Book Of Acts Essay

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THE SPEECHES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS The Book of Acts is the second volume of Luke’s two volume work, his first being the gospel. Both books are addressed to Theophilus although it is not clear who this man was, his name means ‘friend of God’; so this could indicate that Luke is addressing his message to anyone who is or wants to be a friend of God. Luke begins Acts by telling Theophilus that in his first volume he had dealt with all that Jesus has said and done, until the day he was taken up. Then he proceeds to recount how after this, Jesus showed himself to his disciples for forty days during which he encouraged and instructed them what to do next. Whilst first asking them to do nothing till they received his power from on high, he then proceeds to send them to be his witnesses ‘in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts1:9). The Book of Acts is all about how the first Christians started to live, proclaim and celebrate the Good News of Jesus Christ. It was the beginning of something new, therefore a new way of living they had to discover, adapt to, proclaim and defend against those who were hostile to it. Without doubt this book provides a good account of the origins of the Christian church. Luke was both a writer and a historian and so with the Book of Acts he managed both to give …show more content…

All these speeches are addressed to the Jews and other ‘God fearing’ people who happened to be present. They have the same classical pattern of a classical oration, this being: a good introduction, to get the audience interested, a body exposing the subject and a conclusion in which the speaker exhorts his listeners to

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