tradition says, he may have made inquiries of these converts.

{108}

From Philip the evangelist, St. Luke may have learnt the history of
events with which Philip was concerned, as he stayed with him at
Caesarea (xxi. 8-12), and he also knew Mnason, who was one of the
"original" disciples of Pentecost (xxi. 16). Finally, we notice that
St. Luke had intercourse with St. James, the Bishop of Jerusalem,
himself (xxi. 18).

[Sidenote: Date.]

We have seen above (p. 68) that St. Luke's Gospel was probably written
soon after A.D. 70. As Acts i. 1 shows that Acts was written later
than the Gospel, and as there is just enough difference in style
between the two books to encourage the idea that Acts was not written
immediately after the Gospel, we may reasonably place Acts between A.D.
75 and 80.

One obvious objection to placing the date of Acts so late is the fact
that the writer does not record the death of St. Paul. This is
certainly startling, for the martyrdom of the great apostle would have
formed an impressive conclusion to the book. But there are several
reasons which may be appropriately suggested to account for the
omission. Possibly the author intended to write a third "treatise," in
which the story of the martyrdom of his two great heroes, St. Peter and
St. Paul, would be recounted; possibly Acts, which ends very abruptly,
was never completed by the author. It is also possible that, after
showing that the Roman civil power had generally been tolerant towards
Christianity, he did not wish to endanger the circulation of his book
by giving an account of Nero's brutal persecution of the Christians.
If the book had contained any such history, the possession of it would
have been regarded as no small offence by the civil authorities.
Several years later, when the Church was probably much stronger, St.
John, in writing the Revelation, disguised his description of Nero in
symbolical language. In any case, St. Luke may have wished both to
show Theophilus that Christianity was compatible with loyalty to the
government, {109} and that the government had for a long time been
tolerant towards Christianity.

[Sidenote: Character and Contents.]

The general plan of the book may easily be seen by a glance at the
Analysis printed below. We may describe it by saying that the ruling
ideas are the progress and the continuity of the Church. That is to
say, St. Luke shows how the Church, the divinely organized society