The Apocryphal Acts of Andrew

The Apocryphal Acts of Andrew' is the first modern collection of studies on the most important aspects of the Acts of Andrew, an early Christian kind of novel, which has only partially been preserved in Greek, Latin and Coptic. In addition to a thorough discussion of its date and place of origin, the collection of essays discusses many aspects of the Acts of Andrew, such as its interest in magic, martyrdom and the place of the devil, its preoccupation with scatology, and its interest in eroticism. It looks at its relationship with Poimandres, with the pagan novels and with other Christian writings, in particular the Acts of John and the Acts of Andrew and Mathias. Much attention is paid to spiritual climate of the Acts of Andrew and its connections with Platonism and gnosticism. Finally, it analyses the Armenian translation, which is shown to be an important witness to the original text.