The Original Texts of Christianity 6: Acts — the Birth of the Church

Thank you for visiting. This article is one installment in a series that explains the “original texts” of the world’s myths and religions — the sixth of eight articles dealing with the Christian Bible.

Last time (Article 5), I explained the Gospels, which depict the life of Jesus Christ. What this article covers is its sequel, “Acts of the Apostles,” 28 chapters. After Jesus ascended into heaven, how did the remaining disciples give birth to the “Church,” and how did the gospel spread from Jerusalem to the heart of the Roman Empire? It is the birth story of Christianity stepping out into a world religion.

For the explanation of the Gospels, please see this article.

The Original Texts of Christianity 5: The Gospels of Jesus Christen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-nt/

What Kind of Original Text Is “Acts”?

“Acts of the Apostles” is a sequel that Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, wrote addressed to the same person, “Theophilus.” Among the 27 books of the New Testament, it is the only “history book.”

At the opening, the risen Jesus tells the disciples this and ascends into heaven: “You will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In fact, this single line is the blueprint of the whole book. The story literally spreads in concentric circles: Jerusalem (chs. 1–7) → Judea and Samaria (chs. 8–12) → the ends of the earth = Rome (chs. 13–28).

Learn with Character Art! An Illustrated Guide to ChristianityView on Amazon → What Exactly Is Christianity? (a beginner’s primer)View on Amazon →

Pentecost — the Spirit Descends and the Church Is Born

The story opens with the event of “Pentecost” in chapter 2. After Jesus’s ascension, upon the disciples who had gathered to pray in one house in Jerusalem, suddenly a sound like a rushing wind resounded, and tongues like flames divided and rested on each one of them.

Then the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak of the great works of God in various languages they had never learned. Jews from many lands who had come to Jerusalem for the festival were astonished to hear each of their own home languages.

At this, Peter stands up and gives the first sermon: “This Jesus whom you crucified, God raised and made Lord.” About 3,000 people, struck to the heart by these words, were baptized that day. Christianity calls this day the “birthday of the Church.”

The shape of the newborn community is also impressively recorded. The believers shared their property, broke bread together, and prayed every day with one heart — the original scene to which every later church returns.

Peter’s Miracle and the First Trial

The protagonist of the first half of the Church is Peter, Jesus’s foremost disciple. He, who once said three times that he “did not know” Jesus, appears as an unrecognizably bold leader.

In front of the temple gate, Peter says to a man lame from birth, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk,” and makes the man stand up. By such miracles and sermons the believers kept increasing, and at last the religious authorities arrest the apostles. But even when threatened in the council, Peter and the others’ answer was clear: “We must obey God rather than men.”

Internal problems are also recorded without concealment. There is a stern scene in which the couple Ananias and Sapphira, who gave an offering after lying about the price of their land, fall down and die on the spot for the sin of deceiving the Holy Spirit — conveying the tension of the newborn community.

The First Martyr, Stephen

In chapter 7, the Church has its first victim. Stephen, a servant full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, boldly recounted the history of Israel before the council and sharply criticized, “You always resist the Holy Spirit.”

Enraged, the people drag Stephen outside the city and kill him by stoning. At the brink of death, like Jesus, he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” He is Christianity’s first martyr.

And the original text places, in a meaningful way, a young man at the scene of this execution: Saul, the man who watched over the coats of those throwing stones — none other than the later apostle Paul. Triggered by this persecution, the believers scattered to many regions, and ironically that carried the gospel outside Jerusalem. With stories like Philip baptizing an Ethiopian official, the gospel has already begun to cross borders.

The Light on the Road to Damascus — Paul’s Conversion

In chapter 9, the book’s greatest turning point arrives. Saul (Paul), the spearhead of the persecution of the Church, on his way to Damascus to seize believers, was suddenly struck by a light from heaven and fell to the ground. And a voice resounded.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

To Saul, who asked, “Lord, who are you?” the voice answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Blinded, Saul recovered his sight three days later through the prayer of the Damascus believer Ananias, and was baptized. The man who was trying to destroy the Church became the greatest apostle who carried the gospel to the world — the most dramatic turnaround in the history of Christianity.

The Door to the Gentiles — Peter and Cornelius

In chapter 10, another decisive step is recorded. In a vision, Peter sees a great sheet full of all kinds of animals descending from heaven, and hears a voice: “Do not call unclean what God has made clean.”

Led on, Peter visits the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius — that is, a Gentile (a non-Jew) — and speaks the gospel. When the Holy Spirit descended on the Gentiles too, Peter understood: “God shows no partiality.” It is the moment when Christianity, born as a religion of the Jews, opened its door to become a religion for all humankind.

Paul’s Missionary Journeys — into the Mediterranean World

From chapter 13, the stage expands at once into the Mediterranean world. Sent out from the church in Antioch, Paul made three great missionary journeys in his lifetime.

Along the way, in chapter 15, the greatest controversy of early Christianity is settled. The Council of Jerusalem over the question, “Should Gentile believers also be made to keep circumcision and the Law?” The council decided, “Do not lay the burden of the Law on the Gentiles,” and the road for Christianity to become a world religion beyond the frame of Judaism was officially opened here.

The travel scenes are dramatic too. On the second journey, led by a vision, Paul crosses the sea, and the gospel lands on the European continent for the first time. In Philippi he is imprisoned, but the famous tale remains that while he was singing hymns of praise at midnight, a great earthquake struck and all the prison doors opened. And in Athens, the city of philosophy, before the Greek intellectuals, he gave the famous Areopagus sermon, taking as his cue an altar inscribed “To an unknown god.”

Paul the Prisoner, to Rome

Returning to Jerusalem, Paul becomes the target of a riot at the temple and is arrested by the Roman army. But, as the right of one holding Roman citizenship, he made an appeal to the emperor. “I appeal to Caesar” — with this one word, his destination was fixed as the imperial capital, Rome.

The voyage under escort is struck by the great trial of a shipwreck from a violent storm. Tossed by the storm for 14 days, the ship finally breaks up on the shoals of the island of Malta, but just as Paul had encouraged, none of the 276 aboard lost their lives.

And in chapter 28, Paul finally arrives in Rome. Though kept under house arrest, he kept preaching the kingdom of God “with complete freedom and without hindrance” — and the original text abruptly closes with this single sentence. The outcome of Paul’s later trial is not recorded. This has long been read as an ending that hints the story of the gospel’s advance is not yet finished, and is handed on to the reader.

What Acts Conveys

Running through “Acts of the Apostles” is the conviction that “it is not humans but the Holy Spirit who advances the Church.”

The disciples are persecuted, stoned, imprisoned, and shipwrecked. Even so, the story’s march does not stop. Rather, persecution carries the gospel outward, and the greatest persecutor is turned into its greatest evangelist. A record of a faith that began with one man from Galilee, Jesus, reaching the capital of the Roman Empire in just one generation — that is this sole “history book of the Church.”

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

The World of the Bible Through 50 Masterpiece PaintingsView on Amazon → Christianity from Age 14, Explained with DiagramsView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained the New Testament’s only history book, “Acts of the Apostles,” 28 chapters, following the flow of the original text. How was it?

The birth of the Church at Pentecost, the first martyr Stephen, the conversion of the persecutor Paul, the event of Cornelius that opened the door to the Gentiles, the three missionary journeys, and the arrival in Rome past a shipwreck — I hope you could feel this document of the birth of a world religion, a faith that began in one room in Jerusalem spreading to the capital of the empire.

In the next article (Article 7), I will explain the “Epistles,” 21 books, that Paul and the others wrote and sent to churches everywhere.

The Original Texts of Christianity 7: The NT's 21 Epistles, Book by Booken.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-christianity-nt-epistles/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.