26 JUNE 1909, Page 12

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

The Acts of the Apostles. By Adolf Harnack. (Williams and Norgate. 6s.)—In Professor Harnack's new book, The Acts of the Apostles, he develops the position which he established a year or two ago in "Luke the Physician." He regards what we may call St. Luke's second volume as "a genuinely historical work," "in the majority of its details trustworthy," written at the end of tho first century by a man in "direct touch with the recorded facts," the close friend and companion of St. Paul. He combats—ho almost derides—the view commonly entertained by advanced critics that the author was "simply an editor of sources" and the book "a comparatively late patchwork compila- tion, in which the part taken by the editor is insignificant, yet in all cases detrimental." Professor Harnack's book must greatly strengthen the hands of the conservative critics of the Bible. The thirty pages of introduction with which it opens are written with all his force and charm, but as a whole the book is technical, and will appeal chiefly to scholars.