The apostolic age : a study if the early church and its achievements

II Theological Seminary

Ik

A Study of the Early Church and Its Achievements

BY

WILLIAM BANCROFT HILL, D.D.

New York - Chicago •

Fleming H. Revell Company

London and Edinburgh

Copyriglat, 1922, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

To the Noble Band of

Foreign Missionaries

in many lands to-day who reproduce

Preface

IN undertaking to present tlie history of the Apos^ tolic Age in a volume of moderate size, I have had to limit myself strictly as regards description and discussion. The restriction upon descriptive writing I do not regret. To picture the view from the Areopagus or to describe the monuments of ancient Athens, sheds little light upon Paul's labours in that city. But I wish it had been possible to discuss more fully the mooted points in apostolic history, which are many. The temptation to do so, in footnotes if not in the text, was strong; but I have kept to the rule of simply stating my conclusions without going into all that might be said against them. Lest this should make me seem at times dogmatic, I wish to say that I have ever recognized the authority of the great scholars, and shaped my statements after careful consideration of what they set forth.

While I have been indebted constantly to those who have written before me, I have rarely made acknowledgment of that debt.^ Often it would be impossible to do so; for after a quarter of a century spent in studying and teaching the Apostolic Age, one is puzzled to trace the source of many of his most helpful ideas. Indeed, every writer upon a Biblical subject " is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth out of his treasure things new and old" (Matt. 13:52).

The Apostolic Age was the great missionary age of the church, and should be studied as such. For this

8 PREFACE

reason I have found my own somewliat intimate acquaintance with foreign missions a constant aid in realizing the work and problems of the apostles and their churches. Much that to the scholar in his studyseems inexplicable, becomes clear and almost a matter of course to the missionary who labours in a field where heathen life and thought similar to that of the first century surround him. I am convinced that the most illuminating book on the Apostolic Age remains to be written by some one who combines the ripest scholarship with the widest knowledge of foreign missions to-day.

W. B. H.

Vassar College,

poughkeepsie, n. y.

Contents

1. Importance of the Apostolic Age. 2. Historical Sources. 3. Luke and the Book of Acts.

I. The Days of Preparation and Pentecost 23

1. The Forty Days with Jesus. 2. Birth of the Church, 3. The Baptism of the Church.