INTRODUCTION: ACTS AND THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES AS A UNIT IN THE TRADITION

In the later tradition, Acts and the Catholic letters were generally copied together. In 1989 there were 662 manuscripts of these books, of which 59 contained the entire New Testament, 150 all the New Testament except for Revelation, 46 consisted of partial copies numbering fewer than ten folios, and 407 consisted of Acts and the Catholic letters. It was also a common practice in the Byzantine world to produce Praxapostoloi, manuscripts containing Acts, the Catholic epistles and the Pauline collection. Such a book would contain the Catholic epistles directly after Acts (as would a copy with the Gospels).

How early did the custom of putting Acts and the Catholic letters together begin? The data for all sixty-five copies down to the ninth century can be seen intable 9.1.The oldest copy that we have in Greek with only Acts and the Catholic letters is seventh-century. Before and after that, we see quite a variation in practice. In the third century P45 contains Acts with the Gospels.