Christian Colligation of Apologetics Debate Research & Evangelism
The Speeches in Acts
By Christopher Price
One cannot read through the Acts of the Apostles without noticing that a large part of the book is devoted to "major" speeches. By varying accounts, the speeches in Acts take up about 20-22% of the whole book. Some of the major speeches there are: Five speeches attributed to Peter. One to Stephen (the martyr). Six to Paul. One to James. Another 25% or so of the book is devoted to "direct speech"--statements and other speeches attributed to various participants, such as Jewish leaders like Gamaliel (5:35-59) and Romans like Festus (25:14-21). In comparison, other historical works at the time did not include nearly so much speech material. Josephus for example, devotes less than 9% of his Jewish War to speeches. This, in and of itself, is significant. It means that the author of Acts places a much greater interest on speech material than other historians of his time.
Speeches and Ancient Historians
It has often been argued that ancient historians--and therefore Luke by implication--felt that they had great liberties with the speeches they purported to record. This is over simplistic and misleading. There are examples of creative speech making among ancient Historians. For example, it is widely recognized that Josephus used a creative touch when "reporting" the speeches of major figures in his works. Likewise, there are indications that Dionysius and Tacitus were so inclined. An ancient Sicilian historian, Timaeus (356-260 BCE) apparently invented speeches and placed them in the mouths of historical figures.
On the other hand, there is evidence that historians were expected to report speeches as accurately as possible. For example, one reason we know that Timaeus was so liberal with his speeches is that he faced strong criticism from a Greek historian, Polybius (204-122 BCE). Polybius severely attacked the works of Timaeus, noting that "Timaeus actually invents speeches." Polybius thought this intolerable, as it was the "peculiar function of history" to report what was actually spoken. To simply invent speeches was to "destroy the peculiar virtue of history." Regarding recording speeches, Polybius wrote:
The tragic poet should shrill and charm his audience for the moment by the versimilitude of the words he puts into his characters' mouths, but it is the task of the historian to instruct and convince for all time serious students by the truth of the facts and the speeches he narrates. In the one case, it is the probable that takes precedence, even if it is untrue, the purpose being to create illusion in spectators; in the other, it is the truth, the purpose being to confer benefit on learners.
But how did Polybius himself stack up in his recording of speeches? Quite well. Despite the obstacles facing ancient historians, a review of the 37 speeches in Polybius' surviving text by F.W. Walbank reveals that while Polybius may have summarized some of his speeches, he attempts to accurately record the contents of speeches. When reporting the various speeches at the Locris conference in the Winter (198 BCE), Walbank concludes that they have "all the marks of being derived from a verbatim account of the meeting, and may be accepted as authentic." Speeches in Greek Historians, page 7-8.
Another ancient historian of great importance is Thucydides, the Greek historian who wrote of the Peloponnesian War and in doing so launched the enterprise of recording history. While some use him as an example of creativity, this is misleading. Thucydides admits to having taken some liberty constructing some speech material, but only when he did not have access to any sources. When he had sources, he used them. Whenever he crafted a speech, he did so "of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what was actually said." History of the Peloponnesian War, 1.22.1. Thucydides believed that it was the historian's duty to try and report what the figures actually did say, rather than use them as mouthpieces for various viewpoints