The Acts of the Apostles

244 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
of its elements may have reached St. Luke in writing
and others by way of oral tradition, nor to suppose
that they may depend upon the authority of difterent
persons. The whole of the phenomena seems to be
best explained on the supposition that St. Luke re-
ceived from St. Philip (or from him and his daughters)
partly oral information, partly also written tradition,
which helped out the oral accounts. This body of
tradition referred to St. Philip's own ministry, but
above all it was made up of reminiscences concerning
St. Peter (and for these St. Mark also comes under
consideration). What was written can, however,
scarcely have been written in Greek, but must have
been composed in the Aramaic tongue ; for the Lukan
vocabulary and style can be traced into the most
intimate details of the narratives, while from the
syntax of the sentences, and from many turns of
phraseology, we may conclude that the original was
'perhaps Semitic.
As for the historical value of the records in A, we
have already considered this question in the preceding
chapter. This collection of traditions proceeds from
one who thoroughly believed in the miraculous, and
was probably himself endowed with supernatural gifts,
and it has received some legendary embellishments.
But the legendary element can easily be discerned as
such ; and beneath the whole there lies a nucleus of
historical fact. This nucleus appears especially in
chapters iii. and iv. (the intelligible development of
events leading up to the " outpouring of the Spirit
and the foundation of the Church). In this source
the stories of the conversion of the Samaritans and of
"