The Acts of the Apostles

INTRODUCTION xxxiii
events, by the change of scene (PhiUppi, Thessalonica,
Bercea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus), finally by the
culmination in the long abode in Ephesus and in the
great and significant farewell discourse pronounced
before the Ephesian elders.^ At the close of this
third quarter of the work Rome now appears on the
horizon and remains the goal of the last quarter of
the narrative. Just as the central point of interest
in the second quarter of the book is this—whether
the Gospel and the Gentile world will ever meet, so now
in the fourth quarter the sole subject of enthralling
interest is this—whether St. Paul will ever succeed in
carrying the Gospel to Rome. Hindrance follows
hindrance— yet each affords St. Paul an opportunity
for giving noble testimony—finally sea and storm-wind
seem to have conspired together against his undertaking
; and yet he succeeds—his desire, his appropriate
destiny is fulfilled ; he brings the Gospel to Rome. But
in this last section St. Luke perhaps is influenced
by yet another interest allied to that of the second
quarter (the question of the origin and legitimacy
of the mission to the Gentiles). St Paul and his
work must be set forth in their pure nobility and
grandeur, i,e, his mission to the Gentiles must be
shown to have been legitimate (there are three narra-
tives of his call !) The Gospel was brought to the
Gentile world by no unworthy minister, but" by a
" vas electi07iis,''^ He was no destroyer of the Jewish
religion, but the most powerful and strenuous affirmer
1 In order to avoid repetition and not to weaken the impression
of continued progress, the narrative is so skilfully managed that
the reader scarcely notices St. Paul's second visits to these places.
C