My LORD’s BibleThe Acts of Paul (beyond Thecla) 11
1UNPLACED AND UNCERTAIN FRAGMENTS
2Among the very few ancient quotations of the Acts of Paul are two short phrases cited by Origen.
3( a ) On First Principles , i. 2, 3: wherefore also that word seems to me to be truly said, which is written in the Acts of Paul: ‘He is the word, a living creature.’ But John in the beginning of his Gospel says more exaltedly and more excellently, &c.
4( b ) On John , xx. 12. But if any one likes to accept that which is recorded in the Acts of Paul as spoken by the Saviour: ‘Again am I about to be crucified.’
5Both phrases, but the second especially, have been thought by some to come from a context relating to the death of Peter. ( a ) is compared with Peter’s speech at the cross; ( b ) appears in slightly different forms in all the Passions of Peter as Christ’s answer to Peter when he is escaping from Rome. Whither goest thou Lord? ( or , What doest thou here?) ‘I come to be crucified again.’ The inference is that an account of the martyrdom of Peter formed part of the Acts of Paul. But this I find very difficult to accept, though I acknowledge it to be possible, seeing that the author of these Acts evidently placed the martyrdom of Paul after that of Peter, and, to judge from the Acts of Peter, some little time (perhaps a whole year) after.
6A probable fragment is a quotation made by Clement of Alexandria ( Strom . vi. 5: ed. Stähelin, ii. 452).
7He has been quoting the Preaching of Peter, and continues:.
8But the proposition that, just as God willed the Jews to be saved by giving them the prophets, so he raised up the most approved of the Greeks to be prophets suited to their language, according as they were capable of receiving the benefit from God, and distinguished them from the ruck of men— this , in addition to the Preaching of Peter, the apostle Paul will show when he says:
9‘Take also the Greek books, take knowledge of the Sibyl, how she declares one God, and things to come, take and read Hystaspes, and ye will find the Son of God described far more openly and plainly, and how many kings will make war against the Christ, hating him and those that bear his name, and his faithful ones: and his patience and his coming again .’ And then in one word he asks of us: ‘And the whole world and ail that is in it, whose are they? are they not God’s?’ Therefore is it that Peter says (another quotation from the Preaching follows).
10Now of this spurious, nay fatal, baptism an especial supporter is a book forged by these same heretics to favour this error, which is entitled ‘the Preaching of Paul’. In which book, contrary to every scripture, you will find Christ, who alone never sinned at all, both confessing his own sin and being compelled almost against his will by his mother Mary to receive the baptism of John; and further, that when he was baptized, fire appeared upon the water, which is recorded in no gospel. And that after so long a time Peter and Paul (after their conference (comparison) on the gospel at Jerusalem, after their common counsels, their dispute, their settling of a course of action (?)) at last met in Rome as if then first known to each other: and some other things of the kind absurdly and disgracefully concocted, all of which you will find heaped together in that book.
11(Jesus) also revealed all things to come (to his disciples) which Peter and Paul preached at Rome, and that preaching continues in writing, for a memorial. Wherein, with many other wondrous things, they said that this too would come to pass, that after a little time God would send a king who would attack the Jews and lay their cities even with the ground and besiege them till they were exhausted with hunger and thirst: then would they feed on the bodies of their own kin, and devour one another: finally, that they would be taken and fall into the enemies’ hands and see their wives maltreated before their faces, their maidens outraged and prostituted, their boys carried off, their infants dashed to the earth, all, in a word, wasted by fire and sword, and themselves captive and banished for ever from their land, because they rejoiced against the beloved and approved Son of God.
12And whatever he willeth he can do: making dumb things to speak; he made Balaam’s ass speak to him when he beat it; and a dog to say to Simon: ‘Thou art called for by Peter!’ For Paul when he preached, he caused dumb persons ( or perhaps mules) to speak of him: he made a lion speak to the people with God-given voice. Lastly, a thing which our nature does not permit—he made an infant five months old speak in public.
13iv. 9. He has told the stories of the self-sacrifice of Codrus and Lycurgus, which he gets from the historian Justin. Then he continues:
14I make use of these examples the more readily because I find that the apostle Paul when preaching to the Athenians made use of them also. That excellent preacher strove so to impress on their minds Jesus Christ and him crucified, that he might show by the example of heathens how the release of many came about through the shame of the cross. And this, he argued, could not happen save by the blood of the just, and of those who bore rule over the people. Further, no one could be found capable of freeing all, both Jews and Gentiles, save he unto whom the heathen are given for an inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth assigned for his possession. And such a one he said could be no other than the Son of God Almighty, since no one but God has subjected to himself all nations and lands. As, then, he proclaimed the shame of the cross in such a way as gradually to purge away the foolishness of the heathen, little by little he raised the word of faith and the language of his preaching, up to the Word of God, the wisdom of God, and the very throne of the divine majesty: and, lest the power of the gospel should seem mean in the weakness of the flesh by dint of the slanders of Jews and the folly of heathens, he set forth the works of the crucified, which were confirmed by the witness of common report; since it was plain to all that none but God could do such things. But as report eften falsifies, in both directions, report was assisted by the fact that Christ’s disciples did even greater works, seeing that by the shadow of a disciple (Peter) the sick were healed of every kind of disease. What more? The ingenuities of an Aristotle, the subtleties of a Chrysippus, the gins of all the philosophers were defeated by the rising of one who had been dead. (This last sentence is borrowed from Jerome (Ep. (to Pammachius) 57 or 34.)