The Acts of Andrew Overview

THE ACTS OF ANDREW

• Date: 200-300? 400-500?

• Claimed Author: Andrew; philosophers named Xenocharides and Leonides (in tradition)

• Sect: Encratites; Gnostic (unintentionally)

• Provence: Unknown; Syria? Egypt?

• References: Eusebius, Epiphanius, The Gelasian Decree

pgs. 245-267

1-2. Stratocles comes to visit his brother, Aegeates, when one of his servants (whom Stratocles loves) is struck by a demon and lies on the ground foaming. Stratocles laments this and wishes he had died instead of coming to see such a thing. Aegeates’ wife, Maxamilla, and Iphidama come to tell him that there is a man in the city who can cast out demons and heal any sickness.

3. Andrew comes in, saying that something is fighting within the boy. Andrew pushes his way through the crowd to get to the servant: those who knew Andrew move out of the way, but the rest try to beat him until the others tell him who he is.

4. Andrew arrives. He tells Maxamilla that it is disappointing to see her turn her faith from God to Magicians who can’t do anything because they are kindred to the demon itself.

5. Andrew asks God not to hear the Magicians who are friends of the evil spirit, but to banish the demon that is foreign to Him. The demon instantly comes out and says it will flee even from the whole city. Andrew commands it to not only flee the city, but to stay away from all his brethren. The demon leaves, and the servant gets up just fine.

6-7. Maximilla takes Andrew and Stratocles to her bedroom, wanting Andrew to speak to Maximilla and convert him (Aegeates was blasphemous). Andrew speaks to Stratocles:

“O Stratocles, I know well that you are moved by what has happened, but I am also certain that I must bring out into the open the person now latent within you. Your total bewilderment and pondering of the source and cause of what has happened are the greatest proofs that the soul within you is troubled, and the perplexity, hesitation, and astonishment in you please me. Bring to birth the child you are carrying and do not give yourself over to labour pains alone. I am no novice at midwifery or divination. I desire what you are bearing. I love what you are suppressing. I will suckle what is within you. I know the one who is silent. I know the one who has hope.  Already your new self speaks to me. Already I encounter those things he has suffered for so long. He is ashamed of his former religion; he mourns his former public conduct; he considers all his former worship vacuous; he has no idea what true religion is; he tacitly reproaches the useless gods of his past; having become a vagabond, he suffers in order to become educated. Whatever his former philosophy, he now knows that it was hollow. He sees that it is destitute and worthless. Now he learns that it promises nothing essential. Now he admits that it pledges nothing useful. Is that not so? Does the person inside you not say these things, Stratocles?”

8. Stratocles recognizes what Andrew says and promises to leave and despise evil and everything Andrew convicted him of. He begins to follow Andrew everywhere, saying he would leave everything he has. Whenever everyone else is present, he doesn’t pay attention to Andrew, but whenever they are in private, he asks him questions; whenever everyone else is asleep, Andrew cannot get sleep from all the questions he keeps asking.

9. Andrew tells Stratocles to double his harvest by asking his questions in public. He compares it to a woman who goes through pains to give birth to a baby who is then seen.

10-12. Maximilla, Iphidama, Sratocles, the servant, and many brethren are all “sealed” (baptised?) and exhorted Andrew to keep the seal so that their bodies may be set loose from demons and all evil spirits; if they pollute it, the spirits will taunt them. Stratocles is so inspired that he gives up everything he has and devotes himself to the word.

13. All the brethren are joyed and meet night and day at the praetorium with Maximilla. On Sunday, they are assembled in Aegeates’ bedroom and listen to Andrew, but Aegeates arrives home. Maximilla becomes afraid of what will happen when he sees everyone in there, so Andrew prays and asks Jesus not to allow “the savage lion” in. When he does come in, he has stomach pains and has to go sit on the toilet for a long time. Andrew places his hands on people as they walk out, praying that God makes them invisible and then leaves invisible himself.

14. Stratocles comes in to see his wife Maximilla praying and tells her of his desire to sleep with her because he thought she was praying for him when she was really praying for God to save her from his “filthy intercourse” and for her to only serve God. He tries to kiss her, but she pushes his mouth away and says “after prayer, a woman’s mouth should never touch a man’s.”  He leaves her, takes off his travelling clothes, and goes to sleep.

15-16. Maximilla goes to have Andrew pray for her while her husband is asleep. Andrew prays for strength and purity for her against her husband’s filth and that she would sleep apart from her visible husband and be wed to her inner husband, which only God knows.

17-21. Maximilla, wanting to be chaste, finds a beautiful servant-girl, Euclia, and promises whatever she wants if she sleeps with Aegeates in her place. She agrees, and after eight months, she gives her freedom, and as she demands even more, lots of money, jewelry, and fine clothes. Euclia continues to brag to all the other servants. She even has them hide near Aegeates’ bed one night while he’s drunk to show how she sleeps with him. However, she wakes and hears “Maximilla…why do you come so late?” She says nothing, and the servants quietly leave the bedroom. Meanwhile, Maximilla has been sleeping in a room with Andrew and Stratocles, and Andrew has a vision of some trouble. Maximilla goes out to the praetorium so she won’t be noticed, and her servants fight it out with other servants who want to tell Aegeates. Aegeates. She goes into her bedroom and prays for God to protect her from all evil. The servants fought the ones wanting to tell Aegeates expect Maximilla to reward them, so she gives them what they want—1,000 denarii—and tells them not to tell anyone. They swear not to tell anyone and then instantly go to tell the whole story to Aegeates.

22-23. Aegeates tortures Euclia until she confesses what she had been doing and how she was paid and had told all the other servants about sleeping with him. Aegeates wanted to keep it secret, so he cuts out her tongue, mutilates her, and has her thrown outside until dogs eat her. Then he has servants who snitched on his wife crucified. He goes into seclusion and eats nothing, crying and praying to his gods. He then falls at her feet, weeping, and says to her:

“I cling to your feet, I who have been your husband now for 12 years, who always revered you as a goddess and still do because of your chastity and your refined character, even though it might have been tarnished, since even you are human. So if you are keeping some secret from me about another man-something I never would have suspected-I will make allowances and I myself will cover it up, just as you often put up with my follies. Or if there is something else even more serious than this that separates you from me, confess it and I will quickly remedy the situation, for I know it is entirely useless to contradict you.”

She replies:

“I am in love, Aegeates. I am in love, and the object of my love is not of this world and therefore it is imperceptible to you. Night and day it kindles and enflames me with love for it. You cannot see it for it is difficult to see, and you cannot separate me from it, for that is impossible. Let me have intercourse with it and take my rest with it alone.”

24. Aegeates is extremely confused and asks his brother if she is “in a state of ecstasy or lunacy.”

25-26. A servant comes and explains to Aegeates about Andrew and how his wife and brother began to be enamored with him and follow him and his one God. Just then, they see Andrew, and Aegeates has him locked up.

27-30. Aegeates tells Maximilla that he locked Andrew up, but she says that he can’t be locked up. Maximilla sends Iphidama off to find Andrew, and she sees him speaking and encouraging other prisoners. Andrew prays for invisibility for her as she goes back to get Maximilla and free him, and prophecies about the gate to the prison being open as she leaves and comes back at night.

31-34. Aegeates expects Maximilla to sneak off and lie to him, so he has soldiers guard the prison and jailor and guard Maximilla, so she won’t leave her bedroom. She prays and goes with Iphidama to the prison gate, where a beautiful young boy greets them and brings them to be with Andrew. Andrew encourages them, and they go back to their homes for some time (there is no explanation of how they slip past guards or get out, or even that they are invisible).

35-36. Aegeates remembers Andrew and is enraged. He comes home and tells Maximilla that she can live with him as the wife she promised to be, sleep with him as before, and give him children, and he will free Andrew; otherwise, he will torture Andrew.

37-41. Maximilla goes with Iphidama to Andrew, and she kisses his hand. Andrew predicts Maximilla’s desire for advice, and he tells her not to submit to her husband’s threat and not to sleep with him. He continues:

“I rightly see in you Eve repenting and in me Adam converting. For what she suffered through ignorance, you—whose soul I seek—must now redress through conversion. The very thing suffered by the mind which was brought down with her and was estranged from itself, I make right with you through your recognition that you are being raised up. You healed her deficiency by not experiencing the same passions, and I have perfected Adam’s imperfection by fleeing to God for refuge. Where Eve disobeyed, you obeyed; what Adam agreed to, I flee from; the things that tripped them up, we have recognized. For it is ordained that each person should correct his or her own fall…I have said these things in your presence, Maximilla, because the force of what has been said applies also to you. Just as Adam died in Eve through his complicity with her, so also I now live in you through your overseeing the commandment of the Lord and through your transporting yourself to a state worthy of your being.”

41-44. Andrew encourages Stratocles as he weeps and wails.

45.-46. Maximilla rushes off in encouragement. After she leaves, Andrew prophesies that he will be impaled on a stake the next day and that Maximilla will not give in to temptation. Maximilla refuses to sleep with Aegeates, and he plans to crucify Andrew.

47-50. Maximilla is disguised by God and brought with Iphidama to the prison, where she sees Andrew encouraging a bunch of believers gathered there. Andrew encourages them about how the Devil will always work with his children to do what harm he can, and teaches how to stand up to him.

51. Aegeates orders to have Andrew crucified with his hands tied with ropes instead of nails and to have his legs not broken so that he suffers more. He whips him seven times and then sends him off. Andrew is flogged and then crucified—just like Jesus.

52. Everyone else in the town hears that just Andrew is being crucified for no reason, and they are angry. Stratocles comes running, beats those dragging Andrew off like a criminal, and then rips their clothing. He then tells them:

“Thank the blessed one for educating me and teaching me to check my violent temper. Otherwise, I would have demonstrated for you what Stratocles and Aegeates the rogue are capable of. For we (believers) have learned to endure our afflictions.”

53-55. The soldiers tell Aegeates what happened, and he tells them to get new clothes and to go stealthily so he isn't found. Stratocles walks angrily with Andrew to his cross as Andrew gives him and the others his final instructions. Andrew then goes over to his cross to be tied to it. Andrew smiles and laughs from the cross.

56-58. An innumerable crowd comes around Andrew as even Pagans are outraged at his execution. Andrew then instructs the people: if they believe that the body and soul are the soul and there is nothing after death, they are as intelligent as animals and should leave. He then calls out people who love things of the world: people who seek to fill themselves with food, find intercourse as pleasurable, or work to gain wealth. He tells people to abandon that way of living and choose life. He then describes his death in this way:

“I am leaving to prepare routes there for those who align themselves with me and are equipped with a pure faith and with love for him; I am stifling the fire, banishing the shadows, extinguishing the furnace, killing the worm, eradicating the threat, gagging the demons, muzzling and destroying the ruling  powers, dominating the authorities, throwing down the devil, casting out Satan, and punishing wickedness.”

59-62. Andrew continues to teach for three days and three nights, no matter what. On the fourth day, the people are enraged and go to Aegeates to tell him to take just Andrew off his cross. Aegeates tries to oppose the crowd, but the crowd of 2,000 is only enraged all the more. To prevent any revolt, Aegeates has Andrew released, and the crowd is happy. Andrew, however, criticizes the crowd for loving flesh and trying to free him. He also asks why Aegeates has come to free him after having him crucified:

“Even if you really did change your mind, Aegeates, I would never accede to you. Were you to promise all your possession, I would stand aloof from them. Were you to say you yourself were mine, I would not trust you.”

Aegeates stands there stunned and speechless.

63. Aegeates tries to untie Andrew, so the crowd gets angry. Andrew prays to Jesus not to let Aegeates untie him and then dies.

64-65. Maximilla and Stratocles bury Andrew. Maximilla then leaves Aegeates, and Aegeates secretly goes off one night to jump from a high height and kill himself. Stratocles refuses to receive any of Aegeates’ possessions that were willed to him.