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“WE” in the book of Acts
“WE” in the book of Acts
It is interesting to notice little things in our reading, things like pronouns. Two that can be noted is the ‘we’ and ‘they’. Luke wrote this letter/book (cp. Chapter 1). Thus, ‘we’ indicates that he is part of the story, that the events recorded include him. Then there are the ‘they’ statements which seem to indicate that he was not actively involved in these events. These ‘they’ statements do not necessarily indicate that he wasn’t present or that he wasn’t an eye-witness of those events, but rather simply that the event happened to others.
A short listing of ‘we’ would include some 132 times (using Logos search tool of NASB95).
Sometimes the ‘we’ is actually a quote of other people, and has nothing to do with Luke’s presence or absence: cp. Acts 2:8 8 "And how is it that we (the crowd) each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Or Acts 2:32 32 "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we (apostles) are all witnesses.
Yet here in Acts 27, it does indicate that Luke was part of this story. The ‘we’ is found at Acts 28:16, showing Luke’s presence with Paul in Rome. These ‘we’ statements are then an indication of Luke’s eye-witness of these events. What that means is that these events not only happened and are being testified of, but that they happened early in the history of the church! The common dating of Paul’s execution is that later part of the 60’s AD. Hence these stories of the spread of Christianity and the message of the resurrection took place within the lifetime of people who saw and heard Jesus, or heard from those who did. It didn’t take 100’s of years for these stories of Jesus tto develop (both his miraculous doings and his resurrection).
We can thus ‘know assuredly’ what was believed and taught among these first disciples of Jesus (cp. Luke 1:1-4). We can become disciples of the same faith as them. This is the undergirding value of a study of Luke / Acts (and the other letters/books of the New Testament).
Hugh DeLong
