The Acts of Andrew

Introduction

There is a particular kind of silence that surrounds certain figures in history — not the silence of insignificance, but the silence of deliberate erasure. It is the silence that follows when a story becomes too inconvenient, too strange, or too powerful to be allowed to circulate freely. It is the silence of a door that has been locked, bolted, and plastered over so thoroughly that future generations forget there was ever a door there at all. The apostle Matthias lives in precisely that kind of silence.

Most readers of the New Testament will recognize the name, if only barely. Matthias appears in a single, compressed passage in the Acts of the Apostles — the canonical Acts, that is — where he is chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot among the twelve disciples. He is selected, his name is recorded, and then he vanishes from the scriptural record entirely. No letters bear his name. No gospel claims his authorship. No dramatic missionary journey is chronicled in the texts that survived the great filtering process of early Christian canon formation. He is present just long enough to fill a vacancy, and then he is gone.

Yet the early Christian world did not forget Matthias so easily. In the first several centuries of the Common Era, before the boundaries of orthodoxy had hardened into the walls we recognize today, a rich and varied literature circulated among Christian communities across the Mediterranean world and beyond. These texts told stories that the canonical scriptures left untold. They filled in the silences. They imagined the inner lives of the apostles, the nature of the divine encounters they experienced, and the cosmic dramas that unfolded as the message of the risen Christ spread into territories that the canonical Acts barely mentions. Among these texts was a document known to scholars and church fathers alike as the Acts of Matthias.

This book is about that document — its origins, its contents, its theological world, and its astonishing survival, however fragmentary, across the centuries. It is also, inevitably, about the world that produced it: a world of competing visions of Christianity, of gnostic speculation and mystical encounter, of missionary danger and divine intervention, of communities that understood the apostolic message in ways that would later be condemned as heresy but that, in their own time and place, represented living, breathing expressions of faith. To read this text — or what remains of it, and what can be reconstructed of it — is to step into a version of early Christianity that most modern readers have never encountered, and to meet an apostle who has been waiting, in silence, for a very long time.

The question of why certain early Christian texts survived and others did not is one of the most fascinating puzzles in the history of religion. It is tempting to imagine the process as purely theological — that the texts which best expressed authentic apostolic teaching were preserved, while those that deviated from the truth were suppressed or simply fell out of use. But the history of canon formation is far messier than that. Survival depended on geography, on the political fortunes of particular Christian communities, on the tastes and priorities of individual bishops and scholars, on the accidents of manuscript transmission, and on the sheer physical durability of the materials on which texts were written. A papyrus scroll buried in the dry sands of Egypt might outlast a beautifully produced codex stored in a library that was later burned. A text condemned by one church father might be quietly preserved by another who found it useful for different purposes.

The Acts of Matthias occupies a particularly interesting position in this landscape of survival and loss. It is attested — referenced, quoted, and discussed — in enough early Christian sources to establish that it genuinely existed and circulated widely. At the same time, the full text has not come down to us in the way that, say, the Gospel of Thomas emerged from the sands of Nag Hammadi in 1945, intact and legible. What we have instead is a complex web of fragments, references, parallel traditions, and later retellings that together allow us to reconstruct, with varying degrees of confidence, the shape and content of the original narrative. Working with this text is an exercise in historical detective work, in reading between the lines of other documents, and in the kind of patient, careful scholarship that has characterized the best work in the field of New Testament apocrypha over the past century and a half.

It is worth pausing here to say something about the word 'apocryphal,' because it carries a great deal of baggage that can distort our reading before we even begin. In popular usage, 'apocryphal' has come to mean something like 'probably not true' or 'of doubtful authenticity' — we speak of apocryphal stories about historical figures meaning stories that are almost certainly legendary. In its technical, scholarly usage, however, the word means something quite different. The New Testament apocrypha are simply early Christian texts that were not included in the canonical New Testament. Their exclusion tells us something about the priorities and decisions of the communities and councils that shaped the canon, but it does not, by itself, tell us anything about their historical value, their theological interest, or their importance for understanding the diversity of early Christianity. Some apocryphal texts are extraordinarily early and may preserve traditions that are as old as, or older than, some canonical materials. Others are later compositions that reflect the concerns and controversies of their own time. Most are somewhere in between, and the Acts of Matthias is no exception.

The scholarly study of texts like this one has undergone a genuine revolution over the past several decades. For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the apocryphal acts of the apostles were studied primarily as curiosities — as evidence of popular piety, folk religion, or heterodox speculation that the mainstream church had rightly set aside. The great German scholars who dominated the field tended to treat these texts as secondary, derivative, and theologically suspect. But beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century, and accelerating dramatically after the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library and the Dead Sea Scrolls reoriented the entire field of early Christian studies, scholars began to take these texts far more seriously. They recognized that the apocryphal acts, including the Acts of Andrew, the Acts of Thomas, the Acts of John, and the fragmentary Acts of Matthias, were not marginal documents but central witnesses to the extraordinary diversity of early Christian experience.

This shift in scholarly perspective matters enormously for how we read the text that follows. We are not reading a forgery or a fraud. We are not reading a document that was suppressed because it was obviously false or obviously harmful. We are reading a text that emerged from a genuine community of faith, that addressed real questions about the nature of the divine, the meaning of the apostolic mission, and the experience of encounter with the sacred. The fact that it was eventually excluded from the canon — or, more precisely, that it was never seriously considered for inclusion — reflects the historical contingencies of canon formation, not a definitive judgment on its spiritual or historical worth.

Chapter 1

About that time all the apostles had gathered together in one place and divided the countries among themselves by casting lots, so that each might go to the region that fell to him. By lot it fell to Matthias to set out for the country of the man-eaters. The men of that city neither ate bread nor drank wine, but fed on human flesh and drank human blood. Every stranger who came into their city they seized, gouged out his eyes, and gave him a drug to drink that had been prepared by sorcery and magic. From drinking the drug his heart was changed and his mind was driven out of its right state.

When Matthias came to the gate of their city, the men of the city seized him and thrust out his eyes. After putting them out they made him drink the drug of their magical deception, led him away to the prison, and set grass beside him to eat. But he would not eat it. For when he had taken their drug, his heart was not changed nor his mind deranged; instead he kept praying to God, weeping and saying: Lord Jesus Christ, for whose sake we have forsaken all things and followed you, knowing that you are the helper of all who hope in you — look now and see what they have done to your servant Matthias, how they have brought me down to the level of the beasts. You are the one who knows all things. If you have ordained that the wicked men of this city should devour me, I will not by any means flee from what you have appointed. Grant me at least, O Lord, the light of my eyes, so that I may see what the wicked men of this city intend for me. Do not forsake me, O my Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give me over to this bitter death.

While Matthias was praying thus in the prison, a light shone, and out of the light came a voice saying: Beloved Matthias, receive your sight. And immediately he received his sight. Then the voice came again and said: Take courage, Matthias, and do not be afraid; for I will not forsake you. I will deliver you from all danger — not you alone, but all your brothers who are with you — for I am with you everywhere and at all times. Remain here twenty-seven days for the building up of many souls; after that I will send Andrew to you, and he will lead you out of this prison, you and all who are there with you. Having said this, the Savior said once more to Matthias, Peace be with you, Matthias, and went up into heaven. Then Matthias, watching him go, said: Lord, let your grace remain with me, O my Lord Jesus.

So Matthias sat down in the prison and sang. When the executioners came into the prison to bring out the men to be eaten, Matthias shut his eyes so that they would not see that his sight had been restored. The executioners came to him, read the ticket tied to his hand, and said among themselves: Three more days, and we shall bring this one out of the prison as well and kill him. For with every man they seized, they noted the day of his capture and tied a ticket to his right hand, so that they could keep track of when the thirty days were complete.

When the twenty-seven days since Matthias had been seized were fulfilled, the Lord appeared in the country where Andrew was teaching and said to him: Rise up and go with your disciples to the country of the man-eaters, and bring Matthias out of that place; for in three days the men of the city will bring him out and kill him for their food. Andrew answered and said: My Lord, I cannot complete the journey there within the three days that remain. Send your angel quickly to bring him out, for you know, Lord, that I too am flesh and cannot travel there so swiftly. And the Lord said to Andrew: Obey him who made you, him who is able to speak a single word and have that city removed from its place with all who dwell in it, for I command the horns of the winds and they drive it where I will. But rise up early, go down to the sea with your disciples, and you will find a boat on the shore. Go aboard with your disciples. Having said this, the Savior added: Peace be with you, Andrew, and with all who are with you. And he went up into heaven.

Andrew rose up early and went down to the sea with his disciples. When they came to the shore he saw a small boat, and in the boat three men sitting. For the Lord had prepared the boat by his own power, and it was he himself who sat there in human form as the pilot; and he had brought two angels whom he caused to appear as men, and they sat in the boat with him. When Andrew saw the boat and the three men in it, he was filled with very great joy. He went up to them and said: Where are you going, brothers, in this little boat? The Lord answered: We are going to the country of the man-eaters. Andrew looked at Jesus but did not recognize him, for Jesus was concealing his divine nature and appeared to Andrew as an ordinary pilot. Jesus, hearing Andrew say that he too was going to the country of the man-eaters, said to him: Every man avoids that city — how is it that you are going there? Andrew answered: We have a small piece of business to carry out there and must see it through. If you are willing, do us the kindness of taking us to the country of the man-eaters, since that is where you are headed as well. Jesus answered: Come on board.

Andrew said: I want to explain something to you, young man, before we come on board your boat. Jesus said: Say what you will. Andrew said: We have no passage-money to give you, and we have not even bread for our own nourishment. Jesus answered: How then are you setting out without passage-money and without bread for your nourishment? Andrew said to Jesus: Listen, brother — do not think it is out of arrogance that we give you no passage-money. We are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, the good God. He chose us twelve for himself and gave us this commandment: When you go out to preach, carry no money on the road, no bread, no bag, no sandals, no staff, and no second coat. If you are willing to do us this kindness, brother, tell us so at once; if not, let us know, and we will go and find another boat. Jesus answered and said to Andrew: If this is the commandment you received and you are keeping it, come on board my boat with all joy. I would far rather have you, the disciples of him who is called Jesus, on board my boat than those who pay me in silver and gold; for it is a true honor to me that an apostle of the Lord should sail in my boat. Andrew answered: Brother, may the Lord grant you glory and honor. And Andrew went on board the boat with his disciples.

And having gone on board, he sat down by the boat's sail. Jesus said to one of the angels: Rise and go down to the hold of the boat, and bring up three loaves, so that the men may eat, in case they are hungry from having come to us off a long journey. The angel rose and went down to the hold of the boat, and brought up three loaves, as the Lord had commanded him, and gave them to the men. Then Jesus said to Andrew: Rise up, brother, with your friends; eat something, so that you may be strong enough to bear the tossing of the sea. Andrew answered and said to his disciples: My children, this man has shown us great kindness. Stand up, then, and eat some bread, so that you may be strong enough to bear the tossing of the sea. But his disciples could not answer him a word, for they were in distress because of the sea. Then Jesus urged Andrew to eat some bread himself along with his disciples. Andrew answered and said to Jesus, not knowing that it was Jesus: Brother, may the Lord give you heavenly bread out of His kingdom. But bear with me, brother; for you can see that the children are in distress because of the sea. Jesus answered and said to Andrew: Surely the brethren are simply unaccustomed to the sea; but ask them whether they would rather go ashore and leave you here until you have finished your business and come back to them. Then Andrew said to his disciples: My children, do you wish to go to land and leave me here until I have finished the business for which I was sent? They answered and said to Andrew: If we go away from you, may we become strangers to all the good things the Lord has prepared for us. We are with you, therefore, wherever you may go.

Jesus answered and said to Andrew: If you are truly a disciple of Him who is called Jesus, tell your disciples the miracles your Teacher performed, so that their souls may rejoice and they may forget their fear of the sea; for we are about to take the boat away from the land. And immediately Jesus said to one of the angels: Let go the boat. And he let the boat go from the land. Then Jesus came and sat down beside the rudder and steered the boat. Andrew exhorted and comforted his disciples, saying: My children, who have given your lives to the Lord, do not be afraid; for the Lord will never forsake you. There was a time when I was alone with our Lord, and we went on board a boat with Him, and He lay down to sleep in it, testing us, for He was not truly asleep. A great wind arose, and the sea grew stormy, so that the waves surged up under the sail of the boat, and we were seized with great fear. Then the Lord stood up and rebuked the winds, and there was a calm over the sea; for all things feared Him, as having been made by Him. Do not be afraid, therefore, my children, for the Lord Jesus will never forsake us. Having said this, the holy Andrew prayed in his heart that his disciples might be led to sleep. And as Andrew was praying, his disciples fell asleep.

Andrew turned round to the Lord, not knowing that it was the Lord, and said to Him: Tell me, friend, and show me the secret of your steering; for I have never seen any man steer through the sea as I now see you doing. I have sailed the sea for sixteen years, and this is the seventeenth, and I have never seen such skill; for truly the boat moves as though it were on dry land. Show me your skill, young man. Jesus answered and said to Andrew: We too have often sailed the sea and been in danger; but since you are a disciple of Him called Jesus, the sea has recognized that you are righteous, and has grown calm, and has not lifted its waves against the boat. Then Andrew cried out with a loud voice, saying: I thank You, my Lord Jesus Christ, that I have met a man who glorifies Your name.

Jesus answered and said: O Andrew, tell me, you who are a disciple of Him called Jesus, why the unbelieving Jews did not believe in Him, saying that He was not God but merely a man. Show me this, O disciple of Him called Jesus; for I have heard that He revealed His Godhead to His disciples. Andrew answered and said: Truly, brother, He showed us that He was God. Do not suppose, then, that He is merely a man. For He made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. Jesus answered and said: How then did the Jews not believe Him? Did He perhaps not perform miracles before them? Andrew said: Have you not heard of the miracles He performed before them? He made the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear; He cleansed lepers, He changed water into wine; and taking five loaves and two fishes, He made a great crowd recline on the grass, and having blessed the food, He gave it to them to eat; and those who ate were five thousand men, and they were filled, and they gathered up what was left over — twelve baskets of fragments. And after all these things they still did not believe Him.

Jesus answered and said to Andrew: Perhaps He performed these miracles before the people but not before the chief priests, and that is why they did not believe Him.

Andrew answered and said: No, brother, He performed them before the chief priests as well, not only openly but also in secret, and still they did not believe Him. Jesus answered and said: What are the miracles He performed in secret? Tell me. Andrew answered and said: O man, who have such an inquiring spirit, why do you put me to the test? Jesus answered and said: I do not put you to the test by saying this, O disciple of Him called Jesus; but my soul rejoices and exults, and not mine alone, but every soul that hears of the wonders of Jesus.

And Andrew answered and said: O child, the Lord shall fill your soul with all joy and all good, as you have persuaded me now to relate to you the miracles which our Lord did in secret.

It came to pass that as we, the twelve disciples, were going with our Lord into a temple of the Gentiles, so that He might make known to us the ignorance of the devil, the chief priests saw us following Jesus and said to us: O wretches, why do you walk with this man who says he is the Son of God? Do you mean to say that God has a son? Which of you has ever seen God associating with a woman? Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter, whose mother is Mary, and whose brothers are James and Simon? When we heard these words, our hearts grew faint. And Jesus, knowing that our hearts were giving way, took us into a desert place and did great miracles before us, and revealed to us all His Godhead. Then we went back to the chief priests and said: Come and see for yourselves — He has persuaded us.

The chief priests came and went with us, and when we had entered the temple of the Gentiles, Jesus showed us a vision of heaven, so that we might know whether these things were true or not. Thirty men of the people and four chief priests had come in along with us. Jesus looked to the right and to the left of the temple and saw two sculptured sphinxes, one on the right and one on the left. He turned to us and said: Behold the sign of the cross, for these are like the cherubim and the seraphim that are in heaven. Then Jesus turned to the sphinx on the right and said to it: I say to you, you image of that which is in heaven, which the hands of craftsmen have sculpted — be separated from your place, come down, and answer and convict these chief priests. Show them whether I am God or man.

And immediately the sphinx moved from its place, and taking on a human voice, said: O foolish sons of Israel, the blindness of your own hearts has not been enough for you — you also wish to blind others as you yourselves are blind, saying that God is man. Yet it is He who in the beginning fashioned man and breathed His breath into all; He who gave motion to things that could not move; He who called Abraham, who loved his son Isaac, who brought his beloved Jacob back to his own land. He is the Judge of the living and the dead; He prepares great blessings for those who obey Him and punishment for those who refuse to believe. Do not think that because I am a stone idol you should disregard what I say, for I tell you that the sacred places of your synagogue are more excellent than this temple. We are stones, and the priests have given us nothing but the name of a god. The priests who serve this temple purify themselves out of fear of the demons — if they have lain with women, they purify themselves for seven days before they dare enter, because of the name that has been given us, that we are a god. But you, when you have committed fornication, take up the law of God, go into the synagogue of God, purify yourselves, and read — yet you do not reverence the glorious words of God. Because of this I say to you that the holy things will purify your synagogues, so that they too may become churches of His only begotten Son. With these words the sphinx fell silent.

And we said to the chief priests: Now you are bound to believe, for even the stones have convicted you. But the Jews answered and said: These stones speak by magic — do you really think it is a god? If you examine carefully what the stone has said, you will see the deception in it. Where did he find Abraham, or how did he see him? Abraham died many years before he was born — how can he claim to know him?

Then Jesus turned again to the image and said: Because these men will not believe that I have spoken with Abraham, go to the land of the Canaanites, to the double cave in the field of Mamre where the body of Abraham lies, and cry out before the tomb, saying: Abraham, Abraham, whose body rests in this tomb and whose soul is in paradise — He who fashioned man, who made you His friend from the beginning, speaks to you thus: Rise up, you and your son Isaac and your son's son Jacob, and come to the temples of the Jebusites, so that we may convict the chief priests and make them know that I am acquainted with you and you with me. When the sphinx heard these words, she immediately set off in the sight of us all, journeyed to the land of the Canaanites and to the field of Mamre, and cried out before the tomb as God had commanded her. At once the twelve patriarchs came forth alive from the tomb and said to her: To which of us have you been sent? The sphinx answered: I have been sent to the three patriarchs, to bear witness; the rest of you, go back in and rest until the time of the resurrection. Hearing this, they returned to the tomb and fell asleep. Then the three patriarchs set out with the sphinx and came to Jesus, and convicted the chief priests. Jesus said to them: Go back to your places — and they went. He said also to the image: Go up to your place — and at once she went up and stood in her place. He did many other miracles besides, and still they did not believe Him. If I were to recount them all, you would not be able to bear it. But Jesus answered and said: I can bear it, for I listen carefully to words that are profitable.

And as the boat was drawing near to land, Jesus bowed His head upon one of His angels and was still. Andrew too ceased speaking, and he likewise rested his head upon one of his disciples and fell asleep. Then Jesus said to His angels: Spread your hands beneath him, and carry Andrew and his disciples, and set them down outside the city of the man-eaters; then lay them on the ground and return to me. The angels did as Jesus commanded, and then returned to Him, and He ascended into the heavens with His angels.

And when morning came, Andrew woke and looked around to find himself sitting on the ground. He looked over and saw his disciples sleeping on the ground as well, and he woke them and said: Rise up, my children, and understand the great thing that has happened to us — know that the Lord was with us in that boat, and we did not recognize him. He transformed himself into the likeness of a pilot and humbled himself and appeared to us as an ordinary man, putting us to the test. Then Andrew, collecting himself, said: Lord, I recognized the excellence of your words, but you did not reveal yourself to me, and so I did not know you.

His disciples answered him: Father Andrew, do not think that we knew who you were speaking with in the boat, for we were weighed down by a deep and heavy sleep. But eagles came down out of the heavens and lifted up our souls and carried them away into paradise, and there we saw great wonders. We beheld our Lord Jesus sitting on a throne of glory with all the angels gathered around him. We also saw Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the saints, and David was praising him with a song on his harp. And we saw you there, the twelve apostles, standing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and outside your circle stood twelve angels, one behind each of you, and each angel was like you in appearance. And we heard the Lord say to the angels: Listen to the apostles in all things, whatever they ask of you. These are the things we saw, father Andrew, until you woke us, and then the angels, who had appeared to us as eagles, brought our souls back into our bodies.

When Andrew heard this, he rejoiced with great joy that his disciples had been counted worthy to behold such wonderful things. He looked up into heaven and said: Appear to me, Lord Jesus Christ, for I know that you are not far from your servants. Pardon me, Lord, for what I have done — I looked upon you as a man in the boat and spoke with you as with a man. Now therefore, Lord, reveal yourself to me in this place.

When Andrew had said this, Jesus appeared to him in the likeness of a most beautiful young child. And Jesus answered and said: Greetings, Andrew! Andrew beheld him and fell down in worship, saying: Pardon me, Lord Jesus Christ — I saw you as a man on the sea and spoke with you as such. In what way have I sinned, my Lord Jesus, that you did not reveal yourself to me on the sea? And Jesus answered and said to Andrew: You have not sinned, but I did this because you said you would not be able to reach the city of the man-eaters in three days. I showed you that I am able to do all things and to appear to anyone in whatever form I choose. Now rise up and go into the city to Matthias, and bring him out of the prison, along with all the strangers who are with him. For I tell you plainly, Andrew, what you must suffer before you enter this city. They will heap tortures and insults upon you, and scatter your flesh in the roads and streets, and your blood will flow upon the ground — yet they will not be able to kill you. Endure it, just as you saw me beaten, insulted, and crucified, for there are those in this city who are destined to believe. Having said this, the Savior ascended into the heavens.

Andrew went into the city with his disciples, and no one could see them. When he came to the prison, he saw seven warders standing at the gate on guard. He prayed silently within himself, and they fell down and died. He marked the gate with the sign of the cross, and it opened of its own accord. He went inside with his disciples and found Matthias sitting there, singing. When Matthias saw him he stood up, and they greeted each other with a holy kiss. Andrew said to him: Brother, how did you come to be here? In three more days they would have brought you out to be eaten. Where are the great mysteries you have been taught, and the wonderful things we have believed? Matthias said to him: Did you not hear the Lord say, I will send you like sheep into the midst of wolves? They brought me straight into this prison, and I prayed to the Lord, and he said to me: Stay here twenty-seven days, and I will send Andrew to you, and he will bring you out of the prison. And now, behold, it has come to pass exactly as the Lord said.

Then Andrew looked around and saw three men locked up, eating grass, naked. He beat his breast and said: See, O Lord, what these men are suffering — they have been made like mindless animals. And he turned and spoke to Satan: Woe to you, devil, enemy of God, and to your angels, for these strangers here have done nothing to you. How have you brought this punishment upon them? How long will you make war against the human race? You drove Adam out of paradise and entangled mankind in transgression, and the Lord was enraged and brought the flood to sweep humanity away. And now you have appeared in this city as well, to make its people eat other men, so that they too may come to a shameful and ruinous end — thinking to yourself that God will destroy the work of his own hands. Have you not heard that God said he would never again bring a flood upon the earth? If any punishment is being prepared, it is for the purpose of taking vengeance upon you.

Then Andrew stood up, and he and Matthias prayed together. After the prayer, Andrew laid his hands on the faces of the blind men who were in the prison, and immediately they all received their sight. Then he laid his hand upon their hearts, and their minds were restored to human reason. Andrew said to them: Rise up and go to the lower part of the city. You will find a great fig tree along the way — sit under it and eat of its fruit until I come to you. If I am delayed in coming, you will still find plenty of food, for the fruit will not fail from that tree. As fast as you eat it, it will produce more and nourish you, as the Lord has said. They answered him: Come with us, our master, for fear that the wicked men of this city may see us again and lock us up and inflict even greater and more dreadful tortures on us than before. Andrew answered them: Go, for I tell you truly that as you walk, not a dog will so much as bark at you.

There were in all two hundred and seventy men and forty-nine women whom Andrew released from the prison. They went as the blessed Andrew had told them. He then sent Matthias out through the eastern gate of the city together with Andrew's disciples. Andrew commanded a cloud, and the cloud lifted up Matthias and the disciples of Andrew and set them down on the mountain where Peter was teaching, and they remained there beside him.

And Andrew, having gone out of the prison, walked through the city. He saw a bronze pillar with a statue standing on top of it, and he went and sat down behind that pillar to wait and see what would happen. The executioners went to the prison to bring out the men for their food, as was the custom, and they found the prison doors standing open and the guards who had been keeping watch lying dead on the ground. They went at once and reported this to the rulers of the city, saying: We found the prison open, and when we went inside there was no one there — only the guards lying dead on the ground. When the rulers heard this, they said among themselves: What can have happened? Surely no one has broken into the city prison, killed the warders, and carried off the prisoners? Then they said to the executioners: Go to the prison and bring out the dead men, so that we may eat them today. Tomorrow we will go and gather all the old men of the city and have them cast lots among themselves until seven are chosen, and we will kill seven each day. They will serve us for food until we can select young men and put them in boats as sailors to go out to the surrounding countries, attack them, and bring men back here to feed us.

The executioners went to the prison and brought out the seven dead men. There was an oven built in the middle of the city, and inside it stood a large trough where they killed the men and let their blood run down into it, and they would draw from the blood and drink it. They brought the men and put them into the trough. As the executioners were raising their hands against them, Andrew heard a voice saying: Andrew, look at what is happening in this city. Andrew looked, and prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, you who commanded me to come to this city, do not allow the people of this city to do this evil, but let the knives fall from the hands of these wicked men. And at once the knives fell from the wicked men's hands, and their hands were turned to stone. The rulers, seeing what had happened, wept and said: Woe to us — these must be the sorcerers who broke into the prison and freed the men, and now they have bewitched these men as well. What are we to do? Let us go and gather the old men of the city, for we are hungry.

They went and gathered them together and found two hundred and seventeen. They brought them before the rulers, who had them cast lots, and the lot fell on seven old men. One of those chosen by lot spoke up and said to the officers: I beg you — I have a son; take him and kill him in my place, and let me go. The officers answered: We cannot take your son without first bringing the matter to our superiors. They went and told the rulers, and the rulers said: If he gives us his son in his own place, let him go. The officers went back and told the old man. The old man answered: I also have a daughter as well as my son; take them both and kill them, only let me go. And he handed his children over to the officers to be killed. The children wept together and pleaded with the officers, saying: We beg you, do not kill us while we are still so small; let us grow to our full size, and then kill us. For it was the custom of that city not to bury the dead but to eat them. The officers paid no attention to the children and showed them no pity, but carried them weeping and pleading to the trough.

As they were leading the children away to kill them, Andrew watched what was happening and wept. Weeping, he looked up to heaven and said: Lord Jesus Christ, just as you heard me in the case of the dead men and did not allow them to be eaten, so hear me now, and do not let the executioners put these children to death, but let the knives fall loose from their hands. And at once the knives came loose and fell from the executioners' hands. When this happened, the executioners were seized with great fear. Andrew, seeing what had come to pass, gave glory to the Lord for hearing him in everything he asked.

The rulers, seeing what had happened, wept bitterly and said: Woe to us — what are we to do? Then the devil appeared in the form of an old man and began to speak in the midst of the crowd: Woe to you! You are starving to death with nothing to eat. What good are sheep and oxen to you? They will not be nearly enough. Rise up and search this city for a stranger who has come here, a man named Andrew, and kill him. If you do not, he will not let you continue this practice any longer, for it was he who freed the men from the prison. He is certainly in this city, though you have not seen him. Rise up now and search for him, so that you may be able to gather your food again.

Andrew saw the devil speaking to the crowd, but the devil could not see the blessed Andrew. Andrew spoke to the devil and said: You most wicked Belial, enemy of every living creature — my Lord Jesus Christ will cast you down into the abyss. The devil heard this and said: I hear your voice and I know your voice, but I do not know where you are standing. Andrew answered: Why then have you been called Amael? Is it not because you are blind and cannot see any of the saints? When the devil heard this, he said to the citizens: Look around now for the one who is speaking to me, for he is the man. The citizens ran in every direction, shut the city gates, and searched for the blessed Andrew, but could not find him. Then the Lord appeared to Andrew and said: Andrew, rise up and show yourself to them, so that they may learn my power and the powerlessness of the devil who is at work among them.

Then Andrew stood up and said in the presence of everyone: I am Andrew, the one you are looking for. The crowds rushed at him and seized him, saying: What you did to us, we will do to you. They debated among themselves: How shall we kill him? They said to one another: If we cut off his head, his death will not be painful enough; and if we burn him, we cannot eat his body. Then one of them, possessed by the devil, spoke up and said to the crowd: Let us do to him what he did to us. Let us fasten a rope around his neck and drag him through every street and lane of the city, and when he is dead we will divide his body among us. They did as he said. They tied a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets and lanes of the city, and the flesh of the blessed Andrew was torn away on the ground, and his blood poured out like water. When evening came they threw him into prison with his hands bound behind him, and he was in terrible agony.

In the morning they brought him out again, fastened a rope around his neck, and dragged him through the streets once more. Again his flesh was torn away on the ground and his blood flowed. The blessed one wept and prayed: Do not forsake me, my Lord Jesus Christ, for I know that you are never far from your servants. And as he prayed, the devil walked behind him and called out to the crowd: Strike him on the mouth so that he cannot speak.

When evening came they took him back to prison again with his hands bound behind him and left him there until the next day. Then the devil gathered seven demons whom the blessed Andrew had cast out of the surrounding regions, and they went into the prison and stood before him, intending to kill him. The demons said to Andrew: Now you have fallen into our hands. Where is your glory and your pride now — you who set yourself against us, dishonored us, exposed our deeds to people in every land and country, and laid waste our shrines and temples so that no sacrifices would be offered there? For all this we will kill you, just as your teacher Jesus was killed, and just as John was beheaded by Herod.

They stood before Andrew intending to kill him, but when they saw the seal upon his forehead that the Lord had given him, they were afraid and did not come near him, but fled. The devil said to them: Why have you run from him, my children, without killing him? The demons answered: We cannot kill him — kill him yourself if you are able. We knew him before he came into this suffering and humiliation. Then one of the demons said: We cannot kill him, but come, let us at least mock him in his misery. So the demons came and stood before him and taunted him. The blessed Andrew heard them and wept, and then a voice came to him saying: Andrew, why are you weeping? It was the devil's voice, disguised. Andrew answered: I am weeping because God commanded me to be patient toward them. The devil said: If you have any power, use it. Andrew answered: Is this why you do these things to me? But God forbid that I should disobey my Lord's commandment. If the Lord gives me authority in this city, I will punish you as you deserve. When they heard this, they fled.

In the morning they brought him out again, tied a rope around his neck, and dragged him through the streets. Again his flesh was torn away on the ground and his blood poured out like water. As he was being dragged along, the blessed Andrew wept and said: Lord Jesus Christ, do not be angry with me. You know, Lord, what the enemy has done to me together with his demons. These torments are enough, my Lord. I have now been dragged through the streets for three days. But remember, Lord, that you hung on the cross for three hours and cried out to the Father: My Father, why have you forsaken me? Where are the words you spoke to us, Lord, to strengthen us as we walked with you, when you said: Not a single hair of your head shall be lost? Look then, Lord, at what has become of my flesh and the hair of my head. Then Jesus said to Andrew: Andrew, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Turn around, Andrew, and look at your flesh that has fallen away, and at your hair, and see what has become of them. Andrew turned and saw great trees springing up out of the ground, bearing fruit, and he glorified God.

When evening came they took him back and threw him into prison with his hands bound behind him, and he was utterly exhausted. The men of the city said to one another: Perhaps he will die in the night and we will not find him alive the next day, for he was faint and his body was nearly spent.

Then the Lord appeared in the prison and, stretching out his hand, said to Andrew: Give me your hand and rise up, made whole. Andrew looked up at the Lord Jesus, took his hand, and rose up completely healed. He fell down and worshipped him, saying: I thank you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for coming so swiftly to my aid. Then Andrew looked toward the center of the prison and saw a pillar standing there, and on top of the pillar stood an alabaster statue. Andrew went to the statue, spread out his hands seven times, and said to the pillar and the statue upon it: Fear the sign of the cross, which heaven and earth hold in awe. Let the statue on this pillar pour forth great quantities of water from its mouth, until all who are in this city have been brought to judgment. And do not say, I am stone and unworthy to praise the Lord, for the Lord fashioned us from the earth, and you are pure, for out of you he gave the tablets of the law. When the blessed Andrew had said this, the stone statue immediately poured water from its mouth in a great torrent, as though from a canal. The water rose high upon the ground, and it was exceedingly bitter, eating into the flesh of the people.

When morning came, the people of the city saw what had happened and began to flee, saying to themselves: We are finished — we are dying. The water killed their livestock and their children, and they fled from the city. Then Andrew prayed: Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I have trusted that this miracle would come upon this city, do not abandon me now. Send Michael your archangel in a cloud of fire to form a wall around the city, so that no one can escape. At once a cloud of fire came down and encircled the city like a wall, and the water rose to the necks of the people and tormented them terribly. They wept and cried: All this has come upon us because of the stranger in the prison. Let us go and release him, or we will die.

They went out crying aloud: God of the stranger, take this water away from us. The apostle knew they were in great distress, and said to the alabaster statue: Stop the water — they have repented. And I tell you this: if the people of this city believe, I will build a church and place you in it, because of the service you have done me. The statue stopped flowing and poured out no more water. The people came to the doors of the prison and cried out: Have mercy on us, God of the stranger. Do not deal with us according to our unbelief and according to what we have done to this man, but take this water away. Then Andrew came out of the prison, and the water parted and ran aside from the feet of the blessed Andrew. When the whole crowd saw him, they all cried out: Have mercy on us.

Then the old man who had handed over his own children to be killed in his place came and fell at the feet of the blessed Andrew, saying: Have mercy on me. The holy Andrew answered him: I am astonished that you say, Have mercy on me, when you yourself had no mercy on your own children but gave them up to be slaughtered in your place. Therefore I tell you: when this water recedes, you will go down into the abyss, together with the fourteen executioners who have been killing people every day. Andrew then went to the place of the trough where the men used to be slaughtered. The blessed one looked up to heaven and prayed before the whole crowd, and the earth opened and swallowed the water, along with the old man. He was carried down into the abyss together with the executioners. When the people saw what had happened, they were seized with great fear and began to say: This man is from God, and now he will kill us for all the suffering we caused him. Look — what he said would happen to the executioners and the old man has come true. He will command the fire and it will burn us. Andrew heard this and said to them: Do not be afraid, my children. I will not send you to Hades as well. Those men were taken so that you might believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then the holy Andrew ordered that all who had died in the water be brought back. But they could not bring them all, for a great multitude had died — men, women, children, and livestock alike.

Then Andrew prayed, and they all came back to life. After this he drew out the plan for a church and had it built. He baptized the people and gave them the ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: Hold fast to these, so that you may come to know the mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ. They all begged him: We ask you to stay with us a few more days, so that we may be filled from your fountain, for we are newly planted. He did not grant their request, but said: I must go first to my disciples. The children followed after him weeping and pleading, along with the men, and they threw ashes on their heads. Still he would not yield, but said: I will go to my disciples, and after that I will come back to you. And he went on his way.

Then the Lord Jesus Christ came down in the form of a beautiful young child and met Andrew on the road, and said: Andrew, why have you left them so soon, without letting them bear fruit? Have you no compassion for the children who followed after you, and for the men who begged you to stay a few more days? Their crying and their weeping has risen up to heaven. Go back now, return to the city, and remain there seven days, until I have confirmed their souls in the faith. After that you will go to the country of the barbarians, you and your disciples. When you enter that city, you will proclaim my Gospel and bring up the men who are in the abyss. Do what I command you.

Then Andrew turned and went back into the city, saying: I thank you, my Lord Jesus Christ, who desires to save every soul, for not allowing me to leave this city in my anger. When he came back into the city, the people saw him and rejoiced with exceeding great joy. He stayed there seven days, teaching them and confirming them in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the seven days were fulfilled, as the blessed Andrew was departing, everyone gathered around him, from the youngest child to the oldest elder, and sent him on his way, saying: There is one God, the God of Andrew, and one Lord Jesus Christ, who alone does wonders. To him be glory and power forever. Amen.