Acts of the Apostles

The fi fth book of the NEW TESTAMENT. The Acts of the Apostles—commonly referred to simply as Acts—continues the Gospel of Luke. Together, they make up a two-part work. The gospel tells the story of Jesus; Acts tells the story of the early Christian church from Jesus' resurrection to the arrival and missionary activity of the Apostle PAUL in Rome. The fi rst part of the book is about Christians at JERUSALEM. Memorable events include the receiving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the stoning of Stephen, and Peter's vision, which justifi ed preaching about Jesus to non-Jews. The second part of the book tells the story of Paul: his conversion and his journeys in what are now Turkey and Greece, spreading the message of Christianity. In portions of this second part the writer uses the fi rst-person plural pronoun, "we" (16.10–17, 20.5–15, 21.1–18, 27.1–28.16). It is possible that these passages are from a diary that Luke kept. The tradition that Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts does not go back further than the end of the second century C.E. Some scholars think that the story Acts tells is somewhat artifi cial. According to these scholars, the author of Acts presents as united two independent and separate Jesus movements—one in Jerusalem, the other in Antioch (Paul's home base). The author also ignores other Jesus movements that were active at the time. Traditionally, however, Acts has been taken as the fi rst accurate historical account of the early Christian church.