1.- Christian tradition, since Saint Irenaeus (second century), attributes to Saint Luke the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is his second book, after the evangel: In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught (Acts 1,1). The second book is centred in the acts of the Apostles. The book of the Acts was considered like canonical from the third century on and, one century later, it was used for the paschal time liturgical readings.
2.- Luke redacts his work on the basis of small frames. Along his pages men so important as Peter, James and John; Paul and Barnabas; Stephen and others, like Philip, Mark or Timothy appear. At the beginning, the narration is centred in Peter, the head of the Apostles. In the council at Jerusalem, Peter approves Paul´s behaviour and his aperture to the gentiles. From this moment, Paul becomes the protagonist. The apostle of the gentiles represents the future.
3.- Luke knows the primitive christianism history. He was a direct witness of some events. He has at hand testimonies (oral or written) about the Church in Antioch. He also has at hand the narration about the council of Jerusalem. He has been a Paul collaborator. He has acquired information about the first community in Jerusalem and about Peter. He owns all kind of tradition of discourses that goes back to the Church origins. He pretends to narrate the acts of the Apostles, the Gospel announcement and propagation in the nascent Church. The book of the Acts is born from the evangelisation and it is at its service. These acts are really understood when they are lived again in present communities.
4.- The book of the Acts structure is built around a Word that the apostles receive from the Resurrected Lord. They still have illusions and hopes, too human really. They ask the Lord: Is it now that you will restore the Kingdom of Israel? He answered: It is not for you to know the time or the moment which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1,6-8). On the contrary that in his evangel, in concentric circles growing progressively, the diffusion of the Good News goes from Jerusalem up to Rome. We can distinguish five parts:
- The Gospel in announced in Jerusalem, where the first Christian community is born (acts 1,15-8,3).
- The Gospel advances through Samaria and the coastal zone (8,4-11,18); there are tensions among Hellenists and those of Jewish influence; Cornelius experience is decisive.
- The Gospel reaches Antioch (11,19-15-35). Syria province capital; there emerges the first community composed mainly by gentiles and it is where the disciples begin to be called Christians; the Church expansion among the gentiles provokes a crisis leading to the council of Jerusalem: the gentiles converting to the Gospel are not obliged to become jewish.
- The Gospel reaches the Aegean Sea regions (15,36-19,20). Paul´s mission distinguishes in a special manner.
- The Gospel arrives to Rome, by that time centre of the known world (19,21-28,31); accused by the jews, Paul arrives to Rome in a conditioned freedom condition.
5.- The Church is born with the Pentecostal experience. Before the experience of Babel (of idolatry, incommunication and dispersion), the experience of Pentecost is one of faith, communion and reunion: coming from everywhere we listen them to talk in our own language the wonderfulness of God (Acts 2,11). Saint Luke makes evident the secret strength that acts in history and addresses to the nascent Church: the action of the Spirit.
6.- In the Acts to evangelise is to announce the good news of the Word (Acts 8,4); the church grows up with the diffusion of the Word: God´s Word was growing (6,7). And also: Meanwhile, the word of God was increasing and spreading (12,24). And finally: the word of the Lord spread widely and grew strong (19,20).
7.- The Acts manifest the constants of the evangelisation: the conflict that takes Jesus to the cross, its acknowledgment like Lord of history, the necessary conversion, the action of the Spirit, the mission of being witnesses, the incorporation to the community (2, 36-47).
8.- The Church´s living tradition has seen in the features of the primitive Christian community, the model of what must be any Christian community: the teaching of the apostles, the communion, the bread fraction, the prayers, many prodigies and signal, the common life of sharing (Acts 2,42-45)
9.- The Acts of the Apostles manifest the evolution of the church in relation to the gentiles evangelisation. The Cornelius´ experience is decisive (Acts 10,1-11,18), and also the council of Jerusalem, that reflects the prophetic announcement: After this I will return and rebuild the booth of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again. Then the rest of humanity will look for the Lord, and all the nations will be consecrated to my Name (15,16-18). What must really be taking into account is the conversion to the Gospel, and not the accomplishment of the Jewish code with its 613 laws. The salvation of God has been sent to the gentiles: they will of course hear it (28,28).
10.- In the ambient Judaism frame the nascent church was accused of sect: according to the Way they call a sect, says Paul (Acts 24,14). Paul had to answer before the roman tribunal in several occasions. During his stay in Corinth (one year and a half), he was accused by the jews in the tribunal of the proconsul Gallio, from whom, about the year 52, the province of Achaia was dependent. The accusation of the jews is deliberately ambiguous: This man tries to persuade us to worship God in ways that are against the Law (18,13). The jews think in their jewish law, but they want to convince the proconsul that Paul has perpetrated a crime against the roman law. In the Roman Empire the Judaism possessed by law the statute of permitted religion. The first Christian communities want to shelter under the same statute and the jews want to hinder it. Gallio reveals his plan: If it were a matter of a misdeed or vicious crime, I would have to consider your complaint.(18,14)
11.- Later on, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, where he is taken for a terrorist (Acts 21,38), and where the jews ambush him with more than 40 men with the intention of killing him (23,21-13). Among strong security measures Paul is taken to Caesarea to appear before governor Felix (24,5). Felix, who was well informed, postponed the case (24,22). A conditioned freedom was granted to Paul. Two years later, Felix was relieved by Porcius Festus, who, desiring to stay in good terms with the jews, put Paul in prison. Festus told king Agrippa about Paul´s case (25,18-19); he could have been set free, had he not appealed to Caesar (26,32); for two whole years, he proclaimed there the Kingdom of God with full courage and without any hindrance (28,31). And this is the end of the book of the Acts.
12.- Nothing is said in the Acts about the conclusion that the process against Paul had in Rome. Stephen martyrdom is mentioned (lapidated; see Acts 7,55-60) and also is mentioned that of James, John´s brother (beheaded; see 12,2), but no mention is made about Peter´s and Paul´s martyrdoms. Saint Clement, at the end of the first century, mentions those in his 1ª Letter to the Corinthians: due to rivalry and envy those who were the greatest and most righteous columns of the Church, were pursued, maintaining combat up to their death. Therefore, we may suppose that the book of the Acts, Saint Luke’s second book, was written before the death of both apostles, which took place during the Neron´s persecution, between the years 64-67.