Analysis Acts 1–7 moves the narrative firmly but without haste toward the gentile mission, the legitimacy of which is the governing theme of the book. The pace is deliberate insofar as the narrator wishes to show that Christianity is the divinely directed final manifestation of Israelite faith.1 Although the resurrection demonstrates that Jesus is the Messiah foretold in the Scriptures, the Jewish leaders reject their evidence and attempt to stifle the rapidly growing movement, which they perceive