The Acts of the Apostles

20 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
that St. Luke had ah-eady, before his conversion to
Christianity, come into close touch with the Judaism
of the Diaspora,^ and that he could presuppose a like
acquaintance in the person to whom he addressed his
work and in the majority of his readers. This tends to
confirm a statement once made by Renan that in the
Apostolic epoch there could have been only a few
Gentile Christians who, before they became Christians,
had not come into touch with Judaism.
The passages which here come under consideration
are the following : 2
—
i. 12. Distance is given in terms of a " Sabbath
day'^s journey "" ; the knowledge of the length of this
standard is therefore presupposed.
XX. 7. The Christian sacred day is called vj fila
roov a-aPfidrcov (is thus named by reference to the
Jewish sacred day).
ii. 1 and XX. 16. ^ ^jmepa r^? irevraKoa-Trj^!—it is
presupposed that it is known at what time the feast
of Pentecost fell.^
^ His by no means contemptible knowledge of the Old Testament
lends additional probability to this conclusion.
^ We must naturally exclude those passages where it is recorded
that St. Paul came into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and
taught there. Every reader would certainly be acquainted with the
** Sabbath," and the record concerning St. Paul's preaching on the
Sabbath day in the synagogue (at the beginning of his ministry in
every city) is to be accepted as trustworthy, though some critics of
the Acts think otherwise, seeing especially that the *' we "-account
gives the same tradition (xvi. 13).
3 The wording of ii. 1 is, moreover, of such a character that there
is room for doubt whether the author intended to say that the
pouring forth of the Spirit occurred on the day of Pentecost itself.
It is more natural to suppose that it occurred shortly before this
day. The matter is perhaps purposely left indefinite.