Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/20



The Acts of Paul (Praxeis Pauiu, or Acta, also Actus Pauli) are first mentioned by Origen, who quotes twice from them. Thus we read Hom. in John XX, 12: "if any one likes to receive that which is written in the Acts of Paul as said of the Saviour, 'I go to be crucified again.'" In a somewhat different form the same phrase occurs in the Acts of Peter. Since it is impossible to imagine that Origen should confound the Acts of Peter which were rejected as heretical with the Acts of Paul which he highly esteemed, Harnack may very well be right in supposing that the old Acts of Peter did not contain an account of Peter's martyrdom, but that this originally occurred in the Acts of Paul.

The second reference is found in De Princip., I, 2, 3, where we read: "Hence that word appears to me also spoken correctly which is written in the Acts of Paul: 'This is the word, a living being,' though not expressed so well as in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel."

Without name the Acts are also referred to by Hippolytus (Commentary on Daniel, III, 29, 4 ed. Bonwetsch 176) who says : " for if we believe that when Paul was condemned to the wild beasts, the lion that was loosed upon him lay down at his feet and licked him, why should we not believe what happened in the case of Daniel in the lion's den?" This seems to suppose that the writing which contained the narrative concerning Paul was regarded as trustworthy in Church circles. Besides, the parallels are so obvious that there can be no doubt as to the author of the work. That the statement of Hippolytus is taken from the Acts of Paul is clear from the statement of Nicephorus Callisti (Church history, II, 25 in Migne, " Patrologia Graeca," Vol. CXLV, Col. 821–824, Paris 1865), who relates that this incident was related in the Periodoi Pauli.

This historian of the XIV. cent, speaks of Paul's fight with the beasts at Ephesus.

Nicephorus introduces his narrative with the words that those who described the "travels of Paul" recorded also very many things which he had already done before and