Why is there only one book of history in the New Testament?

Answer 1

A:There are four gospels that were included in the New Testament because each had something valuable to add to what was found in the others. There are also several epistles because it was deemed important to keep every possible communication written by what were presumed to be the apostles. Acts of the Apostles is the only book widely thought of as a book of history, covering the actual history of the early Church.

However, New Testament scholars see it otherwise. John Dominic Crossan (The Birth of Christianity) says that Acts of the Apostles is theology rather than history. Burton L. Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament) more bluntly says that Acts of the Apostles marks the shift in focus for second century mythmaking, away from Jesus and towards the apostles, while Uta Ranke-Heinemann (Putting Away Childish Things) says the book is a work of Propaganda aimed at Gentile Christians and Gentiles who have not yet become Christians.

Acts of the Apostles was actually the first of a whole genre of books known as 'Acts'. It was no doubt the only one of the genre to have been included because it was believed to have been written during the apostolic era and because its theology most closely mirrored what the dominant Church of the late second century taught.