Acts of the Apostles

Before we can enter into a commentary on the book of Acts, we see that the author Luke is credited with writing the Gospel of Luke and this book of the Acts of the Apostles. Since we now know that Luke did not write the Gospel of Luke, then it follows that he probably did not write the book of Acts. Since none of the original apostles wrote anything and the earliest manuscripts were dated in the middle of the second century, then it follows that the book of Acts was created in the same manner as were the Gospels. To understand this, it is imperative to understand that it was Bishop Papias who collected this information from those who presumably knew the apostles in the previous century. During the last half of the second century, Bishop Papias assembled and presented this information in the four Gospels and the book of Acts and named them accordingly so as to reflect apostolic authority for the writings of these manuscripts. The earliest manuscript to be found dated directly to the time that Bishop Papias was creating these manuscripts during the last half of the second century, and the names of these books were presented as the authors of these books.