Acts of John in Rome

Acta Iohannis Romae

Standard abbreviation: Acts John Rome

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 515; CANT 216

Category: Apocryphal Acts

Related literature: Acts of John, Acts of John by Prochorus, Acts of John (Latin), Acts of Timothy, Passion of John by Pseudo-Melito.

Compiled by: Janet E. Spittler, University of Virginia ([email protected])

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Spittler, Janet E. “Acts of John in Rome.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/acts-of-john-in-rome/.

Created October 2019. Updated October 2022.

1. SUMMARY

This short Johannine acts narrates the arrest of John in Ephesus, his transport to Rome, and his trial before the Roman emperor. It is extant in two distinct recensions: one recension (AJγ) begins with a historical introduction (chaps. 1–4), narrating events that took place during the destruction of Jerusalem under Vespasian and the subsequent persecution of Jews under his successor Domitian. This introduction includes a letter, reportedly written by “some of the Jews” to Domitian, in which they slander Christians as a misanthropic group of lawbreakers. According to chap. 4, this letter prompted Domitian to persecute Christians; this persecution is then the context in which John’s arrest takes place. The second recension (AJβ) also begins with a letter to the Roman emperor, but here it is a letter from the residents of Ephesus to Hadrian, in which they, enraged by the apostle’s destruction of the temple of Artemis, complain to the emperor that John has converted too many residents of the city away from traditional forms of worship.

In both recensions, the emperor (whether Domitian or Hadrian) sends soldiers to Ephesus to arrest John and bring him back to Rome. They find the apostle without much trouble, but find it hard to believe that such a modest and humble man (residing in an attic) could be the one they were sent to find. Once John convinces them of his identity, he is arrested; he offers no resistance, pausing only to take a few dates which he will eat during the journey. While travelling (over land, not sea) the apostle concerns his captors by refusing to eat their food, instead eating only one date every seventh day. John, however, is no worse for the wear.

As soon as they arrive in Rome, the soldiers present John to the emperor (in AJγ, Domitian; in AJβ, Hadrian). Their greeting involves a kiss, which becomes the topic of brief back-and-forth between emperor and apostle concerning the appropriate behavior for a Christian towards a human king. In AJγ, the dialogue includes John’s prediction that Domitian will reign for a long time, though eventually an eternal king will come from heaven (AJγ 8). Domitian wants more proof that John can be trusted, and that the god he serves is truly powerful (AJγ 9). In response, John asks that a deadly poison be brought (AJγ 9). In AJβ, in contrast, John makes no remarks concerning a heavenly king; instead, Hadrian reports that he has heard of John’s use of magical trickeries to cause the Ephesians to worship a different god, one other than the “real gods” the Romans worship (AJβ 8). Rather ironically, Hadrian suggests putting John to the test by producing his own magician and requiring him to prepare a deadly, fast-acting poison to serve to the apostle (AJβ 9).

In both AJγ and AJβ, John drinks the poison, which has no ill effect—a result that enrages the emperor against the ones who prepared the drink (that is, unnamed servants in AJγ, and the magician in AJβ). To calm his anger, John proposes to prove the poison is deadly, asking the emperor to bring a criminal from his prison, someone who has been sentenced to death. After drinking just the dregs of poison remaining in the cup, the prisoner falls down dead (AJγ 10, AJβ 10). Further proof of God’s power is provided when the apostle raises the dead man (AJγ 11, AJβ 11).

In AJγ, Domitian chooses not to arrest and John and sentence him to death (despite his decree to the senate that all confessed Christians should be killed), but rather exiles him to Patmos; at John’s request, he also releases the criminal (AJγ 12). In AJβ, Hadrian, although noting that the charges made by the Jews against the Christians were pure libel, orders that John be exiled to Patmos (AJβ 12). The AJβ recension ends there. The AJγ recension continues with John’s raising one of Domitian’s female slaves who, by chance, was recently and suddenly possessed by a demon and killed (AJγ 13). The AJγ also reports that when Domitian was killed and Nerva succeeded him to the throne, all exiles were recalled; when Trajan succeeded him the following year, John returned to Ephesus. There, having grown old, he urged Polycarp to serve as bishop.

Named Historical Figures and Characters: Agrippa (king), Domitian, Hadrian, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John (son of Zebedee), Nerva, Polycarp (bishop), Trajan (emperor), Vespasian.

Geographical Locations: Asia, Ephesus, Galilee, Jerusalem, Patmos, Rome, temple of Artemis.

2. RESOURCES

2.1 Art and Iconography

Cycle of John, Basilica of San Marco (11th/12th cent.): a series of frescoes depicting five scenes from Acts of John (Latin) (chs. 11, 17, 19–20), one of which has a parallel in the story of John drinking from a cup of poison (Acts John Rome 9–10).

St. John the Evangelist and the Poisoned Cup (ca. 1370–1380), attributed to Francescuccio Ghissi. North Carolina Museum of Art.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Georgian; translation by Euthymus the Hagiorite (attributed to Prochorus but includes also material shared with Acts of John in Rome and the Hypomnema on John by Symeon Metaphrastes)

Mount Athos, Iviron (1074) ~ no further details provided

MSS: A-70 (13th cent.) fols. 1r-36v; Q 662 (17th cent.), fols. 127v-143v; S 1697 (17th/18th cent.), fols. 19r-49v; S 60 (18th cent.), pp. 277-450; S 4932 (1791), pp. 19-51; A 1050 (1801), fols. 139r-177v; S 139 (18th/19th cent.), pp. 377-385; A 1493 (19830), fols. 2r-44r; also Jerusalem 18 (143th/14th cent.), fols. 120r-153v

Xaxanašvili, A. Atonis Iveriis Monast^eris 1074 c^e. hetnac^eeri agapebit (Manuscript of the Year 1074 of the Monastery of Iviron with the Memoirs of the Deceased). Tiflis, 1901 (edition, pp. 111–76).

Esbroeck, Michel van. “Les formes géorgiennes des Acta Iohannis.” AnBoll 93 (1975): 11–19 (discussion pp. 6–8).

Esbroeck, Michel van, trans. “Les Acta Iohannis traduits par Euthyne L’Hagiorite.” Bedi Kartlisa 33 (1975): 73–109 (French translation).

3.1.2 Greek (BHG 899)

Recension 1 (AJγ):

A Milan, Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, gr. A 63 inf. (798), fols. 202^r–220^v (11th cent.)

H Istanbul, Library of the Holy Trinity at Chalki, 102, fols. 154^bis and 157 (11th cent.) ~ a disordered palimpsest with 15th cent. overwriting

O Ohrid, Naroden Muzej, 4, pp. 47–57 (10th cent.)

P Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 520, pp. 50–59 (10th/11th cent.)

T Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 544, fols. 34^v, 25, 8, 35, 80, 17, 112 (10th cent.) ~ palimpsest with overwriting dated 1143

W Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, hist. gr. 126, fols. 18^r–21^r(14th cent.)

Note: HOPTW combine Acts John Rome with the Metastasis (that is, the early Acts John 106–15, narrating John’s death). In manuscript A, Acts John Rome is presented in a complicated blending of the Metastasis and the final parts of Acts John Proch.

Recension 2 (AJβ):

E Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, gr. 432, fols. 245^v–248^v (1334)

J Jerusalem, Patriarchikē bibliothēkē, Panagios Taphos 442, fols. 32^r–34^v(1593–1617)

V Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 654, fols. 110^r–112^r(12th cent.)

Y Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. gr. 516, fols. 90^v–92^v (14th/15th cent.)

Bonnet, Maximilien. “Acta Ioannis.” Pages xxvi–xxxii, 151–216 vol. 2.1 of Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha. Edited by Maximilien Bonnet and Richard A. Lipsius. 2 vols. in 3. Leipzig: H. Mendelssohn, 1891–1903. Repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1972 (edition of Acts John Rome based on AOPTW and VY presented as chaps. 1–14 of Acts John).

Junod, Eric, and Jean-Daniel Kaestli. Acta Iohannis. CCSA 1–2. Turnhout: Brepols, 1983 (edition of the two recensions based on all of the available manuscripts, vol. 1, pp. 835–86).

Piñero, Antonio, and Gonzalo del Cerro. Hechos apócrifos de los Apóstoles. 3 vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 2004–2011 (edition based on Bonnet with facing Spanish translation, vol. 1, pp. 462–77).

Tischendorf, Constantin. Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha. Leipzig: Mendelssohn, 1851 (edition based on P and W, pp. 266–76).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Pick, Bernhard, trans. The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. Chicago: Open Court, 1909. (English translation of Bonnet’s edition, pp. 123–99).

Spittler, Janet E. “The Acts of John in Rome: A New Translation and Introduction.” Pages 241–61 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 (English translation of the editions of both recensions by Junod and Kaestli).

Walker, Alexander, trans. Apocryphal Gospels, Acts and Revelations. The Ante-Nicene Christian Library 16. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1870 (English translation of Tischendorf’s edition, pp. 444–53).

3.2.2 French

Junod, Eric, and Jean-Daniel Kaestli. “Actes de Jean à Rome.” Pages 699–708 in vol. 2 of Écrits apocryphes chrétiens. Edited by Pierre Geoltrain and Jean-Daniel Kaestli. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 516. Paris: Gallimard, 2005.

3.2.3 Italian

Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. in 4. Turin: Marietti, 1966–1981 (Italian translation in vol. 2:34–39).

3.2.4 Spanish

3.3 General Works

Anderson, James C. “Domitian, the Argiletum and the Temple of Peace.” AJA 86.1 (1982): 101–10.

Culpepper, R. Alan. John, the Son of Zebedee: the Life of a Legend. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1994.

Kelhoffer, James A. Miracle and Mission. The Authentication of Missionaries and Their Message in the Longer Ending of Mark. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000.

Lipsius, Richard Adelbert. Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. Ein Beitrag Zur Altchristlichen Literaturgeschichte. 2 vols. Braunschweig: C. A. Schwetschke und Sohn, 1883–1887 (vol. 1:517–42).

Snyder, Julia A. “Apostles and Politics in the Roman Empire.” In Reading the Political in Jewish and Christian Texts, edited by Julia A. Snyder and Korinna Zamfir, 227–56. Biblical Tools and Studies 38. Leuven: Peeters, 2020.

Zahn, Theodor. Acta Joannis, unter Benutzung von C. v. Tischendorf’s Nachlass. Erlangen: A. Deichert, 1880.