Anchor Bible Report 16: The Acts of Philip
I have spent the past three weeks or so compiling information on the various traditions about the apostle Philip. The main one of course is the Acts of Philip, but there are also texts in Coptic (and from this Arabic and Ethiopic), Latin, and Irish. They will lead off my chapter on “other” apocryphal acts—that is, not the five “great” acts (Andrew, John, Peter, Paul, and Thomas) and related texts. This decision is based mostly on issues of space: the chapter on the big five is already really too long. But placing Philip in this “other” chapter is really a disservice to Acts Phil.
The text has been championed by only a few previous scholars—chiefly François Bovon and Christopher Matthews. M. R. James (1924: 438–39) early on declared that Acts Phil. belongs to the “secondary” stage of development of the apocryphal acts because it borrows material from the earlier texts, including part of the hymn material from the Acts of John and the Peter’s speech from the cross from the Acts of Peter. But Acts Phil. is still pretty early, likely composed not long after the others (fourth century but drawing upon material from the third). The diminishing of its importance has resulted in its virtual exclusion from Christian apocrypha collections, or at least the English compendia, which only present portions or summaries. But don’t despair, English readers can find it in the affordable translation by Bovon and Matthews (2012). And it’s worth seeking out, because this text …