Narratio de leone baptizato
Other titles: none
Standard abbreviation: Ep. Pelag.
Clavis number: ECCA 831; CANT 211.VI
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Acts of Paul
Compiled by Slavomír Čéplö
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Čéplö, Slavomír. “Epistle of Pelagia.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/epistle-of-pelagia/.
Created November 2018. Current as of February 2024.
1. Summary
While the text bills itself as an epistle, Ep. Pelag. does not contain any correspondence; rather, it provides a straight-up narrative of an episode from Paul’s life during which he encountered a lion. Paul first meets the lion after leaving Caesarea where he was on trial for preaching the gospel. The lion approaches him asking to be baptized; Paul obliges and returns to the city. In the city, Paul raises a man from the dead and delivers a sermon on the power of faith and the need for keeping God’s commands, replete with Old Testament and apocryphal references. Paul gains a following, including the daughter of the king, the eponymous Pelagia, who renounces the world and leaves her husband to follow Paul. When the husband complains about this to the king, the king has summons Paul and reproaches him for corrupting the people of the city. He throws him into prison “to also pay for all that you have done to Thecla.” Paul is then brought into the arena where a lion is set up to devour him. In a twist, this lion turns out to be the same one Paul had baptized before, and so the two pray and greet each other as fellow Christians. People of the city are astonished by this and let them both go. Pelagia, however, is still to be punished for her transgressions and the people of the city choose a brazen bull as the instrument of her death. As they try to heat it up and put her in, rain starts to fall and extinguishes the fire. Pelagia is still willing to enter and when her husband sees her resolve, he falls on his sword and kills himself.
Named historical figures and characters: Abraham (patriarch), Daniel (prophet), David (king), Elisha (prophet), Ezekiel (prophet), Isaac (patriarch), Jesus Christ, Joseph (patriarch), Paul (apostle), Pelagia, Pharaoh, Rahab, Thecla,
Geographical locations: Caesarea.
2. Resources
3. Bibliography
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Ethiopic (BHO 890)
Group α:
A London, British Library, Or. 689 (Wright 253), fol. 54r (15th cent.)
B Ānsabā Region (Eritrea), Ṣa’edā Embā Śellāsē Monastery, EMML 1479, fols. 55v–59v (15th cent.) ~ HMML
C Wallo (Ethiopia), Ḥayq Esṭifanos Monastery, EMML 1766, fols. 97r–99v (14th/15th cent.)
Group β:
K (Goodspeed’s C) London, British Library, Or. 686 (Wright 257), fol. 49r (18th cent.)
L (Goodspeed’s B) London, British Library, Or. 687–688 (Wright 258), fol. 68r (18 cent.)
Goodspeed, Edgar J. “The Epistle of Pelagia.” AJSL 20.2 (1904): 95–108 (editio princeps based on A, K, and L).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Čéplö, Slavomír. “The Epistle of Pelagia.” Pages 343–52 in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 2. Edited by Tony Burke. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020.
Goodspeed, Edgar J. “The Epistle of Pelagia.” AJSL 20.2 (1904): 95–108 (English translation on pp. 105–108).
3.2.2 Spanish
Piñero, Antonio, and Gonzalo del Cerro. Hechos apócrifos de los Apóstoles. 3 vols. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 2011 (Spanish translation of Goodspeed’s English translation, vol. 2, pp. 856–59).
3.3 General Works
Adamik, Tamás. “The Baptized Lion in the Acts of Paul.” Pages 60–74 in The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Edited by Jan N. Bremmer. Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1996.
Kasser, Rodolphe and Philippe Luisier. “Le Papyrus Bodmer XLI en édition princeps. L’épisode d’Éphèse des Acta Pauli en copte et en traduction.” Mus 117 (2004): 281–384.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction. Translated by Brian McNeil. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008. English trans. of Apokryphe Apostelakten. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2005 (pp. 78–79).
Metzger, Bruce M. “St. Paul and the Baptized Lion.” PSB 39.20 (1945): 11–21.
Pervo, Richard I. The Acts of Paul: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.
Schmidt, Carl (ed.). Acta Pauli. Übersetzung, Untersuchungen und koptischer Text. Zweite erweiterte Ausgabe ohne Tafeln. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1905.
Schmidt, Carl (ed.). ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΠΑΥΛΟΥ; Acta Pauli. Nach dem Papyrus der Hamburger Staats- und Universitäts-Bibliothek. Glückstadt und Hamburg: J. J. Augustin, 1936.