Comparing Luke And The Acts Of The Apostle

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The Acts of the Apostles is the second part of Luke. The Greek word for Acts is praxis, which means practice or deeds. “Church writers in a later period titled this portion of this account, thus comparing it to the Hellenistic writings of the same name describing the accomplishments of famous men.”
There is a prologue in the beginning of Acts similar to Luke, which is very deliberate. He addresses the reader, Theophilus and assures him that this is a trustworthy account. The book of Luke is much more biographical, while the Acts of the Apostles is more historiographical. Acts tells a story. The story Luke tells is out of the research that he has done. Luke is persuaded that God has a plan and that nothing is accidental or coincidental. Luke …show more content…

There are only two major figures: Peter (one of the Twelve Apostles) is prominent in nine or ten chapters, and Paul (who is called and apostle only twice) is prominent in seventeen chapters. The only other figure in Acts who gets lengthy treatment is Stephen, who is not designated an apostle.” The Acts of the Apostles, at a glance looks like history, but Luke the author of Acts is not interested in chronological order. For Luke, God is divine chronology. Luke is interested in the involvement of God in the human experience. Luke is just not interested in telling and discussing the story of fine men or even the cause and effect for that matter. Luke is interested in the reader understanding the human subjects of the story and that the hand of God is at work. Luke here, is primarily concerned with the notion of a characteristic of the early church. That is that the people had all things in common and that God was at work in the people for his plan and purpose. This language use is recorded in Acts 2:44, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common;” and in Acts 4:32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things