James Vernon Bartlet

“ Not a word is said of any difference of opinion between Peter and Paul at Antioch (Gal. ii. 11 ff.) . The brethren in Antioch send Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem to ask the opinion of the apostles and elders: they state their case, and carry back the decision to Antioch. Throughout the whole of Acts Paul never stands forth as the unbending champion of the Gentiles. He seems continually anxious to reconcile the Jewish Christians to himself by personally observing the law of Moses. ”

“ Such “doubled-souled” persons, like Mr Facing-both-ways, inclined to say, “The Christian ideal may be glorious, but is it practicable?” It is this most fatal doubt which evokes the Shepherd’s sternest rebuke; and he meets it with the ultimate religious appeal, viz. to “the glory of God.” He who made man “to rule over all things under heaven,” could He have given behests beyond man’s ability? If only a man “hath the Lord in his heart,” he “shall know that there is nothing easier nor sweeter nor gentler than these mandates” (Mand. xii. 3-4) . ”

“ Yet we must beware of regarding Barnabas as merely a fine character; he plays too prominent a part in the New Testament for any such limitation. Thus, he next appears as braving the suspicions which dogged the ex-persecutor Saul (Paul) —possibly an old acquaintance in Hellenist circles at Jerusalem (cf. vi. 9, ix. 29) —and introducing him to the older apostles (ix. 27) . More suggestive still of high repute as a man of insight and authority is his mission from the Jerusalem Church to inspect and judge of the new departure in the Gospel at Antioch, in Acts xi. 22. ”

“ Nay, God might have to make good Messiah’s words as to His person being more essential to fellowship with God than the Temple itself (cf. Matt. xii. 6) , which might even be destroyed, as it had been in the past, without loss to true religion. In all this he was but reasserting the prophetic rather than the scribal view of the Mosaic Law and its institutions, viz. that the inner spirit, that which could be written on the heart, was the only thing really essential. ”

“ It must be noted too that evidence for his authorship of the third Gospel counts also for Acts. This carries us back at least to the second quarter of the 2nd century (Justin, Dial. 103, and most probably Marcion) , when Λουκᾶν no doubt stood at the head of the Gospel, especially where it was used side by side with the others. We have every reason to trust the Church’s tradition at this time, particularly as Luke was not prominent enough as an associate of Paul to suggest the theory as a guess. ”

“ He filled a position intermediate between Jewish and Pauline Christianity—one characteristic of Christian Hellenists generally. Hence he is spoken of with respect in the Clementines; while Paul, as a radical in relation to the Law, is discountenanced. If we could confidently credit him with the authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews, we could conceive his theological standpoint more exactly. But, in any case, the Barnabas of history was a greater man than the Barnabas of modern tradition. ”

“ On the whole, however, there is a disposition to look at the book more objectively and to follow up the hints as to its aim given by the author in his opening verses. Thus (1) his second narrative is the natural sequel to his first. As the earlier one set forth in orderly sequence (καθεξῆς) the providential stages by which Jesus was led, “in the power of the Spirit,” to begin the establishment of the consummated Kingdom of God, so the later work aims at setting forth on similar principles its extension by means of His chosen representatives or apostles. ”

“ What is certain is its influence on the development of the Church’s policy as to discipline in grave cases, like apostasy and adultery—a burning question for some generations from the end of the 2nd century, particularly in Rome and North Africa. Indirectly, too, Hermas tended to keep alive the idea of the Christian prophet, even after Montanism had helped to discredit it. ”

“ Alike they are champions of the "spirit" against the "letter"; and alike they tax unbelieving Judaism with failure to keep the Law in its real sense. But here difference begins. Quite apart from the externalism of Temple worship, to which Paul never alludes, they start from different conceptions of the Law. Stephen, the Hellenist, views it idealistically and with the spiritual freedom of the prophets and of Jesus Himself. But Paul took it more strictly (see Paul) . Thus in spite of general kinship of spirit, Stephen is not really Paul's forerunner. ”

“ From this standpoint Acts no longer seems to end abruptly. Whether as exhibiting the Divine leading and aid, or as recording the impartial and even kindly attitude of the Roman State towards the Christians, the writer has reached a climax. “He wished,” as Harnack well remarks, “to point out the might of the Holy Spirit in the apostles, Christ’s witnesses; and to show how this might carried the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome and gained for it entrance into the pagan world, whilst the Jews in growing degree incurred rejection. ”

“ This has a bearing, for instance, on the differences between the three accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts. In the recovery of a more real standard, we owe much to men like Mommsen, Ramsay, Blass and Harnack, trained amid other methods and traditions than those which had brought the constructive study of Acts almost to a deadlock.
5. Date.—External evidence now points to the existence of Acts at least as early as the opening years of the 2nd century. As evidence for the Third Gospel holds equally for Acts, its existence in Marcion’s day (120–140) is now assured. ”

“ They may have met Stephen’s appeal for faith in Jesus as Messiah by saying that full fellowship with God was theirs by observance of the Mosaic customs, centring in the Temple, which in Jerusalem overshadowed men’s thoughts touching the Divine presence. ”

“ The figure of Moses is made to stand forth in ideal outlines, the thinly-veiled Christian application shining through. “This is that Moses who said unto the children of Israel, ‘A prophet shall God raise up unto you . . . like unto me.' This is he that was in the Church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received living oracles to give unto us: to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts. . ." (38 seq.) . Here we have the very situation as between Stephen and his hearers ”

“ Ever since 1894 he held that both the “Western” text of Acts (which he styles the β text) and its rival, the text of the great uncials (which he styles the α text) , are due to the author’s own hand. Further, that the former (Roman) is the more original of the two, being related to the latter (Antiochene) as fuller first draft to severely pruned copy. But even in its later form, that “β stands nearer the Grundschrift than α, but yet is, like α, a copy from it,” the theory is really untenable. In sober contrast of Blass’s sweeping theory stand the views of Sir W. M. Ramsay. ”

“ If so, we can scarcely help coming to the conclusion that this eye-witness was the author of the work; for the style of this eye-witness is exactly the style of the writer who composed the previous portions (see Harnack, op. cit., reinforcing the argument as already worked out by B. Weiss, 1893, and especially by Sir J. C. Hawkins in Horae Synopticae, 1899, pp. 143-147) . Most scholars admit that the “we” narrative is that of a personal companion of Paul, who was probably none other than Luke, in view of his traditional authorship of Acts. ”

“ They are, moreover, all of them, the merest abstracts. The speech of Paul at Athens, as given by Luke, would not occupy more than a minute or two in delivery. But these circumstances, while inconsistent with verbal accuracy, do not destroy authenticity; and in most of the speeches (e.g. xiv. 15-17) there is a varied appropriateness as well as an allusiveness, pointing to good information (see under Sources) . There is no evidence that any speech in Acts is the free composition of its author, without either written or oral basis ”

“ These and other cases in which we are led to discern very primitive witness behind Acts, do not indeed give to such witness the value of shorthand notes or even of abstracts based thereon. But they do support the theory that our author meant to give an unvarnished account of such words and deeds as had come to his knowledge. The perspective of the whole is no doubt his own; and as his witnesses probably furnished but few hints for a continuous narrative, this perspective, especially in things chronological, may sometimes be faulty. ”

“ Further, he shows an “astonishing familiarity with the Jewish rites,” in the opinion of a modern Jew (Kohler in the Jewish Encycl.) ; so much so, that the latter agrees with another Jewish scholar in saying that “the writer seems to have been a converted Jew, whose fanatic zeal rendered him a bitter opponent of Judaism within the Christian Church.” These opinions must overrule the view of some Christian scholars that the writer often blunders in Jewish matters, the fact being that his knowledge is derived from the Judaism of Alexandria [1] rather than Palestine. ”

“ And (4) the scope of this action is nothing less than humanity (ii. 5 ff.) , especially within the Roman empire. It was foreordained that Messiah’s witnesses should be borne by Divine power through all obstacles and to ever-widening circles, until they reached and occupied Rome itself for the God of Israel—now manifest (as foretold by Israel’s own prophets) as the one God of the one race of mankind. (5) Finally, as we gather from the parallel account in Luke xxiv. 46-48, the divinely appointed method of victory is through suffering (Acts xiv. 22) . ”

“ Further, if our author was a careful inquirer (Luke i. 3) , especially if he was in the habit of taking down in writing what he heard from different witnesses, this may explain some of the phenomena. Such a man as Luke would have rare faculties for collecting Palestinian materials, varying no doubt in accuracy, but all relatively primitive, whether in Antioch or in Caesarea, where he probably resided for some two years in contact with men like Philip the Evangelist (xxi. 8) . There and elsewhere he might also learn a good deal from John Mark, Peter’s friend (1 Pet. v. 13; Acts xii. 12) . ”

“ Thus they were divided in soul between spiritual goods and worldly pleasures, and were apt to doubt whether the rewards promised by God to the life of “simplicity” (all Christ meant by the childlike spirit, including generosity in giving and forgiving) and self-restraint, were real or not. ”

“ Bar-Nebo, lacks intrinsic fitness for a Jew and a Levite, and of course does not accord with the statement in Acts itself. Hence it still seems best to assume some unknown Aramaic form equivalent to παράκλησις, and then to take the latter in the sense of comfort or encouragement. This rendering, rather than “exhortation” in the sense of eloquence, best suits the usage of Acts, which suggests such comfort as is given by encouraging rather than rousing words (ix. 31, xi. 23, xiii. 15, xv. 31 f.; cf. Luke ii. 25, vi. 24) . ”

“ But as he does so, it is added to, in the way of detail and illustration, by a fresh series of revelations through an angel in the guise of a Shepherd, who in a preliminary interview announces himself as the Angel of Repentance, sent to administer the special “repentance” which it was Hermas’s mission to declare. This interview appears in our MSS. as Vis. v., [2] but is really a prelude to the Mandates and Similitudes which form the bulk of the whole work, hence known as “The Shepherd.” The relation of this second part to Vis. i.-iv. is set forth by the Shepherd himself. ”

“ The relation here indicated between the Shepherd’s instruction and the initial message of one definitive repentance, open to those believers who have already “broken” their “seal” of baptism by deadly sins, as announced in Visions i.-iv. is made yet plainer by Sim. vi. 1. 3 f. “These mandates are profitable to such as are about to repent; for except they walk in them their repentance is in vain.” ”

“ This involves emphasis on the identity of the power, Divine and not merely human, expressed in the great series of facts from first to last. Thus (2) the Holy Spirit appears as directing and energizing throughout the whole struggle with the powers of evil to be overcome in either ministry, of Master or disciples. ”

“ Rather its contents came to him piecemeal and at various stages in his ministry as a Christian “prophet,” extending over a period of years; and, like certain Old Testament prophets, he shows us how by his own experiences he became the medium of a divine message to his church and to God’s “elect” people at large.
In its present form it falls under three heads: Visions, Mandates, Similitudes. But these divisions are misleading. The personal and preliminary revelation embodied in Vision i. ”

“ In this aspect the book “as a whole is according to the aims of the author and in reality a historical work” (p. 41; cf. pp. 1-20, 222 ff.) . ↑ Though this view had the support of J. B. Lightfoot, it should be remembered that this was before the “South Galatian” theory as to the date of Paul’s work among the Galatians came to prevail. ↑ Harnack, indeed, argues (op. cit. pp. 188 ff.) that the Abstinences defined for Gentiles were in the original text of Acts xv. 20 purely moral, and had no reference to Jewish scruples as to eating blood. ”