Acts of John

The Acts of John is a collection of narratives and traditions ascribed to John the Apostle, who was the author of the Gospel of John. It is long known in fragmentary form. Together with the Acts of Paul it is considered one of the most significant of the apostolic Acts in the New Testament apocrypha. It was condemned as a Gnostic heresy by the Church.

The traditional author was said to be one Leucius Charinus, a companion of John, who was associated with several 2nd century "Acts." Conventionally, the Acts of John was ascribed to Prochorus, one of the Seven Deacons discussed in Acts of the Apostles. "It is difficult to know when the Acts of John was composed, but many scholars locate it to the second half of the second century." It may have originated as a Christianized wonder tale, designed for an urban Hellenic audience accustomed to such things as having one's portrait painted (the setting for one episode), living in that part of the province of Asia.

"It is widely recognized that the surviving Acts of John derives from several sources; most scholars recognize that a large portion of the text (chaps. 87–105, or just 94–102) as we now have it was interpolated at a later time into the narrative." The Acts of John was eventually rejected by the orthodox church for its docetic overtones. After this decision made by the Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787, most of the existing copies of the apocryphal book were destroyed, undoubtedly destroying most of the copies in existence at the time.

However, although the Acts of John was condemned as heretical, a large fragment survives in Greek manuscripts of widely varying date. In two medieval Greek versions, the magical survival of John when put to tortures will be familiar to any reader of hagiography: "He was brought before Domitian, and made to drink poison, which did not hurt him: the dregs of it killed a criminal on whom it was tried: and John revived him; he also raised a girl who was slain by an unclean spirit." (James 1924, Introduction).

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