The author cites a speech made by Gamaliel before the Jewish council, in which he uses the following language: “For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, almost four hundred, joined themselves, who were slain,” etc. (v, 36).
Josephus, who gives an account of this event (Antiq. Bk. xx, ch. v, sec. 1), says that it happened “while Fadus was Procurator of Judea.” This was 45 or 46 A.D. Gamaliel’s speech was delivered, according to the accepted chronology, 29 A.D. Thus the author of Acts makes Gamaliel refer to an event as long past which in reality did not happen until sixteen years after that time.
Continuing his speech, Gamaliel refers to another event, as follows: “After this man [Theudas] rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him; he also perished” (37).
Here the author makes Gamaliel state that the sedition of Judas of Galilee occurred after that of Theudas, when in fact it occurred in 6 A.D.—forty years before. Such grave discrepancies could have been made only by one writing long after the date claimed.
Holtzmann, a German critic, has shown that the author of Acts borrowed from the Antiquities of Josephus. The Antiquities appeared 93 A.D.—just thirty years after the date assigned to Acts.
This book will not be given up by orthodox Christians without a struggle. The authenticity of primitive Christianity depends largely upon the authenticity of this book. Renan who was a Rationalist, and, at the same time something of an apologist for Christianity, affirms that the last pages of Acts, which are devoted almost entirely to Paul’s missionary labors constitute the only historical record of the early church. At the same time, he admits that it is the most faulty book in the New Testament. The Rev. Dr. Hooykaas concedes the same. He says:
“Of the earliest fortunes of the community of Jesus, the primitive history of the Christian church and the whole of the apostolic age, we should know as good as nothing if we had not the book of Acts. If only we could trust the writer fully! But we soon see that the utmost caution is necessary. For we have another account of some of the things about which this writer tells us—an account written by the very man to whom they refer, the best possible authority, therefore, as to what really took place. This man is Paul himself. In the first two chapters of the epistle to the Galatians he gives us several details of his own past life; and no sooner do we place his story side by side with that of the Acts than we clearly perceive that this book contains an incorrect account, and that its inaccuracy is not the result of accident or ignorance, but of a deliberate design, an attempt—conceived no doubt with the best intentions—to hide in some degree the actual course of events” (Bible for Learners, Vol. III., p. 25).
The dissensions which arose in the first century between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians had only increased with time, and these were among the chief obstacles in the way of uniting Christians and establishing the Catholic church. The composition of Acts was one of the many attempts made toward the close of the second century to heal these dissensions. The author was a man who cared little for either Petrine or Pauline Christianity—little for the so-called truths of Christianity in any form—but a man who cared much for church unity and church power.
The book of Acts was little known at first. St. Chrysostom, writing in the fifth century, says: “This book is not so much as known to many. They know neither the book nor by whom it was written.”