Luke was a Gentile and physician. Though not one of Jesus’ initial Jewish disciples, Luke was a traveling companion of Paul. As with the Old Testament and the Gospels, Luke provides the theological and ecclesial significance of the historical events he is narrating. In so doing, he accentuates what the risen and ascended Jesus is doing through the Holy Spirit by means of the nascent church, primarily through Peter and Paul. Although the book is entitled the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit is the primary actor throughout its entirety.
Luke is traditionally believed to be the author of both the third Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles. As Luke, in his Gospel, first wrote “an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, concerning the truth of the gospel,” so he now writes what has taken place after Jesus’ departure. Thus, the Acts of the Apostles is a continuation of a historical narrative. The Gospel contains what Jesus historically said and did until his Ascension into Heaven. Acts is the historical narrative of what followed upon Jesus’ ascension and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that gave birth of the Church, and the first preaching of the Good News.

If in Luke’s gospel account one finds Jesus becoming Jesus through his saving actions which culminate in his death and resurrection, in the Acts of the Apostles, one finds the risen Jesus being Jesus through the preaching and actions of the apostolic church. Jesus continues to enact his name, YHWH-Saves. In this second volume on Acts, such saving words and actions are particularly found within Paul’s preaching of the gospel in course of his missionary journeys.

Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap., is a highly regarded theologian and scholar who has published widely in academic presses and journals.