SOURCES
SOURCES
The search for the sources of Luke’s material in Acts is important for the light it might shed both on Luke’s literary techniques as well as on the historical trustworthiness of his narrative. In the prologue to his gospel, Luke tells us that he has "carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Acts 1:3) and mentions both written records (1:1) and oral transmission (1:2, "handed down”). Luke may be thinking here mainly of the gospel, but we can assume that he would have made the same careful investigation, and used all the sources he could lay his hands on, in writing his second volume. And in any case, the question of the extent to which written sources stand behind Acts naturally arises. The "we” passages that surface in Acts 16 and following, as well as the general shift from a Palestinian to a wider Mediterranean setting that occurs at this point, makes it necessary to separate Acts 1-15 from Acts 16-28 in the investigation of the sources for Acts.