Acts of the Apostles, The

Acts of the Apostles, The

      fifth book of the New Testament, a valuable history of the early Christian church. Acts was written in Greek, presumably by the Evangelist Luke (Luke, Saint), whose gospel concludes where Acts begins, namely, with Christ's Ascension into heaven. Acts was apparently written in Rome, perhaps between AD 70 and 90, though some think a slightly earlier date is also possible. After an introductory account of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at Pentecost (interpreted as the birth of the church), Luke pursues as a central theme the spread of Christianity to the Gentile world under the guiding inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He also describes the church's gradual drawing away from Jewish traditions. The missionary journeys of St. Paul are given a prominent place, because this close associate of Luke was the preeminent Apostle to the Gentiles. Without Acts, a picture of the primitive church would be impossible to reconstruct; with it, the New Testament letters of Paul are far more intelligible. Acts concludes rather abruptly after Paul has successfully preached the gospel in Rome, then the acknowledged centre of the Gentile world.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Acts of the Apostles — • The fifth book of the New Testament Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Acts of the Apostles     Acts of the Apostles     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Acts of the Apostles — The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. It is commonly referred to as simply Acts. The title Acts of the Apostles (Greek, Praxeis Apostolon ) was first used by Irenaeus in the late second… …   Wikipedia

  • Acts of the Apostles (genre) — The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, claiming to recount the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. This is considered important mainly because of the concept of apostolic succession.List of acts* Acts of Andrew * …   Wikipedia

  • Acts of the Apostles —    The title now given to the fifth and last of the historical books of the New Testament. The author styles it a treatise (1:1). It was early called The Acts, The Gospel of the Holy Ghost, and The Gospel of the Resurrection. It contains properly …   Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • Acts of the Apostles — The fifth book of the NT. Without the Acts it would be impossible to write an account of the Christian Church of the first generation. With it, historians have interesting problems on their hands because of the apparent discrepancies both with… …   Dictionary of the Bible

  • The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles — also known as the Sonnini Manuscript , is a short text purporting to be the translation of a manuscript containing the 29th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, detailing St Paul s journey to Britain, where he preached to a tribe of Israelites o …   Wikipedia

  • Apostles, Acts of the — • The fifth book of the New Testament Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006 …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Acts of the Apostles — Acts′ of the Apos′tles n. bib a book of the New Testament. Also called Acts …   From formal English to slang

  • Acts of the Apostles — noun a New Testament book describing the development of the early church from Christ s Ascension to Paul s sojourn at Rome • Syn: ↑Acts • Instance Hypernyms: ↑book • Part Holonyms: ↑New Testament * * * a book of the New Testament. Also called… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Acts of the Apostles — noun A book in the New Testament of the Bible, also known as Acts …   Wiktionary

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