Philip then, seeing that he remained in unbelief, having looked at him, says to the earth: Open thy mouth, and swallow him up as far as his neck in the presence of those who have believed in Christ Jesus. And in the same hour the earth, having opened its mouth, received him as far as the neck. And the multitude communed with each other on account of the wonders that had happened.
A certain chief man of the city came crying out, and saying: O blessed apostle, a certain demon has assailed my son, and cried out, saying to me, Since thou hast allowed a foreigner to come into your city, thou who hast been the first to do away with [2201] our worship and our sacrifices, what shall I do for thee, except to kill this thine only begotten son? And after he said this, he strangled my son. Now therefore, I beseech thee, O apostle of Christ, do not allow my joy to be turned into sorrow, because I also have believed thy words.
And the apostle, having heard this, said: I wonder at the activity of the demons, that it is active in every place, and dares to assail those to whose help I have not been able to come, [2202] as now they have tried you, wishing to cause you to offend. And he says to the man: Bring me thy son, and I will give him to thee alive, through my Christ. And rejoicing, he ran to bring his son. And when he came near his house, he cried out, saying: My son, I have come to thee to carry thee to the apostle, so that he may present thee to me living. And he ordered his slaves to carry the bed; and his son was twenty-three years old. And when Philip saw him, he was moved; and he turned to the high priest, and said: This has happened as a chance for thee: if, therefore, I shall raise him up, wilt thou henceforth believe? And he says: I know your magic arts, that thou wilt raise him up; but I will not believe thee. And Philip, enraged, said: A curse upon thee! then go down altogether into the abyss before the face of all these. And at the same hour he went down into Hades alive, except that the high priest's robe flew off from him; and because of this, from that day, no one knew what became of the priest's robe. And the apostle turned round and prayed for the boy; and having driven the demon away from him, he raised him up, and set him beside his father alive.
And the multitude having beheld this, cried out: The God of Philip is the only God, who has punished the unbelief of the high priest, and driven away the demon from the young man, and raised him up from the dead. And the five hundred having seen the high priest swallowed up into the abyss, and the other miracles, besought Philip, and he gave them the seal in Christ. And Philip abode in Athens two years; and having founded a church, appointed a bishop and a presbyter, and so went away to Parthia, preaching Christ. To whom be glory for ever. Amen.
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[2185] Comp. Matt. x. 10; Mark vi. 9.
[2186] Acts xvii. 21.
[2187] Comp. Matt. ix. 17, etc.
[2188] Eph. i. 21.
[2189] Or, preaching.
[2190] Acts iv. 12.
[2191] There seems to be some omission in the mss. here.
[2192] Lit., of life.
[2193] Or, these men.
[2194] It was James and John who were called sons of thunder (Mark iii. 17).
[2195] This last sentence is very corrupt in the original. A few changes give it the meaning above.
[2196] Rom. viii. 34, etc.
[2197] Better tach an theasesthe--you will perhaps see.
[2198] Or, which the high priest casts off for himself.
[2199] Comp. Acts v. 39 and xxiii. 9 in Textus Receptus.
[2200] Phil. ii. 11.
[2201] Or, thou being a chief man who has done away with.
[2202] There is some doubt about the reading here.
Addition to Acts of Philip.
(From a Paris ms.) [2203]
And he taught them thus: My brethren, sons of my Father--for you are of my family as to Christ, substance of my city, the Jerusalem above, the delight of my dwelling-place--why have you been taken captive by your enemy the serpent, twisted, crooked, and perverse, to whom God has given neither hands nor feet? And crooked is his going, since he is the son of the wicked one; for his father is death, and his mother corruption, and ruin is in his body. Do not go then into his destruction; for you are in bondage by the unbelief and deception of his son, who is without order, and has no substance; [2204] formless, and has no form in the whole creation, either in the heaven or in the earth, or among the fishes that are in the waters. But if you see him, flee from him, since he has no resemblance to men: his dwelling is the abyss, and he walks in darkness. Flee, then, from him, that his venom may not be poured out upon you: if his venom be poured out upon your body, you walk in his wickedness. But remain rather in the true worship, being faithful, reverent, and good, without guile. Flee from Satan the dragon, and remove from you his wicked seed, namely desire, by which he begets disease in the soul, which is the venom of the serpent. For desire is of the serpent from the beginning, and she it is who arms herself against the faithful; for she came forth out of the darkness, and returns to the darkness. You ought therefore, after coming to us, or rather through us to God, to throw out the venom of the devil from your bodies.
And as the apostle was saying this, behold, Nicanora came forth from her house, and went with her slaves into the house of Stachys. And when she came near the door of the house, behold, Mariamme spoke to her in the Syriac language: Helikomaei, kosma, etaa, mariacha. And she explained her words, saying: O daughter of the Spirit, thou art my lady, who hast been given in pledge to the serpent; but I have come to deliver thee: I shall break thy bonds, and cut them from their root. Behold, the Deliverer that frees thee has come: behold, the Sun of righteousness has risen to enlighten thee.
And when she was thus speaking, the gloomy tyrant came running and panting. And Nicanora, who was before the door, heard this, and took courage before them all, crying out and saying: I am a Hebrew, a daughter of the Hebrews; speak with me in the language of my fathers, because I have heard your preaching, and have been cured of this my disease. I reverence and glorify the goodness of God, in that He hath made you to be utterly spoiled in this earth.
And when she said this, the tyrant came, and took hold of her garments, and said: O Nicanora, did I not leave thee lying on the bed from thy disease? Whence, then, hast thou found this power and strength, so as to be able to come to these magicians? Unless, then, thou tell who is the healer, I shall punish thee most severely. And Nicanora answered, and said: O rearer of tyrants, cast away from thyself this tyranny, and forget thy wicked works, and abandon this temporary life, and put away vainglory, because it passes like a shadow: seek rather what is everlasting, and take away from thyself the beastly and impious work of base desire, and reject vain intercourse, which is the husbandry of death, the dark prison; and overturn the middle wall of corruption, and prepare for thyself a life chaste and spotless, that we may altogether live in sanctity. If, then, thou wishest me to remain with thee, I will live with thee in continence.
And when the tyrant heard these words, he seized her by the hair of the head, and dragged her along, kicking her, and saying: It would be better for thee to be put to death by my sword, than to be seen with these foreign magicians and deceivers. I will punish thee, therefore, and put to death those who have deceived thee. And he turned in a rage to the executioners who followed him, and said: Bring me these impostors. And the executioners ran to the house of Stachys, and laid hold of Philip, and Bartholomew, and Mariamme, with the leopard and the kid of the goats, and dragged them along, and brought them.
When the tyrant saw them, he gnashed his teeth against them, and said: Drag along these magicians and deceivers that have deceived many souls of women by saying, We are worshippers of God. And he caused thongs to be brought, and bound their feet. And he ordered them to be dragged along from the gate as far as the temple. And great multitudes came together to that place. And they wondered exceedingly at the leopard and the kid; for they were speaking like men, and some of the multitude believed the words of the apostles.
And the priests said to the tyrant: These men are magicians. And when he heard that, he burned with rage, and was filled with anger; and he ordered Philip, and Bartholomew, and Mariamne to be stripped, saying: Search them. Perhaps you will find their sorcery. And the executioners stripped them, and laid hold of Mariamne, and dragged her along, saying: Uncover her, that they may learn that it is a woman who follows them. And he ordered to bring clubs and strong cords; and after piercing Philip's ankles they brought hooks, and put the cords through his ankles, and hung him head downwards on a tree that was before the door of the temple; and they fixed pegs into the temple wall, and left him. And after binding Bartholomew hand and foot, they extended him naked on the wall; and when they had stripped Mariamne, the appearance of her body was changed, and became a glass chest filled with light, and they could not come near her.
And Philip spoke with Bartholomew in Hebrew: Where is John to-day, in the day of our need? for behold, we are being delivered from our bodies. And they have laid hands on Mariamne beyond what is seemly, and they have scourged the leopard and the kid of the goats, and have set fire to the house of Stachys, because he took us in. Let us therefore speak, that fire may come down from heaven and burn them up.
And as Philip was thus speaking, behold, John came into the city, and walked about the street, and asked those in the city: What is the commotion, and who are these men, and why are they punished? And they say to him: Art thou not of this city? And dost thou not know about these men, how they disturbed our houses, and the whole city? Moreover, they have even persuaded our wives to go away from us on the pretence of religion, proclaiming a foreign name, viz. Christ's; and they have also shut our temples by the sorcery they have, and they have put to death the serpents that are in the city by foreign names that we have never known. And they have fixed their abode in the house of Stachys the blind man, whom they made to recover his sight through the spittle of a woman who accompanies them; and it is perhaps she who has all the sorcery: and there accompany them a leopard and a kid, speaking like men. But if ever you have seen such doings, you will not be put about by them. And John answered, and said to them: Show me them. And they brought him to the temple where Philip was hanging. And when Philip saw John, he said to Bartholomew: O my brother, behold the son of Barega--that is the living water--has come. And John saw Philip hanging head down, tied by his ankles; and saw Bartholomew also bound to the temple wall.
And he said to the men of the city: O children of the serpent, how great is your folly! for the way of deceit has deceived you, the wicked dragon breathing has breathed upon you: why do you punish these men for saying the serpent is your enemy?
And when they heard these words from John, they laid their hands upon him, saying: We called thee our fellow-citizen, but now thy speech has made thee manifest that thou also art in communion with them. Thou also, therefore, shalt be put to the same death as they, for the priests have decided thus: Let us drain out their blood as they hang head downward, and mix it with wine, and offer it to the viper.
And when they were thus speaking, behold, Mariamne rose up from the place in which she was, and came back to her former appearance.