Praedicatio Iudae Thaddaei
Standard abbreviation: Pre. Jud. Thad.
Other titles: Preaching of Thaddaeus
Clavis numbers: ECCA 302
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Acts of Peter and Andrew
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Preaching of Judas Thaddaeus.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/preaching-of-judas-thaddaeus/.
Created October 2020. Current as of January 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Pre. Jud. Thad. is a recasting of the Greek Acts of Peter of Andrew, with Jude, the brother of Jesus (and here surnamed Thaddaeus) taking the place of Andrew in the narrative. The introduction gives the date of his death as 2 Abīb/2 Ḥamle (Julian 26 June), his traditional feast day in the Coptic-Arabo Synaxarion (though note Sinai ar. 539 has 19 Ḥazīrān=Julian 10 June).
The story begins with the apostles on the Mount of Olives casting lots for their missionary destinations. Thaddaeus is assigned to preach among the Syrians and in Mesopotamia (the Arabic colophon has “Damascus and the island,” i.e., Mesopotamia; the Ethiopic colophon has “Syria and Dacia”). Thaddaeus asks Peter to accompany him on his journey. Then Jesus appears briefly as a young man and comforts Thaddaeus by saying that he will be watching over him.
As the apostles come near Syria, they see an old man ploughing in the fields. Thaddaeus wonders if they will be received well in the city, and Peter suggests asking the old man for bread: if he gives us some, Peter says, then things should go well for us; if not, then we have reason to be weary. The old man has no bread but he asks the apostles to watch the oxen while he fetches some. While he is gone, Peter and Thaddaeus work his fields. Peter takes up the baskets full of wheat and blesses them; and Thaddaeus blesses the fields. They plough thirty furrows and the seed quickly sprouts and yields wheat. When the old man sees what the apostles have done, he thinks they are gods. Peter tells him they are not gods but apostles of the Lord. The old man asks them what he needs to do to have everlasting life; Peter tells him to love God with all of his heart and mind and observe several commandments, as well as the negative version of the golden rule.
The old man wants to abandon his work and follow the apostles, but they tell him to return the oxen to their owner and receive the apostles in his home. The man takes an ear of corn with him to the city and the people ask how he has corn before harvest time. At first he does not reply, but the magistrates of the city force him to respond, so he tells them about the apostles and then heads home. Satan gives the magistrates evil intent, and they decide to prevent the apostles from entering their city for fear that these “sorcerers” will destroy it with fire or flood. Hearing that the apostles hate fornicators, they take a prostitute, strip her naked, and set her outside the gates so that they will not enter the city.
When Thaddaeus sees the woman, he believes she has been placed there as a temptation. With Peter’s consent he prays for assistance and Jesus sends the angel Michael, who suspends the woman in the air by her hair. The woman cries out that the magistrates placed her at the gates and calls on the men she has slept with to repent and make supplication to the apostles on her behalf; but no one does because Satan had hardened their hearts.
The apostles pray to God for strength to fight Satan and Michael returns to drive out the evil spirits from the people. Now the apostles can freely preach around the city and many people become believers. They appoint bishops and priests and baptize everyone, and the woman ministers in the church also. Satan becomes angry about their success, and enters the heart of a rich young man. Like the old man, he asks the apostles how to achieve eternal life and if he fulfills Peter’s commands, will he be able to perform miracles? They tell him to give all of his possessions to the poor; this makes the rich man angry, and he pounces on Thaddaeus and grabs him by the throat. Thaddaeus mentions what Jesus had said about how it is easier camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:25 par.). At that moment a man with a camel passes by, so the apostles ask someone for a needle with a very small eye. They pray to Jesus to make the camel pass through the eye and, to everyone’s astonishment, it happens. The people declare that there is no other god than the God of the apostles and the rich man rents his garments and repents. He gives all of his possessions to the poor and he is baptized along with all of the onlookers.
The apostles build a church, appoint bishops and priests, and write for them a gospel and a book of commandments. Their mission accomplished, they leave the city, and Thaddaeus dies shortly after.
Named historical figures and characters: Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Judas (not Iscariot, apostle), Judas (brother of Jesus), Michael (angel), Peter (apostle), Satan, Thaddaeus (apostle).
Geographical locations: Dacia, Mesopotamia, Mount of Olives, Syria.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic (BHO 1144)
3.1.1 Arabic Script
Beirut, Bibliothèque Orientale de l’Université Saint Joseph, 1426 (1855) ~ contents unconfirmed
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Graf 472 (18th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 1 (13th/14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 2 (14th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 3 (1626)
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 6 (not dated) ~ contents unconfirmed
Cairo, Coptic Catholic Patriarchate Library, Hist. 16 (15th cent.)
Cairo, Coptic Museum, 60, fols. 217v–224r (19th cent.)
Charfet, Syrian-Catholic Patriarchate, ar. 6/21, 4 (18th cent.)
Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Christ. Arab. 84, fols. 36v–40v (ca. 1780)
Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Christ Arab. 87b, fols. 54r–59r (ca. 1600 and 1700)
Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Christ. Arab. 88, fols. 11r–31v (16th cent.) ~ identification uncertain (“Life of St. Jude”)
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Magl. III 29, fols. 174v–182r (ante 1664)
Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, Or. 1067 (Tischendorf 32) (15th cent.)
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 405, fols. 180r–185r (1334/1335)
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 406, fols. 189v–194v (1258/1259) ~ LOC
Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 539, fols. 187v–194r (12th cent.)
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodl. Ar. 541 (Nicoll 49), fols. 68v–71r (18th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 81, fols. 297v–306r (16th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arabe 4770, fols. 297v–306r (19th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Borg. ar. 135, fols. 66v–70v (1384)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Borg. ar. 223 (1729)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Sbath 500, fols. 153r–160r (15th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. ar. 171, fols. 55r–57v (17th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. ar. 694, fols. 126r–132r (14th cent.)
Wadi El-Natrun, Monastery of the Syrians (Dayr al-Suryān), no shelf number, fols. 123v–129r (14th cent.)
3.1.1.2 Garšūnī Script
Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Syr. 40, fols. 172v–180r (ca. 1750)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, syr. 232, fols. 289r–291v (17th cent.)
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Sbath 124, fols. 153r–160r (16th cent.)
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 the Arabic acts collection, pp. 97–101).
Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 vols. Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944 (manuscripts listed, vol. 1, pp. 259–62, 265).
Lewis, Agnes Smith, ed. Acta Mythologica Apostolorum, Transcribed from an Arabic Ms. in the Convent of Deyr-es-Suriani, Egypt, and from Mss. in the Convent of St Catherine, on Mount Sinai. Horae Semiticae 3. London: C.J. Clay and Sons, 1904. (Arabic text based on unidentified Deir al-Surian MS with readings from Sinai ar. 539, pp. 101–109).
Pisani, Vitagrazia. “The apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: unknown witnesses from East Tәgray.” Pages 75–93 in Essays in Ethiopian Manuscript Studies. Proceedings of the International Conference Manuscripts and Texts, Languages and Contexts: the Transmission of Knowledge in the Horn of Africa. Hamburg, 17–19 July 2014. Edited by Alessandro Bausi, Alessandro Gori, and Denis Nosnitsin. Supplements to Aethiopica 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015 (descriptions of ten Ethiopic manuscripts cataloged for the Ethio-SPaRe project).
3.1.2 Coptic
3.1.2.1 Sahidic (see links for editions; BHO 1141; CPC 0587; PAThs entry)
MONB.DM, pp. 173–180 (10th–12th cent.)
MONB.QY, pp. 122–124 (ca. 10th cent.)
3.1.2.2 Copto-Arabic Synaxarion
The Copto-Arabic Synaxarion includes some details of the story for June 26 (2 Abib).
Basset, René. “Le Synaxaire arabe jacobite (rédaction copte) V: les mois de Baounah, Abib, Mésoré et jours complémentaires.” Patrologia orientalis 17 (1923): 525–782 (edition and translation of the summary of the text in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, pp. 616–17).
3.1.3 Ethiopic
3.1.3.1 Preaching of Jude (BHO 1143)
London, British Library, Or. 678, fols. 133v–138r (15th cent.)
London, British Library, Or. 683, fols. 249v–254r (17th cent.)
London, British Library, Or. 685, fols. 144r–148v (18th cent.)
Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Eth. 6, fols. 219r–228v (19th cent.)
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 the Ethiopic acts collection, 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. 678 and 683, pp. 296–306).
3.1.3.2 Ethiopic Synaxarion
The Ethiopian Synaxarion includes a summary of Pre. Jud. for June 26 (2 Hamle).
Budge, Ernest A. W. The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928 (English translation of summary of the text from the Ethiopic Synaxarion, vol. 4, pp. 1054–57).
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 (English translations). London: Henry Frowde, 1901 (English translation, pp. 357–68).
Lewis, Agnes Smith. The Mythological Acts of the Apostles, Translated from an Arabic Ms. in the Convent of Deyr-es-Suriani, Egypt, and from Mss. in the Convent of St Catherine on Mount Sinai and in the Vatican Library. Horae Semiticae 4. London: C.J. Clay and Sons, 1904 (English translation, pp. 120–25).
Malan, Solomon C. The Conflicts of the Holy Apostles, An Apocryphal Book of the Early Eastern Church. London: D. Nutt, 1871 (English translation of the Ethiopic text based on Rylands Eth. 6, pp. 221–29).
3.2.2 Italian
Guidi, Ignazio. “Gli Atti apocrifi degli Apostoli nei testi copti, arabi ed etiopici.” Giornale della Società asiatica italiana 2 (1888): 1–66 (translation of Coptic text from the Vatican fragment of MONB.DM, pp. 21–22).
3.3 General Works
Lipsius, Richard A. Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden. 2 vols. in 3 parts. Braunschweig, 1883–1890 (see vol. 2.2:175–78).
McDowell, Sean. The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus. Abingdon: Ashgate, 2008. Repr. London and New York: Routledge, 2015 (pp. 237–44).
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 p. 480).