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Luke–Acts is the composite work of the ''
Gospel according to Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...
'' and the ''
Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
'' in the New Testament. Both of these books of the Bible are credited to
Luke People * Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) * Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known ...
. They also describe the narrative of those who continued to spread Christianity,
ministry of Jesus The ministry of Jesus, in the canonical gospels, begins with his baptism in the countryside of Roman Judea and Transjordan, near the River Jordan by John the Baptist, and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples.''Chr ...
and the subsequent ministry of the
apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
and the
Apostolic Age Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus (–29 AD) to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles () and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity ...
.


Authorship

Both the books of Luke and Acts are narratives written to a man named
Theophilus Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...
. The book of Acts starts out with: "The former treatise have I made", probably referring to the Gospel of Luke. Scholars believe that they were written by the same person. Luke–Acts has sometimes been presented as a single book in published Bibles or New Testaments, for example, in ''The Original New Testament'' (1985) and ''
The Books of the Bible ''The Books of the Bible'' is the first presentation of an unabridged committee translation of the Bible to remove chapter and verse numbers entirely and instead present the biblical books according to their natural literary structures. This e ...
'' (2007). Luke is the longest of the four gospels and the longest book in the New Testament; together with
Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
it makes up a two-volume work from the same author, called Luke–Acts. The cornerstone of Luke–Acts' theology is "salvation history", the author's understanding that God's purpose is seen in the way he has acted, and will continue to act, in history.


Composition and setting

It divides the history of first-century Christianity into three stages, with the gospel making up the first two of these – the arrival among men of Jesus the Messiah, from his birth to the beginning of his earthly mission in the meeting with John the Baptist followed by his earthly ministry, Passion, death, and resurrection (concluding the gospel story ''per se''). The gospel's sources are thought to be the Gospel of Mark (for the narrative of Christ's earthly life), the hypothetical sayings collection called the Q source (for his teachings), and a collection of material called the L (for Luke) source, which is found only in this gospel. The work is Hellenized and written for a gentile audience possibly, in part, to counter a gnostic understanding of history. Marcion, a famous 2nd-century
heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
, who used a modified form of Luke known as the Gospel of Marcion, did not use Acts, perhaps because he was unaware of it or intentionally excluded it from his
biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning "rule" or " measuring stick". The us ...
;
Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...
, a proto-orthodox apologist, is the first to use and mention Acts, specifically against
Marcionism Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in Rome around the year 144. Marcion was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christiani ...
. Some scholars note that there are two versions of Luke–Acts with the longer version 10–20 percent longer than the shorter version. Scholars disagree on which came first.Carrier, Richard (2014) ''On the Historicity of Jesus'' Sheffield Phoenix Press p. 271


See also

* ''
The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles 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 Paul the Apostle's journey ...
''


References


Bibliography

* * Joseph B. Tyson,
Marcion and Luke-Acts: A defining struggle
University of South Carolina Press, 2006, {{DEFAULTSORT:Luke-Acts Acts of the Apostles Christian terminology Gospel of Luke New Testament books Marcionism