Acta Philippi

Acta Philippi

Acts of Philip. The Apocryphal New Testament, being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses. James, Montague Rhodes, translator. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.

I. When he came out of Galilee and raised the dead man.

1 When he was come out of Galilee, a widow was carrying out her only son to burial. Philip asked her about her grief: I have spent in vain much money on the gods, Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, Zeus, Athena, the Sun and Moon, and I think they are asleep as far as I am concerned. And I consulted a diviner to no purpose.

2 The apostle said: Thou hast suffered nothing strange. mother, for thus doth the devil deceive men. Assuage thy grief and I will raise thy son in the name of Jesus.

3 She said: It seems it were better for me not to marry, and to eat nothing but bread and water. Philip: You are right. Chastity is especially dear to God.

4 She said: I believe in Jesus whom thou preachest. He raised her son, who sat up and said: Whence is this light? and how comes it that an angel came and opened the prison of judgement where I was shut up? where I saw such torments as the tongue of man cannot describe.

5 So all were baptized. And the youth followed the apostle.