5.  The book of Acts closes with a notice that “Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”  As it adds no notice of the issue of his imprisonment, or of what afterwards befell him, we naturally infer that the book was written at Rome about this time, that is, about A.D. 63.

II. The Acknowledged Epistles, 6.  It is well known that doubts existed, to a greater or less extent, in the primitive churches before the fourth century, respecting the apostolic origin and authority of certain books which now constitute a part of the New Testament canon.  Hence the distinction made by Eusebius between the acknowledged books, (homologoumena) that is, those that were universally received from the first, and the disputed books, (antilegomena,) books respecting which some entertained doubts.  The acknowledged books are, the four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the thirteen epistles of Paul which bear his name at the beginning, the first epistle of Peter, and the first epistle of John; twenty in all.  The disputed books are, the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistle of James, the second epistle of Peter, the second and third epistles of John, the epistle of Jude, and the book of Revelation; seven in all.  The gospels and the Acts have been already considered, and the disputed books are reserved for the following chapter.  Some remarks will here be made on the fifteen acknowledged epistles.

7.  The epistles of Paul may be conveniently distributed into two groups, of which the second or smaller contains the three pastoral epistles, and the former or larger, the remaining ten.  Of the apostolic origin of the larger group little needs to be said.  They bear throughout the impress of genuineness and authenticity.  No doubts were ever entertained concerning them in the ancient churches.  There is, indeed, some ground for suspecting that a few ancient copies of the epistle to the Ephesians omitted the words at Ephesus—­more literally in Ephesus—­chap. 1:1.  But the genuineness of these words is sustained by an overwhelming weight of evidence, and that Paul was the author of the epistle was never once doubted by the ancient churches.  The arguments of some modern writers against its apostolic origin have no real weight, as will be shown hereafter in the introduction to the epistle.

Respecting the apostolic authorship of the three pastoral epistles, two to Timothy and one to Titus, there was never any doubt in the ancient churches.  They are supported by the testimony of the Peshito-Syriac version, of the Muratorian canon, also, (as appears from Jerome’s letter to Marcella and the quotations of the church fathers before him,) of the Old Latin version; of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and a multitude of later writers.  There are also some allusions to these epistles in the apostolic fathers, which seem to be decisive.