Bible Study Moment

I’ve read that Acts is among the least studied books in the New Testament by churches. Liberal churches tend to emphasize the Gospels while evangelical churches put more emphasis on the epistles. I don’t understand why that is. Acts is an historical record of some of the ways the earliest followers of Jesus acted. It is like studying our personal history.

In Acts 1:1 the book is addressed to Theophilus, as is the Gospel of Luke in Luke 1:3. Therefore most biblical scholars conclude that the two books were written by the same person. I’ll refer to the author as Luke since that name has been attached to the gospel. If I could re-order the books of the Bible I’d put Luke after John, so it would be Luke then Acts.

Some people believe Theophilus was an actual person of social standing, perhaps a Roman official. Others, including me, look at the meaning of the name which is “friend of God” or “loved by God” and believe Luke is using the name to state that all his readers are loved by God.

Mark Phillips