life and that abundantly" (John 1010). The once helpless cripple, who now stood before the multitude sound and strong, was a convincing proof of Jesus' power to give not only spiritual but physical life to those whose faith enabled them to reach out and receive it.

III. Peter's Interpretation of the Old Testament Prophecies. The words with which Peter appealed to the multitude reveal great tact and, what is more important, a yearning love for them such as had filled the heart of Jesus: "Brothers, I know that you have acted in ignorance, as have also your rulers." The implied distinction between the responsibility of the common people and of their rulers was well supported by the facts. Peter's declaration that "God hath fulfilled the promises which he made by the mouth of the prophets that his Christ would suffer" is one of the many indications contained in these early records that the disciples found the explanation of the meaning of Jesus' death in the II Isaiah's portrait of the suffering servant of Jehovah. Peter reiterated John the Baptist's call to repentance, but made the motive not merely individual forgiveness but that God might send to them "Jesus the Messiah, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of which God hath spoken from of old by the lips of his holy prophets." Again the impression is deepened that the apostles' firmly fixed conviction of Jesus' speedy second coming to accomplish by supernatural means what he seemed to have left undone, was derived not from their Master's words but from their perusal of the Old Testament prophecies under the influence of the current Jewish apocalyptic hopes. In Acts 324 Peter plainly states the principle that guided the apostles in their interpretation of these ancient scriptures: "Yea, all the prophets who have spoken since Samuel and his successors have announced these days." These typical early apostolic sermons in the opening chapters of Acts illustrate their tendency to ignore the historical background and the immediate application of these Old Testament prophecies and to apply all, which seemed apposite, to Jesus and to the age in which they were living. Their interpretation, however, of the meaning of Jesus' work and teaching to them and to all Jews who believed is of incomparable value. Peter's closing words in 326 are the simplest and clearest statement of primitive apostolic faith to be found in the New Testament: "It was for you first that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked deeds." Here, as in the oldest gospel records, Jesus is recognized to be the personal Friend and Teacher and Saviour of men. His saving work is done in the lives of

PETER'S INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY

men by delivering them from the bondage of the evil habits and ideals engendered by their past deeds.

IV. Peter's Defense before Jesus' Murderers. Acts is a book of striking contrasts. The event soon proved that "the disciples were not above their Lord." The conspirators and leaders of the Jewish nation who had plotted to encompass Jesus' death now interrupted Peter's earnest address. At their head was the commander of the temple police, or segan, who was the official representative of the highpriestly authorities. It was his duty to maintain order in the temple precincts, and the apostle's bold words gave him and the Sadducees whom he represented an excuse for silencing Peter. Deeper than their opposition to the doctrine of the resurrection, which Peter implicitly taught, was probably their recognition that he was the spokesman of the despised and crucified Nazarene. The informal meeting which was held the following morning was in many respects closely similar to the preliminary investigation of Jesus which these same high-priestly officials had instituted in order to secure data for a formal charge. It was again a packed tribunal dominated by Annas, Caiaphas, John (in the Western text D, Jonathan), and Alexander. Jonathan was a son of Annas, as was probably also Alexander; at least the narrative of Acts distinctly states that all the members of the high priest's family were present. Peter's reply to their demand that he explain by what authority he had performed the miracle was probably suggested by Jesus' reply to the Pharisees on a similar occasion: "Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" (Mark 31-6.) Psalm 11822 furnished Peter the figure with which he proclaimed the power of his risen Lord: "This Jesus is the stone despised by you builders which has become the head of the corner." Again it is an echo of Jesus' words recorded in Mark 121o. Peter's closing assertion anticipates Paul's interpretation of the significance of Jesus' personality and work. It is probable that here, as elsewhere in the Old and New Testaments, the name is not used in a magic sense but to describe the character, aims, spirit, and methods of its possessor. Out of the depths of his own personal experience Peter declared that the spirit and teachings which his Master exemplified present the only way in which men of all races and ages may come into living and personal relations with their heavenly Father and attain the real goals of all living.

V. The Effect of the Release of Peter and John upon the Christian Community. The grafting high priests were naturally

eager to silence the disciples of the Nazarene Teacher who had dared publicly to condemn their corrupt administration of the temple. The Sadducean nobles cared little about questions of orthodoxy. They evidently regarded the apostles as mad fanatics, followers of a Galilean Messiah, who might arouse the people unduly, and their aim was to intimidate them. There was, however, in the apostles' teaching no trace of disloyalty to the law or temple ritual or note of sedition, and for the moment they had the approval of the multitude. Hence the temple authorities, who depended largely on the support of the mob, could only let them go free. To the followers of Jesus this meant a great victory. Their leaders had openly faced the murderers of Jesus, had borne testimony to their Master's resurrection, and the crowds in the temple had upheld them. Here was another signal illustration of their conviction that the Spirit of God was working mightily in their midst. The prayer in 423-26, 29, 30 may well have come down directly from the early Christian community. It fits most perfectly its present historical setting. Its spirit and thought are characteristic of the primitive Christians. Psalm 21, 2, with its world-wide vision, seemed none too exalted to express their exultation and thanksgiving. The closing lines of the prayer breathe the spirit that actuated the early Christian martyrs and voice their consciousness of a mighty mission as the servants of God to proclaim the teachings and do the great work that God's holy servant Jesus had intrusted to them. As in chapter 2, Luke graphically describes the overmastering ecstasy which seized them by the statement that "the place where they were was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit." This profound spiritual experience also inspired them with new zeal and courage in proclaiming the divine truth intrusted to them and in bearing testimony to Jesus' resurrection.

The gen

VI. The Communistic Tendencies of the Believers. eral statements at the close of chapter 2 have been popularly interpreted to mean that the primitive Christian community at Jerusalem lived together on a thoroughly communistic basis. Luke may have wished to convey this impression. He himself would probably have commended such a social organization, for his sympathies, as revealed in his gospel, are strongly communistic; but the popular interpretation is not borne out by the older sources which he has incorporated in Acts. These nowhere state that all of the believers put all of their wealth in the common treasury. Instead it is implied that those who did so wholly or in part were highly commended for their excep

COMMUNISTIC TENDENCIES

tional generosity. Thus Barnabas, a Jew from the Island of Cyprus, who claimed Levitical descent and who later became an active apostle, sold a farm belonging to him and turned the proceeds into the common fund. The record does not even indicate that he sold all the property that he possessed. Peter's words to Ananias also plainly and decisively indicate that no one was under any compulsion to sell his personal property or to turn any or all into the apostolic treasury. The absence of any trace of communism in the later history of Palestinian Christianity or elsewhere in the early Christian church, until the alien tendencies toward asceticism and monasticism gained a foothold within it, substantiates the testimony of Acts. All the more significant, therefore, is the spirit of generosity and practical brotherhood that inspired these primitive Christian believers. Not under the compulsion of a social compact or institution, but prompted simply by the spirit of their Master, "they called none of the things which they possessed their own, but shared all things with one another." The social ideals that Jesus had held up before his followers and tried to apply practically in the life of the closely knit community that lived around the northern shores of the Sea of Galilee were being realized. While his influence upon them was still freshest and strongest they literally did to others as they would have others do to them. What Luke records is simply a practical application of Jesus' social teachings. Undoubtedly the believers' expectation of the speedy second coming of their Master was also the background of this unique social life; but it is well that the Christian church has ever held up before it a concrete illustration of what the teachings of Jesus can do and yet will do for society, as well as for its individual citizens. Jesus saved Zaccheus, the tax collector of Jericho, by influencing him to give back in generous measure what he had stolen from society. Barnabas and other Jerusalem citizens like him represent a still higher stage in that socializing process which Jesus aimed to perfect in every man. The social leaven which he had implanted in the heart of Judaism was beginning to work silently but rapidly in an ever-widening circle.

VII. The Story of Ananias and Sapphira. This story has been regarded by many historians as apocryphal. In the form in which it has come to us tradition may have heightened certain details, as, for example, the immediate death of Ananias and Sapphira on the discovery of their deceit; or they may have been afflicted with acute heart-disease. One thing is certain: the narrative comes from one of the earlier sources, for it implicitly disproves the general statement

of the editor that "the believers shared all they had with one another" (Acts 245). The apostles, like the ancient Hebrew prophets (e. g., Amos's doom upon Amaziah, Amos 717, or Isaiah's definite prediction of the fate of Shebna, Isaiah 2215-19), appear to have proclaimed the doom awaiting especially guilty offenders. Thus Paul in I Corinthians 55 declared regarding a member of the Corinthian church who was guilty of gross social immorality: "By the power of our Lord Jesus Christ I here consign that individual to Satan for the destruction of his flesh in order that his spirit may be saved on the day of our Lord Jesus." The sin of Ananias and Sapphira appears to have been their attempt to deceive their fellow Christians by retaining part of the proceeds from the sale of the land which they had donated to the community. Confronted by this evidence of disloyalty to the teachings of Jesus, Peter could not have refrained from a scathing condemnation, and it could not have failed to make a profound impression upon the pathetic pair who were making such a disastrous attempt to serve both God and mammon. Whenever, whether at once or later, death overtook the culprits, it would be inevitably regarded as a divine judgment. It is important to note, however, that the story does not claim to recount a miracle; it simply aims to illustrate by contrast the powerful social spirit that inspired the Christian community and to point an exceedingly important moral.

VIII. The Religious Life of the Jerusalem Christians. Helpfulness, hopefulness, unselfishness, and joyfulness characterized the life of the early Jerusalem community. In the days immediately following the great revival at Pentecost it was in a very true sense a partial realization of Jesus' ideal of the Kingdom of God on earth. All its members were bound together by a common loyalty to their heavenly Father and a single-minded devotion to the ideals of their Master. Daily they worshipped together in the temple; each meal in their homes was apparently eaten in commemoration of their dead but risen Lord. Together they constituted one large family united by a spirit of good-will and generosity and the consciousness of a great mission. The beauty of their common life and the teachings of the apostles attracted many Jews to their ranks. The step for them was easy, for the Twelve had no thought of a break with Judaism. They regarded the scriptures of their race and the service of the temple as essential foundations of their faith. The new elements in their belief simply represented the last chapter in God's revelation to his people. Instead of separating from their fellow Jews, they sought to attract all