What the book is
Acts picks up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off. It is written to the same Theophilus, and its first line looks back to “the first book”, which told of “all that Jesus began both to do and to teach” (1:1). This second book tells what he went on to do through his followers. Its plan is set out in the risen Jesus’s last words before he is taken up:
He answered them, “Times and seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority are not yours to know. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power, and you will bear witness to me in Jerusalem, through all Judea and Samaria, and out to the farthest end of the earth.”
Acts is the only account we have of the first thirty years of the church: the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, the first believers sharing everything they had, the death of Stephen, the conversion of Saul, the first Gentile believers, the council in Jerusalem, and Paul’s journeys around the Mediterranean, ending with him in Rome.
Who wrote it, and when
Acts and Luke are by the same author, and the tradition that names him Luke, the physician and companion of Paul, applies to both. In several passages, beginning at 16:10, the narrator says “we”, as if he were travelling with Paul; many readers take these as the author’s own memories, though others think he drew them from a travel diary or used “we” as a way of telling. The book ends with Paul living in Rome under guard for two years, still preaching “with all boldness, unhindered” (28:31). Some date Acts to that time, the early 60s AD, because it does not tell of Paul’s death; most scholars date it to the 80s, after the Gospel.
How the book is laid out
The book follows the plan of 1:8.
- In Jerusalem (1–7): the ascension, Pentecost and Peter’s sermon, the life of the first church, the apostles before the council, and the death of Stephen.
- Through Judea and Samaria (8–12): Philip in Samaria and with the Ethiopian official, the conversion of Saul, Peter and the Roman centurion Cornelius, and the church at Antioch.
- Out to the end of the earth (13–28): Paul’s three journeys through Cyprus, Asia Minor and Greece, the council in Jerusalem that welcomes Gentile believers without circumcision (15), Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, his trials before governors and King Agrippa, the shipwreck on the way to Rome, and his arrival there.
What to look for
The Holy Spirit is at work on almost every page, so that Acts has been called “the Acts of the Holy Spirit”. The apostles’ speeches, Peter’s at Pentecost, Stephen’s before the council, Paul’s in Athens, retell Israel’s story and show how it leads to Jesus. And the question of how Gentiles can belong to God’s people runs through the book until the council settles it. Key words are kept the same throughout: believe, grace and faith.
How Open Word Bible translates Acts
A text in two forms. The manuscripts of Acts come down in two main forms. One, found in Codex Bezae and its allies and called the Western text, is noticeably longer, with added details throughout. The draft follows the SBL Greek New Testament, and where the longer form says something that matters, a footnote gives it. This is why Acts has more text notes than any other book in the New Testament drafted so far.
Missing verses. Some verses familiar from older Bibles are not in the SBL text, among them 8:37, the Ethiopian official’s confession of faith before his baptism. The numbering skips them as the source does, and a footnote gives their words. See Verses missing from modern Bibles.
”His own blood” (20:28). Paul tells the elders of Ephesus to shepherd “the church of God, which he won for himself through his own blood”. Some manuscripts read “the church of the Lord”, and the Greek can also mean “through the blood of his own”, that is, his own Son. The draft keeps the wording of its text, marks both decisions uncertain, and gives the other readings in footnotes.
Brothers and sisters. When the speakers in Acts address a mixed group of believers, “brothers” in Greek can include women. The draft uses a reader setting for this, so that it reads “brothers and sisters” or “brothers” as the reader chooses, without changing the meaning. See “Brothers” or “brothers and sisters”?.