Acts 1:1

ὁ Ἰησοῦς with אAE. The omission in other MSS. is probably due to the occurrence of o as the last letter of ἤρξατο.

1. πρῶτον. The use of πρῶτος for the former of two things was not uncommon in later Greek. We have examples, Matthew 21:28; 1 Corinthians 14:30; Hebrews 8:7; Hebrews 9:15; Revelation 21:1. We use first in the same way in English, and Cicero (de Inventione) in his second book (chap. 3) calls the former book primus liber. The work here intended by it is the Gospel according to St Luke, also addressed to Theophilus.

τὸν μὲν πρῶτον λόγον. The clause which should have answered to this and been of the form τοῦτον δὲ τὸν δεύτερον κ.τ.λ. is omitted. The writer is carried on by the subject to speak of Christ’s appearances and leaves the structure of his sentence incomplete.

λόγος is used in a similar way by Xenophon (Anab. ii. 1) in speaking of one ‘book’ of his history.

ἐποιησάμην, I made. The time is indefinite and we have no warrant in the text for that closer union of the two books, in point of date, which is made by the rendering of the A.V.

Θεόφιλε. Nothing is known of the person so called, except that from the adjective κράτιστος applied to him in Luke 1:3 he seems to have held some official position. Cf. Acts 23:26; Acts 24:3; Acts 26:25. Some have however thought that had the title been an official one it would not have been omitted in this verse. The word is used without any official sense; cf. Josephus Ant. vi. 6, 8; where the Midianitish women speak to the Israelites as ὦ κράτιστοι νεανιῶν. But its employment elsewhere in the Acts favours the acceptance of it as a title. Josephus uses the word as a title in addressing Epaphroditus, to whom he dedicates the account of his life (Vit. Joseph. ad fidem). The suggestion, that θεόφιλος, = ‘lover of God,’ is a name adopted by the author to indicate any believer, is improbable. Such personification is unlike the rest of Scripture and is not supported by evidence.

ὧν. The relative, instead of standing as required by the governing verbs (ποιεῖν and διδάσκειν) in the accusative is attracted into the case of the preceding demonstrative. This grammatical peculiarity is very common. Cf. Acts 3:21; Acts 3:25; Acts 7:17; &c.

ἤρξατο. This is an emphatic word. The writer regards the Gospel as a record of work which Jesus began, and committed to others to be carried forward; and this later book is to be a history of the beginning of Christian congregations in various places, and after such a beginning has been made at Rome, then the metropolis of the civilized world, his proposed labour is brought to a close.

The Gospel was the record of Christ’s work on earth, the Acts of His work from heaven. Hence the force of ‘began’ as applied to the former. His work was continued by the various ‘beginnings’ recorded in the Acts.

ποιεῖν τε καὶ διδάσκειν. So in St Luke (Luke 24:19) the disciples call Jesus ‘a prophet mighty in deed and in word.’ The acts and the life spake first and then the voice.