«The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, / Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: / To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: / And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.»

«Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, / Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; / It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, / That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.»