Editor Francis Martin collects
patristic comment on the text of Acts
in this volume of the ACCS.
The Acts of the Apostles--or more in
keeping with the author's intent, the
Acts of the Ascended Lord--is part two
of Luke's story of "all that Jesus
began to do and teach." In it he
recounts the expansion of the church as
its witness spread from Jerusalem to
all of Judea and Samaria and to the
ends of the earth.
While at least forty early church
authors commented on Acts, the works of
only three survive in their entirety--
John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Acts
of the Apostles, Bede the Venerable's
Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles
and a long Latin epic poem by Arator.
In this volume, substantial selections
from the first two of these appear with
occasional excerpts from Arator
alongside many excerpts from the
fragments preserved in J. A. Cramer's
Catena in Acta SS. Apostolorum. Among
the latter we find selections from
Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus,
Gregory of Nyssa, Ephrem the Syrian,
Didymus the Blind, Athanasius, Jerome,
John Cassian, Augustine, Ambrose,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Theodoret of
Cyr, Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril
of Alexandria, Cassiodorus and Hilary
of Poitiers, some of which are here
translated into English for the first
time.
As readers, we find these early authors
transmit life to us because their faith
brought them into living and
experiential contact with the realities
spoken of in the Sacred Text.