28:23.
1 Cor. 16:1.
Paul’s Last Journey to Jerusalem.
20 ;6; 24:17
Rom. 15:25, 26
His Desire to Visit Rome.
19:21.
Rom. 1:13;15:23.
Paul an Ambassador in Bonds.
28:16–20.
Eph. 6:19, 20
The Acts and Secular History.
The Acts brings Christianity in contact with the surrounding world and makes many allusions
to various places, secular persons and events, though only incidentally and as far as its object
required it. These allusions are—with a single exception, that of Theudas—in full harmony with
the history of the age as known from Josephus and heathen writers, and establish Luke’s claim to
be considered a well-informed, honest, and credible historian. Bishop Lightfoot asserts that no
ancient work affords so many tests of veracity, because no other has such numerous points of
contact in all directions with contemporary history, politics, and typography, whether Jewish or
Greek or Roman. The description of persons introduced in the Acts such as Gamaliel, Herod,
Agrippa I., Bernice, Felix, Festus, Gallio, agrees as far as it goes entirely with what we know from
contemporary sources. The allusions to countries, cities, islands, in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and
Italy are without exception correct and reveal an experienced traveller. We mention the chief points,
some of which are crucial tests.- The rebellion of Theudas, Acts 5:36, alluded to in the speech of Gamaliel, which was
delivered about a.d. 33. Here is, apparently, a conflict with Josephus, who places this event in the
reign of Claudius, and under the procuratorship of Cuspius Fadus, a.d. 44, ten or twelve years after
Gamaliel’s speech.^1100 But he mentions no less than three insurrections which took place shortly
after the death of Herod the Great, one under the lead of Judas (who may have been Theudas or
Thaddaeus, the two names being interchangeable, comp. Matt. 10:3; Luke 6:16), and he adds that
besides these there were many highway robbers and murderers who pretended to the name of
king.^1101 At all events, we should hesitate to charge Luke with an anachronism. He was as well
informed as Josephus, and more credible. This is the only case of a conflict between the two, except
the case of the census in Luke 2:2, and here the discovery of a double governorship of Quirinius
has brought the chronological difficulty within the reach of solution.^1102 - The rebellion of Judas of Galilee, mentioned in the same speech, Acts 5:37, as having
occurred in the days of the enrolment (the census of Quirinius), is confirmed by Josephus.^1103 The
(^1100) Ant. XX. 5, § 1.
(^1101) Ant. XVII. 10.
(^1102) See above, p. 122.
(^1103) Ant. XVIII. 1; XX. 5, § 2; War, II. 8, § 1. In the first passage Josephus calls Judas a Gaulonite (i.e., from the country east
of Galilee), but in the other passage he is described as a Galilaean. He may have been a native of Gaulonitis and a resident of
Galilee.
A.D. 1-100.