The Acts of the Apostles

The Acts of the Apostles is the fifth book of the New Testament and the single most important continuous narrative source for the life of Paul. It tells the story of the earliest Christian movement from the Ascension (c. AD 30) to Paul's house arrest in Rome (c. AD 60–62). Roughly its second half — chapters 13 to 28 — follows Paul, making it the only ancient text that presents his career as a connected biography. Many of the most familiar facts about Paul come from Acts and appear nowhere in his own letters. For that reason it must be read both as an indispensable source and as a narrative to be weighed carefully against Paul's first-person testimony.

What it is

Acts is the second volume of a two-part work — a Gospel and its sequel — both addressed to a certain "Theophilus" (Luke 1:1–4; Acts 1:1). (Scripture) Its opening chapters centre on Peter and the Jerusalem community; from chapter 13 onward the focus turns decisively to Paul, tracing the missionary journeys, the Council of Jerusalem, the arrest in Jerusalem, and the voyage to Rome. It is the source for Paul's Tarsian birth, his Roman citizenship, his education "at the feet of Gamaliel," his trade as a tentmaker, and the threefold telling of the Damascus-road conversion.

Authorship and dating

The text is anonymous: it names no author. From the late second century, Church tradition attributed both the Gospel of Luke and Acts to Luke, "the beloved physician" and a companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24). (Tradition) A notable internal feature supports a companion's hand: the so-called "we-passages" (Acts 16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16), first-person-plural sections that read as if the author were present for parts of Paul's travels. (Scripture)

Scholars are divided on how to read this. Some take the "we" as genuine eyewitness memoir supporting Lukan authorship; others regard it as a literary convention or the use of a travel-diary source, and see the author as an anonymous second- or third-generation Christian working from earlier materials. (Scholarship) The neutral summary is that the traditional attribution to Luke the companion of Paul stands alongside a range of critical views from cautious acceptance to doubt.

On dating, two positions are most common. A traditional / early dating of about AD 62 rests on the observation that the narrative stops at Paul's Roman imprisonment without recording his death or the outcome of his trial. The majority critical dating is about AD 80–90, placing Acts after the Gospel of Luke, which most scholars date after AD 70. A minority argues for the early 60s or, at the far end, the early second century. (Scholarship)

Why it is the primary narrative for Paul

Acts is the source of biographical details that Paul's own letters never mention:

• That Paul was "a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia," and "brought up in this city [Jerusalem], at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3), and "a citizen of no mean city" (Acts 21:39). Tarsus is named as Paul's birthplace only in Acts. (Scripture)
• That he held Roman citizenship from birth (Acts 22:25–28) and used it to appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11). (Scripture)
• His Hebrew name Saul, and the Damascus-road conversion, narrated three times (Acts 9:1–19; 22:6–21; 26:12–18). (Scripture)
• His trade as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3), the structure of the missionary journeys, the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), and the voyage to Rome with its shipwreck (Acts 27). (Scripture)

Reading Acts alongside Paul's letters

Where Acts and Paul's undisputed letters overlap — most famously the Jerusalem meeting of Acts 15 compared with Galatians 2 — they differ in detail, and scholars debate which to prefer as history. The standard practice for a careful reference is to treat Paul's own letters as first-order evidence for his biography and theology, and Acts as a valuable but theologically shaped narrative to be read critically where it diverges. It is worth distinguishing what Acts *reports* (for example the Gamaliel education and the Tarsus birth) from what it *proves*. Read more about the Apostle himself in our reference on the Apostle Paul, and see short answers on the questions and answers page.

Key passages for Paul and Tarsus

Acts 7:58 and 8:1–3 (Saul at Stephen's stoning, the persecutor); 9:1–31 (the conversion; "Saul... of Tarsus," 9:11); 11:25–26 (Barnabas brings Saul from Tarsus to Antioch; "Christians" first named); 13–14 (the first journey); 15 (the Council); 16–20 (the second and third journeys); 21:39; 22:3; 22:25–28 (Tarsus, Gamaliel, citizenship); 26 (the defence before Agrippa); 27–28 (the voyage to Rome).