Acts of Andrew (Greek fragments and Martyrdom) 1.1–1.18

… with you lies the whole of the weakness. Are you not yet convicted by yourselves, since you do not yet bear his kindness? Let us be ashamed; let us rejoice together within ourselves at his ungrudging fellowship. Let us say to ourselves: Blessed is our race; by whom has it been loved? Blessed is our existence; by whom has it been pitied? We are not some who have been flung to the ground, we who have been known by such a height. We are not of time, to be dissolved afterwards by time. We are not a contrivance of motion, to be destroyed again by itself, nor the cause of a generation that ends in itself. We are, then, those who lay claim to greatness. We are his own, and perhaps of the one who pities. We belong to the better; for this reason we flee from the worse. We belong to the beautiful, through whom we thrust away the shameful; to the righteous, through whom we cast off the unrighteous; to the merciful, through whom we leave the unmerciful; to the one who saves, through whom we have recognized the one who destroys; to the light, through whom we have cast off the darkness; to the One, through whom we have turned away from the many; to the one above the heavens, through whom we have learned what the earthly things are; to the one who abides, through whom we have seen the things that abide. If we choose to speak a worthy thanksgiving, or boldness, or a hymn, or a boast to the God who has pitied us, it is nothing other than to have been known by him.

When he had spoken such things to the brothers, he sent each of them away to his own home, saying to them: "You will never wholly leave me, servants of Christ, because of the love that is in him; nor again shall I be left by you, because of his mediation." And each went away to his own home. Their rejoicing of this kind continued for many days, during which Aegeates had no thought of pursuing the charge against the apostle. So each of them was strengthened then in the hope of the Lord; and all, gathering fearlessly in the prison with Maximilla and Iphidamia and the rest, stayed there continually, sheltered by the covering and grace of the Lord.

One day, while Aegeates was sitting in judgment, the matter of Andrew came into his mind; and like a man gone mad, he left the case he had in hand, rose from the tribunal, and went running to the praetorium, burning with desire for Maximilla and ready to flatter her. But Maximilla had arrived home from the prison before him; and going in to her he said:

"Your parents, Maximilla, considering me worthy to share your life, betrothed me to you as your husband, looking neither to wealth, nor to family, nor to fame, but perhaps to the good sense of my soul. And, to pass over the many things I wished to bring forward to your reproach, both what I suffered from your parents and what you suffered from me in our whole life together, I have come, having left the court, to learn this one thing from you: tell me sensibly. If you would be the woman you were formerly, living with me in the way we know, sleeping with me, having intercourse with me, having children with me, I would treat you well in every respect; more than that, I will release the stranger whom I have in prison. But if you are not willing, I would bring nothing harsh upon you, for I cannot; but him whom you love more than me I will torment all the more. Consider, then, Maximilla, which of the two you wish, and answer me tomorrow; for I am fully armed for this."

Having said this, he went out. And Maximilla again, at the usual hour, came with Iphidamia to Andrew; and placing his hands on her own eyes and then bringing them to her mouth, she began to report to him the whole of Aegeates' demand. And Andrew answered her: "I know, Maximilla, my child, that you yourself are moved to resist the whole proposal of intercourse, wishing to be separated from a foul and filthy life; this has long held sway in your mind, and now you wish my judgment too to bear witness to it. I bear witness, Maximilla: do not do this. Do not be overcome by Aegeates' threat; do not be conquered by his talk; do not fear his shameful counsels; do not be won over by his artful flatteries; do not consent to give yourself up to his filthy sorceries. But endure every torment he brings, looking to us for a little while, and you will see him wholly numbed and withering away, both from you and from all your kin. For the thing I most needed to say to you has come over me, for I do not keep silent, seeing the matter that is being brought about and coming to pass through you: rightly do I see in you Eve repenting, and in me Adam turning back. For what she suffered in ignorance, you now, the soul to whom I address myself, set right by turning back; and what the mind suffered that was brought down with her and slipped away from itself, I set right together with you, who recognize that you are being led upward. For you yourself have healed her deficiency by not suffering the like; and I have completed his imperfection by fleeing to God; what she disobeyed, you have obeyed; what he agreed to, I flee; and the things in which they went astray, we have come to know. For it has been appointed that each should set right his own fall."

Having said these things as I have said them, I would also say what follows: Well done, O nature, being saved, that did not overpower yourself nor hide yourself! Well done, O soul, crying out what you suffered and returning to yourself! Well done, O man, learning what is not yours and hastening toward what is yours! Well done, you who hear what is said! How I perceive you to be greater than anything thought or spoken! How I recognize you to be more powerful than those who seemed to overpower you; more seemly than those who cast you down into shame and led you away into captivity! So, O man, having learned all these things in yourself, that you are immaterial, that you are holy, that you are light, that you are akin to the unbegotten, that you are intellectual, that you are heavenly, that you are translucent, that you are pure, that you are … above the flesh, above the world, above the rulers, above the authorities, over which you truly are: having grasped yourself in your true condition and recovered yourself, consider wherein you excel; and seeing your own face in your essence, having broken all bonds (I do not mean those that concern generation only, but also those beyond generation, whose names, exceedingly great, we have set before you), long to see him who has been shown to you, who did not come into being, whom perhaps you alone, taking courage, will come to know.

These things I said with you in view, Maximilla; for in their force the words reach to you also. In the way that Adam died in Eve by agreeing to her consent, so I too now live in you, who keep the commandment of the Lord and carry yourself across to the dignity of your true being. Trample upon the threats of Aegeates, Maximilla, knowing that we have a God who pities us. And let not his noise move you, but remain chaste. And as for me, let him not only punish me with the tortures that go with these bonds, but let him also throw me to the beasts, and burn me with fire, and hurl me down a cliff. And what of it? Since this body is one, let him use it as he wishes, since it is akin to him.

Again my word is to you, Maximilla. I say to you: do not give yourself up to Aegeates; stand firm against his snares; above all since I, Maximilla, have seen the Lord saying to me: "Andrew, the father of Aegeates, the devil, will release you from this prison." From now on, then, let it be your part to keep yourself chaste and pure, holy, unstained, sincere, free from adultery, unwilling to consent to the talk of the one who is alien to us, unbroken, unshaken, not given to weeping, unwounded, untossed by storm, undivided, unoffended, without sympathy for the works of Cain. For if you do not give yourself up, Maximilla, to what is contrary to these things, I too shall be at rest, though forced in this way to depart from this life for your sake, that is, for my own sake. But if I were driven away from here, I who could perhaps help others of my kin through you, and you were persuaded by the talk of Aegeates and the flatteries of his father the serpent, so as to turn back to your former works, know that I shall be punished on your account, until you yourself recognize that I spurned this life for the sake of a soul that was not worthy of it.

I beg you, then, the wise man, that your mind may remain clear-sighted; I beg you, the mind that is not seen, that it may itself be kept safe. I exhort you: love Jesus; do not be overcome by the worse. Help me too, the man to whom I appeal, so that I may become perfect; help me too, so that you may recognize your true nature. Suffer with me in my suffering, so that you may recognize what I suffer and escape suffering. See what I myself see, and you will be blind to what you see; see what you should, and you will not see what you should not; hear what I say, and cast away what you have heard.

"These things I have said to you, and to everyone who hears, if indeed he will hear. But you, Stratocles," he said, looking at him, "why are you so overcome by many tears, and groan so that all can hear? What is this despondency upon you? What is your great pain, or your great grief? Do you recognize what is being said, and why I pray, my child, that you may be saved? Do you understand to whom the things said have been said? Has each of them laid hold of your mind? Has it touched the thinking part of you? Do I have the one who heard me? Do I find myself in you? Is there someone in you, whom I see as my own, with whom I may converse? Does he love the one who spoke in me, and wish to share with him? Does he want to be made one with him? Is he eager to be made his friend? Does he long to be yoked with him? Does he find some rest in him? Has he somewhere to lay his head? Is anything there opposed to him? Is he roughened? Does he resist? Is he hostile? Does he flee? Is he savage? Does he turn aside? Has he turned away? Does he rush off? Is he weighed down? Does he make war? Does he converse with others? Is he flattered by others? Does he agree with others? Do other things trouble him? Is there anyone within who is alien to me? an adversary? a destroyer? an enemy? a sorcerer? a busybody? a crooked one? a hypocrite? a deceiver? a hater of men? a hater of the word? one like tyrants? a boaster? one puffed up? one raving mad? a kinsman of the serpent? a weapon of the devil? an advocate of fire? one belonging to darkness? Is there anyone in you who will not bear with me, Stratocles, when I say these things? Who is it? Answer! Am I speaking in vain? Have I spoken in vain?" "No," says the man in you, Stratocles, weeping once more.

And Andrew, taking Stratocles by the hand, said: "I have the one I loved. I shall rest upon the one I was waiting for. For your groaning still more and weeping without restraint has become a sign to me that I am already at rest, because I have not spoken my kindred words to you in vain."

And Stratocles answered him: "Do not think, most blessed Andrew, that anything else grieves me but you. For the words that come out through you are like darts of fire shot at me, and each of them reaches me, truly burning me up; and the part of my soul that is set on what it has heard is tormented, foreseeing the grief that will follow. For you yourself are departing, and I know well that it is good; but when I seek your care and love after this, where shall I find it, or in whom? I have received the seeds of the saving words, with you as the sower; but for them to sprout and grow up they need no one else but you, most blessed Andrew. And what have I to say to you but this? I need much mercy and help from you, so that I may be able to become worthy of the seeds I have from you; and they will not grow up unfailing and come out into the open unless you will it and pray for them and for the whole of me."

[13] And Andrew answered him: "These were the very things, my child, that I myself saw in you; and I glorify my Lord, that my thought about you did not tread on empty air, but knew what it said. But so that you may know: tomorrow Aegeates will hand me over to be crucified. For the Lord's servant Maximilla will trouble the enemy within him, to whom he belongs, by not agreeing with him in what is alien to her; and he will turn on me and think to console himself."

[14] Maximilla was not present when the apostle said these things. For she had listened to the words with which he answered her, and had in some way been disposed by them and become what the words pointed to; and she set out, not rashly nor without purpose, and came to the praetorium. And she bade farewell to the whole life of the flesh. When Aegeates put before her the same demand that he had told her to consider, whether she would sleep with him, and she refused, he turned from then on to the killing of Andrew, and considered by what death he should put him to death. And when, of all deaths, crucifixion alone had won him over, he went off and dined with his companions. But Maximilla, the Lord going before her in the form of Andrew, came again with Iphidamia to the prison; and since a larger crowd of the brothers was inside, she found him speaking words such as these:

"I, brothers, was sent by the Lord as an apostle to these regions, of which my Lord counted me worthy, to teach no one, but to remind every man who is akin to these words that they are living among temporary evils, delighting in their harmful imaginings. From these I have always exhorted you too to stand away, and I have urged you to hasten toward the things that abide, and to make your escape from all things that flow. For you see that none of you stands still, but everything is changeable, even human ways. This happens because of the untrained soul, which has wandered off into nature and holds pledges of its wandering. I count blessed, then, those who have become obedient to the words that have been preached, and through them see, as in a mirror, mysteries concerning their own nature, for whose sake all things have been built."

"I charge you, therefore, beloved children: build yourselves up firmly on the foundation that has been laid for you, which cannot be shaken and is safe from the plots of every evildoer. Be rooted on this foundation; be established, remembering … all that happened while I lived among you all. You saw works done through me which you cannot disbelieve, signs done of such a kind that perhaps even speechless nature will cry out. I have handed on to you words, which I pray you may receive … as the words themselves wish. Be established, then, beloved, in all that you have seen, heard, and shared in; and God, in whom you have believed, will have mercy on you and present you well-pleasing to himself, at rest for all ages."

"And as for what is about to happen to me, let it not trouble you as some strange wonder, that the servant of God, to whom God himself granted many things in works and words, is driven out of this temporary life by force by a wicked man. For such a thing will happen not only to me, but also to all who have loved him, believed in him, and confessed him. The utterly shameless devil will arm his own children against them, so that they may side with him; and he will not have what he wants. And why he attempts these things, I will tell you. From the beginning of all things, and indeed, I may say, ever since the one who has no beginning came down into the realm beneath him, the enemy, a stranger to peace, has tried to drive away one who was not his own, but only one of the weaker, conspicuous, and not yet able to be known. And because he did not even know himself, he had for this reason to be warred upon by the enemy. For thinking that he had him and was his master for ever, the enemy so set himself against him that their enmity came to look like friendship. For, putting his own things before him, he often depicted them as pleasant and deceptive, and through them he thought he was mastering him. So he did not show himself an enemy openly, but pretended a friendship worthy of himself."

"And this was his work, carried on for a long time, … . But when the mystery of grace was kindled, and the counsel of rest was made manifest, and the light of the word was shown, and the race that is being saved was shown to be warred upon by many pleasures, and the alien himself was despised and laughed at in his own gifts, through which he had thought to despise that race, because of the kindness of the one who had mercy, he began to weave his counter-plots against us with hatred and enmity and insurrection; and he has made it his work not to leave off from us until he thinks he can separate us. For before, the one who is alien to us was free of care, and pretended to offer us a friendship worthy of himself; and he had no fear that we, deceived by him, would fall away. But the matter of the dispensation, once kindled, made his enmity, I do not say stronger, but more evident; for it exposed what was hidden in his nature and seemed to escape notice, and compelled him to confess what he is. Knowing, then, what is going to happen, brothers, let us wake up, not being resentful, nor putting on a show, nor carrying away on our souls his traces, which are not our own; but, all of us wholly lifted up in the whole word, let us gladly welcome the end and make our escape from him, so that he too may at last be shown for what he is, and our nature hasten toward what is ours …"