The death of Andrew was by crucifixion, but the legend ascribing an unusual shape to the cross used seems to be of later origin. For tln-ee days and three nights he remained on the cross exhort- ing the multitude ; at the end of this time a crowd of 20,000 men went to the proconsul to demand that Andrew should be released. -^Egeates was obliged to comply, but Andrew refused, and prayed that having once been joined to the cross he might not be separated from it. He then died, and was bm-ied by Stratolles and MaximiUa.
The date and provenance of the Acts of Andrew. — These points depend largely on the view taken of the authorship of the Acts. If, as is usually thought, the Acts of Andrew is really Leucian, i.e. written by the same author as the Acts of John, Asia is the most probable place for its origin, and the end of the 2nd cent, the most probable date. If this view be given up, Greece, in which the scene of the Acts is laid, becomes the most probable place, and the date must be decided by internal evidence, for the Acts appears not to be quoted before the time of Origen (Eus. HE iii. 1). At present the Leucian hypothesis perhaps holds the field (see esp. James, Apocrypha Anecdota, ii. pp. xxixfif.), but it is not at all certain.
The theology of the Acts. — So far as the frag- ments preserved enable us to discover, the theology
ACTS (APOCRYPHAL)
ACTS (APOCRYPHAL)
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of the Acts of Andrew resembles most closely that of the Acts of John, and thus supports the Leucian theory. There is the same emphasis on asceticism even in marriage, and the cross also plays a large part.
The text is given in Lipsius and Bonnet, Acta Apocrypha, ii. 1, and valuable discussions are given in Harnaok, Chronol. ii. 175, and by ISI. R. James in Apocrypha Anecdota, ii. p. xxix ff. Somewhat out of date, but still valuable in some respects, is R A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten, Brunswick, 1883-87, i. 543 ff.
5. The Acts of Thomas. — (1) Contents. — Judas Thomas is sold by Jesus to the messenger of an Indian prince. At the Avedding-feast of the daughter of the king of Andrapolis he is dis- covered to be an inspired person and forced by the king to pray over the bride and bridegroom. On entering the inner room Jesus is found sitting with the bride. He explains to the bridegroom that He is not Thomas, and converts the couple to a complete abstinence from sexual relations (Act i.). Thomas is ordered by his master, Iving Gundaphorus, to build a palace.^ Spending the money on alms, he erects a palace in heaven which is shown to the disembodied soul of the king's deceased brother, who is afterwards restored to life and receives the Eucharist with his brother, both being 'sealed' with oil by the Apostle. On this occasion the Lord appears as a youth bearing a lamp. Having preached to the people, Thomas is ordered by the Lord to depart (ii.). Thornas finds a youth killed by a dragon, which forthwith appears, acknowledging Thomas as 'twin of the Christ,' and professes to be the serpent from para- dise. The dragon is summoned to suck the venom again out of the body, after doing which it perishes. The youth is restored to Ufe, and saj^s that he saw Thomas as a double person :_ one exactly hke him standing by and telling him to resuscitate the body (iii . ) . While this happens, the colt of an ass addresses the Apostle as the 'twin of the Christ,' and invites him to ride on its back to the town (iv.). A woman is deUvered from a demon that had been doing violence to her for five years. To protect her for the future, she is 'sealed' and partakes of the Eucharist (v.). At this moment a young man's hands are withered in the act of taking the Eucharistic bread. He con- fesses that he has murdered a woman for repudiat- ing him after her conversion by Thomas. Restored to hfe, she recounts horrible visions from the lower world. After a general conversion, Thomas's final words culminate in an exhortation to abstinence from marriage and in emphasis on the permanence of spiritual possession (vi.). All India being evan- gehzed, a general of king Misda?us visits Thomas and prays him to deliver his wife and daughter from a cruel pair of demons (vii.). On the road the Apostle asks the general to command some wild asses to draw his carriage. One of these is afterwards ordered by the Apostle to summon the demons from the house. In the courtyard this same ass preaches a sermon to the multitude, and exhorts the Apostle to give the bodies of the women back to life, since they had died as the demons were leaving them (viii.). Mygdonia, a relative of the royal family, comes to hear Thomas preaching. The same night her husband Charisius has a dream which contains a foreboding of the consequences of this preaching for the married hfe. On the next day and night this comes true. His wife flees from his embraces. In the morning Thomas is arrested, and while in prison sings the 'Hymn of the Soul.' At home, however, Charisius finds his fervent suppUcations again scorned. His wife escapes to receive the 'seal,' and encounters Thomas on her way proceeding as a prince with many hghts (ix. ) . Thomas follows her and returns