Page 35 - Advanced New Testament Survey Student Textbook

7. Christians would not go to the law court.
8. Christians kept slaves but treated them kindly. That kind of treatment would cause other slaves
to revolt against their masters.
9. Christians would not take weak or unwanted children out in the woods and leave them to die.
10. Roman crowds began to pass around rumors that Christians practiced cannibalism every week in
their services, because they ate bodies and drank blood.

In other words, the lives of the Christian stood as a light against the pagan culture of Rome. Those who
practiced the evil of the day saw Christians as a threat to their culture and way of life.

Eventually Rome began to believe that the Caesar was one of the gods. An “imperial ruler cult”
st
developed in the 1 century BC when the Roman Senate voted to deify Julius Caesar and to dedicate a
temple to his honor. Among all the emperors, only Julius Caesar (59 to 44 BC) and Claudius (emperor
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from 41 to 54 AD), son of Nero, were defied by senate vote. Other Caesars were considered gods
following the examples of the senate. Roman officials would demand that the Christians declare with
their mouth that Caesar was god. The Christians could not do so, knowing the Jesus was God and that
there was only one God. To declare Caesar as god would be to deny Christ, which they refused to do.
Rome considered them traitors and therefore punished them as such with imprisonment or death.

Archaeological finds in the catacombs or undergrounds cemeteries of Rome remind us that Christianity
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was illegal and that Christians often met in secret cemeteries for fellowship and instruction.

The book of Acts records the Spirit’s activity in the founding and spread of the Church through the work
of Stephen, Philip, Peter, and especially Paul.

The Letters of Peter and Paul make up the vast majority of the New Testament, as they wrote to various
churches to give them instruction in living a life of faith. The Apostle John’s letters call the church to
love and conclude with the great cosmic struggle between good and evil, a struggle in which Christ will
prevail and faithful Christians will share in His final triumph.

Acts of the Apostles

Author: Luke, the physician and traveling companion of Paul, wrote two vol. Luke-Acts.
th
External Evidence: early and unchallenged from 2 c. to end of the 19 c.
nd
Muratorian Canon; Irenaeus Adv. Haer. 3.1; 3.14.1-4; anti-Marcionite prologue to Luke;
Clement of Alexandria Strom. 5.12; Tertullian Adv. Marc. 4.2; Eusebius H.E. 3.4; 3.24; 15.

Internal Evidence
The author is anonymous. However, Lk 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1 indicate a two-volume work by one author,
using same vocabulary and style. The LXX quoted; knowledgeable traveler; a well-educated Gentile?
Christian, not an eyewitness or apostle. The “We-passages” indicate that the author was a participant in
part of the narrative (16:10-17 [Troas to Philippi]; 20:5-21:18 [Philippi to Miletus to Jerusalem]; 27:1-
28:16 [voyage to Rome]). Luke is mentioned in Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24 (later 2 Tim 4:11). Luke was
present in Rome with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment, which concludes the last we-passage.

76 So That’s Why Bible, p. 1458.
77 Ibid. p. 1457.

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