Work dossier · summary and historical context
This Old Georgian apocryphon, preserved in a single 10th-century manuscript (Tbilisi, A-95), recounts a martyrdom of the apostle Philip. The narrative follows apostles entering a city and a woman secretly joining them, a common hagiographic motif. The text includes a 'true and precious pearl swallowed by the great whale,' echoing Matthew 13:45-46 and the apocryphal Acts of Thomas. A judge's wife, Nicanora, converts in secret, a motif paralleled in other apocryphal acts. The Greek original is dated to the 4th–5th centuries based on internal evidence, but no external witness confirms a date before the 6th century. The Georgian translation likely occurred in the 9th–10th centuries. The edition in ed:apokr (1981) provides a diplomatic text with Latin translation but no critical apparatus.
This apocryphon is significant as a witness to the Georgian reception of apostolic legends and the transmission of apocryphal Acts in the Caucasus. Its motifs—the pearl parable, secret conversion of an elite woman—connect it to broader Christian literary traditions, including Syriac and Greek apocrypha. The text's survival in a single manuscript highlights the fragility of such works and the importance of Georgian sources for reconstructing lost Greek originals.
The text was translated from Greek into Georgian, likely in the 9th–10th centuries, and survives only in a single manuscript (Tbilisi, A-95) copied no earlier than the 10th century. It circulated among monastic communities in Georgia but was never included in the canonical New Testament and has no attested liturgical use. The Greek original is commonly dated to the 4th–5th centuries, but this dating rests solely on internal theological motifs and the absence of earlier citations; no external witness confirms a date before the 6th century. The Greek Vorlage is lost, so the Georgian cannot be checked against its source. The text belongs to the apocryphal Acts tradition, sharing motifs with the Acts of Thomas and other apostolic narratives. Its transmission likely involved Armenian or Syriac intermediaries, as suggested by the complex Georgian manuscript tradition (S, A, B, C, D, E). The edition in ed:apokr (1981) provides the diplomatic text with a Latin translation but no critical apparatus or variant readings.
Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded
| Coptic | Rendering | Count | First |
|---|---|---|---|
| no glossary terms recorded | |||