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The title now given to the fifth and last of the historical books of the [[New Testament (EBD)|New Testament]]. The author styles it a "treatise" (1:1). It was early called "The Acts," "The [[Gospel (EBD)|Gospel]] of the [[Holy Ghost (EBD)|Holy Ghost]]," and "The Gospel of the [[Resurrection of Christ (EBD)|Resurrection]]." It contains properly no account of any of the [[Apostle (EBD)|apostles]] except [[Peter (EBD)|Peter]] and [[Paul (EBD)|Paul]]. [[John (EBD)|John]] is noticed only three times; and all that is recorded of [[James (EBD)|James]], the son of [[Zebedee (EBD)|Zebedee]], is his execution by [[Herod Agrippa I. (EBD)|Herod]]. It is properly therefore not the history of the "Acts of the Apostles," a title which was given to the book at a later date, but of "Acts of Apostles," or more correctly, of "Some Acts of Certain Apostles."
As regards its authorship, it was certainly the work of [[Luke (EBD)|Luke]], the "beloved [[Physcian (EBD)|physician]]" (comp. Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1). This is the uniform tradition of antiquity, although the writer nowhere makes mention of himself by name. The style and idiom of the [[Luke, Gospel according to (EBD)|Gospel of Luke]] and of the Acts, and the usage of words and phrases common to both, strengthen this opinion. The writer first appears in the narrative in 16:11, and then disappears till Paul's return to [[Philippi (EBD)|Philippi]] two [[Year (EBD)|years]] afterwards, when he and Paul left that place together (20:6), and the two seem henceforth to have been constant companions to the end. He was certainly with Paul at [[Rome (EBD)|Rome]] (28; Col. 4:14). Thus he wrote a great portion of that history from personal observation. For what lay beyond his own experience he had the instruction of Paul. If, as is very probable, 2 Tim. was written during Paul's second imprisonment at Rome, Luke was with him then as his faithful companion to the last (2 Tim. 4:11). Of his subsequent history we have no certain information.
The design of Luke's Gospel was to give an exhibition of the character and work of [[Christ (EBD)|Christ]] as seen in his history till he was taken up from his disciples into [[Heaven (EBD)|heaven]]; and of the Acts, as its sequel, to give an illustration of the power and working of the gospel when preached among all nations, "beginning at [[Jerusalem (EBD)|Jerusalem]]." The opening sentences of the Acts are just an expansion and an explanation of the closing words of the Gospel. In this book we have just a continuation of the history of the [[Church (EBD)|church]] after Christ's [[Ascension (EBD)|ascension]]. Luke here carries on the history in the same spirit in which he had commenced it. It is only a book of beginnings, a history of the founding of churches, the initial steps in the formation of the [[Christian (EBD)|Christian]] society in the different places visited by the apostles. It records a cycle of "representative events."