Читать книгу The Literature and History of New Testament Times - J. Gresham Machen - Страница 45

The author of The Acts was well acquainted with the Old Testament. He was able to catch the spirit of the primitive Palestinian church. His books exhibit the influence of the Semitic languages. But he was also capable of a Greek style which would have passed muster in the schools of rhetoric. Luke 1:1–4, for example, is a typical Greek sentence. Evidently Luke could move with ease in the larger Greek world of his time. His references to political and social conditions are extraordinarily exact. His narrative is never lacking in local color. He knows the proper titles of the local officials, and the peculiar quality of the local superstitions. His account of the shipwreck is a mine of information about the seafaring of antiquity. Evidently he was a keen observer, and a true traveler of a cosmopolitan age. His narrative is characterized by a certain delightful urbanity—an urbanity, however, which is deepened and ennobled by profound convictions.

In the Library.—Warfield, "Acts, Timothy, Titus and Philemon," in "The Temple Bible," pp. i-xxvii. Davis, "Dictionary of the Bible": Purves, article on "Acts of the Apostles." Purves, "Christianity in the Apostolic Age," pp. 1–8. M'Clymont, "The New Testament and Its Writers," in "The Guild Text Books," pp. 41–46. Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible": Headlam, article on "Acts of the Apostles."