DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49369#0178
160 SUPPLEMENT TO THE ACTS OF PHILIP
(in c. iii) we have an apparition of a cross which accompanies the
glorified form of Philip. “And many voices in the heavens
sounded the Amen and the Alleluia: and the cross was taken up
and spake unto Philip : Behold the place of thy rest until I come
in the glory of my Father and awake thee ; and now receive thou
the crown of thine apostleship in the heavens, where I am sitting
at the right hand of my Father.” The identification of the cross
with the Son is perhaps not to be pressed, for it is clearly not
intended in the Acts, where, in many places, the cross of light
plays a prominent part: but the occurrence of a speaking cross is
by no means a common feature, and any document which contains
it is worth some notice. The reader of this narrative should com-
pare it with the latter part of the Acta Matthaei in Tischendorf’s
collection : he will find that the two documents throw some light
upon one another, and both show the growth of a tendency among
later Gnostics to attach great importance to the burial-places and
relics of departed saints.
(in c. iii) we have an apparition of a cross which accompanies the
glorified form of Philip. “And many voices in the heavens
sounded the Amen and the Alleluia: and the cross was taken up
and spake unto Philip : Behold the place of thy rest until I come
in the glory of my Father and awake thee ; and now receive thou
the crown of thine apostleship in the heavens, where I am sitting
at the right hand of my Father.” The identification of the cross
with the Son is perhaps not to be pressed, for it is clearly not
intended in the Acts, where, in many places, the cross of light
plays a prominent part: but the occurrence of a speaking cross is
by no means a common feature, and any document which contains
it is worth some notice. The reader of this narrative should com-
pare it with the latter part of the Acta Matthaei in Tischendorf’s
collection : he will find that the two documents throw some light
upon one another, and both show the growth of a tendency among
later Gnostics to attach great importance to the burial-places and
relics of departed saints.