Summary
Summary of The Acts of Andrew
The Acts of Andrew at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 55 min40 min fast, 1 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 12,700 words
- Pages
- 62 pages92 in large print
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- about AD 200by Anonymous (Early Christian Apocrypha)
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Andrew steps beyond the biblical record
Andrew brings Simon Peter to Jesus and points out a boy with five loaves and two fish. He appears at the Last Supper and Pentecost, but then the biblical account falls silent. The Acts of Andrew takes up the question of what comes next.
This anonymous work survives only in pieces. Its travelling story leads from Asia Minor to Patras, joining wonders and conflict with a question about faith: what does it mean to give up the world?
Key idea 2
Conversion takes the place of romance
Early Christian readers wanted to know where Andrew went and how his life ended.
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Key idea 3
Healing opens the way to belief
As Andrew travels through Asia Minor, his actions establish a pattern: he heals, teaches, and refuses payment.
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Key idea 4
Following Andrew unsettles family loyalties
Andrew's journey brings him into conflicts over marriage, family, and possessions.
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Key idea 5
The arena cannot establish Andrew's guilt
Accused before the proconsul Aegeates, Andrew faces soldiers, threats, and the charge of sorcery.
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Key idea 6
Maximilla's healing becomes a marital conflict
A vision prepares Andrew for release from the body.
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Key idea 7
Mercy reaches those who caused harm
Trophima leaves her husband to follow Andrew, but the wife of Lesbius has her condemned and sent to a brothel.
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Key idea 8
The soul takes priority over possessions
Andrew's repeated refusal of gifts expresses the teaching beneath the wonders: he wants people, not their possessions.
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Key idea 9
Renunciation and mercy travel together
Across Andrew's travels, healings repeatedly lead toward conversion, while offers of payment meet refusal.
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Who it’s for
You will love this if you enjoy early Christian writings outside the New Testament, ancient adventure tales full of miracles, and questions about faith, the body and the soul.
What this book is
What happens to an apostle after the Bible stops talking about him? The New Testament shows Andrew bringing his brother Simon Peter to Jesus, then pointing out a boy with five loaves and two fish. He still appears at the Last Supper and Pentecost before the canonical record falls silent.
The Acts of Andrew fills the gap with a travelling story of wonders, clashes with a governor, and a close look at what it means to give up the world. The work is anonymous, and only pieces survive. You will follow Andrew from Asia Minor to Patras, and meet a blind man who asks for clothes, beasts that will not obey, and a governor's wife named Maximilla.
In this summary
- 1Andrew steps beyond the biblical recordFree
- 2Conversion takes the place of romance
- 3Healing opens the way to belief
- 4Following Andrew unsettles family loyalties
- 5The arena cannot establish Andrew's guilt
- 6Maximilla's healing becomes a marital conflict
- 7Mercy reaches those who caused harm
- 8The soul takes priority over possessions
- 9Renunciation and mercy travel together
A lost story fills the silence about Andrew
The Acts of Andrew exists because the New Testament goes quiet. Andrew is called first among the twelve and brings his brother Peter to Jesus. Then nothing is said about where he went or how his life ended. Early Christian readers wanted that story, and this text gives it to them.
The book does not survive whole. The original was very large, and it is lost. Gregory of Tours made a shorter version in the sixth century. Greek manuscripts keep other portions, above all the account of Andrew's death. Scholars picture a community of encratites, a word from the Greek for self-control. These Christians held that giving up sex and family ties marked a true follower of Jesus. They also borrowed from Plato the idea that the soul is held in the body like a prisoner.
That outlook explains the church's later unease. Writers who valued marriage and the resurrection of the body found the teaching too severe. Yet the text kept being copied. Ancient readers knew the form from popular novels, and the acts swap romance for conversion.
The story is a community's answer to a silence.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
What is the main purpose of Andrew's healings?
Right. “Healing is the doorway and conversion is the point.”Not quite. “Healing is the doorway and conversion is the point.”
Why does Maximilla's conversion provoke conflict with Aegeates?
Right. “From that day she refuses to share her husband's bed, because she has given herself fully to God.”Not quite. “From that day she refuses to share her husband's bed, because she has given herself fully to God.”
What principle guides Andrew when Lesbius objects to raising his wife?
Right. “In the house of Lesbius, mercy outranks resentment.”Not quite. “In the house of Lesbius, mercy outranks resentment.”
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About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 12,700 words
- Reading timeAbout 55 min
Questions about The Acts of Andrew
What is the Acts of Andrew about?
It tells of the apostle Andrew's travels through Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia, where he heals the sick, raises the dead and preaches renunciation of the world. It centers on his time in Patras and his clash with the proconsul Aegeates.
Who wrote the Acts of Andrew and when?
No author is known. Ancient tradition named Leucius Charinus, but most scholars doubt it. They date the text to the late second or early third century and think a community of Christians who valued self-control produced it.
Why is the Acts of Andrew not in the Bible?
Early church writers condemned it, largely over its severe teaching on marriage, sex and the body. It was never accepted into the New Testament and survives only in pieces, including a sixth-century summary by Gregory of Tours.
Who is Maximilla in the Acts of Andrew?
Maximilla is the wife of the proconsul Aegeates in Patras. Andrew heals her from a grave illness, and she becomes a believer. Her refusal to share her husband's bed begins the conflict at the heart of the story.
Is the Acts of Andrew a true story?
It is a legendary narrative, not a record of events. Scholars read it as a work of imagination in the style of ancient novels, used to carry a community's teaching about its apostle. The miracles serve as signs within that genre.
Cite this edition
The Acts of Andrew. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-acts-of-andrew.
The acts of Andrew. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-acts-of-andrew (Original work published ca. 200)
The Acts of Andrew. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-acts-of-andrew.
@book{anonymous2026acts,
title = {The Acts of Andrew},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-acts-of-andrew},
note = {First published ca. 200}
}
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