Acts study section

Acts setting & dates

Acts moves in widening circles from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to Rome.

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The Setting of Acts

Acts spans the Roman world of the first century, moving outward in ever-widening circles from a single city to the capital of the empire. It begins in Jerusalem, the birthplace of the church, where the Spirit is poured out and the apostles bear witness in the temple and before the council. From there the gospel radiates into the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria, as persecution scatters the believers and Philip preaches in Samaritan towns and on the desert road toward Gaza, while Peter ministers along the coast at Lydda, Joppa, and Caesarea, where Cornelius is converted. Antioch in Syria then emerges as the new missionary base from which the gospel is carried westward.

The second half of the book follows Paul’s journeys across the northeastern Mediterranean: through Cyprus and the provinces of Asia Minor (Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Ephesus), across the Aegean into Macedonia and Greece (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth), and back again, with the great inland city of Ephesus as a center of Paul’s third journey. The final chapters trace Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, his imprisonment in the coastal capital of Caesarea, and his dramatic sea voyage — by way of Crete, a shipwreck, and the island of Malta — to Rome itself. The geography embodies the theme of Acts 1:8, as the witness to Christ moves from Jerusalem “to the end of the earth,” symbolized by the gospel reaching Rome, the heart of the empire.

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