PHILIP, APOSTLE, saint. — One of the “twelve,” Bethsaida (v.), fifth in the lists (Mt. 10:3; Mk. 3:18; Lk. 6:14; Acts 1:13). In the Gospels, only John provides biographical information about him. Called by Jesus, he informed his friend Nathanael or Bartholomew (?) as follows: “We have found Him of whom Moses wrote in the Law and the prophets: it is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (Jn. 1:43–45). He was speaking according to common opinion, still unaware of the mystery. When Jesus was about to multiply the loaves, he asked Philip, in order to test him, “where to find bread” for everyone; Philip replied that “200 denarii would not be enough to give each person a small portion” (Jn. 6:5–7). This does not imply that Philip was the treasurer of the apostolic college.
The Greek proselytes to Judaism, in order to approach Jesus, turned to Philip, who spoke to Andrew about them; together they presented them to the Master, receiving a response confirmed by a voice from heaven (Jn. 12:21–31). At the Last Supper, in response to Philip’s profound request, “Lord, show us the Father,” Jesus replied, among other things: “Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father ... Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me ...?” (Jn. 14:9–11).
Tradition is unanimous in attributing to Philip the evangelization of Phrygia; it is uncertain regarding the rest of his biography. Some Philip the Deacon (v.). The pseudo-Abdis attributes to him the evangelization of Scythia. According to Polycrates (in Eusebius, Hist. ecc., III, 31: PG 20, 280), he died at Hierapolis in Phrygia. From his three daughters, Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, is said to have learned that Philip raised a dead man (Eusebius, loc. cit., 39). The manner of his martyrdom is uncertain: several sources attest that he was crucified upside down. The apocryphal Acts of Philip are legendary (v. below). The Church celebrates his feast together with that of St. James the Less on 1 May, commemorating the dedication of the church now called the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome.
The textual tradition is very complicated. The complete text has not survived, but only fragments of individual Acts, which probably represent different recensions of the original text, also in Eastern languages (Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Arabic); the difficult literary problem has not yet been adequately studied. The author of these Acts, of a low intellectual level, was acquainted with the great apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and was a heretic of the Messalian type who perhaps lived in Asia Minor. The Coptic Manichaean Psalter (cf. A Manichean Psalw-Book,
FILIPPO, APOSTOLO, santo - S. F. Ap. di Luca Della Robbia, Firenze, Chiostro di S. Croce, Cappella Fazzi.
II, ed. C. R. Allberry, Stoccarda 1938), scritto secondo l'editore (p. xx) ca. il 340, presuppone l'esistenza di Atti apocrifi di F. (p. 192, 10; 194, 11).
Edizione dei frammenti greci: M. Bonnet, Acta apostolorum apocrypha, II, II, Lipsia 1903, p. 1 sgg. La recensione siriaca è in Wright, Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, I, Londra 1871, p. 73 sg. (testo siriaco), II, ivi 1871, p. 69 sg. (trad. inglese).
Erik Peterson
THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP. - Apocryphon used by the Gnostics of Egypt, known to Epiphanius (Haer., 26, 13, 1), who cites a passage from II.
The soul, as it ascends to heaven, responds to each of the higher powers that it would have known itself "by uprooting its roots," not procreating children for the archon of this aeon, knowing itself destined for the heights. The idea is clear (cf. also the formula of the Macosians, in Irenaeus, I, 21, 5). The soul comes from above; by not procreating children, it frees itself from this world and can ascend again to the heights.
Recently, the Coptic translation of this gospel has been discovered (J. Doresse, Nouveaux textes gnostiques coptes, in Vigiliae Christianae, 3 [1949], p. 134). Only after the publication of this text will it be possible to judge how much truth there was in the hypotheses about the influence of the Gospel of Philip on other Coptic apocrypha. Leontius, De sectis act., III, 2 (PG 86, 1. 1213) reports that the Gospel of Philip was read by the Manichaeans.