Canonical and Apocryphal Acts of Apostles

The Acts of the apostles, depicting the ministry, travels, teaching, miracles and passion of Jesus' disciples were written in the first centuries C.E. To date, scholarly comparison has either enhanced the value of canonical work by discrediting the apocryphal as literature of entertainment or has simply considered both canonical and apocryphal literature to be Christian novels. This paper emphasizes both differences and similarities between the canonical and apocryphal texts. Among the differences, the apostle's martyrdom story in the apocryphal acts, similar to Jesus' passion narrative in the canonical gospels, reveals the function of the apostle as mediator of a message of salvation.