The Apostles (Elgar) the disciples of Jesus and their reactions to the extraordinary events they witness. Despite arranging the commission in December 1901, Elgar paid little attention to "The Apostles "until July 1902, when he had finished composing and rehearsing his "Coronation Ode", Op. 44. Elgar's planning of the libretto included a long immersion in theological writings, as well as Wagner's sketch for "Jesus von Nazareth", and Henry W. Longfellow's poem "The Divine Tragedy". He assembled his libretto from verses of scripture, as had been the pattern for many of the most influential oratorios, including Handel's "Messiah" (1741) and Mendelssohn's "Elijah" (1836). After
Acts of the Apostles (genre) or narratives have not been included into the Bible, and belong to the New Testament apocrypha. These acts narratives tend to be later, legendary accounts about the early apostles written in the 2nd and 3rd century CE. The books normally do not claim to be written by apostles, but are anonymous, and thus they are not considered pseudepigrapha and forgeries. Unlike the canonical Book of Acts, they tend to focus on the exploits of individual apostles. As a genre, the apocryphal acts tend to feature "travels, dangers, controversies, deliverances, thwarted sexual trysts, miraculous demonstrations of the power of God" within