Acts is the second of two epistles written by Luke, so setting a date for Acts also serves to establish the latest possible date for the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke is closely related to the other synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark, and will influence a view on their dates as well. Also, Acts describes in detail the three missionary journeys of Paul. These journeys form the backdrop for most of the epistles of Paul, and help us to date them as well. Finally, if Acts is analyzed by itself, the date of writing for the book is quite obvious.
There is a further reason to establish a date for Luke prior to establishing a date for the other synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark. It seems that Luke has what can be described as a “simple” origin – simple in the sense that Luke researched his work, then wrote it one time in Greek, then sent it to his friend Theophilus, and that this writing is essentially what we have as the Gospel of Luke today. Most of the New Testament books have a similar “simple” origin, but the stories of Matthew and Mark are more complex. This has led to what scholars call the “synopic problem”, the effort to untangle the relationship between the Matthew, Mark and Luke. .
The opening verses of Luke and Acts make it clear that these two epistles were written by the same individual, “Luke”, in keeping with unbroken tradition since the apostolic age. The Gospel of Luke was written before Acts, based on Acts 1:1-3, with Luke calling the epistle his “former account.” Acts takes the story of Paul up through Paul’s voyage to Rome, where he awaits trial before Caesar in about 62 A.D. Having built to this climax, the story of Acts then ends with a few verses about Paul witnessing without opposition in Rome, leaving the reader hanging as to what will happen to Paul at his trial.
Further support for the conclusion that Acts brings the story up to date is the fact that Acts gives no hint of any knowledge of the major events that would take place within the decade. These events include the execution of James, the brother of Jesus and head of the Jerusalem church, the burning of Rome by Nero and the subsequent persecution of the Christians, and most of all, the Roman-Judean war of 66-70 A.D. One is left with the distinct impression that Acts doesn’t mention the results of Paul’s trial or any of these other events simply because they had not happened at the time the book was written.
Luke’s favorable attitude toward Rome points to a date before the persecution of Christians under Nero:
· Roman soldiers are favorably addressed by John the Baptist, something mentioned only by Luke (Luke 3:14)
· The account of the Centurion in Luke 7 is very favorable to the man, who “loves our nation” (Acts 7:5)
· The Centurion Cornelius in Acts 10 is a favorable character who becomes a Christian
· The Centurion and Roman commander in Acts 21-23 help Paul repeatedly
· The Centurion guarding Paul on the ship while he is traveling to Rome is yet another favorably portrayed Roman soldier.
· Paul is repeatedly treated with deference due to his Roman citizenship
(Acts 16:37-38, 22:25-28)
The opposition to the gospel described in Luke/Acts comes primarily from either the Jews or from citizens acting outside the law. The Roman authorities are the ones who deal fairly and put things right. There is no warning of Roman sponsored persecution, nor any direct instruction provided to the church as to how to deal with it. There is no hint in Luke that Jewish Christians will soon be thrown to the lions by the very Roman authorities who were so helpful to Paul and his companions. The most logical reason for the absence of any such hint is that Luke does not know about it, because it hasn’t happened yet. This points to a date of writing prior to the Roman persecution of the late 60’s.
James, the brother of Jesus, who is head of the church in Jerusalem, is mentioned three times in Acts (12:17, 15:13 and 21:18). In every occasion the leadership role of James is taken for granted (Peter and Paul are not considered the top leaders, as they would be later). Luke makes no effort to identify who James is, nor to differentiate him from the other figures named James; it is just assumed that the reader knows that this is the most important James around. James was executed in Jerusalem in 62 A.D. by the High Priest Ananus, who acted in the temporary absence of a sitting Roman governor. However, Luke does not seem to know this either. Perhaps this word had not reached Luke before he finished Acts, as both events apparently happened at about the same time in different places. Certainly, if James had been a figure in the distant past, Luke would have needed to differentiate which James he was talking about when he mentioned him.
At this point it’s important that Acts was written when it was. Its significance is mostly because of what it does to the dating of all the rest of the New Testament, but the exact date would probably not have mattered much to the early church. This is important, because people advocating late dates for books of the Bible often suggest that there exists an element of deception on the part of the author. This deception could take the form of an author falsely claiming to be someone else. It is certainly true that deception of this sort took place with some other earlier Christian literature. However, there is simply no motivation for this to have taken place with Acts. The author of the book is technically anonymous. Strong tradition and good reasons identify the author as Luke, the companion of Paul, but Luke was a very minor figure in the New Testament church, being mentioned just twice in passing(Col 4:14, 2 Tim 4:11). The epistle was written by Luke, with close connection to Paul and the events described in the book. Therefore, there would not be any motivation for the author to make the epistle appear to have been written earlier than it was. So when the epistle closes its account in A.D. 62 and appears to have been written in A.D. 62, there is every reason to assume that it really was written then.
It seems that Luke, who was Paul’s traveling companion, was left with little to do for two years while Paul was imprisoned in Caesarea from around 59-61 A.D. He apparently used this time to research the story of Jesus, interviewing some of the eyewitnesses, and eventually produced the Gospel of Luke around 61-62 A.D., closely followed by Acts. As Luke researched for his gospel, some of the material now in Matthew and Mark would have been available to him.
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