The Apostolic Epic
The Aeneid & the Acts of the Apostles
by Patrick Henry Reardon
In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke has left the Christian Church what deserves to be called an epic—a lengthy account, based on the motif of a journey—of the early movement of the gospel from Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews, to Rome, the capital city of the greatest empire of antiquity. That movement from Jerusalem to Rome, embodied especially in the travels of St. Paul, symbolized for Luke that internationalizing of the gospel inherent in his version of the Great Mandate that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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