Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When were the Acts of the Apostles written?
Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-part work, Luke–Acts, by the same anonymous author, usually dated to around 80–90 AD.[2][3] The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the world's salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah. Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century, beginning with Jesus's ascension to Heaven. The early chapters, set in Jerusalem, describe the Day of Pentecost (the coming of the Holy Spirit) and the growth of the church in Jerusalem. Initially, the Jews are receptive to the Christian message, but soon they turn against the followers of Jesus. Rejected by the Jews, under the guidance of the Apostle Peter the message is taken to the Gentiles. The later chapters tell of Paul's conversion, his mission in Asia Minor and the Aegean, and finally his imprisonment in Rome, where, as the book ends, he awaits trial.
The Hymn of the Pearl (also Hymn of the Soul, Hymn of the Robe of Glory or Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle) is a passage of the apocryphal "Acts of Thomas". In that work, originally written in Syriac, the Apostle Thomas sings the hymn while praying for himself and fellow prisoners. Some scholars believe the hymn antedates the Acts, as it only appears in one Syriac manuscript and one Greek manuscript of the Acts of Thomas. The author of the Hymn is unknown, though there is a belief that it was composed by the Syriac gnostic Bardaisan due to some parallels between his life and that of the hymn. It is believed to have been written in the 2nd century or even possibly the 1st century.
All other books with similar titles or narratives have not been included into the Bible, and belong to the New Testament apocrypha. These acts narratives tend to be later, legendary accounts about the early apostles written in the 2nd and 3rd century CE. The books normally do not claim to be written by apostles, but are anonymous, and thus they are not considered pseudepigrapha and forgeries. Unlike the canonical Book of Acts, they tend to focus on the exploits of individual apostles.
Only one work in this genre is included in the New Testament canon, entitled the "Acts of the Apostles", sometimes called the "Book of Acts" or simply "Acts", and primarily concerns the activities of Saint Peter, John the Apostle, and Paul the Apostle, who converts to Christianity in chapter 9 and becomes the main character. 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. Almost all scholars believe that they were written by the same person.
Each of the four listings of apostles in the New Testament (, , , and ) indicate that all the apostles were men. The canonical gospels and the book of Acts give varying names of the twelve apostles. The list in the Gospel of Luke differs from Matthew and Mark at two points. It lists "Judas the son of James" instead of "Thaddeus". (For more information, see Jude the Apostle.) Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John does not offer a formal list of apostles. Although it refers to "the Twelve" (), the gospel does not present any elaboration of who these twelve actually were, and the author of the Gospel of John does not mention them all by name. There is also no separation of the terms "apostles" and "disciples" in John.
According to tradition, in 232 AD, the greater portion of relics of the Apostle Thomas are said to have been sent by an Indian king and brought from Mylapore to the city of Edessa, Mesopotamia, on which occasion his Syriac "Acts" were written.
Three texts make it certain that a laying on of hands for the imparting of the Spirit — performed after the water-bath and as a complement to this bath — existed already in the earliest apostolic times. These texts are: Acts 8:4-20 and 19:1-7, and Hebrews 6:1-6. 
In the Acts of the Apostles 8:14–17 different "ministers" are named for the two actions. It is not deacon Philip, the baptiser, but only the apostles who were able to impart the pneuma through the laying on of hands. 
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.
Further on in the text, connection between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gesture of laying on of hands appears even more clearly. Acts 8:18-19 introduces the request of Simon the magician in the following way: "When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands..."
In Acts 19, baptism of the disciples is mentioned in quite general terms, without the minister being identified. If we refer to 1 Cor 1:17 we may presume that Paul left the action of baptising to others. But then Acts 19:6 expressly states that it was Apostle Paul who laid his hands upon the newly baptised. 
Hebrews 6:1-6 distinguishes "the teaching about baptisms" from the teaching about "the laying on of hands". The difference may be understood in the light of the two passages in Acts 8 and 19.
Acts of the Apostles (genre) Les Actes des Apotres List of Gospels List of omitted Bible verses The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, also known as the Sonnini Manuscript Textual variants in the Acts of the Apostles Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles
The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were both written by the same author, and are thus referred to as the Lucan texts. The most direct evidence comes from the prefaces of each book; both were addressed to Theophilus, and the preface to the Acts of the Apostles references "my former book" about the ministry of Jesus. Furthermore, there are linguistic and theological similarities between the two works, suggesting that they have a common author.
The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus. The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is, despite unlikely Pauline authorship, often functionally grouped with these thirteen to form a corpus of fourteen "Pauline" epistles.
The codex contains the text of the Acts of the Apostles, Catholic epistles, and Pauline epistles on 374 parchment leaves () with some lacunae. The text is written in one column per page, in 18 lines per page. The texts of Acts 1:1-8; 2:36-45 were supplied by a later hand. There are other small defects. It is beautifully but carelessly written, without subscriptions at the end of books.
Nunc, Sancte, nobis Spiritus is a Christian hymn which has traditionally been attributed to the fourth century St. Ambrose of Milan. However the earliest manuscript tradition for the hymn seems to only go back to the ninth century. The hymn has traditionally been a core part of the prayers at Terce in the Liturgy of the Hours. The reason for this is that the Acts of the Apostles records an event at Pentecost where the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit. The experience clearly causes the apostles to behave in an unusual way and in chapter 2 verse 15 the Acts of the Apostles states explicitly that the apostles were not drunk because it was only the third hour of the day (ie 9am). As the Acts of the Apostles was so explicit in linking the Pentecost experience of the Apostles to the third hour of the day, Christian hymns and prayers intended to be used at that time of the day, have traditionally made reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
When Howard W. Hunter, who had been President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, succeeded to the presidency of the church in 1994, he called Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson as his counselors in the First Presidency. Packer was the fourth apostle in seniority among the ranks of the church, behind Hunter, Hinckley and Monson. This created a situation where the only apostles senior to Packer were members of the First Presidency. As a result, Packer was named Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve. When Hunter died in 1995 and was succeeded by Hinckley, Monson was again retained in the First Presidency and Packer was again asked to be Acting President of the Twelve. Of the five acting presidents of the Quorum in the church's history, Packer served the longest in that capacity and is the only one to serve under two different church presidents.
The codex contains lessons for selected days only from the Gospel of John, Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Luke, and Acts of the Apostles. 
It is written in Greek minuscule letters, on 195 parchment leaves (). The text is written in one column per page, in 28 lines per page. It contains many valuable readings (akin to those of codices A, D, E), but with numerous errors. In Acts of the Apostles and Epistles it is close to ℓ "158".
The Nag Hammadi copy of the "Gospel of Thomas" begins: "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos, Judas Thomas, recorded." Early Syrian traditions also relate the apostle's full name as Judas Thomas. Some have seen in the "Acts of Thomas" (written in east Syria in the early 3rd century, or perhaps as early as the first half of the 2nd century) an identification of Saint Thomas with the apostle Judas, Son of James, better known in English as Jude. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas and the apostle Judas son of James. Others, such as James Tabor, identify him as Judah, the brother of Jesus mentioned by Mark. In the Book of Thomas the Contender, part of the Nag Hammadi, he is alleged to be a twin to Jesus: "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself…"
The codex contains the text of the Acts of the Apostles, Pauline epistles, and Catholic epistles on 397 leaves (size ), with some lacunae (Acts 1:1-12:3; 13:5-15(?); 2 John-Jude). The text is written in 1 column per page, 20 lines per page. The order of books: Acts of the Apostles, Catholic epistles, and Pauline epistles.
It has some additional matter, like Journeys of Paul (as Minuscule 102, 216, 256, 468, 614, 665, 909, 912).
The title "Acts of the Apostles" (Praxeis Apostolon) would seem to identify it with the genre telling of the deeds and achievements of great men (praxeis), but it was not the title given by the author.[6] The anonymous author aligned Luke–Acts to the "narratives" (διήγησις, diēgēsis) which many others had written, and described his own work as an "orderly account" (ἀκριβῶς καθεξῆς).[18] Thus while Acts is widely thought of as a history,[19][20] it lacks exact analogies in Hellenistic or Jewish literature.[21]
The traditional view holds that they were written by Luke named in Colossians , a physician and follower of Paul the Apostle, but modern scholars reject that view. The work is Hellenized and written for a gentile audience possibly, in part, to counter a gnostic understanding of history. Marcion, a famous 2nd-century heretic, who used a modified form of Luke known as the Gospel of Marcion, did not use Acts, perhaps because he was unaware of it or intentionally excluded it from his biblical canon; Irenaeus, a proto-orthodox apologist, is the first to use and mention Acts, specifically against Marcionism.
Eusebius of Caesarea quotes Origen (died mid-3rd century) as having stated that Thomas was the apostle to the Parthians, but Thomas is better known as the missionary to India through the "Acts of Thomas", perhaps written as late as c. 200. In Edessa, where his remains were venerated, the poet Saint Ephrem (died 373) wrote a hymn in which the Devil cries,
In general, the position of Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is only filled when the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is called as a counselor in the First Presidency of the church. In such instances, the man who holds this calling is the most senior apostle who is "not" serving in the First Presidency. Additionally, a person may be called as the Acting President of the Quorum when the actual President of the Quorum is unable to perform his duties due to ill health or other incapacitation.
The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" sees as a scriptural basis for Confirmation as a sacrament distinct from Baptism the account in the Acts of the Apostles :
Now when the apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
The earliest extant written account of a Christian "eucharistia" (Greek: thanksgiving) is that in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (around AD 55), in which Paul the Apostle relates "eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord" in the celebration of a "Supper of the Lord" to the Last Supper of Jesus some 25 years earlier. Paul considers that in celebrating the rite they were fulfilling a mandate to do so. The Acts of the Apostles presents the early Christians as meeting for “the breaking of bread” as some sort of ceremony.
The writer of the Acts of the Apostles noted that the commission given by Jesus to the apostles included preaching the gospel in Samaria () and Philip the Evangelist is seen preaching the Christ (or Messiah) in that region (). The narrative in Acts continues, saying that "when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit" ().
Several texts concern themselves with the subsequent lives of the apostles, usually with highly supernatural events. Almost half of these, anciently called "The Circuits of the Apostles" and now known by the name of their purported author, "Leucius Charinus" (supposedly a companion of John the apostle), contained the Acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas, and Paul. These were judged by the Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople in the ninth century to be full of folly, self-contradiction, falsehood, and impiety. The "Acts of Thomas" and the "Acts of Peter and the Twelve" are often considered Gnostic texts. While most of the texts are believed to have been written in the 2nd century, at least two, the "Acts of Barnabas" and the "Acts of Peter and Paul" are believed to have been written as late as the 5th century.There are also non-canonical epistles (or "letters") between individuals or to Christians in general. Some of them were regarded very highly by the early church.
Those marked with a lozenge (♦) are included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers:Several works frame themselves as visions, often discussing the future, afterlife, or both:Several texts (over 50) consist of descriptions of the events surrounding the varied fate of Mary (the mother of Jesus):These texts, due to their content or form, do not fit into the other categories:In addition to the known apocryphal works, there are also small fragments of texts, parts of unknown (or uncertain) works. Some of the more significant fragments are:Several texts are mentioned in many ancient sources and would probably be considered part of the apocrypha, but no known text has survived:While many of the books listed here were considered heretical (especially those belonging to the gnostic tradition—as this sect was considered heretical by Proto-orthodox Christianity of the early centuries), others were not considered particularly heretical in content, but in fact were well accepted as significant spiritual works. Those marked with a lozenge (♦) are also included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers.
The Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources of historical information about Jesus and of the religious movement he founded. These religious gospels–the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke–recount the life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of a Jew named Jesus who spoke Aramaic. There are different hypotheses regarding the origin of the texts because the gospels of the New Testament were written in Greek for Greek-speaking communities, and were later translated into Syriac, Latin, and Coptic.
The fourth gospel, the Gospel of John, differs greatly from the Synoptic Gospels. Historians often study the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles when studying the reliability of the gospels, as the Book of Acts was seemingly written by the same author as the Gospel of Luke.
The following table lists the earliest extant Gospel manuscripts.
Most scholars hold to the two-source hypothesis which claims that the Gospel of Mark was written first. According to the hypothesis, the authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke then used the "Gospel of Mark" and the hypothetical Q document, in addition to some other sources, to write their individual gospels. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, by using a different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Scholars hold that these books constituted two halves of a single work, Luke-Acts.
Strictly speaking, each Gospel is anonymous. The "Gospel of John" is something of an exception, although the author simply refers to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved" and claims to be a member of Jesus' inner circle. During the following centuries, each canonical gospel was attributed to an apostle or to the close associate of an apostle. Most scholars have rejected the traditional attributions.