that it was written by a contemporary and companion of the apostle.

Its Character and Contents.-The keynote of the book is struck in i. 8: "But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." The entire book records the fulfilment of this prophecy. It may be roughly divided into three parts correspond. ing to the widening spheres of labour which were thus indicated-"Jerusalem" (i. 13-vii.); "all Judæa and Samaria " (viii. -ix.); "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (x.-xxviii.) Each of the three is marked by a notable outpouring of the Holy Spirit (ii. 1-4; viii. 17; x. 44-48).

Throughout the whole narrative prominence is given to the Lord Jesus Christ as the subject of apostolic testimony (ii. 32; iii. 13-15; v. 31, 32, 42; viii. 5; x. 36-42), as the bestower of the Holy Spirit (ii. 33), with His miraculous gifts (iii. 16; ix. 34), and divine guidance (i. 24; x. 19; xvi. 6-10), as personally visible to the martyr Stephen (vii. 56), and as the personal agent in Paul's conversion (ix. 3-5).

There is great significance in the description of Luke's Gospel, given in the opening verse of this book, as a treatise "concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up." The position of the word "began" is very emphatic in the original, as if to imply that the Acts of the Apostles formed a continuation of Christ's work. The writer conceives of Him as still carrying on His work in virtue of His Resurrection and Ascension; and in the introduction to the book he refers to these events as well as to the prediction of His second Advent (i. 1-11).

The continuity of the divine work is indeed the ruling idea of the whole book. The Gospel kingdom is described as advancing steadily onwards, beginning at Jerusalem (in the same upper room, perhaps, as had been the scene of the Last Supper), and extending

finally to Rome, the great metropolis of the Gentiles. More than half the book is devoted to the labours of the Apostle of the Gentiles, and three of his missionary journeys are recorded-with Antioch for his headquarters, where the "disciples were first called Christians "(xi. 26).

The

Of necessity it is a mere selection of incidents that is given, both as regards the labours of Paul (cf. 2 Cor. xi. 24-27), and the history of the Church during the thirtythree years or more over which the book extends. selection was no doubt determined partly by the information which Luke had gathered from his own observation as an eyewitness or from trustworthy reporters,1 and partly by the great object he had in view, namely, to trace the gradual expansion of the Church from its first beginnings as a seeming phase of Judaism to its full development as a catholic communion, in which there was to be no distinction between Jew and Gentile, and where the Law, on which the former prided himself so greatly, was to be superseded by the grace of God freely offered in the Gospel.

1 E.g. the account of the mission in Samaria and elsewhere in chap. viii. would, no doubt, be mainly derived from Philip, with whom the writer had spent many days at Cæsarea (xxi. 8-10).

2 A favourite word both with St. Luke and St. Paul.

CHAPTER VIII

THE EPISTLES

The Epistles of St. Paul—His Previous History THE Epistles. One of the distinguishing charac

teristics of the New Testament as compared with all other sacred books in the world is the epistolary character of a large part of its contents.

It contains 21 letters by 6 different authors-10 (or 9) addressed to individual Churches,1 5 (or 6) to private persons, and 2 to Hebrew Christians, the remainder being of a more or less general nature (1 and 2 Peter, 1 John, and Jude).

Besides these, we have reason to believe from the nature of the case (2 Cor. xi. 28), and from special allusions (1 Cor. v. 9; 2 Thess. iii. 17), that there were other apostolic letters which have not been preserved. That Providence should have suffered such inspired writings to perish is in no degree more remarkable than that so many of our Lord's own words should have passed into oblivion; and we can readily understand that during the apostles' lifetime their letters were less prized than after their death, when the loss of any of their writings was seen to be irreparable.

Although most of the epistles were written at an earlier period than the Gospels, they represent in general a more advanced stage of Christian theology. In the epistles we have the fruits of twenty or thirty years'

1 See p. 147.

reflection on the great facts and elementary truths contained in the Synoptical Gospels, viewed in the light of Christian experience and under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, taking of the things that are Christ's and showing them to the Church. To the epistles we are mainly indebted for our knowledge of Christian doctrine on such subjects as the Trinity, the relations of Christ to the human race and to His Church, the Atonement, Justification by Faith, and Sanctification by the Holy Spirit.

But while largely doctrinal in character, most of the epistles differ very considerably from formal treatises, being enlivened with personal allusions, and dealing largely with questions of a practical nature.

The Epistles of Paul.-The last remark applies specially to the epistles of Paul, which had their rise not in abstract speculations, but in the needs and circumstances of the various Churches to which they were addressed. They are filled with the living personality of the writer, and lay hold so vividly upon the reader's sympathies, that they have been described by Luther as "not mere dead words, but living creatures with hands and feet."

Their composition

They are thirteen in number. ranges over a period of about fifteen years, the earliest of them (1 and 2 Thess.) having been written about 53 A.D., sixteen years after the apostle's conversion; the last of them (the pastoral epistles to Titus and Timothy) very near the close of his life, approaching 68 A.D.

In the interval were produced two other groups of epistles—those designed to vindicate Paul's apostolic authority, and preserve the Gospel from the inroads of Judaism, viz. I and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans (written during his third missionary journey, about 57-58 A.D.), and the Epistles of the Imprisonment, viz. Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and Ephesians, written from Rome about 62-63 A.D.

The most of them were probably collected and in more or less general use in the Church within a short

time after the apostle's death, as we may infer from the traces of them to be found in the writings of Clement of Rome (95 A.D.), Ignatius (died 115 A.D.), and Polycarp (died 155 A.D.)

In our New Testament the Pauline epistles are arranged according to their length and importance, but there is an obvious advantage in studying them in their chronological order, as it enables us to trace the progressive development of the apostle's theology and the growth of his literary style, as well as to realise the circumstances out of which the epistles successively arose.

It is a circumstance worth noting as an explanation in some measure of the occasional abruptness and irregularity of the apostle's style (and perhaps of its vivacity), that his letters were usually written by an amanuensis to dictation,—the salutation only being written with his own hand, as a token of genuineness.1

His undisputed Epistles.—-1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians have the distinction of being almost universally admitted to be genuine writings of Paul.

This admission is a most important one from an evidential point of view, as these epistles form a valuable historical link between the earliest preaching of the apostles and the composition of our four Gospels. They contain a great many references to detailed matters of fact mentioned in the Gospels, and prove that the story of Christ's death and resurrection, as told in the four Gospels, was the chief theme of Paul's preaching (1 Cor. xv. 1-8; xi. 23-28).

With regard to our Lord's resurrection in particular, they prove that event to have been generally believed in by the Church in St. Paul's time, and to have been from the first the basis of the apostle's preaching (1 Cor. xv. 1-20). They also imply the exercise of supernatural powers by the apostle himself, as a fact generally admitted and not likely to be called in question even by those who were opposed to him (2 Cor. xii. 11-13), and

1 Cf. Rom. xvi. 22; 1 Cor. vi. 21; Gal. vi. 11; 2 Thess. iii. 17; Philemon, ver. 19.