Acts of Andrew and Paul

Acta Andreae et Pauli

Standard abbreviation: Acts Andr. Paul

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 464; CANT 239

Category: Apocryphal Acts

Compiled by Christian Bull, MF Norwegian School of Theology ([email protected]) and Alexander Kocar, Princeton University ([email protected]).

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Bull, Christian, and Alexander Kocar. “Acts of Andrew and Paul.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/acts-of-paul/.

Created January 2021. Current as of Sept. 2022.

1. SUMMARY

Acts Andr. Paul is extant in a single Coptic manuscript, which lacks the first several pages of the text. The story is set sometime after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Andrew and Paul travel through and perform wonders in a city called Kaphormê, possibly identified with Jesus’ hometown of Capernaum (cf. Mark 2:1). Over the span of the text, Andrew magically divides the waters of the sea, Paul recounts his journey to hell, and the apostles face off in a dynamic show-down against “the Jews.” As a whole, although it features a number of well-established, apocryphal tropes (e.g., tour of hell; apostolic wonder-working; inter-religious rivalry with “the Jews”), Acts of Andr. Paul is remarkable for its distinctive version of these narrative staples.

The account of hell after its harrowing is especially provocative because of its humanizing portrayal of Judas Iscariot. In an attempt to replicate Jesus’ own harrowing of hell, Paul goes on his own journey to the underworld. Once there, he finds the gates blasted open and hell itself empty, except for Judas Iscariot. In an extended monologue, Judas recounts his betrayal of Jesus, attempted yet failed repentance, strategic suicide, and eventual abandonment by Jesus in hell. Remarkably, we find a sympathetic Judas here who not only regretted his betrayal but also was able to convince Jesus to give him a second chance after he recited Christ’s own words of forgiveness (cf. Matt 18:22) back to him. Nonetheless, Judas gave into fear and worshipped the devil, thereby losing out on his chance at repentance. Judas then devised a new plan to escape damnation. Jesus was currently on trial and would soon be crucified, and thus Judas knew that he had no hope of reaching Jesus in time to ask his forgiveness again. So instead, Judas committed suicide so that he would already be in hell before Jesus, and would then be raised alongside everyone else when the Savior liberates all souls from hell. Unfortunately, Judas’s plan failed, and Jesus left Judas in hell in spite of Judas’s pleas for mercy.

After Paul recounts what he had learned in his tour of hell, he and Andrew face off against the generic opposition of “the Jews,” who were blocking the apostles’ entrance into the city. Recreating Jesus’ harrowing of hell, Paul evaporates the gates by knocking on them with a splinter of wood from the gates of hell. Although the exact details are obscured by the fragmentary nature of the manuscript, the text concludes with the apostles unmasking an attempt by their opponents to deceive the governor into believing they too could perform resurrections. Unfortunately, the man the Jews had paid to fake his death accidentally died. The apostles then succeed at raising him from the dead, and he reveals the entire plot. Afterwards, the Jews are refuted and they convert and are baptized en masse.

Named historical figures and characters: Abraham (patriarch), Apollonius (sailor), Andrew (apostle), devil, Holy Spirit, Isaac (patriarch), Jacob (patriarch), Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot, Michael (angel), Paul (apostle).

Geographical locations: hell, Jerusalem, Kaphormē (Capernaum).

2. RESOURCES

London, British Library, Or. 6796 (4) + Or. 6796 (6th cent.): a “magical papyrus” from Thebes containing a prayer for protection against evil. In the text Jesus pours a cup of water into the sea, which parts to reveal a golden field. In the field is a unicorn, who demands to know Jesus’ identity. Jesus tells the unicorn, “I am Israēl Ēl, the force of Iaō Sabaōth, the great power of Barbaraōth.” Then the unicorn flees in fear. The story recalls an episode from Acts Andr. Paul in which Andrew pours a cup of water into the sea in order to find Paul who reveals that he has been in hell. For more on this papyrus see:

Dosoo, Korshi. “Jesus and the Unicorn: Easter and the Harrowing of Hell in Coptic Magic.” Coptic Magical Papyri. Posted 26 April 2019. Online: https://www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/2019/04/26/jesus-and-the-unicorn-easter-and-the-harrowing-of-hell-in-coptic-magic/.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Coptic (BHO 917)

MONB.DN (10th–12th cent.), pp. 115–126, 131–133

Bull, Christian H., and Alexander Kocar. “The Acts of Andrew and Paul (CANT 239): A New Edition with an Introduction, Translation, and Notes.” Pages 3–30 in Parabiblica Coptica. Edited by Ivan Miroshnikov. Parabiblica 3. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

Guidi, Ignazio. “Frammenti copti. Nota III^a.” Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei ser. 4, 3.2 (1887): 65–81 (text of second fragment [pp. 131–133], pp. 80–81).

Jacques, Xavier. “Les deux fragments conservés des « Actes d’André et de Paul » (Cod. Borg. Copt. 109, fasc. 132).” Orientalia n.s. 38 (1969): 187–213 (overview of early scholarship, Coptic edition and French translation, pp. 194–213; translation repr. in Recherches de Science Religieuse 58 [1970]: 289–96).

Steindorff, Georg. Kurzer Abriss der koptischen Grammatik. Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1921 (Zoega’s text, pp. 43–44).

Steindorff, Georg. Koptischen Grammatik. Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1904 (Zoega’s text, pp. 34–46).

Zoega, Georgio. Catalogus codicum Copticorum manu scriptorum. Rome: Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, 1810. Repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1973 (text of first fragment [pp. 115–126], pp. 230–35).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Bull, Christian H., and Alexander Kocar. “The Acts of Andrew and Paul.” Pages 181–95 in vol. 3 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. 3 vols. Edited by Tony Burke with Brent Landau. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016–2023.

__________. “The Acts of Andrew and Paul (CANT 239): A New Edition with an Introduction, Translation, and Notes.” Pages 3–30 in Parabiblica Coptica. Edited by Ivan Miroshnikov. Parabiblica 3. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993 (summary, pp. 301–302).

Hallock, Frank Hudson. “An Apocalypse of SS. Andrew and Paul.” JSOR 13 (1929): 190–94 (translation based on Steindorff’s excerpt).

James, M. R. The Apocryphal New Testament. 1924. Repr., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953 (summary only, pp. 472–74).

Worrell, W. H. A Short Account of the Copts. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1945. (21–22 and 53, fragment translated pp. 72–129)

3.2.2 French

Dulaurier, Édouard. Fragment des Révélations apocryphes de saint Barthélemy et de l’Histoire des communautés religieuses fondées par saint Pakhome. Paris: Impr. royale, 1835 (French translation of portion of first fragment [pp. 117–123] from Zoega, pp. 30–33).

Jacques, Xavier. “Les deux fragments conservés des « Actes d’André et de Paul » (Cod. Borg. Copt. 109, fasc. 132).” Orientalia n.s. 38 (1969): 187–213 (overview of early scholarship, Coptic edition and French translation, pp. 194–213; ; translation repr. in Recherches de Science Religieuse 58 [1970]: 289–96).

3.2.3 Italian

Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (summary, vol. 2, pp. 537–38).

Guidi, Ignazio. “Gli Atti apocrifi degli Apostoli nei testi copti, arabi ed etiopici.” Giornale della Società asiatica italiana 2 (1888): 1–66 (translation of second fragment, pp. 45–46).

3.3 General Works

Godron, Gérard. “Les oiseaux ⲙⲉ et Mꜣš.” Le Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 56 (1957): 19–20.

Lemm, Oscar von. “Koptische apokryphe Apostelacten.” Bulletin de l’Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, ser. 1 (33).4 (1890): 509–81 (excerpts discussed, pp. 551, 555–57).

Lexa, François. La magie dans l’Égypte antique. 3 vols. Paris: Libraire orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1925.

Lipsius, Richard A. Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. Ergänzungsheft. 2 vols. in 3 parts. Braunschweig: C. A. Schwetschke und Sohn, 1883–1890 (vol. 1, pp. 616–17, Ergänzungsheft p. 96).

Miroshnikov, Ivan. “The Acts of Andrew and Philemon in Sahidic Coptic.” Apocrypha 28 (2017): 9–83 (esp. 10–13).

Moraldi, Luigi. Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 2 vols. Classici delle religioni, Sezione quarta, La religione cattolica 24. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1971 (summary, vol. 2, pp. 1616–17).

Morenz, Siegfried. “Der Apostel Andreas als νέος Σάραπις.” TLZ 72 (1947): cols. 295–98.

Otero, Aurelio de Santos. “Later Acts of the Apostles.” Pages 426–82 in New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 2: Writings Related to the Apostles, Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by R. McLachlan Wilson. 6th ed. 2 vols. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1992 (see pp. 449–50).

Peterson, Peter M. Andrew, Brother of Simon Peter, his History and his Legends. NovT Sup 1. Leiden: Brill, 1958; repr. 1963 (pp. 38–39).

Poirier, Paul-Hubert. “Gnostic Sources and the Prehistory of the Descensus ad Inferos.” Apocrypha 21 (2010): 73–81.

Zandee, Jan. Death as an Enemy: according to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. Studies in the History of Religions, Supplements to Numen 5. Leiden: Brill, 1960.

Zandee, Jan. “De Descensus ad Inferos bij de Kopten.” Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 9 (1954–1955): 158–74