60, with which it coincides? But in this latter
case, if they had the second treatise, which bears the name of St.
Luke, in their hands, why should they not have had the first also?"
[143:1]
My reply to this is:
"There is no mention of the Acts of the Apostles in the epistle, and
the source from which the writers obtained their information about
Stephen, is, of course, not stated. If there really was a martyr of
the name of Stephen, and if these words were actually spoken by him,
the tradition of the fact, and the memory of his noble saying, may
well have remained in the Church, or have been recorded in writings
then current, from one of which, indeed, eminent critics (as Bleek,
Ewald, Meyer, Neander, De Wette) conjecture that the author of Acts
derived his materials, and in this case the passage obviously does
not prove the use of the Acts. If, on the other hand, there never
was such a martyr by whom the words were spoken, and the whole story
must be considered an original invention by the author of Acts,
then, in that case, and in that case only, the passage does show the
use of the Acts. Supposing that the use of Acts be held to be thus
indicated, what does this prove? Merely that the 'Acts of the
Apostles' were in existence in the year 177-178, when the epistle of
Vienne and Lyons was written.
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