing of being convincing : (1) The prologue
of St. Luke's gospel seems to demand that at least
half a century should have elapsed since the death of
Jesus; (2) the gospel with its detailed prophecies
concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the
Temple seems to presuppose that the catastrophe of
the year a.d. 70 had already occurred—moreover, the
omission by St. Luke of the warning : 6 avayiyvooarKcov
voehco (St. Mark xiii. 14 ; St. Matt. xxiv. 15) suggests
that the fulfilment itself already lay before men's
eyes; (3) the legends concerning the appearances of
the Risen Christ and the Ascension are difficult to
explain, on the assumption that they arose before the
destruction of Jerusalem.
Of these three arguments the second and third are
weighty, while the first upon closer consideration is
only of quite slight importance. Unfortunately we
know absolutely nothing, nor can we form a con-
jecture as to how many, even at the earliest period,
wrote concerning the " ire'jrXrjpocpoptjjuieva ev rjfxtp irpay-