A Biblical Vision, Part II: Mastering the New Testament Witness to Christ

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A B i b l i ca l Vi s i on, Par t I I : Mas ter i ng the New Tes tament Wi tnes s to Chr i s t

a. Neither Luke nor Titus are mentioned in Acts by name at all. They are distinct persons as is stated in 2 Tim. 4.10.

b. Titus and Paul were together in Jerusalem at the conference (Gal. 2.1) and Titus was his special envoy to Corinth during the time of trouble there (2 Cor. 2.12 f; 12.18).

c. Titus later joined Paul in Crete (Titus 1.5), yet, the lack of any mention of Titus in Acts may be due to the fact that he was a brother of Luke (compare 2 Cor. 8.18; 12.18).

6. Acceptance into the canon. (Acts did not appear in the writings of the early Christians as early or so frequently as the Gospels and the Pauline epistles.)

a. Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Polycarp (all early Christian writers) made use of the Acts of the Apostles.

b. Tatian and Marcion used the Gospel of Luke and Acts, but Irenaeus frequently (Adv. Haer., I. 23, 1, etc.) the Acts is credited to Luke and regarded as Scripture.

c. By the time of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria, Acts is seen as Luke’s book, and treated in the Church as Scripture.

d. The book is generally regarded as part of the canon by the time and writing of Eusebius.