History of the Contending of Paul

Standard abbreviation: Hist. Cont. Paul

Other titles: none

Clavis numbers: ECCA 385

Category: Apocryphal Acts

Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “History of the Contending of Paul.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/history-of-the-contending-of-paul/.

Created June 2022. Current as of January 2024.

1. SUMMARY

Hist. Cont. Paul is an Ethiopic collection of canonical and noncanonical stories of Paul in 17 chapters. Some individual tales are extant also in Arabic. The first chapter is an encomium celebrating his contributions to nascent Christianity. Chapter 2 focuses on his early life: his birth in Tarsus to a noble family of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1), and his education by Gamaliel (Acts 22:3); new here is that Paul was a “priest of the law of Moses.” A description is given also, but one much different than what is found in Acts Paul 3: “he was a vigorous man of fine, upright stature, and his countenance was ruddy with the ruddiness of the skin of the pomegranate, his complexion was clear, his nose was high and large, his eyes were dark, and his cheeks were full, and bearded, and of the colour of a rose” (trans. Budge, p. 531). The chapter goes on to mention his witness to the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 8:1) and his subsequent persecution of Christians (9:1–2).

Chapters 3–4 continue the account from Acts, running from his Damascus road experience and first meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem (9:3–31), Paul’s journeys with Barnabas (13:1–12; 13:13–16, 50; 14:6–24), the second Jerusalem meeting (15:1–29), and further travels (15:29–16:36).

Chapter 5 begins in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1–5) but then turns to a noncanonical story set in Aleppo. Paul meets a man named Kĕwâresṭes on the roadside. He asks the man what god the people of the city worship and asks if Jesus or his disciples have come to the city. Learning that none have been there, he tells the man he has come to bring Christians bound back to Jerusalem (a ruse he uses also in ch. 9). Kĕwâresṭes says Paul cannot enter the city without the permission of Manasseh, the son of Mardocheus, the prince of the city; if he tries, he will be offered up to the god of the city. Paul convinces Kĕwâresṭes to give him one of his garments so that he can be disguised as a local (see, again, ch. 9). Though the guards realize Paul is not a local, they let him enter on the pretext he is there to arrest Christians. The guards deliver Paul over to an officer named Timothy who was from Thessalonica. In the morning the guard says he will check into Paul’s story. Timothy’s mother dies, so he leaves Paul and Kĕwâresṭes bound and goes to her side. An angel frees the two men and sends them to revive Timothy’s mother. The people bow at Paul’s feet and declare him a God. When ’Aresṭôs, the captain of the guards, discovers them missing from the prison, he gathers them up and prepares to offer them to the city’s eagle god.

’Aresṭôs kindles a fire and tells the three men they must worship the eagle god or perish in the flames. All three leap into the fire, but then the Holy Spirit throws the hawk into the fire and the three men are seen to walk around within it unharmed. ’Aresṭôs bows down at their feet, and receives forgiveness, then gives all of his possessions to the poor and needy. The people of the city are baptized in a nearby river but the seven priests of the golden eagle hide. Paul calls on the eagle to come forth from the fire in the form of a lion and then asks the lion where the priests are. He fetches them from their hiding places in the temple and they beg Paul for forgiveness and are baptized. Paul commands the temple to be enlarged and made into a church; Kĕwâresṭes becomes a priest and ’Aresṭôs and Timothy deacons. Paul stays three months to teach them and perform healings before heading out into the desert with the lion. The lion begs Paul not to send him to Sheol, so the apostle tells him to dwell in the desert until he has need of him. Then he departs to Accho.

In chapter 6 Paul meets Jesus on the road. Jesus warns him that he will soon suffer terribly for his mission but promises that he will earn eternal salvation. Rewards are promised also to those who perform acts of piety in Paul’s name, or visit his churches, minister in them, and endow them with books (including this one). Similar promises are made in chs. 12 and 17.

In chapter 7 Paul reaches Accho and stays at the home of Secundus. Jews in the city are angry about Paul forsaking Judaism and conspire to bring him to the hall of judgment. The elders of the city are concerned that Paul seeks to overturn the worship of their gods and they punish him by boring holes in his feet and then tying him to oxen who drag him through the city. When Secundus speaks in Paul’s defence, he receives the same punishment. The two men pray for mercy and the oxen are turned into stone along with their drivers. The people think they are magicians and stone them. Next they are placed in bulls of brass which are heated in a fire for three days and nights. In the night Jesus comes down from heaven with Michael and Gabriel and they turn the fire on the homes of the people. The elders of the city pray for mercy. A voice from heaven calls all of the people to the hall of judgment where they meet the lion from the previous tale standing in the fire. He tells them they must accept Paul’s god if they wish to be saved from the fire. Amazed at the talking lion, they profess belief. Then the lion calls for Paul and Secundus and they emerge from the furnace unharmed. The people are baptized and build a church. And Secundus is appointed their leader.

Chapter 8 returns to retelling events from Acts with Paul’s activities in Athens (Acts 17:14–34), followed by his arrival in Corinth (Acts 18:1–4), then places along the route to Antioch (18:18–23), and finally to Ephesus where he encounters followers of John the Baptist and stays with Tyrannus (19:1–12).

When Paul reaches Ephesus (Acts 19:24–41) in chapter 9, the account is significantly expanded. Paul aims to discredit the healing practices of Artemis by pretending to be sick. He goes to the temple and tells the people that his god Jesus can heal them. He then casts aside his garment and rises up, declaring himself healed. Then Jesus sends Michael from heaven and he heals all the sick and makes the idol of Artemis fall on its face. Paul brings all of the sick out into the city to preach. The elders try Paul and his companion Trophimus for this offence and throw him to the lions. The crowd marvels when one of the lions, a female, speaks, proclaiming the innocence of the men and licking their feet. Another lion is sent against them and Paul proposes a contest of who can tame the lion. At Paul’s prayer, the lion bows its head before him. But the priests of Artemis are afraid of the lion and declare their faith in Paul’s god. All the city become believers. Then a spring of water comes from the lair of the lion and Paul uses the water to baptize everyone. Paul builds a church, gives them the book of the Law and the Gospel of Jesus, and appoints Trophimus as priest. The author says this story is what is meant by Paul in 1 Corinthians (15:32) about being thrown to the lions in Ephesus.

Paul moves on to Macedonia, Troas, and Miletus (Acts 20). The locations listed in Acts 21:1–3 are skipped so that Paul arrives next in Tyre, then Caesarea (21:4–14), and Jerusalem (21:15–33; cutting short 21:34–23:10 with a summary statement directing readers to Acts for the full account). The narrative resumes with Jesus’s appearance to Paul instructing him to go to Jerusalem and then Rome (23:11), and the story continues following Acts until 25:27 with Paul’s defence before Agrippa again replaced with a statement to consult Acts. The story resumes at 26:24 and finishes with Acts at 28:3 with the statement about Paul preaching in Rome. Then the author presents a portion of the martyrdom of Paul familiar from the account from the Acts of Paul but which also circulated independently in Ethiopic. The account finishes with Paul’s trial before Nero and the emperor’s edict to burn Christians alive.

At this point, Hist. Cont. Paul adds five additional stories of Paul evangelizing various cities. In chapter 10 Paul travels with Philip on a cloud of light to Lystra. They are deposited on a river bank where they meet people worshipping their gods; through the apostles’ preaching, the people are converted. More people come to the riverbank and ask how the apostles how they were saved and the apostles tell them of Jesus and promise that they will see him. Before long there is thunder and lightning and a loud and terrifying voice. The people implore Jesus to accept their conversion and repentance, and he does so. He tells the apostles to preach to others in the city and baptize them. A church is built, and priests and deacons appointed and instructed in the Scriptures. Paul and Philip stay in Lystra for three months.

In chapter 11 they seek a ship to take them to Iconium. Unbeknownst to the apostles, Jesus is the captain. They fall asleep and in the morning they awake to find themselves already at Iconium. Paul suggests they preach by hiring a stall at the market and telling people they are philosophers driven away from the capital by the emperor. People bring their children to them for instruction. The devil learns that they are there and gathers his hosts together to plan what to do about them because he will lose the city to them. The governor in the city, Thêwôdâs, hears of Philip and Paul and invites them to his home to teach his son Theodore. Then Satan puts his plan into operation. He arrives in the city claiming to be ’Asmênâṭôs, the son of Daryânôs the king of Mêdôn. He reads a letter from his father telling the people of Iconium that Philip and Paul are runaway slaves and sorcerers who have done great harm to his city. They are told to throw them into sacks and cast them into the sea. If they do not do so, he will attack their city.

Meanwhile, Philip and Paul had been teaching Theodore and also preaching to his mother Euphemia. Satan takes the form of an old man and tells Thêwôdâs that the apostles have been feasting at his home and fornicating with a harlot. When Thêwôdâs reaches his home, he encounters a minion of Satan in the form of the harlot who confesses also to “finding pleasure” with Euphemia. He finds the apostles asleep and Euphemia washing their feet and reading the gospel. In a rage, Thêwôdâs kills both her and Theodore. Then he locks the apostles in his home and heads into the city to report their crimes. In his absence, Jesus appears in the form of a beautiful boy and tells the apostles they will suffer greatly but many will be converted as a result. Philip and Peter are whisked to the hall of judgment by the Holy Spirit. Then they endure a number of gruesome punishments: they are dressed in iron and spikes are driven through holes into their bodies. Then the iron is filled with a mixture of oils and melted lead and made to stand in a pit where they are covered with other ferrous materials. Finally, they are placed on a pillar, their feet nailed in place, and surrounded by wood. The people light the wood and it burns ferociously. They are removed from the fire, and though their skin has peeled off and their blood drips onto the ground, the apostles remain alive. An attempt is made to kindle the fire again but Jesus appears and brings a rain that extinguishes the flames. The people try next to shoot them with arrows but Jesus does not permit any of the arrows to touch them. An appeal is made to Alexander, the governor of Caesarea, to help eliminate the apostles. But Alexander, who was present when Peter was martyred by Nero, is a believer and he orders the bodies of Theodore and Euphemia to be brought before the apostles. Philip and Paul revive the two and the people fall down and worship at the feet of the apostles.

Satan’s machinations are revealed and is cast by Paul and Philip into the abyss along with the city’s idols. Thêwôdâs brings all of his possessions and lays them at the feet of the apostles and begs for forgiveness. Then Paul and Philip strike the ground and a spring of water comes up, which they use to baptize all of the people. They build a church, appoint priests, and teach the ordinances. Thedoroe is ordained as bishop. Paul and Philip stay for three months and then depart to Jerusalem

Then follows the story of Paul’s preaching on the island of Gâḥlĕyâ, which means “folly” (told briefly also in Acts of Peter by Clement 7; it also circulates independently in Arabic). After his commission by Jesus (ch. 12), Paul arrives on the island in chapter 13. He meets a man who tells him that no strangers are allowed in the city because of news that twelve men from Galilee were preaching in other cities to renounce possessions and convincing women to live in purity. Paul then encounters Andrew and Peter who had also tried to gain entrance into the city. They find men who make clothes for the priests; Paul convinces them he is a priest and buys some of their clothes, enabling him to enter the city in disguise. He comes to the hall of judgement where the governor is gathered with the council of magistrates. He declares that the gods came to him and told him that two men from Galilee will come and will command them to abandon worship of their the gods. They must be sternly punished. The governor was aware of Peter and Andrew and sends soldiers to bring them to the hall. In a situation similar to the Story of Peter, John, and Paul in Antioch (=Acts Pet. Clem. 4), Paul keeps up his antagonistic pretense and questions the two apostles about Jesus so that the people will hear their teaching. Then he commands them to be scourged by whips, at the same time praying they will not truly be harmed. An angel holds back the stripes from their bodies. The governor sends them to prison while he ponders his next move. Then one of the nobles dies and there is much grief in the city. When Paul learns of it, he tells the governor to bring out the apostles and challenge them to raise the dead man and thus be exposed as charlatans. But the apostles do raise him and he falls at their feet in worship. He reveals that while he was in Gehenna, he witnessed terrible punishment for those who worship idols. The crowds praise God but Paul quiets them down and tells to the governor that this one display of power is not enough. They fetch a man tormented by Satan for thirty years. Paul challenges Peter and Andrew to dispel the spirit and send it to Sheol. When they are successful, Paul rends his clothes and joins the people in asking the apostles to teach them more about Jesus. Then Paul prays for fire to consume the temple of Artemis. Then they all go out of the city where Peter and Andrew strike a rock and water gushes out, creating a great pool. Everyone is baptized. The pool becomes a river to the city and whoever is faithful can be healed by its waters. They build a church on the site of the temple in the name of Mary. The governor is ordained as bishop and he changes his name to Paul; the possessed man becomes a deacon, and the revived man a priest. After instructing them in the mysteries and the canons, the apostles go on their way. Chapter 14 tells the story of Paul preaching on the island of Manâfeḳet. Once again, he is prevented from entering the city. He can do so only if the name of the town is written on his clothing. But this is easily solved. Paul walks around the city and comes upon an open area filled with sick people. He learns that no one in the city who takes to their bed ill ever survives, so they are brought here and then cast to the dogs when they die. As in ch. 9, Paul pretends to be ill. He refuses to eat and drink and continually prays for the city’s salvation. Paul wastes away but after forty days, he tells the people that he has been healed by Jesus. Eight days later, he rises from his bed and everyone marvels. Everyone who professes belief is healed. They build a church and appoint priests and deacons. The writer says that the story reflects Paul’s words in 1 Cor 9:19–22 (“to the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some”). The final story (chs. 15–16) again features Peter, who is the narrator of the tale. He meets Paul in Carthage, where he is located in the Ethiopic Acts of Peter by Clement 6–7. Peter asks him how he was able to convert the people of Wâriḳôn (recounted briefly in Acts Pet. Clem. 6; and it too circulates independently in Arabic). Paul tells him he was sent to the city, which lies beside a lake 300 stadia wide, by an angel. He enters the city on 27 Megabit (23 March Julian) when they are celebrating a great festival. A statue on the wall with a talisman guarded the city and would announce the arrival of strangers and then men would slay them. When the statue identifies Paul, he flees into the caves outside the city. After trying a second and third time, Mary appears to him and tells him to be brave. A ship of soldiers come to him and he sprinkles water on them. When they land they bow before him. They tell him they saw the gates of heaven as they approached and a woman of light was sprinkling them. A second boat of men has the same experience, and then a third arrives bearing the king. Paul makes the sign of the cross over the lake and commands it to part and leave the boats dry. The swords of the soldiers become pieces of wood. Paul sprinkles water and the boats come to him floating on the air; the men disembark and bow before the apostle. Paul goes with them into the city and sees the idols adorned with roses and food laid out before them. The men ask him what god they should celebrate and he tells them to celebrate Mary’s annunciation (29 Megabit in the Ethiopian cycle) because she saved them from domination by idols. Churches are built in the areas of dry land and one great one to Mary. Paul puts a ban on the lake so that water surrounds the church every year but no harm comes to it. But for three days the church will be revealed and the festival will be celebrated. He commands them to break the talisman that announces the arrival of strangers and commands the lake to surround the walls of the city. In chapter 16, Peter beseeches Jesus to take him to the city. A cloud overshadows him and he is taken there with Uriel and Raphael. Peter is welcomed by the people but they tell him they need oil but no olive trees grow there. He prays and olive trees come forth from the earth and grow abundantly. Peter prays to God to drive out lions, wolves, dragons, and other beasts from the city. After some time he departs on the same cloud. Finally, in chapter 17, the story returns to the martyrdom, which takes place on 5 Hamle (29 June Julian). It begins with Paul’s speech from Acts Paul 14:4 and finishes with his resurrection appearance with Luke and Titus.

Named historical figures and characters: Abraham (patriarch), Adam (patriarch), Agabus, Agrippa (king), Alexander (governor of Caesarea), Ananias (disciple), Annas (scribe/high priest), Andrew (apostle), Aquilla, ’Aresṭôs, Aristarchus, Artemis, ’Asmênâṭôs, Bâdrôna, Barnabas, Bâryôs, Benjamin (patriarch), Berenice (of Rome), Cestus/Acestus, Claudius (emperor), Daryânôs, Damaris, Daniel (prophet), daughter of Jairus, daughters of Philip, Demetrius (of Ephesus), Dionysius, Elymas, Euphemia (of Iconium), Eutychus, Felix, Festus (governor), Gabriel (angel), Gallius, Gamaliel (teacher), Hermogenes (prince of Accho), Herod Antipas, Holy Spirit, Isaac (patriarch), Jacob (patriarch), Jesus Christ, John (the Baptist), John Mark, Judas (of Damascus), Judas (Barsabas), Julius (centurion), Kamîṭôs, Kemṭîs, Kĕwâresṭes, Kîsṭôs, Kôsṭôs, Lasayôs, Lazarus (of Bethany), Longinus (of Rome), Lucius of Cyrene, Lucius (governor), Luke (evangelist), Lûḳôs, Lydia (of Macedonia), Manaen, Manasseh (son of Mardocheus), Mardocheus, Mary (Virgin), Michael (angel), Miletus, Moses (patriarch), Nero, Niger, Patroclus, Peter (apostle), Philip (apostle), Pilate (prince of Accho), Pontius Pilate, Priscilla, Raphael (angel), Satan, Secundus, Sergius Paulus, Silas, Solomon (king), Sosipater (disciple), Stephen (martyr), Theodore (of Iconium), Thêwôdâs, Timothy, Timothy (of Thessalonica), Titus, Trophimus, Tyrannus, Uriel (angel), Yôsṭôs.

Geographical locations: Accho, Achaea, Aleppo, Antioch, Arabia, Assos, Athens, Attalia, Babylon, Beroe, Caesarea, Carthage, Cilicia, Corinth, Cyprus, Damascus, Derbe, Dêrsôn (temple of), Ephesus, Gâḥlĕyâ, Galatia, Galilee, Gehenna, Greece, Iconium, Jerusalem, Judea, Lycaonia Lystra, Macedonia, Malta, Manâfeḳet, Mêdôn, Miletus, Mysia, Pamphylia, Paphos, Perga, Philippi, Pisidia, Pontus, Rome, Salamis, Samaria, Seleucia, Sheol, Tarsus, temple (Jerusalem), Thessalonica, Thyatira, Troas, Tyre, Wâriḳôn, Yabes.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Arabic

3.1.1.1 Arabic Script

Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Graf 472 (18th cent.) ~ chs. 13 and 14

Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 2 (14th cent.) ~ chs. 13 and 14

Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 16 (15th cent.) ~ chs. 13 and 14

Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Magl. III 29, fols. 201^r–216^r (ante 1664) ~ ch. 13

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodl. Ar. 541 (Nicoll 49), fols. 99^r–103^r (18th cent.) ~ ch. 13

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 4770, fols. 16^r–33^r, 47^r–68^r (19th cent.) ~ ch. 13 and then ch. 14 in two forms

3.1.1.2 Garšūnī

Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Christ Arab. 87b, fols. 73^v–86^v (ca. 1600 and 1700) ~ ch. 13

Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Syr. 40, fols. 24^r–36^r (ca. 1750) ~ ch. 13

Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 539, fols. 30^r–42^r (12th cent.) ~ ch. 13

Bausi, Alessandro. “Alcune osservazioni sul Gadla ḥawāryāt.” Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 60–61 (2001–2002): 77–114 (list of 31 Arabic manuscripts of various apocryphal acts collections, pp. 97–101).

Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 vols. Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944 (manuscripts listed, vol. 1, p. 261).

3.1.2 Ethiopic (BHO 891–897)

London, British Library, Or. 683, fols. 37^r–102^r (17th cent.) ~ IMAGES

London, British Library, Or. 677, fols. 29^r–74^v (1764/1765)

London, British Library, Or. 679, fols. 28^r–74^v (1785/1786) ~ IMAGES

London, British Library, Or. 680, fols. 19^r–77^r (1711/1712) ~ IMAGES

London, British Library, Or. 681, fols. 28^r–74^v (1705/1706) ~ IMAGES

London, British Library, Or. 682, fols. 31^r–86^v (18th cent.)

Addis Ababa (Makkākalanā), Patriarchate Library, EMML 676, fols. 44^r–117^r (20th cent.) ~ CATALOG

Addis Ababa (Takla Hāymānot), Church of the Apostles, EMML 813, fols. 34^v–98^r (1944/1945) ~ CATALOG

Bausi, Alessandro. “Alcune osservazioni sul Gadla ḥawāryāt.” Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 60–61 (2001–2002): 77–114 (list of 31 Ethiopic manuscripts of various apocryphal acts collections, pp. 93–97).

Budge, Ernest A. W. Gadla Ḥawâryât: The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists. Vol. 1. London: Henry Frowde, 1899 (Ethiopic text based on British Library, Or. 683, pp. 436–598).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Budge, E. Wallis. Gadla Ḥawâryât: The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists. Vol. 2. London: Henry Frowde, 1901 (English translation, pp. 527–706).

3.3 General Works

Esbroeck, Michel van. “La légende des apôtres Pierre, Jean et Paul à Antioche.” OrChr 78 (1994): 64–85 (see pp. 66–67).

__________. “Une collection de 35 apocryphes apostoliques.” ParOr 24 (1999): 179–99 (p. 195).