Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos
The Acts of Andrew and Matthias (Latin: Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos, "The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Anthropophagi") is a dramatic story featuring the Apostles Andrew and Matthias. It is an episode in wider apocryphal stories of apostolic acts, and some scholars believe the episode to have originated from the lost original Acts of Andrew, although others suggest it was an independent tradition. In the story, the apostles Andrew and Matthias (sometimes referred to as "Matthaeus") have an adventure in a city of human-eating cannibals during a journey. It is written as a thriller with various gory details; the pair subsist on a diet of figs themselves and witness and experience various tortures. With the aid of a miracle, the two eventually convert the city to Christianity.
The narrative is generally understood to have no historical value, and is closer to a heroic romance than anything based on actual Christian missionary work.
Authorship, date, and manuscripts
[edit]The work appears to have been popular, and appears in multiple manuscript traditions including Latin, Greek, Syriac, Old Church Slavonic, Coptic, and Georgian. One manuscript of particular interest was that of Gregory of Tours, who recorded a Latin version of the episode while epitomizing the Acts of Andrew.[1]
The author of the work is unknown, and the date it was written is contested. Some scholars suggest an early date of the 2nd century CE on the basis that was when the main Acts of Andrew appear to have been written. (Richard Adelbert Lipsius for one example scholar.) Among those who argue for the episode being an independent tradition, a 4th or 5th century date is suggested. Gregory of Tours then read a version of the Acts of Andrew which included both stories.
Analysis
[edit]Constantin von Tischendorf published an edited text in 1851 following an 1847 edition of Johann Karl Thilo.[2][3]
Heinz Hofmann classes it "secondary apocrypha", that is, one derived from apocryphal sources;[4] the ghoulish man-eaters remind Hofmann of the killing of Socrates by the witch Meroë in Apuleius' Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass. Among the Latin texts of the Acta Andreae et Mattiae, F. Blatt notes how the manuscript in Codex Casanatensis 1104 particularly expands upon the horror to describe the instruments and vessels the cannibals use for the slaughter.[5]
See also
[edit]- Andreas (poem), a work loosely based on the Acts of Andrew and Matthias
References
[edit]- ^ Santos Otero, Aurelio de (2003) [1989]. "Later Acts of Apostles: 5.1 Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud anthropophagos". In Schneemelcher, Wilhelm (ed.). New Testament Apocrypha: Volume Two: Writings Relating to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Translated by Wilson, Robert McLachlan (Revised ed.). Louisville: Westminster Press. pp. 443–447. ISBN 0-664-22722-8.
- ^ Acta apostolorum apocrypha, Leipzig, 1851.
- ^ Thilo, "Acta SS. apostolorum Andreae et Matthiae et commentatio de corundem origine quaestiones novas et litterarias in annum 1847
- ^ Heinz Hofmann, Latin Fiction: The Latin Novel in Context 1999:162
- ^ Blatt, ed. Die lateinischen Bearbeitungen der Acta Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos. (Giessen) 1930
External links
[edit]
The full text of Acts of Andrew and Matthias at Wikisource, from Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 8 (1888), edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson in the 1860s–1870s.- "Acts of Andrew and Matthias", overview and bibliography by Nathan J. Hardy. NASSCAL: e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha.
