Acts of Andrew
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The Acts of Andrew (a New Testament apocryphon) in the surviving version is alluded to in a third century work, the Coptic Manichaean Psalter, providing a terminus ante quem, according to M.R. James (1924) and Jean-Marc Prieur in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (vol. 1, p. 246), but it shows several signs of a mid-second century origin. Prieur stated that "The distinctive christology of the text", its silence concerning Jesus as a genuinely historical figure, and its lack of mention of church organisation, liturgy, and ecclesiastical rites, lead one to "militate for an early dating".
Prieur also stated that its "serene tone" and innocence of any polemic or disputes concerning its ideas or awareness of heterodoxy, particularly in the area of christology, show that "it derived from a period when the christology of the Great Church had not yet taken firm shape". Indeed, an early Coptic copy exists, but it too shows signs of heavy editing in Greek and Latin manuscripts of the twelfth century, making it difficult to use to reconstruct the earlier text.
Traditionally, and amongst modern academics, the text is said to have been based on the Acts of John and the Acts of Peter, indeed, having the same author, designated as Leucius Charinus. Like these works, the text describes the supposed travels of the title character, the miracles he performed during them, and finally a description of his supposed death. A portion of the text, in which Matthew/Matthias is portrayed as a captive in a country of anthropophagi (literally man-eaters, i.e. cannibals) and is rescued by Andrew and Jesus, sometimes existed as a separate work, known by the name of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias.
Like those in the two books of Acts on which it appears based, the miracles are extremely supernatural, and highly extravagant. For example, aside from the usual miracles of raising the dead, healing the blind, and so forth, he survives being placed amongst fierce animals, calms storms, and defeats armies simply by crossing himself. There is also a great deal of moralising - Andrew causes an embryo which was illegitimate to die, and also rescues a boy from his incestuous mother, an act resulting in her laying false charges against them, requiring god to send an earthquake to free Andrew and the boy. So much does the text venture into the realm of extreme supernatural events, that, while being crucified, Andrew is still able to give sermons for three days.
Eusebius of Caesarea knew the work, which he dismissed as the production of a heretic and absurd. Gregory of Tours was delighted to find a copy and wrote a rescension of it, leaving out the parts for "which, because of its excessive verbosity, [it] was called by some apocryphal", for which he felt it had been condemned. The Acts of Andrew is often classed as a gnostic work, but Geoffrey Trowbridge (a major academic in the field) asserts that "The importance of martyrdom is stressed throughout, which is not in line with Gnostic philosophy".
