The Acts of the Apostles

296 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
the " nomen Christianum " as such is not yet proscribed
(as it must already have been in the Flavian period).
There are, besides, certain delicate terminological
traits which seem to point to a high antiquity,^ as well
as the primitive standpoint adopted in the treatment
of Judaism and Jewish Christianity (vide pp. 281 ff.).
These are, so far as I see, the most important
arguments for the composition of the Acts at the
beginning of the seventh decade. On the other side
—unless prejudice or " critical intuition," things that
we, of course, cannot search into, are brought into
play—we have simply the considerations that the
prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem
coincides in some remarkable points with what really
happened, and that the accounts of the appearances
of the Risen Christ and the legend of the Ascension
are scarcely intelligible on the assumption that they
arose before the destruction of Jerusalem.^ A deci-
^ Among these traits I reckon the absence of the title " 6 /Sao-t-
\iis " for the emperor {vide supra, p. 36) ; the use of the name '* oi
fxadrjTai " for the Christians (not used even by St. Paul) as the more
solemn and ceremonious term {vide supra, p. 265) ; the application of
the designation 6 Xaos [toO deov] exclusively to the Jewish nation,
not to the Christians {vide supra, pp. 50/.) ; the fact that irapoiKla and
irdpoiKos have not acquired a technical significance, the as yet
undeveloped conception of the Church [vide " Luke the Physician,"
pp. S4tff.), and much else.
2 Here, however, we are ought to forget that in reference to the
origin of these legends we are destitute of the help of any accompanying
tradition, and are left simply to considerations of probability,
which at all events are not in favour of an early date.—
further great difficulty lies outside the Lukan writings, but at once
announces itself. Is it possible that the Gospel of St. Mark, the
source of St. Luke, could have been already written about the year
A.D. 60—this would be the latest date on the assumption of the
earlier date for St. Luke 7 I cannot here enter into this question.
A