LUKE-ACTS

                                         

The third gospel and the book of Acts of the Apostles constitute a single work in two volumes of the same author. In fact, Acts 1.1 gives this impression, since the author speaks of a "previous book" and the addressee, Theophilus, is the same as the gospel. There is also the opinion of the critics who affirm that the style and the vocabulary of these two texts point to a same authorship. The separation of the volumes must have occurred when they began to make the first collections of the books of the New Testament, putting this gospel together with the others.

Although both texts do not unequivocally identify its author, internal and external evidence points to the authorship of Dr. Lucas, a Gentile convert who accompanied Paul on his travels. This fact can be observed in some passages (Acts 16: 8-10, 20: 5-15, 21: 1-18) and in these words of the Apostle: "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas send greetings." In addition to other testimonies, the oldest manuscript of the third gospel, the p75 papyrus,  dated from 175 to 225 AD, attributes this book to Luke [1].

The continuous reading of these two texts reveals the greatness of this author's work and his intention to record the "early history of Christianity" [2]. After careful investigation (1.3), Luke goes on to report the "facts that were fulfilled" in Israel, placing them firmly in the context of the secular history of the time (1.5, 2.1-2, 3.1-2). Thus in Luke-Acts the action of God in the world wins concreteness and ceases to be mere religious fiction, the spiritual invades the material and manifests itself through facts, in time and space. Yes, man's salvation for God develops in history.

Luke realizes the importance of the moment that he lives and registers it in his extensive work. In his account is the entrance of God into the world through the birth of Jesus the Son. Christ, while revealing God, lives mankind in its true expression and rescues it from the power of darkness by obedience until death. According to Luke. after Jesus was resurrected and ascended into the heavens, human beings were not abandoned: God came to them in Pentecost, in the person of his Spirit, who came to guide the Church in the preaching of salvation announced by Christ.

Luke-Acts tells the story of a faith that began in an insignificant province of the Roman Empire and which, in thirty years, reached its corners and even Rome. It tells the story of a new way to reach and follow God: Jesus. The followers of this Way (16:17, 18,25,26, 19,9,23; 22,4; 24,14,22) saw Jesus as superior to Jonah and repented (Luke 11:32), that is, they changed their minds, reoriented their perspectives, and adopted a totally new view of the world and of God.

Antônio Maia – M.Div.

Copyright

[1]   CARSON, MOO E MORRIS. Introdução ao Novo Testamento. Vida Nova, p.125.

[2]   Idem, p. 203