The Acts of the Apostles (Holy Trinity Seminary Press)

Archbishop Averky was born in 1906 to a noble family and had a deep desire for monasticism at an early age. In 1931, he was tonsured a monk and ordained a deacon. The following year he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1951, he began teaching at Holy Trinity Seminary, and in 1960 he was elected the fourth abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery. Two years ago, I read and reviewed a book of his titled The Four Gospels. Now, two years later, I again have a chance to review one of his works, which is a follow-up volume called The Acts of the Apostles.

The book begins by explaining that the second part of the New Testament is composed of books united under their liturgical usage of "Apostolos," which means messenger. The contents of these books are The Acts of the Apostles (historical), twenty-one Epistles (instructional in nature), and Revelation (prophecy). The next chapter gives us an overview of The Acts of the Apostles, which includes the authorship, time and place of composition, content, and significance. We then get to the meat of Archbishop Averky's work which divides the book into two parts - The Church of Christ Among the Jews and The Church of Christ Among the Gentiles. The Jewish chapters are the first twelve chapters in Acts and the Gentile chapters are the final sixteen chapters of Acts.

With each chapter in Acts, Archbishop Averky presents what could be best described as a chapter-by-chapter commentary. With each section, he looks for the natural breaks in Scripture and opens up these passages to us by referencing Old and New Testament and explaining the meaning and significance of each passage. This book, like its predecessor, proved to be an interesting and fruitful read. It was interesting reading Acts in two parts (Peter's and Paul's) and seeing how the early Church not only survived, but thrived despite the persecution they faced from all sides. I look forward to seeing the third volume of this series and reading Archbishop Averky's commentary on the Epistles.

This book was provided to me for free by Holy Trinity Seminary Press in exchange for an honest review.