An image rich, passage-by-passage commentary that integrates relevant historical and cultural insights, providing a deeper dimension of perspective to the words of the New Testament.
Discoveries await you that will snap the world of the New Testament into new focus. Things that seem mystifying, puzzling, or obscure will take on tremendous meaning when you view them in their ancient context. With the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, you'll:
Discover the close interplay between God's kingdom and the practical affairs of the church.
Learn more about the real life setting of the Old Testament writings to help you identify with the people and circumstances described in Scripture.
Gain a deeper awareness of the Bible's relevance for your life.
In this volume, detailed exegetical notes are combined with background information of the cultural settings that will help you interpret the book of Acts.
THE ZONDERVAN ILLUSTRATED BIBLE BACKGROUNDS COMMENTARY SERIES
Invites you to enter the world of the New Testament with a company of seasoned guides, experts who will help you understand and teach the biblical text more accurately. Features:
Commentary based on relevant papyri, inscriptions, archaeological discoveries, and studies of Judaism, Roman culture, Hellenism, and other features of the world of the New Testament.
Hundreds of full-color photographs, color illustrations, and line drawings.
Copious maps, charts, and timelines.
Sidebar articles and insights.
"Reflections" on the Bible's relevance for 21st-century living.
Frequently asked questions
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on āCancel Subscriptionā - itās as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time youāve paid for. Learn more here.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoās features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youāll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weāve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Acts by Clinton E. Arnold in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Biblical Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
ā AUTHOR: Luke. He was a coworker of the apostle Paul, who ministered with him in Troas and Philippi, accompanied him with the collection to Jerusalem, and was with him during his Caesarean and Roman imprisonments. He was a physician who may have come from Syria.
ā PARTTWOOFATWO-VOLUMEWORK: Lukeās Gospel is the first half of a single two-volume work (āLuke-Actsā), sharing purpose, themes, and theology with the book of Acts.
ā CENTRALTHEMEOFLUKE-ACTS: Luke seeks to show that Godās great plan of salvation has come to fulfillment in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, and continues to unfold as the Spirit-filled church takes the message of salvation from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
ā OTHERKEYTHEMES:
1. Promise-Fulfillment: The age of salvation has arrived in Jesus the Messiah.
2. The Age of the Spirit: The sign of the new age is the coming of the Spirit in the ministry of Jesus and the early church.
3. The gospel is āgood newsā for all people, regardless of race, gender, or social status.
ā PURPOSEINWRITING: To defend and legitimize the claims of the church as the authentic people of God in the present age. To help believers grow in their faith and to inspire their evangelistic zeal.
ā RECIPIENT: Theophilus, but intended for a larger Christian audience.
Acts as a Second Volume
āActsā is the second installment of Lukeās two-volume account of the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus (volume 1) and the story of the beginning of the early church (volume 2). It is an account of Godās plan of salvation consummated in Jesus Christ and going out to all peoplesāboth geographically (from Jerusalem to Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy) and ethnically (not only to Jews, but now embracing Gentiles of every nationality). The book of Acts reflects the continuation of Jesusā ministry after his death and exaltation (Acts 1:1).
Acts is not a comprehensive history of the church, but rather a focused history centering on the beginnings and early development of the church in Jerusalem, the ministry of the apostle Peter (and to some degree, John), and a rather extensive account of the way God used the apostle Paul to take the gospel to Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. A complete history of the church would have told us about the ministries of the other apostles, the development of the church in Galilee, the story of the spread of Christianity to Egypt, the origins of the church in Rome, and a variety of other topics.
Lukeās primary burden is to give testimony to the fact that Godās salvation has arrived in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This salvation is the fulfillment of Israelās hope and is now being sent to Gentiles and to people throughout the entire world.
Luke
Although Luke never names himself as the author of Acts, ancient historians are unanimous in their assertion that Luke was the author of Acts and the third Gospel. The earliest evidence comes from a late second-century papyrus (P75) that has the phrase āthe gospel according to Lukeā at the end of the scroll. The church father Irenaeus gives fairly extensive testimony about Luke:
Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him ā¦. But that this Luke was inseparable from Paul, and his fellow-labourer in the Gospel, he himself clearly evinces, not as a matter of boasting, but as bound to do so by the truth itself.1
PAPYRUS FRAGMENT OF ACTS
A third-century A.D. papyrus fragment
containing Acts 9:33ā10:1.
After summarizing the passages in Acts where Luke includes himself in the story (the so-called āweā sections), Irenaeus adds these remarks: āAs Luke was present at all these occurrences, he carefully noted them down in writing, so that he cannot be convicted of falsehood or boastfulness.ā2
Another important ancient source, a second-century prologue to the Gospel of Luke, gives additional historical information: āLuke was a Syrian of Antioch, by profession a physician, the disciple of the apostles, and later a follower of Paul until his martyrdom. He served the Lord without distraction, without a wife, and without children. He died at the age of eighty-four in Boeotia [a region in central Greece], full of the Holy Spirit.ā3 Eusebius and Jerome contain similar historical traditions about Luke.4
Paul refers to Luke three times in his letters.5 The references in Philemon and Colossians place Luke with Paul in Rome during his imprisonment, which represents historical data that line up with the text of Acts. It was probably during this time that Luke engaged in writing his two-volume work while he served with the apostle Paul as his āfellow worker.ā In the Colossians passage, Paul speaks of Luke as the ādoctor,ā but we know nothing else about Lukeās background, training, or practice as a physician. The apostle extols Lukeās faithfulness in 2 Timothy 4:11 when he says, āOnly Luke is with me.ā Paul wrote this comment during his second imprisonment in Rome when he faced his impending martyrdom for the cause of Christ.
In summary, Luke was probably a Gentile Christian, possibly of Syrian (and thus Semitic) origin. He may have been a Jewish sympathizer (āGod-fearerā) prior to his conversion as his familiarity with Judaism and the Greek Old Testament might suggest. The story of when and how he was converted is unknown.
TheophilusāLukeās Literary Patron
In his introductions both to the Gospel and to the book of Acts, Luke addresses himself to a man named Theophilus. This individual is already a follower of Christ and Luke writes to him so that he may āknow the certaintyā of the things he has been taught (Luke 1:4). Acts is thus not an evangelistic tract, a defense brief for Paulās trial, or a piece of literature for its own sake. Acts is written by a believer to help another believer and probably a great many more.
In describing Theophilus as āmost excellent,ā Luke uses the term kratistos, an expression typically used as a title of respect for a person of high social status and wealth, often a person of equestrian rank in Roman society. Paul uses this title, for instance, to respectfully address the Roman procurators of Judea (Acts 24:3; 26:25). The equestrian order ranked only below the senatorial order in status and had a minimum wealth qualification of four hundred thousand sesterces.6 It may well be that as a zealous new believer with a significant amount of wealth, Theophilus desires to use his resources for the sake of the cause of Christ. He finds opportunity for doing so by functioning as a literary patron for Luke.7
A possible reconstruction might look something like this: Theophilus is a new believer from the equestrian order in Romeāexcited about his new faith, anxious to spread the word, and eager to learn more and grow. He meets Luke shortly after his arrival in Rome with Paul. Luke has already planned to write both the Gospel and Acts, but is unable both to support himself and devote his time to the arduous and time-consuming task of writing. As Theophilus gets t...
