Homilies on Acts 1.1–1.5

[Lemma] “The former account I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day on which, after giving commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up.”

To many people this book is not even known to exist, neither the book itself nor the man who wrote and composed it. That is the very reason I have resolved to give myself to this work: to teach those who do not know it, and not to let so great a treasure stay hidden and out of sight. For it will be able to profit us no less than the Gospels themselves, so full is it of philosophy and of correct doctrine and of the display of miracles, above all of those worked by the Spirit. Let us not, then, pass it by any longer, but examine it with care. For the predictions which Christ makes beforehand in the Gospels you may see here come out in deed, and the truth shining out from the facts themselves, and the great change for the better that came about in the disciples from the Spirit. For what they had heard Christ saying, “Everyone who believes in me, the signs that I do he too will do, and greater than these he will do,” and what he foretold to the disciples, that they would be brought before governors and kings, that they would scourge them in their synagogues, that they would suffer terrible things, that they would overcome them all, and that the gospel would be preached in the whole world: all these things you may see in this book come to pass with complete exactness, and many others besides, which he told them while he was with them. Here you will see the apostles themselves running over land and sea as though they had wings; and those men who were once timid and without understanding suddenly become other men in place of what they were: despisers of money and of glory, of anger and of desire, in a word above everything; men with great concord, with no envy anywhere as before, nor the old rivalry over the first places, but with virtue brought to perfection in them, and love shining out in abundance, the love about which he had given them many commands, saying, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Here too one may find doctrines which, if this book did not exist, would not have become so clearly known to anyone; the chief point of our salvation would have stayed hidden and obscure, both as to life and as to doctrine. The greater part of what is set down here is the acts of Paul, who labored more than all. The reason is that the man who composed this book, the blessed Luke, was his disciple. His virtue can be seen from many other places too, but above all from his clinging inseparably to his teacher and following him at all times. When Demas and Hermogenes forsook him, one going off to Galatia and the other to Dalmatia, hear what he says about him: “Luke alone is with me.” And writing to the Corinthians he says of him, “whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches.” And when he says, “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve,” and “according to the gospel which you received,” he means this man's Gospel …

… so that one would not be wrong in ascribing this work to him. And when I say “to him,” I mean to Christ. If someone should say, “And why did he not write everything down, since he was with him to the end?”, I would say that these things were sufficient for those willing to attend; that they always kept to what was urgent; and that their concern was not with writing books, for they also handed down many things by unwritten tradition. Now everything set down in this book is worthy of wonder, but above all the condescension of the apostles, which the Spirit also suggested to them, preparing them to dwell on the teaching of the dispensation. That is why, though they discoursed so much about Christ, they said little about his Godhead and spoke mostly about his humanity, and his passion, his resurrection and his ascension. For what was needed for the time being was this: that people believe that he rose and ascended into heaven. Just as Christ himself was eager above all to show that he had come from the Father, so too this writer shows that he rose and was taken up, and went away to him and had come from him. For if this had not first been believed, then much more, once the matter of the resurrection and the ascension was added, the whole doctrine would have seemed incredible to the Jews. That is why he leads them up gently and little by little to the higher things. At Athens Paul even calls him simply “a man,” saying nothing more, and with good reason. For if, when Christ himself discoursed about his equality with the Father, they often tried to stone him and called him a blasphemer for it, they would hardly have accepted this teaching from fishermen, and that with the cross having gone before. And why speak of the Jews, when even the disciples themselves often [could not bear] the higher teachings? That is why he said, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” If they could not, who had been with him so long, had shared so many secrets and seen so many miracles, how could men just then torn away for the first time from altars and idols and sacrifices, from cats and crocodiles (for such were the objects of worship of the Greeks), and from the other evils, all at once receive the lofty words of doctrine? And how could Jews, who every day learned and had sounding in their ears from the law, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord, and besides him there is no other,” having seen him nailed to the wood of the cross, or rather having themselves crucified and buried him, and not even having seen him risen, on hearing that this very man is God and equal to the Father, not have recoiled and broken away above all? That is why they lead them on gently and little by little, and with great … while they enjoy a more abundant grace of the Spirit and work in his name greater things than he himself did, so that from both sides they might raise up those lying on the ground and make the word about the resurrection believed. For this above all is what this book is: a demonstration of the resurrection. Once this was believed, the rest followed in due course. This, then, to sum it up roughly, is the subject and the whole aim of the book.

Let us now hear the opening itself. “The former account I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.” Why does he remind him of the Gospel? To show his own exactness. For at the beginning of that work he says, “It seemed good to me to write to you in order.” And he is not content with his own testimony alone, but refers the whole to the apostles, saying, “just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us.” So, having made his account credible there, he needs no further confirmation here, since he has once been believed and has instructed him through that work in the certainty of the truth. For if the man who wrote what he heard proved credible and was believed, much more would the man who composed what he did not receive from others but saw and heard deserve to be believed. “If you accepted the things of Christ,” he says, “much more those of the apostles.” What then? Is the matter history only, and has the account no share in the Spirit? By no means. How so? Because what those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered to him was of the Spirit. And why did he not say, “just as those who were counted worthy of the Holy Spirit delivered them to us,” but “those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses”? Because the thing that most wins belief is to learn from eyewitnesses; the other would even have seemed boasting and conceit to the foolish. That is why John too spoke thus: “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” And Christ too speaks so to Nicodemus: “We speak what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen, and no one receives our testimony.” And again, showing that one can bear much witness from sight, he said to the disciples, “And you also bear witness about me, because you have been with me from the beginning.” And the apostles themselves speak so in many places: “We are witnesses, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” And afterwards, confirming the resurrection, Peter said, “we who ate and drank with him.” For they more readily received the testimony of men who had been with him, because they were as yet far short in their understanding of the Spirit. That is why John too, in writing his Gospel, says that he himself saw, when he speaks of the blood and the water, putting sight before them as the greatest testimony; and yet what comes from the Spirit is more exact than sight, but not among unbelievers. For that the man shared in the Spirit is clear from many things: from the signs that take place even now, from the fact that even ordinary people received the Spirit in those days, from the testimony of Paul (“whose praise,” he says, “is in the gospel”), and from the vote at his appointment. For having said this, he adds, “And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches to travel with us in this grace which is being administered by us.”

And see his freedom from conceit. He does not say, “The first Gospel which I preached,” but “The former account I made,” thinking the name of Gospel too great for himself. And yet the apostle adorns him with it, saying, “whose praise is in the gospel.” But he is modest and says, “The former account I made concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach”; not simply “concerning all,” but from beginning to end: “until the day,” he says, “on which he was taken up.” And yet John shows that it was not possible to write everything. Wishing to make this plain, after saying, “If they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain,” he adds, “the books that would be written.” How then, someone asks, does this writer speak of “all”? But he did not say “all things,” but “concerning all things,” as one might say, in outline and in the main; or he speaks “concerning all” the things that are essential and pressing. Then he shows also what “all” he means: “which Jesus began both to do and to teach,” pointing to the miracles and the teachings. And not only this, but that he also taught by doing. See too his kindly and apostolic mind, that for the sake of a single person he took such pains as to write a whole Gospel: “so that you may have,” he says, “certainty concerning the words in which you were instructed.” For he had heard Christ saying, “It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish.” And why did he not make one book, since he was writing to one man, Theophilus, but divided it into two subjects? For clarity's sake, and to give the hearer a rest; besides, the works are also distinct in subject.

Consider how Christ made his own words credible by his deeds. … He exhorted to meekness and said, “Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.” He taught [poverty, and showed it] by his deeds: “For the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he says. Again, he commanded us to love our enemies; he taught this on the cross, praying for those who were crucifying him. He said, “If anyone wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well”; and he gave not only his garments but even his blood. So he commanded the disciples to do as well. That is why Paul too said, “just as you have us as a pattern.” For nothing is colder than a teacher who philosophizes only in words: that is the part not of a teacher but of an actor. That is why the apostles taught first by their life, and then by their words; or rather they had no need of words at all, since their deeds cried aloud. And one would not be wrong to call his passion also a deed; for by suffering he did that great and wonderful work: he destroyed death and accomplished all the rest.

“Until the day on which, after giving commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up.” “After giving commands through the Spirit,” that is, after speaking spiritual words to them, nothing human. Either this is what it means, or that he gave them commands through the Spirit. Do you see how humbly he still speaks about him, just as he himself spoke about himself, saying, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God”? For the Holy Spirit too was at work in that temple. And what did he command? “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Great is the praise of the apostles, when they are entrusted with such things (I mean the salvation of the world), with words full of the Spirit. This, surely, is what he hints at in saying “through the Holy Spirit”; that is, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit.” He says this to lead the hearer on to a desire to learn the commandments, and to make the apostles credible, since they are going to speak the things of the Spirit and the commandments of Christ. “After giving commands,” then, he says, “he was taken up.” He did not say “he ascended,” since he still speaks as of a man. So he taught the disciples also after the resurrection; but no one has told us everything about this period exactly. John lingers on it more than the others, and so does this writer; but no one has reported everything clearly (for they were hastening on to something else). We learned these things through the apostles; for what they heard, they also told. “To whom he also presented himself alive.” Having first spoken of the ascension, he speaks also of the resurrection. For since he had said, “He was taken up,” so that you may not think that he was taken up by others, he added, “To whom he also presented himself alive.” For if he presented himself in the greater thing, much more in the lesser.

Do you see how unobtrusively he sows these great doctrines in? “Appearing to them during forty days.” For he was not with them all the time then, as he had been before the resurrection. See: he did not say “forty days,” but “during forty days.” For he would come and then fly away again. Why so? To lift up their minds, and no longer to let them be disposed toward him as before. And he did not do this idly, but to establish both things with exactness: that the resurrection should be believed, and that from now on he should be thought greater than a man. And yet these were opposed to each other: for the resurrection to be believed, many human things had to happen; for the other, the opposite. Yet both came about, each at the fitting time. And why did he appear not to all, but to the apostles? Because to the many, who did not know the secret of the mystery, he would have seemed a phantom. For if even the disciples themselves disbelieved at first and were troubled, and needed touch with the hand, and a meal, what were the many likely to experience? That is why he makes the proof of the resurrection unquestionable from the signs, so that the resurrection might become plain not only to those then living but also to all who came after. For what the sight of the signs did for them, faith was afterward to do for all. That is why we reason with unbelievers from this too. For if he did not rise, but remains dead, how did the apostles work signs in his name? But they did not work signs? Then how did our nation come into being? For they will not resist this too, nor fight against what is plain to see. So when they say that signs did not happen, they put themselves to greater shame. For this is the greatest sign, that without signs the whole world ran to them, netted by twelve poor and unlettered men. For the fishermen did not prevail by wealth of money, nor by wisdom of words, nor by anything else of the kind; so that even against their will they will confess that there was a divine power in them, for it is impossible that human strength should ever achieve so much. That is why he himself also stayed forty days after the resurrection, giving proof of himself by the long time he was seen, so that they would not think what they saw to be a phantom. And he was not content even with this, but added a meal too, as the writer says further on: “And eating with them.” And the apostles themselves always made this a proof of the resurrection, saying, “we who ate and drank with him.” And what he did when he appeared, he shows by what he adds: “appearing to them, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” For since they were distressed and troubled by what had already happened, and were about to go out to great contests, … [he commanded them] not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.” First he led them out into Galilee, while they were still afraid and trembling, so that they might hear what was said without fear. Then, when they had heard and had spent forty days with him, “he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem.” Why so? Just as no one lets soldiers who are about to fall upon a multitude go out until they are armed, nor lets horses leap from the starting line until they have taken on their charioteer, so he did not let them appear on the battlefield before the descent of the Spirit, so that they would not be easy for the many to overcome and capture. And not only for this reason, but also because there were many there who were going to believe. And besides this, so that some might not say that they left those who knew them and went off to boast among strangers, for this reason they offer the proofs of the resurrection among the very men who had murdered him, among the very men who had crucified him and buried him, in the very city where the lawless deed had been dared, so that all outsiders too would be silenced. For when the very men who crucified him are seen to have believed as well, it is evident both that the cross and the lawlessness of the outrage were shown up, and that the proof of the resurrection was great. Then, so that they might not say, “How then shall we be able to remain, few and of no account, among so many polluted and murderous men?”, see how he dispels their anxiety, saying, “but to wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.” And when, someone asks, did they hear it? When he said, “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you”; and again, “I will ask the Father, and he will send you another Paraclete, to remain with you.”

And why did the Spirit come neither while he was present nor immediately after he departed, but he himself went up on the fortieth day, while the Spirit came “when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled”? And how, if the Spirit had not yet come, did he say, “Receive the Holy Spirit”? To make them receptive and fit for receiving him. For if Daniel fainted when he was about to see an angel, much more would these men, who were about to receive so great a grace. Either this is what one may say, or that he spoke of what was going to happen as if it had already happened, as when he says, “Tread upon snakes and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy.” And why did the Spirit not come at once then? They had to come to long for the thing, and so receive the grace. That is why the Spirit came when he himself had flown away. If the Spirit had come while he was present, they would not have been in such expectation. That is why he does not come immediately after he went up either, but after eight or nine days. So we too are roused toward God most of all when we come into need. That is why John too sends his disciples to Christ just when they were going to be in need of Jesus, since John himself was living in prison. Besides, our nature had to appear in heaven, and the reconciliation be completed, and then the Spirit come and the joy be unmixed. For if, while he was present, the one had gone away and the other remained, the comfort would not have been so great; for they clung to him and could hardly be torn away from him. That is why he said to comfort them, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” That is why he waits through the days between, so that, having been somewhat disheartened and, as I said, having come into need, they might reap a full and pure joy. If the Spirit were lesser, the consolation would not have been sufficient; how then could he have said, “It is to your advantage”? That is why the greater parts of the teaching were reserved for him, so that they would not think him lesser. Consider what constraint he put on them to be in Jerusalem, by promising that the Spirit would be given there. For so that they would not flee again after his ascension, he holds them all there by this expectation as by a chain. Having said, “to wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me,” he added, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Now he shows the difference between himself and John, no longer in veiled terms as before (for he veiled his meaning heavily when he said, “But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”), but now more plainly: “John,” he says, “baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.” He no longer uses John's testimony, but only reminds them of the person, leading them to remember what John had said; and he shows them already become greater than John, since they too were going to baptize in the Spirit. And he did not say, “But I baptize you in the Holy Spirit,” but “you will be baptized,” teaching us humility. For it was already plain from John's testimony that he was the one who baptizes, since John said, “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire”; that is why he mentioned John alone. The Gospels, then, are a history of what Christ did and said; the Acts, of what the other Paraclete said and did. Then too the Spirit did many things, just as now Christ is at work, as he was then also; but then through the temple, now through the apostles. Then he came into a virgin's womb and fashioned a temple; now into apostolic souls. Then in the form of a dove, now in the form of fire. Why so? There he showed his gentleness, here also his power to punish. And he fittingly reminds them of the judgment as well. For when sins had to be forgiven, much gentleness was needed; but now that we have obtained the gift, it is the time for judgment and examination. And how does he say, “You will be baptized,” when there was no water in the upper room? Because the more essential thing is the Spirit, through whom the water too is effective; just as he himself is said to have been anointed, though he was never anointed with oil, but received the Spirit. Besides, one can find them baptized with water too, and at different times. With us both happen together, but then separately. For at the beginning they were baptized by John; and do not be surprised. For if prostitutes and tax collectors came to that baptism, much more those who were afterward to be baptized by the Spirit. Then, so that they would not say that the thing was always in promises (for he had already said much about it), nor think it an operation without real subsistence, he leads them away from such a notion and says, “not many days from now.” And he did not make plain when, so that they might always be watchful; but he said that it would be near, so that they would not lose heart; when, he did not add, so that they might always be sober. And he assures them not by this alone, I mean the nearness of the time, but also by saying, “the promise which you heard from me.” What he means is this: “I have not told you only now, but I promised it long ago; and what I promise I will certainly do.” Why then are you surprised if he does not tell the day of the consummation, when he would not make known even this day, which was so near? And very reasonably, so that they might always be awake and in expectation …