Acts of the Apostles (genre)

Saint Luke the Evangelist by Toros Roslin

The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, recounting the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. The Acts are important for many reasons, one of them being the concept of apostolic succession.^[1] They also provide insight into the valuation of "missionary activities among the exotic races," since some of them feature missionary work done among, for instance, the Cynocephaly.^[2]

One work in this genre is included in the New Testament canon, entitled simply Acts of the Apostles or Acts, and primarily concerns the activities of Saint Peter, John the Apostle, and Paul the Apostle, a convert. It is presumably the second part of a two-part work, the Canonical Gospel of Luke being the first part, with both works being addressed to Theophilus, and sharing a similar style.

List of acts

The following list is not exhaustive.

• Acts of Andrew
• Acts of Andrew and Bartholomew Among the Parthians^[3]
• Acts of the Apostles, Canonical
• Acts of Barnabas
• Acts of John
• The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles
• Acts of Lazarus
• Acts of the Martyrs
• Acts of Paul
• Acts of Peter
• Acts of Peter and Paul
• Acts of Peter and the Twelve
• Acts of Philip
• Acts of Pilate
• Acts of Thecla
• Acts of Thomas
• Acts of Timothy

See also

General topics New Testament apocrypha Pseudepigraphy Textual criticism Twelve apostles

Related literature List of Gospels Apocalyptic literature Epistles List of New Testament papyri

Citations

1. Ehrman(2003), p. 167
2. Friedman(2000) p. 59
3. Friedman (2000), p. 70

References

• Friedman, John Block (2000). The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2826-2.
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514182-2.

Further reading

• Ehrman, Bart D (2005). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-518249-9
• Klauck, Hans-Josef (2008). The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction. Baylor University Press. ISBN 0-19-514182-2.
• Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures:A new translation with annotations and introductions. SCM Press. ISBN 0-334-02022-0
• Robinson, James M. (2000). The Definitive Translation of the Gnostic Scriptures: Complete in One Volume. HarperOne. ISBN 0-06-066935-7.
• Wallis-Budge, E.A. (2003). The Contendings of the Apostles: The Histories of the Lives and Martyrdomes and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists. London: Oxford University Press.