Image Details

Bayerische Staatsbibliothex, Munich

Luke, the sequel. Many events and themes in the Gospel of Luke, which chronicles the life of Jesus, have parallels in the Book of Acts, which describes the work of the apostles after the death of Jesus. When Jesus was baptized, according to Luke, the heavens opened and “the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:22). In the Book of Acts, as the apostles gathered to celebrate the Pentecost, heaven opened and all “were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2–4). Typical of depictions of Jesus’ baptism, a scene on a ninth-century gospel book cover carved in ivory and framed in jewels (shown here) shows a dove descending upon Jesus. Similarly, a dove descends upon the apostles in Pentecostal scenes from the Book of Acts, such as the illumination from a 13th-century French psalter (see illumination from a 13th-century French psalter). This and many other parallels and a strikingly similar writing style have led most scholars to conclude that Luke and Acts had the same author.