The Development of the Canon of the New Testament

Acts of Andrew (150-200 CE)

The oldest direct mention of the Acts of Andrew is by Eusebius who lists it among the writings that are written by heretics and are absurd and impious. The Coptic Papyrus Utrecht I, which contains a translation of a section from the Acts of Andrew, confirms that it was known in Egypt in the 4th century (the papyrus is dated to this period). In his Panarion Epiphanius reports that the writing was used by the Encratites, the Apostolici, and the Origenists. The Acts of Andrew was probably written in the second half of the 2nd century. The place of origin is unknown.

Between the 3rd and the 9th century it became known and read everywhere, in Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Spain. It was particularly successful in circles of a dualistic and ascetic tendency, especially among the Manicheans and Priscillianists. It was condemned in the Decretum Gelasianum, but this did not result in its disappearance. Rather it lived on in the form of revisions and extracts. The trail vanishes in the West in the 6th century, in the East in the 9th.

The Acts of Andrew has not come down to us in the primary form of their original Greek text. The English translation in [Schneemelcher] v. 2 pp. 118-151 is taken from these witnesses:

Liber de miraculis by Gregory of Tours	complete except for suppressed speeches
P. Utrech 1 (Coptic)	corresponds to c. 18 of the previous work
Armenian Martyrdom	final part
5 Greek recensions	final part
Extracts handed down in Greek	various fragments