The history of the world is important to Luke. It was in the gospel (recall that Linus opens the Peanuts Christmas pageant quoting Luke), and so it continues to be important in Acts. There are a number of speeches in the book to remind listeners of how Jewish history started, its various trajectories, bringing the thousands of years up to date. The purpose is linkage: remind listeners whence they’ve come and that the Jesus story is in continuity with that flow. This is not simply tradition, but much more important: it’s traditioning. Note Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost, especially 2.29-36 and Stephen’s l o n g speech at 7.2-54.

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Text from Building Faith