Acts 1:1-6

The Preface

1 I produced the former account, O Theophilus, about all {that}^[a] Jesus began to do and to teach,

2 until the day he was taken up, [after he]^[b] had given orders through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen,

3 to whom he also presented himself alive after he suffered, with many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking the things about the kingdom of God.

4 And [while he]^[c] was with^[d] [them],^[e] he commanded them, "Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what was promised by the Father, which you heard about from me.

5 For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit {not many days from now}."^[f]

The Ascension

6 So [when]^[g] they had come together, they began asking^[h] him, saying, "Lord, [is it] at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

Acts 1:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ACTS

This book, in some copies, is called, "The Acts of the holy Apostles". It contains an history of the ministry and miracles of the apostles of Christ, and is a sort of a journal of their actions, from whence it takes its name. It begins at the ascension of Christ, and reaches to the imprisonment of the Apostle Paul at Rome; and is a history of upwards of thirty years: it gives an account of the first Gospel church at Jerusalem, and of the progress of the Gospel there, and in Judea, by the means of all the apostles, and particularly Peter, the minister of the circumcision, and who also first opened the door of faith to the Gentiles: it shows how the Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, and was spread in the Gentile world, especially by the Apostle Paul, whose companion Luke was, that was the writer of this book; for that it was written by him is very evident from the beginning of it, it being dedicated to the same person his Gospel is, and of which he makes mention; and in the Complutensian edition the book is called, "The Acts of the Apostles of Saint Luke the Evangelist"; and so the title of it in the Syriac version is, "the Book of the Acts: that is, the history of the blessed apostles, which my Lord Luke the Evangelist collected for the saints". It was by him written in the Greek language; and we are told {a}, that there was a version of it into the Hebrew language, and which was laid up in the library of the Jews at Tiberias; and is cited by R. Azarias {b} under the name of twlweph, "the Acts": of the authority of this book there has been no doubt, among the ancients, only Cerinthus the heretic endeavoured to discredit it; and it was not received by another sort of heretics called Severiani, from Severus, a disciple of Tatian {c}. It is a most excellent and useful work, showing the first planting of Christianity, and of Christian churches, both among the Jews and Gentiles; the spread and progress of the Gospel in several parts of the world; what sufferings the apostles endured for the sake of it; and with what patience and courage they bore them; and what success attended them; and is a standing proof and confirmation of the Christian religion.

{a} Epiphan. Contr. Haeres. l. 1. Haeres. 30. {b} Meor Enayim, p. 167. {c} Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 29.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "of what"
• [b]. *Here "[after]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("had given orders") which is understood as temporal
• [c]. *Here "[while]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("was with") which is understood as temporal
• [d]. Or "was assembling with," or "was sharing a meal with"
• [e]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
• [f]. Literally "not many days after these"
• [g]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("had come together") which is understood as temporal
• [h]. *The imperfect tense has been translated as ingressive here ("began asking")