Appendix: Rewriting History in Acts



The Acts of the Apostles.
Written maybe by Luke, no clear evidence for it surfaces before 175 CE, in Against Heresies by Irenaeus.
In reaction to Gnostism and Marcion and by contradicting so much of Paul's epistles and giving him no trace of heresy, it attached securely the great apostle of the first hour to the Roman Catholic Church. It reflects the Christian ecclesiastical movement centered in Rome during the mid-second century, one which was seeking to establish a new orthodoxy based on the historical Jesus recently generated by the Gospels.