Book of Acts

The Apostles and Suffering: A Response to Paulogia’s Skepticism

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In his videos, the skeptical YouTuber Paulogia questions how strong the evidence is for the suffering and deaths of the apostles, even if we assume that the book of Acts is historically accurate. He points out that we have limited information about their suffering, mostly just about Peter, John, and later, Paul. We don’t know much about what happened to other apostles like Simon the Zealot, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thaddeus, Thomas, and more. It’s like they disappeared from pages of reliable history, so we’re not sure about the dangers they might have faced or what risks they really took. In his response to Catholic apologist Trent Horn, Paulogia says: In (Acts) chapter 5, Peter and the … Read more

Paul’s Corinthian Companions and Undesigned Coincidences

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In his well-known work, “Horae Paulinae,” William Paley highlights a convincing body of evidence related to what we call “undesigned coincidences.” One of these coincidences revolves around two separate lists of names in the New Testament. One list is from the Book of Acts, while the other is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The Acts’ list specifically identifies the men who traveled alongside Paul during his journey from Corinth to Jerusalem. These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. Acts 20:4 In contrast, the list in Romans, written by Paul before to his departure from … Read more

No, The Author of Acts Didn’t Use Josephus

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There’s an ongoing debate among scholars about whether the author of the book of Acts used Josephus’ writings. Some critics argue that the author heavily relied on Josephus, which would raise doubts about the author’s claim of being a companion of Paul. This is because Josephus’ writings didn’t appear until the early second century and obviously Luke would’ve long been dead. Although this perspective isn’t widely accepted yet, it’s gained popularity among some scholars and a few online skeptics who believe that Acts is a work of historical fiction. In this post, I aim to explore why I think this theory is really far-fetched. Let’s Talk Chronology The order of events is a major point … Read more

The Historical Paul vs. The Legendary Paul?

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ornate bas relief in vault representing saint disciples

Skeptical critics argue that Luke wasn’t a traveling companion of Paul’s. Why do they say this? Let’s discuss one reason. NT scholar Uta Ranke-Heinemann asserts that in: “Acts and the epistles there are two Pauls. The historical Paul of the authentic epistles and the legendary Paul of Acts.” 1 In other words, don’t confuse the colorful Paul of Acts with the actual Paul we read about in his letters. This indicates that Luke didn’t have firsthand knowledge of Paul. He must have lied about being his traveling companion and embellished a bunch of stories. But is the Paul of Acts that different from the Paul we read about in his letters? I’d say no. Not … Read more

Are the Accounts of Jesus’s Ascension Contradictory?

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Bart Ehrman says that the author of Luke can’t seem to get the story of the Ascension of Jesus right. In his Gospel, Luke says that Jesus ascended into heaven the day of his resurrection. In The Acts of the Apostles, Jesus hung around for 40 days before leaving his disciples. Dr. Ehrman writes in his blog:  “In Luke 24 (you can read it for yourself and see) Jesus rises from the dead, on that day meets with his disciples, and then, again that day, he ascends to heaven from the town of Bethany. But when you read Acts 1, written by the same author, you find that Jesus did not ascend on that day … Read more

84 reasons why we know Luke was a traveling companion and eyewitness of the miraculous life of the Apostle Paul

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Bart Ehrman claims that Luke wasn’t really a traveling companion of Paul. In his book Forged, Ehrman writes: “(The author of Acts) is simply claiming to be a traveling companion of Paul’s and therefore unusually well suited to give a “true” account of Paul’s message and mission. But he almost certainly was not a companion of Paul’s. On the one hand, he was writing long after Paul and his companions were dead. Scholars usually date Acts to around 85 CE or so, over two decades after Paul’s death. On the other hand, he seems to be far too poorly informed about Paul’s theology and missionary activities to have been someone with firsthand knowledge.”  (Forged: Writing in … Read more

Is Jesus Alive?