Audiobook: Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas

The full title of this book, published in 1909, is The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. As early as the second century, numerous legends concerning the fates of the Christian apostles were in circulation. These Acts, widely regarded as originating circa 150 CE, are among the earliest accounts still in existence of the lives, preaching and martyrdoms of the apostles Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas. They are written in a fantastic and romantic style, and although they were influential in later Christian conceptions of these apostles, they are historically worthless as biographies. They do, however, reflect many of the beliefs of earliest, pre-Nicene Christianity.

Bernhard Pick translated the most complete versions of the Apocryphal Acts available to him in 1909. Although more complete manuscripts of these Acts have since been discovered, Pick was sometimes working with incomplete texts. Several large lacunae, or gaps in the text, are present in Pick’s translation, and this LibriVox recording has attempted to make these lacunae obvious without being intrusive. The Acts of Andrew, in particular, is fragmentary. Also included in this recording are Bernhard Pick’s introductions to each Acts, which reflect the state of scholarly opinion at the time of publication. (Summary by JoeD)