In the election of the twelve apostles, whose names and lives are historically known, who were direct disciples and eyewitnesses of Jesus Christ, who sacrificed their lives for the truth of His teaching, there is historical proof that they are not false witnesses and preachers of the pure and authentic gospel of Christ. But in addition to this, natural-historical, there is also an indisputable and indisputable supernatural proof of the same truth. This latter consists in the multitude of miracles performed by the holy apostles, by which they themselves confirmed the divine origin of their messengership and preaching. Thus, the sacred writer of Acts narrates that immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit upon the apostles, which in itself was already an obvious miracle, since it was accompanied by a clear sign of receiving the gift of tongues, many miracles and signs were performed through the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 2:42).

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, with its accounts of the miracles of the Holy Apostles, shows how irresistibly the deeds and words of the Apostles, their miracles and daring fearlessness, their indication of the source of their power in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the ancient prophets, who foretold His death and resurrection, had an irresistible influence on their contemporaries. When Paul and Barnabas performed the miracle of healing a lame man from birth in Lystra, this miracle so amazed the eyewitnesses and others that all the people cried out: "The gods, being made like men, have come down to us," and they were about to offer them a pagan sacrifice, which gave the Apostle Paul an occasion to calm this agitation with a well-known speech to the people: "Men! What are you doing? And we, men like unto you, preach good tidings unto you, that ye may turn from these false gods unto the living God, who hath made the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them; Who in past generations allowed all nations to go their own ways, although He did not cease to bear witness to Himself with good deeds, giving us rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:6-17). In general, God performed many miracles by the hands of Paul, as well as by Peter, so that handkerchiefs and aprons from Paul's body were placed on the sick, and their diseases ceased, and evil spirits came out of them. And the word of God grew and mighted with great power (Acts 19:11-20).

Then it is idle to ask whether Paul wrote what is attributed to him, and in general the question of the authenticity and integrity of the books of the New Testament. Precisely as to the authenticity of the Pauline writings, the so-called negative criticism made the least objections, because these objections are impossible. Who, for example.

In its entirety, this building is absolutely unparalleled in history. To destroy the authenticity of all these direct testimonies to the foundation of Christianity would be to destroy all historical authenticity. This would mean infinitely more than questioning the historical existence of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar, Mohammed or even Napoleon, since no historical figure had as many witnesses and testimonies for himself as the divine person of Jesus Christ. The teaching of Socrates is attested to by one of his disciples Plato; and who does not believe that Socrates taught in this way and not otherwise? Who does not even believe that at the death of Socrates there was a true miraculous prediction about the day of his death? The divine dignity of Christ, His life and teaching, miracles and prophecies, death and resurrection are testified to by all these thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of His direct disciples and disciples of His disciples, who, having examined everything by examination, recognized Him as the Son of God and sacrificed their whole lives to this faith, and very many laid down their lives for this faith.

If so, if the teaching of the New Testament has a truly historical significance, then it undoubtedly has a divine dignity.

Isn't it strange? Isn't it ridiculous? How did not those millions of millions who followed Christ in the course of nineteen centuries, especially those hundreds of thousands and millions of Christ's contemporaries and apostles, who for Christ's sake rejected kinship, friendship, all social ties, social positions and fortunes, all possessions and life itself?!

If it is impossible to separate Christ from the apostles and prophets, then it is impossible to separate it from the whole Church. If the prophets and apostles were the heralds of the divine truth of Christ, then the Church must also be the guardian of this truth. According to the word of Christ, the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. He Himself remains in the Church until the end of time. And the Comforter Spirit also abides in the Church forever, guiding her into all truth. The Church remains in the world as the pillar and foundation of the truth. God gave the Church not only prophets and apostles, but also pastors and teachers, so that we would not be carried by every wind of teaching in human lies; He has given and will give, and will give, until we attain all to the full measure of the stature of Christ, that is, to the end of the ages. But were there false teachers and false teachings in the Church? Yes, there were, in the midst of heresies and schisms. Nevertheless, the truly catholic Orthodox Church, in the midst of the stormy sea of errors, stirred up by the storms of heresies and schisms, has always remained and will forever remain an unshakable pillar, an insurmountable stronghold, an immovable rock, the foundation of divine truth. The distinctive character of the truly Orthodox Church is revealed in the fact that she considered it her task to preserve the teaching of Christ and the Apostles in an indestructible wholeness not only in spirit, but also in letter. Having once received the canon of the holy books from the Holy Apostles, the Orthodox Church in all ages has been guided in relation to it by the testament of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian in the Apocalypse (Rev. 22:18-19): "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to these, God will put upon him the plagues written in this book; and whosoever shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away a portion of it from the book of the beast, and from the holy city, and from those which are written in this book." The whole world knows that the Church of Christ preserves every letter of the sacred canon as the apple of the eye. The Orthodox Church treated the Holy Lord's and Apostolic Tradition in the same way, according to the testament of St. Paul. St. Paul: "Beloved brethren of the Lord, God from the beginning, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and through faith in the truth of Christ, has chosen you unto salvation, to which He also calls you by our gospel, to attain to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, either by word or by our epistle. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, Who has given eternal consolation and good hope in grace, strengthen you in every good word and deed. Faithful is the Lord, Who will strengthen you and keep you from evil. We charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to depart from every brother who walks disorderly, and not according to the tradition which you have received from us" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; 3:3-6). (Conversations and Teachings, Vol. IV, 1887, Odessa, p. 274).

Preliminary Information on the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.

Content and purpose. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, like the second book of the Gospel of Luke, contains a continuation of the Gospel historical narratives about the work of Christ. But it tells of the story of Christ, no longer on earth, but after his ascension seated at the right hand of God, tells of the founding of the Christian Church by the Apostles, first among the Jews, then among the Gentiles: in other words, it depicts with exact sequence the spread of the Church from Jerusalem, the chief city of the Jewish people and the Jewish Church, through Antioch, the cradle of the Church of the Gentiles, to Rome, the chief city of the Gentile world and the Church of the Gentiles. and thus, following step by step the historical movement of Christianity to the West, it represents the transition of the kingdom of God, with its promises and salvation, from the Jews to the Gentiles. The first seeds of the Church both among Jews and among Gentiles were sown by the Apostle Peter. But the planting and growth of the church among the pagans was especially facilitated by the great apostolic labors of Paul, who was called to the apostleship in an extraordinary way. Accordingly, the book consists of two main parts. In the first, chapters 1-12, the apostolic activity of Peter is narrated, namely: chapters 1-7 speak of the Church of the Jews, and chapters 8-12 depict the transition of the Church from Jews to Gentiles. The second part, chapters 13-18, tells about the activity of Paul and about the Church of the Gentiles, about the founding of Christian societies from the Gentiles in Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome. In the book of Acts it is set forth thus: how the little society of Jesus, in accordance with His promises, led by Himself, in a spirit of faith and love, became a witness of the truth about Jesus before the world; how later the pagan world, together with these firstfruits of believers, began to form one flock under the rule of the One Shepherd, and thus, speaking to Paul (Rom. 1:16)

Thus the history of the Church, as handed down in the canonical books of the New Testament, ends. The description of the struggle which the militant Church must wage uninterruptedly with its enemies, until its final triumph, is already left to the annals of men. The book itself depicts only the beginnings of what continues and is revealed in the Church even to this day.

From this content of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, its purpose is also revealed. The book depicts the history of the initial foundation of the Church between Jews and Gentiles, the transition of the New Testament kingdom of God from the former to the last, from Jerusalem to Rome. Thus, Luke in the Acts of the Apostles wanted to tell from the history of the initial spread and development of Christianity in the Jewish and pagan worlds, and from the activities of Peter, and then mainly Paul, who contributed to this, what from this point of view seemed to him to be especially important, and he was partly an eyewitness of what was described, and partly had accurate information from others. In recent times, however, attempts have been made to prove that in the Acts of the Apostles there are special "tendencies" that lie beyond the direct purpose, namely, to say nothing of obviously untenable assumptions, either general or particular. According to some Luke had the general purpose of depicting that the Gentiles are called to participate in the kingdom of the Messiah on an equal footing with the Jews, and that Christianity manifests its activity among the Gentiles as powerfully as it is in the Jews, and that, consequently, Luke had the purpose of justifying the conduct of Paul, namely, that the Gentiles should not be compelled to observe the ceremonial law, as they should be, by virtue of their faith in Christ, the same right to participate in the blessedness of the kingdom of God belongs to the Jews. But if the content of the book of Acts is somewhat so, it seems to correspond to this purpose; then, on the other hand, such a goal is in contradiction with the whole content of the book of Acts, some do not coincide with such a goal, others correspond to such a goal, it would be necessary to add, which, however, is known only from the Pauline Epistles. Obviously, in this case, the point of view of the book was hastily confused with its purpose. — According to another, much more untenable, opinion, the writer of the Book of Acts had a private goal — namely, to depict the Apostle Paul in such a way that all the exclamations of the Jews known to us from the Pauline Epistles against Paul, against his apostolic dignity and activity, would be refuted from the point of view of the Judaizers themselves; in other words (as the followers of the New Tübingen school say), to reconcile Peter's party with Paul's, showing Peter's agreement with Paul, Peter, contrary to history, is represented with the direction of the Gentile Christians, as Paul, and Paul with the direction of the Jewish Christians, as Peter. But to say nothing of the inconsistency and lack of evidence of opinion (which, however, lies at the basis of the supposed purpose, the intermediary between Peter and Paul), which transfers the hostile divisions of the one-sided parties, Judaizer and pagan, to the Apostles themselves, — first, the image of Paul, as it appears in his own Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians, recognized as authentic by the Baur school itself, does not in the least contradict the image of him inscribed in the book of Acts, but, on the contrary, they contain indications that find their interpretation only in Acts. Secondly, this whole hypothesis makes a vain accusation against the book of Acts of artificiality and premeditation, whereas its striking simplicity speaks loudly against it. Finally, needless to say, in the assumption of such an aim, under the mild expression "apologetic and conciliatory tendency" there is concealed the accusation of a distortion and distortion of historical facts as crudely as it is arbitrary and unfounded, and consequently of the destruction of history, for the characters in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in this case, appear not only to be devoid of any divine assistance, like the common people. but also appear as leaders of parties, succumbing to their personal passion.

The Book of Acts constitutes the necessary connection between the Gospels and the Apostolic Epistles and depicts historically the appearance of the Church in the world and the way in which it was received by the world.

Time and place of writing. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles ends with the legend of Paul's imprisonment and unhindered activity in Rome, which included his apostolic movement from the center of Judaism and the Church of the Jews to the center of paganism and the Church of the Gentiles; consequently, the book ends in the second year of Paul's imprisonment (Acts 28:30 ff.), since there is no mention of his release or death. Probably, the book was written at this time. It was thought, however, that the book of the Acts of the Apostles was not finished. But the arbitrariness of such an assumption is obvious; for the Gospel of Luke also ends similarly to the end of the Book of Acts in its very form. Nor is there any reason to believe that the book ends there precisely because it was written at that time. The reason for this is that Paul's work in the world was over at that time, and thus the writer's main goal was achieved – the depiction of the spread of the Church from Jerusalem to the borders of Rome.