The Acts of the Apostles

38 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
and the " Seven," but as a history by itself. Fourthly
and lastly, he relates the story of St. Paul up to his
entry into the service of the youthful Church of
Antioch. In the small space of seven chapters he
follows all these lines and tries also to interweave
them with one another, at the same time leading up
to and picturing the great transit of the Gospel from
the sphere of Judaism to that of Hellenism (for which
one is in no way prepared in chaps, i.—v.). To us it
seems as if in these seven chapters more gaps have
been left than facts narrated, and that though the
literary skill here shown is indeed commendable, it is
nevertheless not very great. No wonder that for us
these gaps give rise to numerous notes of interroga-
tion which attach themselves to what is narrated.
The question, however, whether the narrative of this
part of the Acts really contains the leading events of
the history and is essentially trustworthy forms a problem
that has not yet been solved, nor will it probably
ever be solved, seeing that we possess for its control
such an extremely small quantity of parallel material.
APPENDIX III
Tlie Chronological Note at the end of the Acts
The most difficult chronological statement in the
book is the note at the end (xxviii. 30, 31) : evifxeivev
[sell, in Rome] ^e SicTiav oXtjv ev iSlw jULicrOcojuaTi koi
OLTreSe-^eTO TrdvTas tovs eicriropevojuievov^ irpog
auToV, Ktjpvara-ODV Ttjv /Saa-iXclav rov Seov koi