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St Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael, about 1515 to 1516, Royal Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

St Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael, about 1515 to 1516, Royal Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Public domain.

A movement of the canon · the New Testament

Acts

One book, written by Luke about AD 62, that tells how the church carried the good news from Jerusalem to Rome in the first thirty years after the resurrection.

What is the book of Acts?

Summary

Acts tells how the followers of the risen Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, bore witness to him first among the Jews and then among the nations.

  • The Holy Spirit comes on the believers at Pentecost in chapter 2, and the church is born in Jerusalem.
  • Peter leads the first half of the book, and Paul leads the second.
  • The council at Jerusalem in chapter 15 receives Gentile believers without requiring circumcision.
  • Paul's journeys plant churches across Asia Minor and Greece, and his arrest carries him to Rome.

Acts is the second part of a two-part work. Its writer opens by reminding Theophilus of his first book, which told what Jesus began to do and to teach, and the Gospel of Luke is addressed to the same man. Acts takes up the story at the ascension and carries it about thirty years, from an upper room in Jerusalem to the capital of the empire.

The book follows the plan Jesus lays out before he ascends. His followers will bear witness first in Jerusalem, then through Judea and Samaria, and then out to the farthest nations. Chapters 1 to 7 stay in Jerusalem, chapters 8 to 12 move into Judea and Samaria, and chapters 13 to 28 carry the witness out among the nations.

Two men carry most of the story. Peter is the voice of the church in Jerusalem, before the crowds at the temple and before the council that tries to silence the apostles. Paul first appears as Saul, a persecutor of the church, and becomes its missionary to the nations.

The Holy Spirit drives the book. He fills the first disciples on the day of Pentecost and falls again on new believers in Samaria, in Caesarea and in Ephesus. He sends out missionaries, guides their road and speaks through prophets. Six times the writer pauses to report that the word of God kept spreading and the church kept growing, and each report closes one stage of the advance.

Halfway through the book, the apostles and elders gather in Jerusalem to answer whether Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. They decide that Gentiles who turn to God are welcomed without circumcision, and James grounds the decision in the prophets' promise that the nations would seek the Lord. The Gentiles join what God had promised Israel. In city after city Paul goes first to the synagogue, and Jews and Gentiles come to faith side by side.

The book ends in Rome with Paul's trial still undecided. He lives for two years in a rented house under guard, welcomes everyone who comes to him and preaches the kingdom of God boldly and freely. The good news has reached the capital of the empire, on the road the first chapter set out.

When was Acts written, and what years does it tell?

The first figure marks the year the authorship table gives for the book, and the second follows its story from Pentecost to Paul's two years in Rome.

The year Acts was written, about AD 62

A dot is a date the table gives as one year.
Year AD

  1. While Paul was held in Rome

    1. Actsabout AD 62

Acts stands on the scale at the date this site's authorship table gives, while Paul was still held in Rome, since the book ends there with his trial undecided. A later date, after the fall of Jerusalem, is also held, and the book page sets out the positions.

The years Acts tells, from Pentecost to Rome, AD 30 to 62

A bar is a span of years the dossier gives.A dot is a single year the dossier gives.
Year AD

  1. The church in Jerusalem and Judea

    1. Pentecost in Jerusalemabout AD 30 or 33

    2. Stephen stoned and Saul calledabout AD 34 to 35

    3. Herod Agrippa I reigns and diesabout AD 41 to 44

  2. The first journey and the council

    1. The famine visit and the first journeyabout AD 46 to 48

    2. The council at Jerusalemabout AD 49

  3. The second journey

    1. Claudius expels the Jews from RomeAD 49

    2. Gallio hears the case at CorinthAD 51 to 52

  4. The third journey

    1. Nearly three years at Ephesusabout AD 52 to 55

  5. The arrest in Jerusalem

    1. Paul seized in the templeAD 57

  6. The voyage and Rome

    1. The appeal, the voyage and the shipwreckAD 59 to 60

    2. Two years in a rented house in RomeAD 60 to 62

Each event stands at the years the book's dossier gives, grouped by the stage of the story it belongs to. The dossier gives two possible years for Pentecost, and the figure draws both as dots.

The one book of the shelf

The entry tells what happens in Acts from its first chapter to its last and lists the feature pages that open on it.

The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.

Book 1 of 1 on the shelf

Acts

Luke about AD 62 28 chapters

Acts opens with the risen Jesus teaching his apostles for forty days before he is taken up into heaven. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit fills the believers, Peter preaches, and about three thousand are baptized. The church grows in Jerusalem through healings, arrests and the death of Stephen. Persecution scatters the believers, Philip preaches in Samaria, Saul meets the risen Christ on the Damascus road, and Peter sees the Spirit fall on the Gentile household of Cornelius.

Barnabas and Saul sail from Antioch on the first journey, and the council at Jerusalem settles how Gentiles are received. Paul's later journeys reach Philippi, Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. He is seized in the temple, defends himself before the Sanhedrin, Felix, Festus and Agrippa, and appeals to Caesar. He survives a shipwreck on Malta and reaches Rome as a prisoner.

Open the book pageRead Acts 1

Feature pages on Acts15

People and groups1

Places1

Doctrines11

Show the next 5 titles

Books of the Bible2

The pages Acts opens on

Sources for this page

The author and the date of Acts come from this site's authorship table, and the years on the second figure come from the timeline in the book's dossier. The storyline is written from that dossier and from the chapter summaries this site publishes for each chapter of Acts. The paintings, in the order the page shows them, are St Paul Preaching at Athens, Raphael, about 1515 to 1516, Royal Collection, on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Every one of them is in the public domain.