The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Introduction-Last Days of our Lord upon Earth (Acts 1:1-8 )
The former treatise - `The first Account,' 'Narrative,' 'Discourse;' first being put for former х prooton (G4412) for proteron (G4386)], as not unfrequently in most languages. [The apodosis to men (G3303), instead of being expressed by the usual de (G1161), is absorbed by the subject itself, as Bengel notes: Kuhner, section 322, 4; Donaldson, section 567.]
Have I made, O Theophilus - of whom see the note at Luke 1:3. This "former treatise" can be no other than the Third Gospel, of which the present History was designed to be the Sequel (see Introduction).
Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach - that is, 'of all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning;' as Bengel, Humphry, and others rightly understand this expression. It is pressed too far by Olshausen, and after him by several good critics, who consider the word "began" here х eerxato (G756)] as a hint by the historian, at the outset, that Christ's whole work on earth is to be viewed but as a beginning, while that in heaven is but a continuation of one and the same work; and that what is to be related in this book is not so much the Acts of the Apostles, as the Actings-through their instrumentality-of the glorified Redeemer upon earth. Nothing, indeed, can be more true and delightful than this view of Christ's present work in the heavens; and when Lange says that 'the reins of Christ's kingdom, of which the Acts of the Apostles relate the first and fairest part, are in the pierced hands of our blessed Lord and Saviour, exalted from the cross to the right hand of God,' he writes not more beautifully than correctly. But to draw all this from the word "began" here, is (as DeWette and Meyer justly protest) to strain the sense of that word. It is not, indeed, pleonastic, but means simply (as in a great many similar cases, where a course of continuous speech or action is intended) 'proceeded' to say or to do (Matthew 12:1; Luke 13:25; 2 Corinthians 3:1, and in this same book, 1 Corinthians 2:4).