The Acts of John refers to a collection of stories about John the Apostle that began circulating in written form as early as the 2nd-century AD. Translations of the Acts of John in modern languages have been reconstructed by scholars from a number of manuscripts of later date. The Acts of John are generally classified as New Testament apocrypha. The Acts of John and other stories about John Numerous stories about John and other apostles began circulating in the 2nd century AD. These stories trace to a variety of different authors and contexts, and were revised and retold in many different forms and languages over the centuries. Sometimes episodes that had originally circulated independently were combined with other stories to form collections about an apostle, and sometimes episodes that had originally been part of multi-episode collections were detached and circulated independently. Most extant manuscripts of such stories also date to a period considerably after they first began circulating. These factors can make it difficult to reconstruct the earliest forms of stories about the apostle John, and scholars continue to debate as to which episodes originally belonged together. One set of stories, in which John appears before Domitian in Rome and survives drinking deadly poison, appears in some old translations of the Acts of John, but is no longer considered to have the same origins as other episodes. It is now known as the Acts of John in Rome, and understood to be a separate tradition. Content of modern versions of the Acts of John Overview Most current scholars agree that even the most recent versions of the Acts of John include episodes that trace to multiple different dates and origins. These versions contain roughly the following sections: A. Stories about John in Ephesus (ActsJohn 18-55, 58-86). These consist of the following sections: An introduction or transition (ActsJohn 18). (The original beginning of the story has been lost.) Conversion of Cleopatra and Lycomedes (ActsJohn 19–29) Healing at the Ephesian Theatre (ActsJohn 30–36) Conversion at the Temple of Artemis (ActsJohn 37–47) The Parricide (ActsJohn 48–54) Summons from Smyrna (ActsJohn 55) Story of the Bedbugs (ActsJohn 58–62) Callimachus and Drusiana (ActsJohn 63–86) B. A long piece of text in which John recounts earlier experiences he had with Jesus before and during the cross event (ActsJohn 87-105). C. The Metastasis, an account of John’s death (ActsJohn 106–115). Many scholars consider the material that is