Acts 1
Acts 1 is the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke. This chapter functions as a transition from the "former account" (that is, Gospel of Luke) with a narrative prelude (), repeated record of the ascension of Jesus Christ with more detail (verses 6–11) and the meeting of Jesus' followers (verses 12-26), until before Pentecost. Text. The original text was written in Koine Greek and  is divided into 26 verses. Textual witnesses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: Locations. This chapter mentions the following places: Introduction (1:1–5). The beginning of the book follows a conventional opening statement containing the name of the addressee, Theophilus, and a brief reminder of the content of the "former account" (Gospel of Luke) by the same author. Ascension of Jesus (1:6–12). This section records that forty days after the resurrection, Jesus commands the disciples during a meal to await the coming of the Holy Spirit, then a cloud takes him upward from sight, and two men  in white appear to tell them (the disciples) that he will return "in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." Verse 8. Before Jesus left, he charged the disciples with the task of acting as 'witnesses' to him, in the locations that can be read as a 'geographical program' for the whole book of Acts: Luke chapter 24 tells how Jesus leads the eleven disciples "as far as" Bethany, a village on the Mount of Olives, where he instructs them to remain in Jerusalem until the coming of the Holy Spirit: "And it came to pass, while  he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (). The Gospel of John has three references to ascension in Jesus' own words: "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man" (); "What if you (the disciples) were to see the son of man ascending where he was before?" (); and to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, "Do not hold me, for I not yet ascended to my father..." (). Various epistles (, , , , , and ) also refer to an ascension in relation to  the post-resurrection "exaltation" of Jesus to the right hand of God. Gospel of Mark () contains the brief ascension account, but it is considered by a broad consensus among scholars to be a later addition to the original version of that gospel. Election of Matthias (1:13–26). As the disciples waited obediently in the upper room in Jerusalem for the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, they devoted themselves "with one accord" in prayer (verse 14), underlying the unity of the group which surprisingly now includes Jesus' mother, brothers, and some women. Verse 13 lists the names of the apostles with  some differences compared to the apostolic list in (cf. ; ): The omission of Judas Iscariot motivates the narrative of his final fate and Peter's call to find his replacement. The process begins by Peter's appeal to the Scripture (verse 20), and the requirements for the candidate (verses 21–22). With this, Peter reinforces the identity of the group and exerts his "de facto" authority in the group. Verses 21–22. The apostles proceed by asking God as the only resource to 'indicate' his choice through the casting of lots (verse 26), which is a familiar mean to ascertain divine purpose in  both the Graeco-Roman world and the Bible, to get Matthias "numbered with the eleven apostles" (verse 26).