Josephus, who gives an account of this event (Antiq. Bk. xx,
ch. v, sec. 1), says that it happened "while Fadus was Procurator
of Judea." This was 45 or 46 A.D. Gamaliel's speech was delivered,
according to the accepted chronology, 29 A.D. Thus the author of Acts
makes Gamaliel refer to an event as long past which in reality did
not happen until sixteen years after that time.
Continuing his speech, Gamaliel refers to another event, as follows:
"After this man [Theudas] rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the
taxing, and drew away much people after him; he also perished" (37).
Here the author makes Gamaliel state that the sedition of Judas of
Galilee occurred after that of Theudas, when in fact it occurred in
6 A.D.--forty years before. Such grave discrepancies could have been
made only by one writing long after the date claimed.
Holtzmann, a German critic, has shown that the author of Acts
borrowed from the Antiquities of Josephus. The Antiquities appeared
93 A.D.--just thirty years after the date assigned to Acts.
This book will not be given up by orthodox Christians without a
struggle. The authenticity of primitive Christianity depends largely
upon the authenticity of this book. Renan who was a Rationalist, and,
at the same time something of an apologist for Christianity, affirms
that the last pages of Acts, which are devoted almost entirely to
Paul's missionary labors constitute the only historical record of
the early church. At the same time, he admits that it is the most
faulty book in the New Testament. The Rev. Dr. Hooykaas concedes the
same. He says:
"Of the earliest fortunes of the community of Jesus, the primitive
history of the Christian church and the whole of the apostolic age,
we should know as good as nothing if we had not the book of Acts. If
only we could trust the writer fully! But we soon see that the utmost
caution is necessary. For we have another account of some of the
things about which this writer tells us--an account written by the
very man to whom they refer, the best possible authority, therefore,
as to what really took place. This man is Paul himself. In the first
two chapters of the epistle to the Galatians he gives us several
details of his own past life; and no sooner do we place his story
side by side with that of the Acts than we clearly perceive that this
book contains an incorrect account, and that its inaccuracy is not
the result of accident or ignorance, but of a deliberate design, an
attempt--conceived no doubt with the best intentions--to hide in some
degree the actual course of events" (Bible for Learners, Vol. III.,
p. 25).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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