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26 THE
ances Christianity was simply a Jewish
sect, and so shared the general hatred
and unpopularity of the race from which
it had emanated. The crimes of the Jews
were visited on the heads of the Christians.
Luke is evidently attempting,
throughout the book, to exonerate Christianity
from all responsibility for' the war
and to dispel the suspicion which attached
to it owing to its original connection
with Judaism. The Jews of Jerusalem,
as he points out, fiercely oDnosed Chris
tianity from its very inception. They
crucified its founder. They endeavored
to stamp out the new religion in its infancy.
They put Stephen to death. They
dogged tne footsteps of Paul, and tried to
arouse public opinion against him in almost
every city which he visited. They
did their utmost to secure his condemnation,
and were only prevented from carrying
out their designs by the attitude of
the Roman procurators. All through its
history, Christianity had thriven in spite
of Judaism. There was absolutely no
ground, therefore, why Christians snould
be victimized because of their Jewish
origin. v
4. But if Acts evinces a decided bias
against the Jews of Palestine, it nevertheless
exhibits no little sympathy with the
Jews of the Diaspora, the broader-minded
Hellenists who were scattered throughout
the world, and who formed from the first
the most promising material for Christianity
to work upon. It was from the
ranks of these Hellenists and the circle
of converts who had been won from paganism
by their propaganda that the new
religion won the bulk of its earliest recruits.
There is little doubt that Luke is
making an appeal to these Hellenists in
the pages of his book. The speeches put
into the mouths of Peter and Stephen and
Paul are meant to convince not merely
the audiences which they are addressing
in Jerusalem and Galatia, but the broadminded
Jews of Luke's own day. The
arguments are directed, with almost tedious
reiteration, to prove that Christianity
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the Old Testament. Luke constantly
makes his dramatis personae emphasize
the fact that Christianity is the only logical
and legitimate outcome of the teaching
of the prophets, and he is always citing
instances to show that Hellenists
from the earliest times were eager to accept
the teaching of the apostles.
5. Acts, however, had its message for
the pagan no less than for the Hellenist.
The speeches of Paul at Lystra and Athens
are quoted in order to indicate the
line of argument by which Christianity
approached the Gentile world. The great
utterance which is placed on the lips of
Gamaliel?"If this work is 01 God, ye will
not be able to overthrow it" (y. 39)?
though spoken in the first instance to
Jews, is intended to be universal.
We conclude, therefore, that though
Luke intended to give us history, he also
intended to give us something more besides.
Acts is the earliest Christian
Apology. When we read between the
lines of the narrative, we find that Luke,
though he conceals his purpose with remarkable
artistic skill, has evolved from
the history of the primitive Church arguments
which are well calculated to
meet all the objections that were urged
against Christianity by its opponents at
the commencement of the reign of Domitlan.
: PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUTH.
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