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An Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles

The authorship of Acts and the 'we' passages

  • 3 things to know
  • AS

Overview

The common authorship of Luke and Acts, the first-person passages and what they are taken to show about the writer.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How is the traditional identification of the author reached from the 'we' passages?

Key term

What internal evidence links Acts to the third gospel?

Key term

Does the author of Acts name himself?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What internal evidence links Acts to the third gospel?

    Model answer

    Acts opens by addressing Theophilus and referring back to a first book about all that Jesus began to do and teach, and the two share vocabulary, sentence style and a single view of God's purpose unfolding in history.

  2. 2

    Does the author of Acts name himself?

    Model answer

    The author never names himself anywhere in either volume, so the identification rests on inference from the text and on the testimony of later writers.

  3. 3

    Where do the 'we' passages occur in Acts?

    Model answer

    The first person plural appears at the crossing from Troas to Philippi, again in the journey from Philippi to Jerusalem, and throughout the voyage and shipwreck on the way to Rome.

  4. 4

    How is the traditional identification of the author reached from the 'we' passages?

    Model answer

    The narrator must be a companion present during those sections, and the companions named in the third person within them are excluded, which leaves a short list from which the tradition selected Luke.

  5. 5

    What does Paul's correspondence say about the man named Luke?

    Model answer

    Paul's letters place Luke among his fellow workers, present with him during an imprisonment and still with him at the end, which fits the profile the 'we' passages require.

  6. 6

    State the external evidence for the authorship of Acts.

    Model answer

    Irenaeus, the Muratorian Canon, the Anti-Marcionite Prologue, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian all attribute the work to Luke. No rival name is ever proposed in antiquity.

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