Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/24

 Chrysa, who entertain the apostle. They rest under a tree ( ?) where there is a heathen altar. Paul speaks of contamination by idolatry, against which an old man protests who tries to persuade the hearers to retain the old belief, adducing many instances, where the adoption of Christianity caused the death of the converts. ... In Sidon Paul preaches, exhorting the inhabitants to think of Sodom and Gomorrha, and admonishes them to believe because of his miracles. On this account he is imprisoned with Thrasymachus and Cleon in the temple of Apollo, and supplied with precious victuals. Paul however fasts three days and prays in the night for the help of God. At once one-half of the temple falls down. When the servants of the temple and the conspirators see this, they proclaimed it in the whole city. The inhabitants run to the temple, where they find Paul and his companions weeping "because of this temptation, which will make them a spectacle for all." At the request of the multitude they are led into the theatre. . . . (What happened here we know not. It seems that miracles were performed for the salvation of Paul, which changed the opinion of the people. For in the end the) " God is praised, who sent Paul, and a certain Theudes is baptized." Paul leaves Sidon for Tyre.

In Tyre Paul casts out some devils and two men Amphion and Chrysippus are mentioned, with whom he has to do.

(After this comes a series of mutilated fragments, but the apostle is supposed by the editor of the Coptic Acts to travel on to Jerusalem, since we come to a fragment belonging to the first half which runs as follows : " thou findest thyself in view of Jerusalem. But I trust in the Lord that thou wilt . . . Saul . . ." Since in the following the name of Peter is mentioned, it is possible that Paul meets him at Jerusalem, probably at the time of the apostolic council.)

The next fragment shows the apostle as prisoner in a mine, where, we know not. A certain Longinus is introduced, whose daughter Phrontina is condemned to be hurled from a rock. As Paul is blamed for the fate of the daughter, the father insists that the apostle should also die with her. In a vision Paul is made aware of the attempt on